Above is the VOD from last week’s livestream of RAGE 2018, and what a stream it was! Per usual, we ran into technical difficulties, played some awful games, and had a blast going through each and everyone of your entries. While there can be only one winner, we want to give special accommodations to several games and above all, a big thank you to anyone who submitted or watched the stream! Without further ado, hit the jump to see the highlights, the winner of RAGE 2018, and of course, the pack containing every game for your own enjoyment.
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Fan Works
Fresh off the RAGE 2018 livestream is the actually early for once announcement dates for Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2018! This year, we’re finally bringing SAGE back where it belongs: the tail end of summer! Keep an eye on SAGExpo Twitter for updates regarding the expo leading up, and if you plan on submitting, or streaming, and need a refresher, hit the jump for the SAGE rules below!
We’ve got the entries in and are ready to play! Join us tonight at 7:00pm CST as we play through every single RAGE 2018 entry and stick around for a special announcement at the end!
And don’t forget, next week, the RAGE site will go live so you too can witness the whiteness, with the RAGE winner announced on February 7th!
Fan Works, Hacking
More Hacks, Mania Mods, Forces Mods and Procrastination in the Sonic Hacking Contest 2018
After the success of the Sonic Hacking Contest’s 15th anniversary last year the team is retaining changes made to the rules to strengthen quality control for the Sonic Hacking Contest 2018.
This year the contest will be accepting hacks and mods for Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces for trophy eligibility. Last year these entries were denied trophies due to the short time available for development of mods and tools for these titles. Now these entries will be able to match the same levels of acceptance of other ROM hacks and mods for games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Game Gear, Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World and more.
The contest week is set for Monday through Sunday, 26th of November to the 2nd of December. To learn more about the rules and trophy guidelines you can check out the thread of the announcement on our forums here. Don’t forget to check out the contest’s new website which hosts entries from previous years by visiting sonichacking.org.
[Source Topic: Sonic Hacking Contest 2018]
In case you hadn’t heard, the Really Amateur Games Expo is back once more! And that leaves us with one all important question…. what is this year’s theme? Hit the jump below to find out!
RAGE (Really Amateur Game Expo) is, bar none, the greatest online convention in the history of the internet.
What is RAGE?
RAGE is a kind of, but not really, game jam, where creators can compete to produce the worst, goofiest fan game possible using whatever tools at their disposal. RAGE has always prided itself in having some of the worst games to ever exist, and we plan on continuing that tradition again this year. You can read more about RAGE on the wiki!
Are there like, rules or something?
You mean guidelines?
Yeah, Guidelines.
• Games need to stick to the theme, this is the most important requirement to note.
• Submissions need to be in by 11:59 pm CST on Friday, February 2nd.
• Send all RAGE submissions to [email protected]; submissions before January 28th will not be accepted.
• Games should really only be 5 – 10 minutes long. We’re not looking for an epic here.
• Feel free to use any engine/platform/program you like, just make sure it’ll run on modern day systems!
• If you don’t have something on hand, there’s trials of several commonly used programs, as well as free versions. Less experience might even help you here!
• Have fun with it! Sure you’re shooting for bad, but you’re wanting to make funny bad, like The Room or Birdemic of video games. (In other words, you’re aiming for humor, not just garbage.)
We’ll announce the theme of the game on January 28th. You have a short time to create and submit your game between there, so get ready to get crackin’! In the past, RAGE has been entirely for bragging rights (if you’re into that sort of thing) and making comical abominations. That’s all good and fun, but once again, we’re announcing a grand prize for RAGE’s first place winner:
A $50 Amazon Gift Card*!
We’ll be holding a livestream where we’ll play through every RAGE submission on the SAGExpo YouTube on Saturday, February 3rd at 7:00pm CST. Shortly thereafter, the RAGE site will go live so you too can witness the whiteness, with the RAGE winner announced on February 7th.
Brush up on your game making skills… or don’t! Either way, RAGE is back!
*Or your country’s equivalent of $50USD, should the winner be outside of the U.S.
The December update of fan game Sonic Gather Battle, has been found guilty of malicious code and is now considered malware. As noted by GerbilSoft on our forums and found by several Discord and Reddit users, Gather Battle will do the following to your system:
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If any open window has certain keywords in the header (such as “cheat” or “hack”) it will close that window without your permission, including folders, programs and browsers.
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If it thinks you’re trying to tamper the game, it will remotely blacklist your system from running the game, and the only way to unblacklist it is to convince the developer directly.
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It exhibits a lot of other malware-like behavior, including storing a hash of your system information on a remote server, modifying system files, and running unusual and shady system commands in the background.
If you downloaded the December update of Gather Battle, the current recommendation is to delete the game immediately and run a scan on your system. You may also want to consider restoring your system if possible. If you’re truly curious, you can check out this YouTube video showing off the game’s intrusive measures at work.
After a turnaround from last year’s showing, the Sonic Hacking Contest 2017 draws to a close with the winners of this year’s showing for trophies rewarded by both Hacking Contest judges and the community. The contest celebrated big this year for it’s 15th anniversary with a brand new website, a public showing at this year’s Fan Jam and featured a game industry participant, Jon Burton of Traveller’s Tales, with Sonic 3D Blast Director’s Cut. There’s plenty to be excited for this year’s showing of ROM hacks and mods for Sonic R, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Mania and Sonic Lost World. You can discuss the results of the hacking contest after the jump or via the forum here. You can also watch the first part of the results show from MegaGWolf’s Twitch channel at the top of this post. You can then watch part 2 of the show here.
This upcoming Saturday November the 18th is the return of the Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam, 2017 edition, taking place at the Embassy Suites in Savannah, Georgia. You can join Matt Mannheimer, formerly of Tails Channel, and some of his Sonic Retro and Sonic Fan Games HQ pals David the Lurker, NeoHazard, Volg Shan and your ol’ pal Bart as we discuss all things Sonic the Hedgehog. Those who are able to join us in person are also eligible for winning mystery prizes, What are they? You’ll have to come and find out for yourself when our panel starts at 4:15PM.
Those unable to attend you can watch us via a livestream of the event from this link which will go live Saturday morning. You can follow along with the day’s schedule and further updates from the event’s Twitter account here.
No longer a sub domain to Sonic Stuff Research Group, the Sonic Hacking Contest website launched on it’s own domain at http://sonichacking.org and it’s live right now along with your opportunity to submit your hacks for the event!
The stakes are going to be higher for everyone this year with the introduction of new quality control measures and newly split trophy requirements. If you are not participating, you can always hit up our forums to talk about the contest in this thread here. Are there any entries you’re excited to see? To bring you up to speed with the goings on with the contest hit the jump to check out some things to make note of.