I’m interested in working on a Spookality 2024 map as a pet project, since it seems like the perfect excuse to finally learn to make a VRC map with unity.
That, and I really love Halloween lol
Question: Reading the announcement for Spookality 2023, (Spookality 2023 is Coming Soon! — VRChat) it says the maps need to be created entirely of original assets. Does this mean we can’t buy any prefab dungeon assets, like walls, torches, textures, ambient sound effects, etc?
I’m a stickler for paid assets and responsible map creation, which is why I’m making this post in the first place. As a solo creator and fulltime student I worry that only original assets might squash the scope of what I’m capable of making before Halloween.
If we buy asset prefabs, sound effects and textures to weave with our work, would our entries be disqualified?
Ya know… I may have forgotten to explore the Spookality 2023 worlds. I might be in for a field trip tonight. I think it’ll be a given that I’ll see video player prefabs.
and the submitter must own or otherwise have the right to use the content submitted (including all component parts).
I obviously can’t speak officially, but the wording of “original assets” likely implies some degree of authorship involved, and not like- AI-generated textures or meshes and etc.
Aside from that, nothing is stopping you from making use of legally-owned assets with proper licenses or CC0 assets (like the textures on ambientcg.com, which I used pretty heavily in all my past Spookality projects)
I’d more generally comment though that Spookality projects by no means have to be exhaustively detailed; at least- my perspective as a designer heavily favors thoughtfully crafted experiences and environments over technically impressive ones. I think the more wholly original content you can create for your world- the better, though generally a strong art direction will take you further than you’d think!
Do it, the Spookality maps are a blast. I’m a big fan lol
I appreciate the insights from both of you, it seems like purchased assets might be acceptable as long as the proper licensing/rights are there.
While I’d like to submit it as a Spookality map in the spirit of Halloween, I’d understand if prefabs aren’t allowed since jams sound like they’re meant for scrappy code-jam style submissions.
With my ambitions and the story I want to tell, I wouldn’t have time to learn both unity and blender to create all the assets I’d need - and I’d probably just have to submit it outside of Spookality instead.
Table’s take is correct – what matters is that you have the rights to use the content in your submissions for any given jam. Prefabs are perfectly fine.
I’ll also second the opinion that technical impressiveness, while neat, isn’t the focus. Neither is hyper-quality. It’s about having a crafted experience! Some of my most memorable VRChat experiences have used relatively simplistic systems and “programmer art”.
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