Sorry for the lack of posts, super busy week.
To answer questions:
1) no TNT is not allowed
2) no dungeons from the contest will be copied to herocraft, this is just a contest to get on the spell team, and all dungeons are made with legit materials either gathered or bought. You are paid for your work on dungeons, and reimbursed for materials you had to buy as long as the purchase was approved.
3) I've decided I'll start the judging on Friday the 13th, and you guys will have until that following Monday to submit dungeons for review (giving you the weekend to work your asses off to finish the dungeons, thank me later
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4) macs can do .rar, and thanks for the link to the program xFinalx.
5) Generally we design dungeons so they can be completed solo, but you could, say, use wooden pressure plates that a person would need to drop items onto to trigger so they can continue. And yes, you can design a dungeon so that someone would have to bring along their own minecart, that's already been discussed among the current spell team.
6) Yes, anyone can make dungeons if they really want to, but they will not be eligible for spells unless you are on the spell team, and they will not be server-recognized dungeons. If you want to make a dungeon under your home for shits and giggles, go right ahead.lol
7) Yes, netherrack + power = fire on herocraft, so you can plan a dungeon accordingly if you so wish, just be sure to mark that it's a netherrack fire trap in the room, since it won't work in SSP.
8) Yes, riddles can be used. Dgco has made use of Zodiac based riddles and such in a couple of his dungeons to wonderful effect.
9) If it is highly visible, it also needs to be highly difficult (Castle Greyskull ftw). That is not to say that a well hidden dungeon doesn't need to be difficult, all dungeons should be difficult, but if it's a Highly Visible/Obvious dungeon, even more so.
10) It can be as hard as you want. We have made many dungeons in the past that some people simply cannot complete, while others have no trouble at all because they are really good at problem solving. In general, design them to stump players completely, but they still need to be possible to finish. If only one person ever completes the dungeon, it is not a failure, in fact it makes that spell even more desireable, but if EVERYONE completes the dungeon without much effort, it would be re-designed or torn down.