Use USA, JPN, or Europe for their respective regions. Use JPN/USA for multi-region releases. For worldwide releases ("JUE" or "W"), use "Any". ROM version and revision ("v1.1", "PRG0") identifiers should be added if necessary.

• Keep the game name informative.
• Instead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in time, just Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 is enough. Long game names break the front page layout.
• Don't resort to uncommon abbreviations.
• Use the previous precedent when possible.
• Check the spelling. Don't just blindly take the submitter's spelling of the game name. (We have had "Links awakening" published a couple of times too often.)
• In cases where the USA game version is not used, use the game name of the equivalent USA version where possible, such as Castlevania: Rondo of Blood instead of Akumajō Dracula X Chi no Rondo. If there is no USA version of the game, but there is an English release in another region (such as the UK), use the game name of that release.
• Use a colon to separate the subtitle - for example, Title: Subtitle should be used instead of Title - Subtitle.

If this is the only movie for the game then field can be left blank. Standard categories are 100%, any%, and low%. Other common categories include warpless, warps, glitched, pacifist and 2-player. Do not add quotes, as those will be generated automatically.

• Ensure the ROM name is correct.
• Go by the standard GoodTools filenames. Use Super Mario Bros. (U).nes, not SMB.nes
• Add PRG info when multiple versions exist, such as Super Mario Bros. 3 (U) (PRG0).nes
• Either W or JUE is acceptable for region independent games, such as Golden Axe II (W).bin
• Add overdump or baddump information to the name, if applicable, with [o1] or [b1], but only if the movie does not sync on the good ROM dump. Note: Movies should not be published using these ROMs.

Use ListAllMovies as a reference of previous spelling & naming conventions.

If a non-admin user role, this has only the option of "notable publication" which will display adjacent to the publication on the front page in a manner similar to the special stars.

• This option is at the discretion of the publisher. Use it if the movie is noteworthy in some way (a big improvement to a highly popular TAS, a highly anticipated movie).
• Do not overutilize this option as it waters down the meaning
• Do not underutilize this option either.

Admin level users have the option of assigning a star to the movie. (If it is obsoleting a movie that was starred, it will have one by default).

• This assigns whether or not the movie will be in the Concept/Demo section. Use this if the movie is of a hacked game, or the publication breaks movie rules.

• This is filled in by the submitter and automatically placed here.
• It should probably be left alone for first time authors. Otherwise, make sure it is the same information as a previous publication of the author.
• For author groups, use commas and ampersands (&) to separate names.

• If the player exists on the player page, he or she will be in the drop-down menu. If not, fill in his or her name in the full name menu, and nick in the short name menu.
• Again, for author groups, use commas and ampersands (&) to separate names.

Sometimes, the player already exists in the database, but the publication form does not recognize the similarity and offers to create a new player entry. Be sure to select manually the existing player from the "select player" select box in those cases. (Applies to Xipo among some others.)

Remember, if this is an author's (or author combination) first publication they will need to be tied to their forum account (see below).

• Name of input file: This is what the input file will be named in the submission ZIP file.
• Ampersands (&), slashes (/), periods (.), and spaces cannot be part of the name.
• The author's name should be first. Use a standard abbreviation of a long name if it exists, such as cad for CtrlAltDestroy.
• Add v2, v3, or another appropriate version indicator if it is another submission by the same author.
• For multiple authors, use a comma (,) with no spaces to separate their names: randil,cad-mickeymousecapade.fcm.
• Place a dash between author's name and the game name.
• The game name should be concise and consistent with the name in the MKV/MP4 file.
• Use precedent when possible. For instance, it should be chipdale instead of chipndale
• Use common abbreviations, such as smb for Super Mario Bros.
• Add j if it is the Japanese version of the game or e if it is the European version (assuming other versions exist but were not used for a particular reason).

• Be sure to add .png (or .jpg) to the filename when filling out the filename field, such as 1462M.png.
  • Note: The site will no longer error if you forget the extension. Instead, it will add it for you.
  • Note: It is now possible to add dashes (-) to a screenshot filename.
• Pick a screenshot that represents the movie or the game well.
• It should be pleasant to look at. Avoid ugly and monotonous colors. Choose beautiful and clearly visible poses of the characters.
• Beauty in the image should be equally distributed ­― not localized in a corner or an edge.
• It should give an idea of the genre of the game and the movie to an audience who doesn't know the game.
• It should be interesting, preferably with action on the screen.
• If the movie is atypical to the game (a highly glitched movie for example), the screenshot should display something atypical happening, but without conflicting with the earlier guidelines.
• If the screenshot is a PNG file, it should be optimized.
• Use PNG over JPEG, unless a PNG file would be considerably larger than a JPEG of similar visual quality. The JPEG image should not have any obvious compression artifacts.

This site was born from of the need to provide good-quality multimedia files of TAS movies. We take quality very seriously, and strive to produce files that are both pleasant to watch and are as small as possible. This is one of the guidelines we follow in the publications; the Encoder Guidelines tells more and is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to make MKV/MP4 files to be published on this site.

• The file name of the video file must follow proper convention.
• Do not use uppercase characters or characters not allowed in video filenames.
• The movie name must be first. Keep it concise. See input filename for details.
• If it is some form of speedrun (aiming for fastest time within the confines of a set of parameters) then add -tas after the filename. If it is a playaround or does not aim for time then use -playaround.
• Add v2, v3, or another appropriate version indicator if the publication obsoletes a previous movie by the same author, such as doubledragon3-tasv2-xipo.avi
• Add additional special info after this, if necessary. For example, if a single author controls 2 characters then it is 2p-alone such as doubledragon2-tas-2p-alone-adelikat.avi. Or a special route could be added, such as castlevania3j-tas-sypha-samhaingrim.avi.
• Add the author name last. Remember to remove spaces and uppercase letters.
• Abbreviate especially long nicks if there is an easy way to do so.
• If there are multiple authors, use a comma (,) with no spaces to separate their names. mickeymousecapade-tas-randil,cad.avi

All video files must be available through the site's BitTorrent tracker.

• Our tracker is: http://tracker.tasvideos.org:6969/announce
• Make sure you uncheck the private marker.
• The torrent filename should be identical to the encoded movie file, with .torrent appended. Example: amagon-tas-tailz.avi becomes amagon-tas-tailz.avi.torrent
• Where you have uploaded a movie to a mirror site, add the mirror as an HTTP seed to the torrent. (For clients that support both the GetRight method and the older webseed method, use the former.)

For publication purposes, a mirror of the downloadable encode and a streaming media must both be present - this makes it easy for our viewers to obtain and/or view the video.

• Use of archive.org is strongly recommended for published movies and/or movies about to be published; use of archive.org outside of this is strongly discouraged.
  • If you use archive.org, we strongly recommend that you manually create the _512kb file for your entry, as the ones that archive.org automatically derives tend to have an inferior quality.
    • You can upload the _512kb file at the same time when uploading the main video file (archive.org will not overwrite it; this is handy with FTP uploads).
    • If you use FTP upload, remember to acknowledge it (there is link for doing that on the FTP upload page) after completing the actual data transfer.
    • Place the archive.org uploads in speed_runs category. If you can't do that yourself, contact Brandon.
• Do not exceed one torrent/mirror link at the native resolution of the emulator and one streaming media link per streaming site with as high a visual quality as possible on any individual encode. Exceptions may be allowed if the game in questions admits camera hacks / alternative HUDs / other utilities which would enhance viewing for the average viewer, in which case one additional link in each of the two categories will be permitted.

• In most cases, this will be obvious. Check with a judge's decision if need be.
• If it does not obsolete a movie, make sure it says "None".
• Note: Double/triple obsoletions are rare, but possible. Select one movie to obsolete and contact adelikat (or another admin/adminassitant/senior) to add additional ones.
• Cross platform obsoletions are also possible but must be done by an admin as well. Select none and then contact one to add the obsoletion post publication.
• Selecting a movie to obsolete will automatically fill in the Categories and Movie description.

• Follow the Movie Class Guidelines
• Select categories which represent the movie and help to recognize it.
• Do not select categories that are obvious for the game in question. For example, if the best ending in the game comes by default, do not select "best ending", or if taking damage would kill the character immediately, do not select "takes no damage".
• Select one or more genres for the movie. Use the genres of similar games as a reference.

• See discussion
• If the publication obsoletes a previous movie, make sure to link to it (such as [109M|previous] movie), mention the author and tell approximately how much the improvement is.
• Preferably, mention some notable improvements or link to the author's submission text if it is detailed.
• There is no size limit, but avoid one-liners and overly long descriptions. Screenshot height often makes a good reference.
• Try to adhere to NPOV as much as possible (i.e., avoid praising or criticizing the game, the movie or the player in question excessively).
• Run a spell-checker on the text and re-read it a few times to ensure no obvious mistakes.

• If the publication was of a new author (or a new combination of authors) you need to assign their forum accounts to the new player entry on the Players-List page. Do this by clicking the "Edit" tab on the right hand side of the group's entry. Their names should automatically be on the top of the list. Click each other their names and the "add" button. Then click "save". Don't create a new entry if the author already exists, this creates duplicates and causes data inconsistencies.
• If it is the author(s)' first publication, assign the new authors a "Player" rank on the Users/edit page.

• Make sure to seed the video after publication and make sure it is downloaded in its entirety by at least one person who does not leave the swarm immediately after receiving it.
  • Use the super seeding option.
• Add any additional streaming media URLs and link them on the publication page, such as if the movie has been uploaded to both YouTube and Dailymotion.

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PublisherGuidelines last edited by turska on 2012-05-14 04:50:15
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