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Darksiders II 'Create a Weapon' Contest

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Darksiders II 'Create a Weapon' Contest

We are extremely happy to announce our latest contest - The Darksiders II 'Create a Weapon' Contest!!

For this contest you will be creating a Mace, Axe, or Hammer that would fit in the world of Darksiders. One entry from each category will be chosen to be included in the release of Darksiders II! -- That's right! Not in a future DLC release or a digital download of any sorts - the winning entries will be shipped with the game when it launches!

 

Contest Rules

  • Create a mace, axe or hammer that would fit in the world of Darksiders.
  • Design must be original and cannot contain elements from copyrighted works, reference to other IP, or use of any image that you do not own.
  • Design must fit within the themes of Darksiders (More info on themes below)
  • All submissions are to be showcased in a single jpeg. The image must contain a render of the final weapon with and without wireframe, and must display your diff and norm texture flats. This jpeg should be of a reasonable resolution.
    • This is a real-time challenge. You may use any real-time renderer (UDK, Crysis, etc.) but you must not use any post-processing effects or advanced (read: "fancy") rendering techniques. Vigil wants to see your artwork as naturally as possible.
  • Top 3 weapons as chosen by Vigil in each category will be asked to submit their models for final assessment.
  • Winning entries will be asked for all source materials used in the creation of the assets.
  • One weapon from each category will be chosen to be included in the ship of Darksiders II
  • One artist per weapon/entry only. An artist may submit an entry for each of the 3 categories.
  • Submissions must be made to the submission thread no later than 11:00am CST on March 26, 2012

 

 

Weapon Specifications

  • Poly Budget: 1500 triangles
  • Texture Budget: 512x512 Diff, Norm, Spec (Emissive map optional)
  • Weapon must match supplied proxy dimensions and scale.

 

Creation Guidelines

We’ve been supplied a proxy outlining the important parts of  the Darksiders II weapons. You may exceed the dimensions of this proxy slightly but you are encouraged to keep your design contained within the boundaries of the individual sections.

Choose your format (Right Click, Save As...): MAX, OBJ, FBX. Additionally everything is packaged in to a handy ZIP file for you here.

Reference image located here.

  • Green – The bounding box of the weapon head. This represents the contact area in-game.
  • Yellow – Handle Transition. We make use of squash and stretch in our animation. This area (along with the weapon head) will scale up in some animations.
  • Orange – Grip-able surface. Death must be able to grip anywhere within this section. Please do not make this area much thicker than the proxy or Death’s hands will clip through it. Additionally, do not curve this section.
  • Blue – Pommel. This is simply a decorative detail/end cap. Exceeding this might result in Clipping with the environment during idle animations.

 

 

Creating, Presenting and Submitting your entry

Participants of the contest will create a thread in our Contests & Challenges forum with the following as their Topic:

  1. [DS2] As the prefix to the topic.
  2. The weapon type your entry is for.
  3. Your polycount username

Example: [DS2] Mace, Greentooth

Inside of this thread you will post your progress (including images) of your weapon as you develop them.

When it comes time to submit your entry, there will be a single submission thread for each individual weapon category. (One for Maces, one for Hammers and one for Axes.) Within these threads you will post your weapon of choice, your name, and the appropriate image(s) mentioned in Contest Rules above. This thread will not be used for commenting or critiquing artwork. It is there for submission purposes only and all non-submissions will be removed.

The submission thread will be created and open one week before the submission deadline. The deadline is a hard deadline, there will be no extensions. Consider this when you are budgeting your time for your entry.

 

Darksiders II Info:

Darksiders is heavily fantasy based. Please avoid anything that look Sci-Fi. Weapons in Darksiders II are broken up into six themes. Your entry may use any of the following themes (Please do not mix themes outside of Darksiders Core):

For reference, please refer to this image in addition to the descriptions below.

  • Darksiders Core: Leather, Metal, Bone, Skulls, Wraps, Bolts, and Spikes are all common details used throughout Darksiders.
  • Angelic: The Angelic designs are very sculptural and ornate. Stoic faces and wings are common details. These are often the most refined looking weapons.
  • Demonic: Twisted and chaotic. The weapons often look as if they were possessed. Spikes, Horns and Teeth.
  • Maker: Maker themed weapons should all look forged. They often incorporate metal and stone.
  • Crow Temple: Crow Skulls along with purple tones are the primary design treatment for Crow temple assets.
  • Kingdom of the Dead: The weapons of the dead are primarily metal and are often bladed or have many spikes. Skulls and vented details are used as relief.

Additional reference information: Various members of the Vigil team will be live streaming their workflow throughout the duration of the contest. Up first will be Polycount's very own Brian 'BoBo_the_Seal' Jones. Check out their Livestream.com page as the first stream begins this Thursday, March 1st 2012 at 6PM CST

 

 

Judging & Winner Announcements

Judging for this contest will happen in 3 parts.

  1. Once the submission deadline is reached the submissions threads will be closed. The Top 3 weapons for each category will be chosen by Vigil.
  2. Finalists will be contacted by email to submit their assets for final review (No source files required.)
  3. The Top 3 weapons for each category will be posted to Darksiders' Facebook page, where fans of Darksiders will be able to vote on which weapon they would like to see in Darksiders II.

The winners will be announced on the Darksiders Facebook page and Polycount once the voting has ended and Vigil is ready to announce the winners.

 

Prizes

1st Place Mace –

  • Your weapon is included in the release of Darksiders II as well as credit!
  • Death’s Mask Replica! (or comparable prize)
  • Copy of Darksiders II

2nd Place Mace –

  • Copy of Darksiders II
  • Signed Poster

3rd Place Mace –

  • Signed Poster

 

1st Place Axe –

  • Your weapon is included in the release of Darksiders II as well as credit!
  • Death’s Mask Replica! (or comparable prize)
  • Copy of Darksiders II

2nd Place Axe –

  • Copy of Darksiders II
  • Signed Poster

3rd Place Axe –

  • Signed Poster

 

1st Place Hammer –

  • Your weapon is included in the release of Darksiders II as well as credit!
  • Death’s Mask Replica! (or comparable prize)
  • Copy of Darksiders II

2nd Place Hammer –

  • Copy of Darksiders II
  • Signed Poster

3rd Place Hammer –

  • Signed Poster

 

Massive thank-you!

Ryan Hawkins and cheeseplus (Seth Thomas) from our team here at Polycount for helping set up this competition up with Vigil.

BoBo_the_Seal (Brian Jones) for helping us from Vigil for getting the competition specs up and ready.

And of course Vigil for bringing this fun contest to the Polycount Community.

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