First and foremost, any submission should fall within the thematic of Halloween or a December Holiday to some extent. This'll be explained further below in each individual section, but theming is key!

Remember, when in doubt you can always float your idea by me. The absolute last thing I want is for you to spend time on an idea only for me to tell you "no."

I don't really expect to exercise this, but I do reserve the right to make modifications within reason to submissions to make sure they line up or to decline entries outright. Mostly I expect this to be balance tweaks to weapons or declining obvious joke submissions, but I'll keep in communication with you if anything like this were to come up.

For Skins:

• For Halloween, a thematic skin is typically dressing up a character in a costume, making something spooky, something generally within the Halloween spirit, or a character associated with it!
  
• For the Holidays, a thematic skin can be anything that follows the general holiday vibe! A lot of the existing ones are Megaman characters wrapped up in pretty Christmas decorations or in a generally jolly mood, but if you wanted to slap an ice cube on Snakeman's head I'd seriously have to consider that one for the pack.
  
• Your skins should follow typical guidelines for skins you'd see in core at a minimum. They should have at least 5 rotations, should have visible Blue and Cyan on all rotations, and a Mugshot.
  
• Your skins can have custom sounds and taunts, but be tasteful. No one wants their ears to explode because you put an airhorn sound on every facet of your skin.
  
• OCs are okay as long as it fits the theme!
  
• Bonus points if you use proper eye whites (168 on the palette, 252/252/252 #fcfcfc) on your skin!

For Maps:

• A thematic map is actually more broad than you might think! For Halloween, as long as it's dark, gloomy, spooky, or inspired by typical Halloween aesthetics, you should be good! For the Holidays, you could do anything from making your map feel cold, be covered in candy, or even a southern-hemisphere summer-styled map! Remember, it's all about vibes, and if you're not sure, just shoot me a message!
  
• Ensure your map has 32 Deathmatch spawns, 16 Light and 16 Wily spawns, 8 Cossack and 8 King spawns, and Player 1-8 spawns.
  
• Ensure your map uses the features included in MM8BDM-v6b's map tools for relevant features (water, bouncepads, etc.)
  
• Ensure your map has a Yashichi and Block Monster lines blocking any pits.
  
• If you have thoughts on custom weapons to place on your map and you're not sure how to do it, you can look at the existing NBC maps for the method, or you can write a list when you send me the map and I can handle it!
  
• Obviously, you're free to use any custom content in your map. Try to keep it vaguely 8-bit, I'd prefer if you didn't make a 32 bit map or anything like that.
  
• You don't have to make your map a super sweaty competitive map, but do keep it within reason. People ARE still going to play on these, after all.
  
• The primary song on your map should be 8-bit. You CAN have a secret song that isn't, although I'd prefer if every map I received didn't have a secret song.
  
• It's okay to not use 255 lighting in your maps. Don't use 256 lighting in your maps.
  
• Bonus points if you don't use Shademan or Blizzardman textures!

For Weapons:

• A thematic weapon will follow similar guidelines to the other categories, but do try to make it at least slightly more obviously themed. The Knife from Castlevania IS from Castlevania which fits the vibe, but it's just a knife, y'know?
  
• Your weapons (or items!) will be played alongside core weapons, so try to aim for a power level and design level more consistent with core values. This means things like only having one ammo type, avoiding altfires where possible, and having reasonable damage.
  
• Try to use 8-bit sounds and graphics.
  
• Your weapons and items MUST follow v6b conventions to allow for compatibility.
  
• To repeat myself, I'll be trying to get the balance relatively in line so I may talk to you about your creations if I need to.
  
• Any ACS in your file must also include the source file.
  

There's no limit to the amount of submissions you can throw at me! This isn't a contest or anything, just get those creative juices flowing and make stuff! Just remember to keep good faith when creating stuff. Having fun is fine, it's the entire point, but something that's obviously a troll submission is unlikely to happen.

--====v3c====--
System
- Great Glass fixed the Magnet Catcher script for real this time.
- The following weapons now have BotFire states.
Flame Barge, Freeze Splice, Arrow Laser, Sonic Spin
Tenor Blast, Hazard Trapper, Kingly Blade, Sunrise Salvo
- Gave several deserving weapons +BRIGHT flag.

Slot Changes
- Slots have been changed for the following weapons.
Plasma Trident -> Ranged
Toxin Bomb -> Close
Truffle Cluster -> Ranged
Neon Flash -> Close
Cross Claw -> Rapid
Sound Test -> Ranged
Double Spook -> Close
Petal Sprout -> Close
Block Dropper -> Power
Scramble Thunder -> Rapid
Spin Top -> Close
Spark Lobber -> Close
Plant Pasture -> Close
Hat Boomerang -> Rapid
Hyper Torrent -> Power

== Flame Barge ==
- Fixed charges not updating if you gained sufficient ammo.
- Added ally translucency.
- Redid pillar object.
- Pillar Damage 6 > 8.
- Pillar protection duration 3 > 5.

== Scorch Burst ==
- Flame Amount 20 > 10.
- Added ally translucency.

== Sea Call ==
- Ammo 28 > 30
- Max uses 4 > 5.

== Frost Shard ==
- Reduced FX count.
- Reduced lifetime duration by a few tics.
- Increased ally translucency range.

== Freeze Splice ==
- Charged ceiling spike amount 4 > 6.
- Charged ceiling spike splits now quickly die off.

== Toxin Bomb ==
- Reduced FX spawned.

== Crash Bang ==
- Reduced rate of explosions.

== Gemini Splitter ==
- New FX.
- Reduced FX count.

== Honeycomb Hive ==
- Honey splayed per direction 5 > 3.

== Neapolitan Bomb ==
- Split amount 12*12 > 8*8

== Truffle Cluster ==
- Explosion damage 14 > 10.

== Hazard Trapper ==
- Fixed charge shot not taking 8 ammo (took 7)

== Boil Blazer ==
- Reduced speed / rate.
- Added ally translucency.

== Usagi Kunai ==
- Reduced fire rate by 6 tics.

== Groovity Spark ==
- Discharge amount 12*14 > 10*10
- Discharge damage 6 > 9

== Spike Mill ==
- Added ~2 second cooldown.
- Reduced the speed and rate of the spikes coming.
- Doubled the gravity of the spikes.
- Damage 6 > 9 to compensate.

== Plague Purge ==
- Starting thrust 10 > 20.

== Curse Thunder ==
- Reduced rate of drop bolts.

== Rending Shield ==
- Fixed online-only graphical bug.

== Sound Test ==
- Travel time 1s > 3s.

== Double Spook ==
- Speed 17 > 20
- Initial projectile damage 34 > 37.
- Split projectile damage 24 > 29.

== Scramble Thunder ==
- New icon.
- Reworked by Pr. Fly.

== Tundra Storm ==
- Recoded by Pr. Fly.

== Paint Splash ==
- Recoded speed mechanic to now work on fellow allies.

== Deflector Panel ==
- Now aims towards an opponent when struck and fires the shot in their direction.
- Counter-shot damage 20 > 15.

== Plant Pasture ==
- Reduced graphical intensity.

== Rolling Ring ==
- New firing sound.
- Bounce count 10 > 5.
- Rings now die after 5 seconds.

== Volcano Cannon ==
- New firing sound.

== Ice Shield ==
- New firing sounds.
- Added more graphics.
- Bar now flashes while in use.

== Lightning Flash ==
- Slight graphical additions.
- New on-hit effect.

== Forest Whip ==
- New firing sounds.

== Redound Axe ==
- New sounds.
- New sprites by Pegg.
- Now changes sprite when splitting off.

== Assault Lance ==
- Redone sounds.

== Swirl Flame ==
- Added ally translucency.

== Hook Drill ==
- Can now cancel early using Altfire.

== Sunrise Salvo ==
- To better fit the ranged aspect of the weapon, launch projectile speed 14 > 36.

== Hyper Torrent ==
- Damage 44 > 47.

== Nova Beam ==
- No longer goes through walls.

== Glitch Shot ==
- Reduced graphical intensity.

== MM&B2 WEAPONS ==
- Given their own category cvar, separate from Encore's.