the Polycount Tower

adam · Nov 2014

We are so pleased to finally be announcing our very first Community Project: the Polycount Tower!

Presented by Sketchfab, the goal with this project is for the Polycount Community to have something they can all work together on and contribute to. No deadlines. No rules. No prizes. All for the fun of making game art. Over time this Tower will grow to be a showcase of the amazing talent this community holds while being presented in a fun, interactive way: A 3D tower, viewed and used through Sketchfab!

Anyone who joins the project will be given a floor all on there own to do with whatever they please.

A dragons den? Great!

A space port? Fantastic!

Your bedroom? Do it!

You can build whatever you want, with any art style, and whatever specs you feel your floor needs. If you can do it on Sketchfab you can do it for your floor. To kick things off, Sketchfab and Polycount have had 4 floors created for you to check out.

The Polycount Tower will be an on-going project for both the community, and Sketchfab & Polycount as we plan on introducing updates to the tools and features of the Tower. So long as there is interest in this project, we'll continue to grow it with features you request.

Fun facts:

The Polycount office was made by the VGREMIX winner Brendan Bottomley.
This quaint little apartment was made by Crossy Road artist Ben W.
This exploding, warpy floor was made by VGREMIX third place winner Glenatron!
Sketchfab's Office was made by Mestaty, Sketchfab's most viewed user.
The poster for this project was made by the winner of our UT Master Challenge winner Adam Wood.

We have created a brand new forum for the Polycount Tower, for artists who are participating in the project to post their work-in-progress (WIP) shots and final floors when ready. This will be an important step as your floor on Sketchfab will be able to directly link back to your WIP thread.

If you haven't yet sign up for Polycount and Sketchfab
Create your thread in the projects forum using this title layout:
1. TOWER - [Floor name] - Artist/Team Name
  1. E.g. TOWER - Wild, Wild, Wild, West - George
Head to the Tower page and proceed with the steps of creating your floor, starting with downloading the template.
Add your floor to the project when it is 100% complete. You can test your floor on Sketchfab as many times as you'd like, but do not officially submit it to the Tower until it is 100% complete.
Be sure to add the link to your WIP thread as a description to your Sketchfab scene. This way viewers can view your development process for your floor after they've seen the final results!
Tag your work on Sketchfab with the following 3 tags: polycount, tower, final

Template notes:

The main body of your floor must adhere to the overall VOLUME of this template, floor to ceiling corners (14x14x6 meters). The ceilings, floors, and scale template in the template are just suggestions.
You may have additional details that are outside of the main volume up to 3 meters*, but your floors and ceilings must line up exactly to the template.

There aren't any!

OK fine there's a couple but they're so easy to follow we might as well make this Tower lawless! So long as your final floor works on Sketchfab and sticks to the sizing presented in the template available for download on the project page you are within the rules! Though, there are a few specific rules in place to ensure the content is creative and original:

Teams are allowed. Work by yourself, team up with an army, you decide! Only one person will submit the floor to the tower.
Any style, theme, context, narrative, or content is allowed so long as it:
- Is original content (fan art is OK)
- Is not offensive or illegal in subject matter (No trademarked content, no pornographic content, no explicitly illegal content). Submitting this type of content will result in appropriate action being taken by Polycount and/or Sketchfab

This isn't a rule per se but a very important point all artists need to consider when developing their floor for the Polycount Tower: Consider all angles of your floor: Inside and out. Your tower is going to be viewable from the outside in, and from the inside out. As an example with this beautiful floor made by Glenatron it works extremely well from the inside. If the back faces were covered by exterior walls it would work well from the outside, too. So while it is completely fine for you to make your floor however you'd like, you will get the most amount of impact and interaction if you can make it work from all angles. Again, this isn't a rule just something to consider.

Q. Can I team up with someone?
A. Yes! Go solo or group up. Only one person will be able to submit to Sketchfab. Everyone should work from a single WIP thread in the project forum.

Q. Is it OK if I build...
A. ...Yes. Well, probably. Check out the rules above. We'd bet money that yes it is OK for you to build that thing you want to build. Just don't break the couple of rules above and you'll be fine.

Q. What tools can I use?
A. Whatever you'd like so long as it exports files compatible with Sketchfab. The first four floors were created with a medley of standard video game art creation tools - including more niches tools like Qubicle!

Q. I thought I was done with my floor when I submitted it but have changes I'd like to make.
A. You can update your floor once it's been submitted, but we do ask that you are confident it is final before you do so. Essentially we want to avoid have work-in-progress floors on the Tower.

Q. What should I do for my initial view of my floor?
A. Check out the floors available on the Tower for examples. We think an outside, three-quarter view of the floor is the best. But maybe its not for yours? Note: The thumbnail of your floor is created by Sketchfab, once your final floor is validated.

Q. I submitted my floor but don't see it on the Tower.
A. Floors are validated on Sketchfab's end first, so it may take up to 24 hours for your floor to show up. Or! You broke the very small list of rules the Tower has. How did you do that!? They're so simple!

Q. I want my floor to be very tall! Like 3 floors tall!
A. That's interesting. Maybe there's a way you can do that? Hmm...

Q. Can I participate in the project?
A. If you're a member of Polycount and Sketchfab, absolutely! And you can make as many floors as you'd like.

Q. What's my deadline?
A. There isn't any. Take as long or as little amount of time as you need.

Q. I have a question!
A. We thought you might! That's why we've created the Polycount Tower Q&A Thread. Ask any questions you might have and someone from Polycount or Sketchfab will do their best to answer it.