New World Notes

Sinespace's $5000 FPS Map-Making Contest Deadline Extended to May 31st!

Update on the first-person shooter game design contest from Sinespace (a proud NWN partner) being judged by Valve veteran Erik Wolpaw  (Psychonauts, Portal 1/2, Team Fortress 2): The deadline has been extended to May 31st.

The contest challenge is to create customized FPS maps for Sinespace using its new Unity SDK and its open source combat system (read all about that on Unity's blog). Erik will choose the submission with the most unique gameplay, impressive level design, and inventive use of Sinespace features, with the winner getting $5000 and a bunch of other benefits. (All the details here.)

Sansar Contest: Create Scary Ass VR Experience, Win $10,000 Actual Dollars

Scary experiences for virtual reality are especially popular (think Resident Evil in VR), so it's no surprise that Linden Lab is offering a seriously big bounty for a great Halloween experience in Sansar:

 Sansar’s Scariest Experiences

‘Tis the season to be scary! Frightening experiences can be thrilling fun in VR, especially if you bring along some friends. The Atlas already has some terror-ific experiences like the Asylum (Darkness Edition) and The Abandoned Morgue, and as we head into Halloween season, we’re looking for the scariest!

One grand prize winner will receive $10,000 (USD), an Oculus Rift + Touch bundle and a one year Sansar Super Creator Subscription. Three honorable mentions will each each receive a one year Sansar Creator Subscription.

Will be interesting to see how many developers jump at this chance. Here's some of the competition:

Enter a Second Life Machinima Contest With a USD $1400 Prize Pool

New machinima contest coordinated by the Second Life "campus" of the University of Western Australia (UWA) with the support of SLartist and the Writers Centre of Singapore, with a prize pool of L$350,000 (i.e. $1400+), and the top winner taking L$70,000 (i.e. $300+ damn dollars). As with all UWA machinima contests, there's a theme:

Create a film with a work of art! Any artworks that sit on the UWA Sims in Second Life, and these include artworks created when the sims themselves were created in 2009 can be selected to feature in your machinima. You may choose individual artworks OR a collection of artworks around which to weave a story. The artwork(s) need to be a relatively significant part of the story, and not merely something glimpsed in passing... The artwork may be filmed in its current location, but it is not a must to film it there, so long at the focus of the machinima is centered around the artworks. You may communicate with the artists to film their works in other locations, and work with them on the film.

I love the frequent use of "film" for a contest that's actually digital animation of digital imagery converted to digital video. Anyway, deadline is December 31st of this year -- read all the details here.

As inspiration (or intimidation), watch these previous winners of a UWA contest, which were co-judged by Peter Greenaway (yes that Peter Greenaway):

Best SL Blog/Vlog Contest is Also a Great Resource for Finding New SL Blogs/Vlogs to Follow

BVN 2017 Blogger and Vlogger Awards is a contest selecting the best SL-related blogger/vlogger in many categories (Unboxing Vlogger of the Year, Best Hair Blogger, Best Roleplay Blogger, etc.), which is fun itself, but perhaps even better, it's also a great compilation of good blogs you may not know about. Also impressive is how many Second Life blogs still exist: Well over 100 in the contest itself, plus nearly 50 more in the "also nominated" category. Voting runs until the end of September!

Hat tip: Cassie Middles

3D Printable Avatar Contest: Win Sansar Creator-Level Sub. & Other Prizes

Unsurprisingly hosted by a 3D printing company, and co-sponsored by Sansar:

Imagine a future in which Virtual Reality is just as commonplace as cellphones and social media are today. In this future, everyone is represented in virtual space by an avatar of their own creation. What would you look like? What would you be wearing? Would you be human? Animal? Something new altogether?

No word on whether the entries can actually be used as Sansar avatars, but I imagine that'll be an option in future updats.

Ready Player One 3D Avatar Creation Contest: Winners Get $1000 & Chance to Appear in Spielberg's Adaptation

Cool avatar design contest run for Steven Spielberg's upcoming adaptation of the Ernest Cline novel: Design a 3D avatar in a typical file format (.ma, .mb, .obj, .fbx, .ztl), follow the rules and submit here, and five entries win $1000 and a chance to have that model depicted in OASIS, the film's version of Ready Player's metaverse. Looks like a full-mesh version of a Second Life avatar could work as an entry (long as you send it in original file form.)

If you do submit, let me know: I'd love to feature submissions in upcoming New World Notes posts!

Watch Ernest Cline's announcement of the contest below. And yes, Cline used to hang out in Second Life before the novel was published.

Oscar-Themed Avatar Fashion Contest With L$50K in Prizes

Harper Ganesvoort's 7th annual Oscar-themed Second Life avatar fashion photo contest is open for submissions, with a total of L$50,000 in prizes for the best pics. You can see the entries so far on this Flickr page.

I would like to feature some entries here on New World Notes, so post your entry links in Comments. Bonus points if your avatar is dressed in Mad Max: Fury Road-themed formal wear and/or calls out the #Oscarsowhite controversy. Because far as I'm concerned, that was the only truly great movie that's been nominated, and the racism flare-up is the only thing worth watching the Oscars for. (But that's just me, or maybe not.)

SL Art & Machinima Contest with L$500K+ in Prizes

That seriously smashing transhumanist machinima I featured yesterday is actually an entry into a massive 3D art and machinima contest sponsored by the University of Western Australia (UWA), which has a long-term presence in Second Life -- go here for all the details.

Submission deadline is very soon, October 30th, but if you wade through the dense and difficult to read rules and background, you'll notice it's pretty open-ended -- any submission that reflects the theme "'Pursue Impossible'" is acceptable, so you could probably repurpose an existing project to fit it.

Take Home L$10,000 With Your Best Virtual Red Carpet Look In The 5th Annual SL Oscar Fashion Photo Contest

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

It's awards show season yet again, a time of year celebrated by fashionistas with an eye for hollywood glitz. Beautiful people parading about in beautiful clothes -- what's not to love? In celebration, blogger Harper Ganesvoort's annual Oscar Fashion Photo Contest is kicking off with a pretty impressive prize pot.

With first place set at L$10,000, second place at L$7,500, third place at L$5,000, and four honorable mentions at L$1,500 apiece, competition is sure to be fierce, so keep reading for the details!

Second Life's 10th Birthday has an SL Photography Contest

Second Life is nearing its official 10 year anniversary (even I can't believe it's been that long), and the SL10B team is running a photography contest to help celebrate. Theme is “Looking Forward, Looking Back”, which tempts me to go through my screenshots of 2003. Go here to read all the rules and submission guidelines.