Mon, Sep 3, 2012 by Fornaught

What's this all about?

For season 8's medals we thought it would be fun to open the design process up to our players. (you could also read this as: Ruskeydoo is lazy and wants someone else to do his work”)

We're asking all of you talented people  to come up with some ideas for what you'd like next season's medals to look like. This can take the form of anything from concept sketches to fully fledged designs. I will then adapt the winning idea into a 3d model which will go into the game.

Rules

• You must be part of our tf2 community to enter this competition.
• All work you submit must be your own.
• You should create a work in progress thread in the COMPETITION FORUM. Your title should be “UGC Medal - **your name** ”.
• The thread must show your design process.
• You are allowed to present multiple ideas in your thread, but fewer more developed designs will do better than a large number of quick ideas.
• This is a solo competition, so no group entries.
• The Deadline for this competition is September the 30th.

What makes a good medal design?

Restrictions on the item?

Items must be made for the 'medal' item slot. A design for any other item slot, no matter how awesome, will not get into the game.

General Style

Have a look at the medals already in the game and see how they are styled. Detail is chunky and simple (imagine the Heavy's sausage fingers trying to hold it), and these days small text is avoided. Think how it will work when seen from a distance. Allow yourself be creative. Not everything in the medal slot has to be a medal, and you could consider other ideas i.e. a commemorative knife plunged into the characters chest.

How will your design work for multiple placings?

For Medals in the UGC we want multiple placings and divisions. If you have an awesome concept or design than allowances can be made, but efficiency is important. For example if you have one model that can take three skins then you get three complete items for cheap.

The 'Participant' is the most important medal

UGC Highlander is all about getting as many people involved and having fun as possible. All of your medal ranks should look awesome, but pay particular attention to the medals which will be going out to 100% of our players.

Judging

Myself and Forn will go through the submissions and work out which ideas we can work into a final design. We will then run those ideas by the UGC admin team and then present the final idea to Valve. We're keeping the judging team small as there is always a fair amount of back and forth with Valve about how the item should look.

Prize

The prize is to see your creation in game being worn proudly by everyone in the UGC... and of course you will get your own self-made version of your medals, complete with community sparkle particle effect! Think of the bragging rights!

Above all be creative and enjoy yourself - Ruskeydoo