Two Part Challenge

Round 1: Submit a template (8/24 – 9/7)
Create a template creature based on the bio below. Your template entry should be in the form of a published creature tagged mcrakthatemplate. Paint your template white!

Templates will be judged on creativity, adherence to the bio, simplicity, and how well they animate.

Round 2: Submit a finished creature (Dates TBA)
We’ll give you more details on this later when round 2 begins. Players will submit creations based on the winning template from round 1.

Raktha

Bio: Rakthae are the children of two epochs of mutation on Cryos: the Crogenitor era, and the Darkspore era. Originally, they survived Cryos’s descent into an ice age, the Rakthae evolved into double-extremophiles. They flourished when the Crogenitors ripped Cryos with rivers and oceans of plasma, gaining the ability to metabolize plasma itself (especially advantageous with the planet’s dwindling food supply).

But when the Darkspore invaded Cryos, they bent the beautiful creatures to their own will. Protected by halos of flame, the Rakthae inflict flaming devastation on any who attack them bodily, and aim fiery vengeance at any target. Whether defensive or offensive, Raktha flames are difficult to extinguish and can quickly turn terrible wounds into terrifying death.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
The winner of round 1 will be featured. Winners of round 2 will be featured and may be included as NPC designs in Darkspore! Credit will go to both the template and final creature artists for any creations that go into Darkspore.

Challenge Rules:
• To submit a template, tag it with: mcrakthatemplate
• You can submit as many templates as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT September 07, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Winning Criteria
• No parent author in the lineage other than yourself
• No offensive/copyright protected references in entry or parent creation
• No links/references to other sites in submission tags/name/description
• No cheats allowed
• No using the invisible limbs bug
• Asymmetry is allowed, but don’t pose your creature. Entries should be in a default idle stance.

Challenge FAQ

Your questions answered here.

Q: How complex should I make the template?
A: We’ll be looking for simpler creations. Having a simpler template design will boost your entry’s chances of winning.

Q: Will all challenges follow this format in the future?
A: Probably not. We’re experimenting here, and we want to test out some of your brilliant ideas. We’ll see how we like it, we’ll see how you like it, and gauge how best to run challenges after we’ve done this trial run.

Q: Is C&C allowed?
A: Yes, however, if you use C&C and are a winner of round 1, we will publish a duplicate version of your template with alternative parts for non C&C players for round 2.

Is it possible to win with our own template?
A: Yes. If you create the winning template, then make one of the best entry creations based on it, it is possible!

Winning Entries & Darkspore

Earlier we announced that the secret purpose of the Maxis Template Challenges was to allow players to help us design some of the NPCs in Darkspore.

This is THE FIRST challenge since announcement, and I hope we get a huge tidal wave of entries now that you guys know the real reward at stake here.

No Template?

We’re still getting a feel for how best to run these challenges. The feedback you guys have been provided is helping shape the process here. We know you’ve been making unbelievably cool creations based on our templates, but this time we want to give you a chance to spread your wings and really come up with some cool designs on your own.

This is based on your feedback, so I’ve got to give credit to you for helping us redesign our challenge format. This is a trial run, so we’ll see how it goes. Let us know if you like the original template format better, or if you prefer this new style of challenge!

In the past, the templates are based on NPCs in Darkspore that have already been designed, with art and engineering behind them to make sure they work well in the game. We simply skin the current Darkspore NPCs with the models you provide us.

With the new format, we’ll be doing the art, effects, animations, etc. after we determine the winners. This means a team of Maxis folks will be at work making YOUR winning creations shine in the game.

I’m super confident that you guys are going to come up with some work that will blow them away and inspire them as they’re puppeteering your creations to life in the game. Make me proud!

-MC

Oh, and considering that they are tweaking this process, these may or may not make it into the final build of the game, set to be released in February 2011.

Space Barracuda: Preview Winning Player Designs in Game

Many of you probably already know about the template challenges we’ve been hosting on the Spore forum. We announced that these may be used to help design NPCs in Darkspore. Today we announced winners for the Space Barracuda Template Challenge!

Players created Space Barracuda designs based on the following brief description, imagery, and template creation. Check out the original thread here.

“Space Barracuda
Bio: Once tiny sea creatures, the space barracudas are now larger and via gravitic powers, able to “swim” through the air on land. Dangerous and unpredictable, space barracudas use their gravitic abilities to teleport themselves and their prey. Prospectors and fighters should exercise extreme caution around these bizarre creatures.”

The creation entries designed by the Spore community were judged by the Darkspore team and finalists were hand picked for preview in Darkspore.

Check out the finalists in the level editor. They won’t all swarm like this in game, but we needed to see all the finalists animate in game to verify viability as potential NPC designs.

We chose our top six and verified that their animation, look and feel all integrated well with the game environment.

Check out the top 6 in game, pitted against Zrin. They look great!!!

The Winners:

1. Space Barracuda By shamar10
2. Starstaidned Space Barracuda By KaluluUchiha
3. Space Barracuda By WforWumbo

Honorable Mention:

1. Space Barracuda By ESquidey
2. Space Barracuda Template By Richardson72
3. Space Barracuda Template By Richardson72

I want to stress that this whole thing is WIP (work in progress). We’re still working out the kinks with UGC, but we want to try to get your creations in game. The images above depict a level populated with a bunch of Space Barracudas, but that was for judging preview purposes. We can’t guarantee that these will be in the final game, but we’ll continue to explore this as an option.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in this challenge. I hope to see you guys enter the next one soon!

-MC

On the Spore forum, many of our Spore players have participated in our template challenges and there has been speculation around why these are happening.

With the huge announcement Tuesday about Darkspore, you may have already guessed that some of the winning creations from these challenges could help constitute the cast of NPC creatures you’ll see in Maxis’ new action-RPG.

Stegavaar Template Challenge Entries

The entries to these contests absolutely blew us away, and we can’t wait to show off challenge winners as NPCs in Darkspore.

During each template challenge judging round, we bring our favorite entry creations into Darkspore to see how well they integrate with the existing Darkspore environment. A group of Maxis artists, designers, and producers analyze your creations, how well they animate, the execution of their design, and their fidelity to the NPC bio we provided to inform your work.

Stegavaar Entries Previewed in an earlier game iteration

Each template challenge is based on a real Darkspore NPC, which has its own specific abilities, unique animations, and personality already designed and implemented. When we drop your models in to skin the NPCs, they come to life in a new way.

Loading up a level where I have to battle Falcore’s inspired triple-spike tailed Scorpiod or flee Potatofish’s barreling armored Stegavaar proves that these creations deserve a spotlight in Darkspore.

While we’re still working on the pipeline, and the process hasn’t quite been ironed out, there’s something magical here that we can’t wait to show you.

Your participation in this is completely voluntary. The Maxis team is creating all of the core NPCs in the game, but we want YOU to contribute too!

I hope you’ll keep submitting entries in future challenges, and maybe some of you will see your creations come to life as mutated E-DNA hordes in the Darkspore game!

Previous and Current Challenge Links:
• Stegavaar Template Challenge
• Lightning Stalker Template Challenge
• Space Barracuda Template Challenge
• Triocular Scorpiod Challenge
• Uklideon Template Challenge
• Quadrakiller Template Challenge
• Toxiraptor Template Challenge
• Necro Template Challenge

-MC

via MaxisCactus over at the Sporums

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mclightningchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creaturmclightningchallengee bio, how well they animate.

Lightning Stalker
Bio:Lightning stalkers have been the scourge of stragglers and survivors since the planet’s ice-age set in. Heavily armored with terrible claws and horns protruding from across their bodies, lightning stalkers are highly adept at tracking prey for hours, days or even weeks if food is scarce. While they’re quite capable of ripping their targets to bloody shreds with their claws, they more often strike at a distance with blinding bolts of their electroplasma.

Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, arms, “fingers” or mouth. You may swap out the feet as desired. You may add parts anywhere.

Tag: mclightningchallenge

Template:

Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a creature, tag it with: mclightningchallenge
• You can submit as many entries as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT July 20, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mcbarracudachallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.

Space Barracuda
Bio: Once tiny sea creatures, the space barracudas are now larger and via gravitic powers, able to “swim” through the air on land. Dangerous and unpredictable, space barracudas use their gravitic abilities to teleport themselves and their prey. Prospectors and fighters should exercise extreme caution around these bizarre creatures.

Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine or mouth. You may add parts anywhere.

Tag: mcbarracudachallenge

Template:

Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a creature publish and tag it with: mcbarracudachallenge
• You can submit as many entries as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT July 13, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

The Sims 3 World Adventures and The Sims 3 are $4.99, Spore Creatures, Spore Origins and SimCity are $1.99.  Good savings for those who’ve yet to own the games!

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mctoxiraptorchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.

Emerald Toxiraptor
Bio: Centuries ago the rainforests and grasslands teemed with gentle creatures sharing their habitats. Following the invasion, the planet exchanged its serenity for terror. Once tiny creatures with a mild, stinging bite, toxiraptors (striking for their glowing emerald eyes), became tall, lightning-fast attackers that hunted in packs. Aside from the terrible damage their fangs can inflict, it’s their toxin that’s of greatest worry to any being they target, a nerve agent that untreated causes paralysis and death within minutes. Any explorer catching sight of toxiraptors hunting in packs should evacuate or flee immediately… or be prepared to unleash maximum firepower.

Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, or mouth. You may swap out the feet as desired. You may add parts anywhere.

Tag: mctoxiraptorchallenge

Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a creature, tag it with: mctoxiraptorchallenge
• You can submit as many entries as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT June 8, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

Posted via MaxisCactus over at the Sporums

Game Changers Winners Announced!

NINE GAME DEVELOPERS TO SHARE $250,000 FOR EDUCATIONAL GAMING EXPERIENCES USING LittleBigPlanet™ and Spore Galactic Adventures

May 24, 2010 (Games for Change Conference, New York City) U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Aneesh Chopra, will announce on Tuesday the nine winning game developers who will share $250,000 for new and educational gaming experiences on the commercial games LittleBigPlanet™ and Spore™ Galactic Adventures. These winners are part of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition, which is designed to support the most novel uses of new media for learning. This year, MacArthur teamed with Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Electronic Arts (EA), the Entertainment Software Association, and the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation to support new and creative user-generated levels and adventures to engage young people in learning in the two games. The intention of the competition is to promote “participatory” learning, which operates under the notion that individuals, specifically young ones, learn best through sharing and involvement. The competition is administered by the virtual network of learning institutions, HASTAC, and is part of the Obama Administration’s Educate to Innovate initiative. More information at www.dmlcompetition.net.

The three winning Spore™ Galactic Adventures projects include:

Creatures Classified! An exploration of cataloging creatures across the galaxy, $40,000
Mathew Powers, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN
Best in Class: Creatures (Spore™ only)
In this Spore™ adventure, fifth and sixth graders, acting as “intergalactic speciologists,” learn how to collect and organize scientific data and employ the scientific method to classify living things. Armed with a science field journal, players must navigate progressively more complex and challenging planets, collecting data, and classifying the myriad species they encounter based on the evolutionary and physical characteristics of the creatures.

DIASTEM: Digitally Integrating the Academics of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, $15,000
Patrick Keller, Albuquerque, NM
Leveraging Spore’s™ powerful ability to personalize gameplay, DIASTEM targets STEM-related content that applies directly to digital game development. Within the Spore™ interface, players will complete challenges—from simple math and logic puzzles to more complex physics and engineering construction projects—that are specifically developed and created to elicit player understanding of game design theory and application.

Mission: Evolution, $15,000
Jennifer Biedler, Blacksburg High School, Blacksburg, VA
In Mission: Evolution, high school students thoroughly analyze the evolutionary science driving the Spore™ game engine and investigate the scientific accuracy of the game. Working together to identify principles of evolutionary change that are absent from the off-the-shelf version of Spore™, students collaborate to introduce these principles into their own missions in Spore™ Galactic Adventures.

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mcquadrakillerchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.

Ballistic Quadrakiller
Bio: When the factories fell silent after centuries of poisoning the planet, only a few things were left moving on the deathfields of the planet Ballistic quadrakillers were among them. Possessing four arms, each capable of unleashing terrifying volleys of lightning projectiles, the quadrakillers were the product of two centuries of fighting over the last natural resources to maintain life. Devastating in combat, quadrakillers possess one flaw their dead makers never got a chance to fix: following attacks, they enter brief rest moves in which they are vulnerable to destruction.

Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, arms or mouth. You may swap out the weapons at the ends of the arms as desired. You may add parts anywhere.

Tag: mcquadrakillerchallenge

Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge. Finalists will be posted before the winning creation(s) are announced.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a creature, tag it with: mcquadrakillerchallenge
• You can submit as many entries as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT May 18, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

FAQ:

How Do I use the Template?

1. Right click on the small PNG above and choose Save as.
2. Open your Spore Creature Creator and drag the png into the editor.
3. Add parts and paint to flesh out the character of this creature. All parts including accessory, mech, C&C, and base game parts are allowed. You may not scale, remove or move any parts of the original template, with the exception that the feet may be swapped out for other feet.

Can I use cheats?
Cheats such as AddDNA and Freedom are not allowed. Asymmetry is allowed on the parts you add.

Is outfitting allowed?
Yes.

Posted at the Sporums via MaxisCactus

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creature to fit the bio provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a creature tagged mcscorpiodchallenge based on the template provided. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate.

Triocular Scorpiod
Bio: Prowling the dark ranges and crevasses of its cold domain, triocular scorpiods employ their tails for two deadly functions: night vision for hunting, and plasma-blasting for killing their prey. Also known as “tri-scorps,” they are particularly dangerous for their ability to “ricochet” their lightning attack off one target and onto others. Explorers and others travelling in groups must therefore exercise tremendous caution in their presence, and are advised to kill the tri-scorps on sight.

Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the three tails, spine, legs, or mouth. You may swap out the weapons at the ends of the tail as desired. You may add parts anywhere.

Tag: mcscorpiodchallenge

Color/vibe references:
These images are meant to generally inform the aesthetic direction you take especially when painting your creature. It’s not a requirement to match your paint to these colors, but we just want to give you an idea of the vibe we’re looking for.

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge. Finalists will be posted before the winning creation(s) are announced.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a creature, tag it with: mcscorpiodchallenge
• You can submit as many entries as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT May 11, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

FAQ:

How Do I use the Template?

1. Right click on the small PNG above and choose Save as.
2. Open your Spore Creature Creator and drag the png into the editor.
3. Add parts and paint to flesh out the character of this creature. All parts including accessory, mech, C&C, and base game parts are allowed. You may not scale, remove or move any parts of the original template, with the exception that the feet may be swapped out for other feet.

Can I use cheats?
Cheats such as AddDNA and Freedom are not allowed. Asymmetry is allowed on the parts you add.

Is outfitting allowed?
Yes.

The most charismatic creature that came out of Spore’s development was undoubtedly the Intestisaur. It was created by Flux, who interned with us one summer.

The thing was fascinating to watch, but disturbing and creepy. It became our unofficial mascot. Here’s a Maya render of it, after exporting it out of Spore.

And a little animation of it (him? I was never sure about Intestisaur’s gender, but I’ll settle on “him”) walking. The animation system handled him just fine and it was fun to watch him saunter around.

Here are some animations of astronomical features I built in Spore, using Andrew Willmott’s effect system.

I was going for an aesthetic of caricatured reality. These things had to look more like people expected them to than like they (probably) really do.

Here’s a black hole:

And the galactic core (with huge jets shooting out from the poles)

And a protoplanetary disc, where a cloud of dust and gas is collapsing to form an infant star and solar system:

Creating animated, interactive versions of the things that I read about in Our Universe in fourth grade was a total blast. It’s pretty much the best job I could have imagined having as a 10 year old.

(I loved that book when I was a kid! Especially with those amazing Michael Whelan paintings of aliens floating in a Jovian atmosphere)

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Here’s a screencapture from the first iteration of Spore’s creature editor, from back in 2004 or so.

We had originally experimented with a much more free-form approach to the creature editor. The player could assemble an arbitrary creation out of bones and nodes, and it would hop around using physics and a pre-Chris Hecker animation system. And this was before we started skinning it with a metaball mesh, so it’s just the naked skeleton.

As you can see, we were playing around with a cel-shaded look that ultimately fell by the wayside.

Here’s a prototyping video I did while designing Spore’s planetary atmospherics.

I’ve written about them before, but in a nutshell, the atmosphere needed to be soft and diffuse when seen from above, but make for pretty skies when seen from below.
And the system had to be continuous, so that a zoom would seamlessly take you from the surface looking up at the sky, to orbit looking down at a thin layer of air.

This was a pretty successful mockup.

It only addresses atmospherics and the interaction of atmosphere with the sun, background and camera. Everything else is abstracted away (and kind of ugly). It’s only trying to address a narrow set of problems, and as a result, represents a pretty clear design.

I had talked to the engineers to get a sense of what the capabilities of our engine were. So in creating this animation (within those constraints!) I’d represented an approach that we could use for the game.

And here are a few screenshots from the Spore itself, showing how it looked once we had the whole system working.

Overview: In this fixed morphology challenge it’s up to you to modify our template creatures to fit the bios provided below. Your entry should be in the form of a Sporecast tagged mcnecrochallenge containing four creatures based on templates provided below. The set of creatures you create should form a cohesive group to have a connected look. Entries will be judged on creativity, adherence to creature bio, how well they animate, and how well the creations in the set relate to each other.
Goal aesthetic for all creatures: Shadowy, purple, dark, spikey

1. Tusked Lamprey
Bio: Indigenous to a nightmare world, the tusked lamprey is a revolting predator. Covered in razored horns, the beast possesses a repugnant mouth-hole ringed with fangs. Forget its small size: even from a distance, the creature is deadly, capable of murdering its target with necrotizing blasts from its inexhaustible lysogenic pustules.
Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, or mouth. You may swap the feet as long as their size doesn’t change. You may add parts anywhere.
Tags: mcLampreyEntry & mcNecroChallenge

2. Pterodyne
Bio: Beware pterodynes. They’re obscenities capable of ripping the brains and spine from their victims in seconds. Should they approach from behind, they can project their terrorpathic aura to make their prey scream, flail and flee in panic. But if they employ their stealth ability, you’ll never even see the approach of your own death.
Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, “hands” or mouth. You may swap the feet as long as their size doesn’t change. You may add parts anywhere.
Tags: mcPterodyneEntry & mcNecroChallenge

3. Clawed Spectre
Bio: Seeded on a ruined world as a sick joke, the genetically-modified clawed spectres were ineffective at keeping down the vermin population because there were no vermin to eat. Clawed spectres generally therefore live on diet of each other. Ironically, they also possess ability to resurrect their dead. They slaughter their victims from a distance with blasts of their spectray. Despite their cannibalism, clawed spectres possess sufficient intelligence to use tools, and to employ and revise attack strategies. It’s common for explorers to underestimate clawed spectres. Once.
Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, or mouth. You may swap the hands or feet as long as their size doesn’t change. You may add parts anywhere. The coiled ram horns may be modified/moved but not removed.
Tags: mcSpectreEntry & mcNecroChallenge

4. Death Mollusk
Bio: Death mollusks crabs are small, vicious parasites of low intelligence, imbued with the horrific ability to drain their victims of energy. Highly mobile and able to strike from a distance, death mollusks are a threat even in death, exploding the moment their disgusting innards cease functioning.
Template restrictions: You may not modify (scale, move, remove) the spine, legs, hands, or mouth. You may add parts anywhere.
Tags: mcDeathMolluskEntry & mcNecroChallenge

What will the challenge winner(s) get?
A chance to be featured on Spore.com! Maxis will hand pick the winner(s) in this challenge. Finalists will be posted before the winning creation(s) are announced. The winning creations will be creatures, not Sporecasts.

Challenge Rules:

• To submit a sporecast, tag it with: mcnecroChallenge
• Creatures should retain the same tags the templates have
• You can submit as many Sporecasts as you’d like
• All submissions must be in by 11:00am PDT Mar 30, 2010
• Optional: Post screenshots or YouTube movies of your creation on the forum

Feature Criteria

• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus and original author if different from MaxisCactus)
• Creation must not have any offensive creation in its lineage (any parent or child creations)
• Creation must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

FAQ:
How Do I use the Template?
1. Right click on either image above and choose Save as. (The second is for non-C&C players)
2. Open your Spore Creature Creator and drag the png into the editor.
3. Add parts and paint to flesh out the character of this creature. All parts including accessory, mech, C&C, and base game parts are allowed. You may not scale, remove or move any parts of the original template, with the exception that the feet may be swapped out for other feet.

Can I use cheats?
Cheats such as AddDNA and Freedom are not allowed. Asymmetry is allowed on the parts you add.

Why do some template(s) have different original authors?
Maxis was inspired by some player creations when making these templates. If your entry has an author other than MaxisCactus as the “original” in the lineage, don’t worry. Your entry is still valid. We want to give credit to the original authors as well for making such unique creations that would be used as part of an official challenge! In this case, the honor goes to celloguy and chimerahound!