Indeed. Your submissions are now up as of now, Smokey_. Thanks for contributing.
Contributing is as simple as emailing them to me, then usually waiting for the next weekend to see them up. If the maps are too big to send in an email, there are alternatives, like using ImageShack or SendSpace or anything like that and then sending me the appropriate link. When sending multiple maps in an email, it's nice to have them .ZIPped or .RARed up.
Now while I think I have a pretty good near-encyclopedic knowledge of certain game consoles' libraries (or at least the Nintendo ones), there are still a good number of games I haven't heard of at all, let alone know the details of them. It helps to send me a title screenshot and copyright info screenshot if it's a game that isn't featured on VGMaps.com yet. If the order of the maps isn't logical, providing a listing would save me the trouble of going to GameFAQs. When in doubt, assume I haven't played the game, so provide any info you think would be helpful.
Take a few extra seconds to confirm the names of the areas you've mapped - is it spelled this way or that, and is it a "stage" or is it an "area" or is it a "level"? It would speed up the posting of maps if contributors named every map with the full name of the game at the beginning of it. Take a look at any map name on the site to get an idea. Or, hey, here's an example: "
SuperMarioBros3-World8-Bowser'sCastle.png" - see how it has the full title and full area name? No spaces or periods or any other characters that are generally discouraged for filenames, but other than that, it's straightforward. Imagine your map is in a folder with a bunch of other maps (which it actually is), so it should be readily identifiable by the filename alone. Look, I'm going to rename it anyway, so save me the time and name it correctly yourself, which would be faster anyway since you're already familiar with the game.
I'm also going to be running your maps through PNGGauntlet (a shell for PNGOut) to optimize the filesize. You could do it yourself, though, to make maps smaller and therefore easier to send. Don't go putting your name or anything like that in the image's metadata (if you don't know what that is, don't worry about it), since PNGGauntlet scrapes all that out. It's good practice in any case to put your name on the maps themselves (even if I sometimes haven't >_>).
I'm not going to get into the details on how maps should be made (this topic is about contributing, after all), but don't send me JPEGs (.JPGs) without good reason. In short, JPEGs use compression that wreak havoc on pixel art, so just don't. Resaving a .JPG into a .PNG won't solve the problem, either.
Don't send me maps that you didn't make yourself. Don't act like a go-between if you want someone to send their maps to me. You can tell the original mapper to contact me, and then they can tell me themselves if they want their maps on VGMaps.com. Don't try to pass off maps as your own if they're not. And finally, don't send in scans from strategy guides.
I'm not sure what else I could say at this time. But due to the amount of time it takes to update, some of the guidelines may become stricter rules in the future. I'm not likely to turn down submissions, but don't be surprised if I start calling people out on not having the title of the game in their filename or something.
