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Creators are revealed!

Thank you all for your hard work, and I'll hopefully see you all next year!

We have stunlocked the boss of PressStart2018, and now is the best time to do what we do best: unloading all of our best attacks to finish it!

Some dot points:

• Pinch hits are due at 11:59pm EST on the 14th.
• The exchange will not open until every pinch hit is in, or until 12:01am on the 16th, whichever is the later.
• We are making excellent progress in our goal of getting as many treats as possible! Handy spreadsheet link of our progress!
• Achievements will be determined just before we go live. Handy link to achievements!

We have one pinch hit unclaimed. It is unofficial, meaning that I cannot formally assign it to you on the admin console. If you wish to pick it up, please leave your AO3 name so that I can update my spreadsheet. All comments are screened!

( Pinch Hit 14: Final Fantasy XV, Onmyoji, Fire Emblem Heroes - CLAIMED )

The deadline has passed, and we are so close finishing the final boss! There are a number of extensions, and some pinch hits may flow out of those in the next couple of days. Once all works are in, I'll review the spreadsheet for achievements, and then again just before the archive goes live. It's looking pretty good so far!

Talking about achievements (handy link!), to help you all achieve the achievements relating to treating here is a spreadsheet to track your progress!. I will be checking your progress daily, so let's see how many people we can move from the top to the bottom. Good luck everyone!

Finally, we have four initial post-deadline pinch-hits. Please comment to this post with your AO3 name and the pinch hit you'd like to claim. All comments are screened!

( Pinch Hit #10: Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Horizon Zero Dawn - CLAIMED )

( Pinch Hit 11: Detroit: Become Human, Primordia, The Red Strings, Oxenfree - CLAIMED )

( Pinch Hit 12: Ys, Sora no Kiseki, The Legend of Heroes VII, Phantasy Star III, Star Ocean: The Second Story | Second Evolution, Nier Automata, Tales of Xillia, Undertale, Devil Survivor, Devil Survivor 2 - CLAIMED )

( Pinch Hit 13: Life is Strange, Persona 5, Tales of Berseria, Tomb Raider, Crossover Fandoms - CLAIMED )

Here is a text-searchable list of all prompts! If anyone wants to do something fancy with the .csv let me know.

Here is our achievement list. Let's see how many we can knock off! If you can think of any titles for ones that are titleless (or a new achievement altogether), let me know.

Now, betas!

One of the more invaluable services in any exchange is a beta! While it is not necessary to have one in order to participate, betas can help by casting an eye over your work and giving opinions, making suggestions, or cheering you on in the dark hours of "oh God this is due in two hours and I have scrapped everything I did before".

If you are able to beta, please comment below with:

Your AO3 name:
Fandoms you can beta:
Media you can beta (Fanart/Fanfic/Fanvid):
Things you love to beta:
Any restrictions/things you cannot beta:
Your email address:

Signups are live!

As there is a known bug where characters/relationships sometimes don't appear in the dropdown menu, if this happens to you please copy and paste the tag exactly as it appears in tag set.

You are required to request at least three fandoms (and up to 10) and offer four fandoms (up to ten). You must offer two tags for each fandom (or "Any" if there is only one tag nominated in the fandom). If you request or offer "Any", it means "any character or relationship tag in our approved tagset". Please keep this in mind when requesting and offering. Requests are visible from the beginning, so you can offer confident in what will be requested this year!

Matching is OR. If you request a fandom and request two tags in the fandom (such as "group: A/B", and "C"), your artist/vidder/writer only has to include one "set" (in this case, either A/B or C on their own). Please keep this in mind when signing up!

Finally, a reminder if you defaulted after the deadline or had to be defaulted by me in previous years, you have until signups close to complete your previous assignment and get a link emailed to me. You are not eligible to participate until you do so. Thank you!

Now have at and merry signupmas! Signups close at 11:59pm EDT on 18 July.

I've just noticed that I have two dates listed for the tagset to close. As such, I will give you all until the later of the two dates.

This means that nominations close at 11:59pm EDT, 1 July.

That said, for this to work, if there are any amendments to be made to the tags (such as errors, duplications and the like), please start letting me know now, as signups must open on the 4th due to my external commitments. Thanks guys!

Tag set nominations are live!

Before we start nominating, some preliminary information!

Character Nominations
You are able to nominate characters and character combinations! This means the following:

• Character A (video game title) - A fanwork where Character A must be the focus;
• group: Character A & Character B - A fanwork where the gen relationship of Character A and Character B is the focus;
• group: Character A/Character B - a fanwork where the shippy relationship of Character A and Character B is the focus. You are also free to nominate group: Character A/Original Male Character or group: Character A/Original Female Character.
• group: Character A/Character B & Character C - a fanwork where the shippy relationship between Character A and B, as well as their gen relationships with Character C are the focus.

The above examples are for two-three characters, but there is no maximum for how many characters can fit into a relationship tag (outside of the character limit in the nomination form itself).

Matching is "OR", meaning that you match on a tag. If you want Character A and Character B in your gift, nominate them as a group. If you nominate each of them separately your creator only has to include one of them. Please keep that in mind when nominating!

Crossover Fandoms
Crossover character combinations are eligible.

There are some basic rules though so that I don't cry a lot.

• When nominating a crossover, the fandom is Crossover Fandoms. I have already nominated Crossover Fandoms into the tag set so please use that spelling. Not nominating a crossover into this fandom will mean that nomination will be rejected;
• Nominations can be for gen fic or ship fic;
• Nominations are to be written like this: Group: Character A (Video Game 1) & Character B (Video Game 2) (or group: Character A (Video Game)/Character B (Video Game 2);
• There is no limit of the number of characters that are in a tag set, short of AO3's character limit;
• All characters in the crossover combination must be video game characters.

Series of Games
The test for whether a game is part of a series and should be nominated as one is as follows:

1. Is the game marketed as being part of a series (i.e. a trilogy, games set in the same world etc etc);
2. Are the games that make up the series part of the same continuity or different continuity;
3. Is there a significant crossover of major characters between the games?

At the moment:

• Dragon Age (Video Games) is the correct tag for any nomination for Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age Inquisition;
• Mass Effect Andromeda is a separate game to the Mass Effect Trilogy;
• Final Fantasy games are separate to one another, except for the ones that are explicitly in continuity with each other;
• Kingdom Hearts is a separate continuity to Final Fantasy;
• The Star Ocean games can be nominated separately;
• The Kiseki/Trails series can be nominated as individual series (i.e. Sora, Sen etc etc)
• Fallout can be nominated separately.

If you are considering nominating a game that could be a series, or could be a tie-in, please drop a comment below so that I can hash it out with you first.

Eligibility of Games
For a game to be eligible it must:

• Be released by the time that signups close; and
• Not be heavily dependent on another, non-video game canon;

Finally, a reminder: if you defaulted after the no-penalty default deadline in previous years, you remain ineligible to participate in this round until you complete your penalty gift. If you don't remember what you need to do, please email me and I will let you know what you need to do!

Otherwise, happy nominations! Noms close 11:59pm on 1 July 2018.