• Darkspore Hero Challenge • Congratulations JRSilverfox, iiiHuman and 34j6_3!!

Hope ya'll don't mind me including this thread here ^^ Here's the Sporum thread
Hello Spore communities! In this challenge, you'll have the opportunity to design, create and plan your own heroes and creatures in the theme of Darkspore. The aim of this challenge is to let your creativity really run free, and see what great and unique characters you can come up with. There will be three categories with one winner, one runner up, and special mentions each.

What will the prizes be? Well, a pass to Darkspore BETA, of course! Where you'll be able to fight and compete with your friends, or storm through the available levels and create the strongest hero. You'll also be given special access to some parts of the Darkspore Forum, too!

Challenge Rules:
• Outfitters allowed
• Asymmetry is acceptable, but don't forget animation
• You may submit as many entries as you like
• All submissions must be posted by 8:00pm GMT / 12:00pm PST, Tuesday 15th March, 2011
• Be as creative as you can!

Entry Requirements:
• Entries must be tagged with: DarksporeHeroChallenge - You may also add them in a Sporecast, or post it here or PM'd to me... any way that I'll get it.
• Entries must follow each unique-rule of the theme it is in.
• Entries should include the following; A creation (optional), a sketch or concept-art (optional), a description (optional), a Back-story, 2-4 abilities, 1 passive ability, 0-2 Pets (optional), a unique weapon built in any editor (optional).

Feature Criteria:
• Creation must not have any parent authored by a different creator (other than MaxisCactus, Rebecca1208 or HeroChallenge)
• 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



Theme 1: Custom
In this theme, you are able to completely design your hero to however you want! But be creative, you'll need to think a lot about it, and try to make it fit in the theme of Darkspore. Adding an image of the creature either made in spore or by any other means as well as maybe an animation/video or even theme song(?!) will all add extra points.

Example by Arastoph:

Living-Weapon Name: MaxCax

Bio: Unlike most cactus type biological beings found around the universe MaxCax is typically not found in your everyday run of the mill oversized sand dune. MaxCax is a powerful yet stealthy predator capable of seeming to be nothing more than an everyday household object... or plant.. and while your back is turned MaxCax will turn you into a pincushion!

Originally from a very strange planet called earth, the leaders of this planet thrived on technology and during on of their missions into space one of them decided to take their beloved cactus on board with them.. (humans are that strange sometimes im sure..)

Once in space the crew and everything else on board was subjected to deadly cosmic rays which passed through the ship in the form of a massive cloud. As the cloud passed over the cactus it mutated and was sucked out into space when the window it was placed next too shattered under heavy hull pressure.
The crew went home seemingly uneffected by the cloud and mourned the lost cactus for 4 days. After that they developed super powers but thats a different story..

The cactus in the mean time after 50 years of mutating and floating in space landed on a planet names Maxitron. Here it developed its new found powers of organic manipulation which included the capability of making the wildlife and plants fight alongside it. Later it found it could fire its spines outwards towards unsuspecting victims and that its roots could burrow deep into the ground and resurface over 20m away enveloped in a poisionous dust cloud. When the darkspore arrived MaxCax used its new found powers to drive them back off of its new found home and will stop and nothing to make sure they never appear again.

Abilities

Blend - MaxCax shrinks down in size to resemble a common house cactus complete with pot. Enemies do not suspect cacti... If the enemy is looking away from MaxCax the next attack will critical.

Pincushion - MaxCax fires its spines in all directions tainted with a sleep toxin that disables enemies for a duration of time dependent on the distance from it.

Tap Root (Passive) - Anytime MaxCax stands still it will root itself into the ground and draw life from the planets soil (if possible) the only disadvantage is there is a 2 second delay until it is able to move or attack again after a key has been input by the player.

Venom Vines - MaxCax pushes its roots into the ground which then shoot up in random locations around it and spray toxic gas around the surrounding area. If directly hit by a root the enemy will receive major damage and be stunned for longer.

Theme 2: Mash-Up
In this theme, you'll be able to work with the appearance of an existing creation from Darkspore - This may be a Hero or NPC. You can change their appearance (not too much!) but the aim of this theme is to focus on it's background and abilities. See how you can work with a pre-existing body while giving it your own personal touch. Here are your available choices:


Theme 3: Design
With this theme you'll be working on specialized templates, where you get to completely design how this creature looks. You may add anything you want and colour it however you want, along with giving it it's needed background and abilities. This theme works like MaxisCactus' template challenges, only with an added twist. Here are your available choices:


You can find all of the templates here!

Good Luck!
~Darkspore Devs & Moderators

Frequently Asked Questions

What will the winners get?
An exclusive BETA-Code for Darkspore BETA.

Will our entries get featured on Spore.com?
I'm afraid I can not promise any features, unless Maxis allows me to.

Will the winners creations be in Darkspore?
I really doubt it - Sorry!

What expansion packs can we use?
All of them!

Can we use cheats?
Only AddDNA - Freedom creations shall not be entered.

Can we outfit our designs?
Of course - All outfits, including Captains, are allowed.

Can we remove a weapon and replace it with an outfitted weapon?
As long as the prime-weapon still exists, then yes - If you remove a weapon altogether, that may damage your entry's chances of winning.

You mentioned creations were optional - Does this mean we don't have to create?
Exactly that - This challenge is in fact open to more than just Spore creators - You can submit with drawings and designs, as well as creations, which means your friends without Spore are free to enter and win, too!

If we don't have to create, what is the point in the templates?
The templates exist for those who wish to create. For those who wish to draw/sketch their entries, it acts as a general idea and a reference. Keep the character designs to the form of the given templates and examples - They must be recognizable!

Can we make videos of our entries?
By all means - It might even help us judge.

Why is the deadline so close?
Because we want you to have a chance to test and play before it's too late!

Are we allowed to enter if we already have a key?
If you really want to, then sure.

Can we enter creations used for other Maxis challenges?
Nope, certainly not. Sorry, you'll have to come up with something new.

Can we make hybrids of two or more existing heroes?
Yep - However, if you use one of my templates, it'll be classed as a Mash-Up, if you make it from scratch, it shall be a Custom.


~More shall be added as more are asked.

This is boss. I must enter.

Excellent, have stickied this here and on The Sporum.

Nice to hear it, and thank you Vektrix!

Vektrix wrote:Excellent, have stickied this here and on The Sporum.

Now its supremely legit.

I'll make something for this tomorrow.

Sorry for the short notice :C

*important update!* - It seems time is running out quicker than we expected. We'll be cutting the deadline to tomorrow night (10/3/11) and judge as quickly and fairly as we can. We're really sorry for the huge cut, but it's so that you have as much time to play as you possibly can for the last Beta session this weekend! Good luck, we've seen a lot of amazing entries!

Theme 1 : Custom

WINNER:
JRsilverfox with her Paradox the Time Commander! You win 2 BETA Keys.

RUNNER-UP:
lukeking with his Virux the Plague Bringer! You win 1 BETA key.


Theme 2 : Mash-Up

WINNER:
iiiHuman with their Titan-IC! You win 2 BETA Keys.

RUNNER-UP:
Sadly none ):


Theme 3 : Design

WINNER:
34j6_3 with his Shugghat! You win 2 BETA Keys.

RUNNER-UP:
Sadly none ):


Special Mentions:

Favourite Artist:
Since this one person managed to fill in not one but a few art-related categories, she was able to win some votes from the majority of those who judged. Congratulations for your fantastic concept art and creativity, JRsilverfox! You get 1 BETA Key - I would give you another, but you already have two o.o

Personal-Favourite Creations:
Here's two creations that I particularly liked, based on both aesthetics's and how they matched their bio. Congratulations to UltimateZob with your Arthorris, and CynderFlamer with your Xinto the Soul Leech! You each win a bonus BETA Key, too.

Honorable Mention:
For sheer dedication with their entries, and making five decent ones at that, Grikonako will be rewarded with a bonus BETA Key, too, for recognition of his efforts.

Spaceship Challenge:
Since three people entered, and we have plenty of keys, here's another bonus for Darwin2011, dragockon and grindstone for attempting the bonus challenge.



Congratulations everyone! Expect a PM sent to you soon with your BETA Keys. Check your inbox on both the Darkspore forum and the Sporum, just in case I've sent it to a different account. If you want your key to be sent to you via Spore comments, let me know (a link would be helpful) and I'll get back to you soon.

There's also other judges who may come to give their own special mentions, so don't worry if you didn't win Thanks for joining, and enjoy playing Darkspore!

Congratulations to the winners, I guess.

Congrats to everyone!
I still have those three codes D: