Contest idea?

I was thinking on hosting a modeling/environment contest. I wasn't sure what to ask for though, but I like the idea Damocles suggested in the other thread.

How does "best village bundle" contest sound? Of course it will be more than that and I'd allow teams. I'm thinking about offering cash prizes for the top 3.

My ideas for requirements of a "Village Bundle" Contest :

-Models need to have the same style (using some styleguide or common design)
An easy way to do this, would be to use some common textures on
all elements.

-Models should be scaled to a common scale (easy to test by
placing a stick-man into it, to test the scaling). So users
dont have to rescale each model seperately.

-The more versatile, the better:
Next to nicely defined Houses, it should offer "plug and play"
Elements. Such as raw Walls, Ceilings, Windows, Staircases. That could be manually combined to to have many variations.
(Morrowing/Oblivion used a nice modular system for Buildings and interiors)

-variation/flexibility is more important than detail-quality. So rather make
5 variations of a simpler House, than 1 very detailed House,
(wich would look repetative in a game)

I was thinking along those lines too, but I'd add this too:

- Bundle should not be house-centric. They should include fences (both wooden and stone), wheelbarrows, wells, signs.. Whatever village would include.

EDIT:
To really host this contest, I'd like to have two members to act as jury with me. The jury can or can not add to the prize pool. In fact, anyone can.

Or keep it more generic, so its not limited at Fantasy/Medival setting.

It could also be a settlement in the style of
-modern slums
-Mars Outpost
-Industrial russian Settlement (Stalker)
-Greek Antiqe style
-Wasteland style
-New York backyard
-Comic Gnome settment etc, etc

And next to the houses, also like you said, fences, signs, streettiltes, Barrels etc, to stuff the Outside.

maybe a comic style charakter? Or an industrial enviroment??

No characters, as it will turn the contest too challenging. Organic models also drop a crowd.

I'd like to keep it as a settlement, village, outpost. I like idea of keeping the "village" a generic term, not to limit to one style.

Damocles: Would you like to be part as a jury?

Shure I can Judge it.

The rules would be:

Contest theme: Settlement pack.

Rules:
- Must include more than 7 models
- No polycount limit
- All models must be in-scale. One meter equals 40 quads.
- You must declare the theme upon submitting your entry
- One entry per team. Two revisions allowed.
- All content must be custom-made for this content: no existing models or textures are allowed. Scripts can be reused, but you must own the right to use them.
- You will release the pack for free for non-commercial use.
- Include other licensing information in the .zip package.

Notes:
- Model pack should include more than houses; include outdoor items such as (but not limited to) signs, wells, fences, barrels.
- All models should share used style in all aspects, the similar in style, the better.
- Keep the pack versatile. Include multiple versions of models. Remember, that even a change of texture might help.
- Concentrate quality equally to all models. Ugly houses and beautiful wells don't mix well and will lower your points.
- You can use any software you like to create the models, as long as they are imported to 3DGS. You may include the original models if you want.
- The submission must work at least on A8 Commercial.

Submitting:
- Include two to three screenshots of the pack "in action" and a shot including most, if not all, of the pack.
- Include .zip package including all models, textures, testmaps and scripts you have used, so we can test and judge them by ourselves.
- Include names of the members, style of the model pack and number of models in the pack.

Judging:
- Three judges each give 3, 2 and 1 points to three submissions.
- Public voting results will affect like a judge.

Winners (current prize pool):
- First place: 100€
- Second place: 60€
- Third place: 40€

Contest deadline: 31. July 2011

If there's something someone likes to add/change please suggest.

I will make the thread after I find my third judge and the rules are accepted amongs them.

Would've liked it if you had used the idea that was mentioned above, all confined to one theme using common textures so we could have a huge pack, but I guess it's just too unrealistic to have multiple modelers not working together make models that fit one style.

31. July sounds good. The price is also nice. If I find the time I'll definitely enter.

The point I mentioned was just regarding the same style WITHIN a pack / submission.
So that at least the contents of this pack follow styleguide.

Feel free to share the same Textures over multiple packs.
In case someone is better in 2D Texture creation, and the other in modeling.


Forcing all entries to use the same texture-pool / style
would be a 2-step process in first finding a good concept artist,
and then using his style to create content.

Using common texture set or one theme across the contest will greatly limit the quality of results. The way I imagine things would look awesome, is garbage to other

Hope you can find time to enter the contest

Edit:

AAAAnd Damocles beat me to it.