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City of Heroes hosts contest for player-created loading screens

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Super-hero, Screenshots, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Contests, News items

While loading screens are a reality of life in City of Heroes, there's at least the advantage of the loading screens themselves being attractive. Each screen highlights the variety of scenery within each zone, having been carefully picked out by the developers and the artists. But the developers don't want to force their opinions of the best parts of each zone upon the players, so the team at Paragon Studios has devised a contest for players to pick out their own best loading screenshots -- with the usual chance at fantastic prizes.

The official announcement includes Photoshop files for several loading templates, along with detailed instructions on assembling an eligible sceenshot. And the prizes are quite generous -- the top prize includes a six-month subscription to the game, as well as a copy of every single Super Booster. Take a look at the full list of rules and the list of eligible zones, and then log in to City of Heroes and get to work on your best Ansel Adams impersonation in-game.

City of Heroes hosts contest for player-created loading screens originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GDC09: How HeroEngine revolutionizes MMORPG game design

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Hero's Journey, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Hands-on, Virtual worlds

Let's be frank, MMOs are a pain in the rear to design. You have large teams working collaboratively to build huge expanses of terrain, hundreds upon thousands of objects in the world that players can interact with, server architecture to worry about, and even more in-depth things that the standard player may not even notice or consider.

But if you've been on the site recently and have been checking out our coverage of the GDC, then you may have heard us and developers talking excitedly about HeroEngine, the new MMO developing tool from Simutronics. HeroEngine is powering games like The World of Gatheryn and this funny Star Wars game from those BioWare people, as well as other companies that haven't announced their new projects as of yet.

So why is HeroEngine so amazing? Well, we got the inside scoop straight from Simutronics as we visited their booth at the GDC.

Continue reading GDC09: How HeroEngine revolutionizes MMORPG game design

GDC09: How HeroEngine revolutionizes MMORPG game design originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Design an EVE Online billboard, win big isk

James Egan — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Humor

EVE Stratics is running a contest where winners receive free game time in EVE Online. EVE Stratics asks, "If you could place an ad on an ingame billboard, what would you put?" At first glance, especially since this was announced on the official EVE Online website, you'd think that the contest would actually allow the winner(s) to put their own messages on in-game billboards. Sadly, this is not the case. Truth be told, that could be a total disaster anyway.

The contest is strictly out-of-game, but it's an easy way to win a few months of free EVE Online Time Codes, and maybe an Art of EVE Book as well. There's just over a week before the contest ends, and Stratics only limits you with a few terms:

Image size must be 1024x768 or smaller and can be in JPG or GIF (single frame, no animation) format. The billboard frame is optional and will not affect judging.

No vulgarity, graphic nudity, copyrighted, or overly offensive material. Slightly offensive is usually pretty damn funny, so we'll let that slide.

The contest ends on May 26th at 11:59pm, so fire up Photoshop and add your billboard to the EVE Stratics gallery. The billboard template and further details are found at the EVE Stratics 'Build-a-Billboard' contest site. Entries are judged on creativity and originality, and all submissions should be emailed to loktofeit@stratics.com.

Via EVE Online

Design an EVE Online billboard, win big isk originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 May 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Photoshop a JGE dev, get a closed beta spot

Chris Chester — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Jumpgate Evolution, Contests, Culture, Forums, Humor

In one of the more bizarre contests in recent memory, the NetDevil boys are submitting the hair of two of their developers to the whims and amusement of the larger Jumpgate Evolution community. In order to participate in the contest, you just Photoshop whatever freaky color you think would look good on either of the pair of developers, and the two that most amuse the team will earn the winners a signed Jumpgate Evolution print and a guaranteed closed beta spot. Oh, and did I mention they're actually going to follow through and dye their hair that color as well?

Now, this is pure speculation, but this blogger has a sneaking suspicion that this contest may have been the product of some heavy drinking. In any case, entries must be submitted on the official forums by May 20. So get cracking!

Photoshop a JGE dev, get a closed beta spot originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 08 May 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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