Category 1 - Level Design

Your goal is to create a single-player / coop mission. It can be part of a story or just an independent mission. We don’t expect you to script/program the mission, a simple mockup is enough (let’s assume that someone will script your mission in the future)

• You are completely free in regarding the type of mission that you choose to create. We expect that some of you will create missions that require pure engineering skills, some will focus on fighting, some on resource management and some will mix different approaches.
• If you wish you can create more than one mission.
• We are assuming you will work on this in creative mode in Space Engineers.
• Use only features and mechanics which are currently available in Space Engineers; don’t assume something will get added later. This is actually a very important requirement for a level designer. We know that the game is not finished yet and it may seem like this is not the right time for designing missions; but this is actually where this contest becomes a challenge! True artists shine best when subjected to limitations.
• You are not allowed to use any mods.
• The winner will be the entry that will receive the most votes.
• The first prize is the NVIDIA TITAN BLACK GPU. The second, third and fourth will get a NVIDIA GTX 770 GPU each.

Hints:
1. play-through video: this is one of the most important parts for evaluation. It demonstrates best all the options and possibilities of the mission you designed. You can ask your friends for help, so that they can join you in multiplayer and trigger for you actions (from control panel), or act as a simple enemy or friendly AI (as a character or a ship).

How to submit your entry:

1. After creating your entry (world), upload it to Steam Workshop together with a YouTube play-through video. Please also include a mission story (script) that explains the mission goals and steps players need to do to accomplish mission objectives.
2. Then send the Workshop link with your world to our email at press@keenswh.com with the title “Level Design Contest”

Submissions for this contest will start on Oct 15 and will end on Nov 30, 2014.
After the end of the submission period, we will post all the entries on the corresponding forum thread (will be announced later) where other players can try the levels and vote for the best ones through a poll.
The winners will be announced on Dec 15, 2014 through our website, forum and Facebook page.
Please use this thread to discuss anything about this contest.

<strong>The contest's winners can be found here: </strong>https://forums.keenswh.com/post?id=7312052

 

Would i need a capture card for a youtube play through? or is there an alternate method of recording?

 

fraps or bandicam

 

Related to rule number four: Are we required to make this level in vanilla Space Engineers, or are mods allowed?

 

Nvidia cards of the 600 series or later also support Shadowplay for on-demand video capture
https://www.geforce.com/geforce-experience/system-requirements

I use it a lot as it's very stable and consumes very little system resources due to the work being offloaded on the video card. If you have a 600 series (or later), you can activate Shadowplay in Nvidia GeForce experience that comes with the drivers.

It's completely free.

 

Since this is about creating levels which are to be played single player or Co-co then I would say its Vanilla only since you don't play single player online !!!!!!! and Mods dont work offline unless you unpack and add them into the basegame manually.

Also Vanilla will make everyone work on the same playing field and make sure that all the levels will work on anyones game.

 

Are we allowed to use mods? When you say we have to write a mission story, we're not actually scripting it correct?

 

In addition to Feast's question about mods, I was wondering if you're allowed to compete as a duo? I.e. build a level together?

 

That part may need fixing seeing how past contests on reddit have not gone so well.

 

I have a set of ships another player created donated for the mission I was going to write anyway.
Is it ok for me to use 1 of those ships ?

If not I'll simply make another ships with the same style.
I'm not doing this to make the contest easier either, as I'm writing the scripting myself, and making the ships in survival (I have a silly amount of stockpiled materials).

 

Would also be interested in confirmation on whether mods are allowed and also whether this is supposed to be a solo creation or if help is allowed.

cheers

 

I would also ask if they are allowed mods and own models? THX

 

Oh and another quick question...

Are we allowed to set "rules" for our scenario.. for example not allowing players to use the jetpack? or more importantly perhaps not being allowed to use a grinder as that could basically make maps a bit pointless, can just cut a path where you want?

 

Since it is a contest for level-designing, I assume that use of mods is prohibited, if they plan to add winners into future game scenarios or something like that.

 

I'll work on the map without mods.

 

If you plan Keen's Mission 1 example, it disables the ability to build Large Thrusters, so I presume you can also disable certain hand tools.

 

Um.... 5th bulletpoint says "You are NOT allowed to use any Mods..."

 

Are we allowed to edit the playthrough video? For example to connect two different maps with each other or displaying text about the objectives?

I'm not talking about VFX or enhancements, just plain editing for adding some info.

 

What does level actually mean in this context? When I think of SE levels I think hand crafted, puzzles, challenges and scripted events.

But it sounds more like designing an open ended, more 'sandbox' type of mission eg. 'craft a ship without mining and destroy the pirate base'

 

Think of it as an event of your skill and imagination in the game. Without use MODs.

 

I have an idea for this. Just hope the game can handle the amount of asteroids Im about to spawn.

 

"You are not allowed to use any mods"
Can I not define my own mod for this event and use it locally on the map? If I were to do anything, the player would start out naked---err, without weapons and tools

 

I have to say that reddit votes is a really really bad bad idea

 

For this contest category it has already been changed to e-mailing the moderator. I guess because of the deleted thread. But it should also be changed for the other categories because as you can see in the category 2 reddit thread, one submission is already sitting at -4 votes.

 

Jep, +1.

The stories aren't that long. Even if it were about 500 Stories it would "just" be 2500 pages and You don't need more than a week to get at least half of them done^^

 

I'm sure that i can make a good level, story, mission objectives, but i do not have enought knowledge to make good presentation video... with all effects, sounds, music, text, coements, shaking, atc... and video will be on low fps and low graphic details, when i creat detailed map... so players with beter presentation of level can easy win votes, or how will it work ? +If we can not us mod to block items, tools, atc... can we just write it in story ( dont us this and that ? )

Becose i want join contest to win NVIDIA TITAN BLACK GPU, but i dont have it yet to creat video in 2560x1600 resolution and 120 fps .

 

Are we allowed to submit multiple levels that are unrelated?

 

Can I recreate the mission from other game (just a scene) or must I to come up with something different?

 

Can other people do the level playthroughs instead of the creator?
It would be the best way to show off a mission, rather than the creator who can intentionally avoid problem areas that don't work as intended or act in unlikely ways.

That, and I don't want to record anything.

 

Well, all George asked for was a Mockup at minimum. Which is what Im doing/done, mine needs refinement.