Starr Long has announced that the $10,000 Challenge of the Avatar: 48-Hour Scene Creation Jam competition will now start on 20th September at 6pm CDT. The news was originally announced in Kickstarter Update #36. The latest updates and FAQs can also be viewed on the Shroud of the Avatar website.

This is an opportunity for individuals or teams to take part in up to four 48-hour events where the objective is to create a scene for Shroud of the Avatar based on the challenge set out by the dev team that week. Each event will run over a weekend between Friday 6pm CST and Sunday 6pm CST. Winners will be announced the following Friday and there will be a 2 week interval between each event.

There are already over $10,000 worth of prizes which will be given away as part of the event and Portalarium have stated as more sponsors become involved this list will grow. Teams can also share rewards as they see fit. The prizes announced to date include:

Weekly Rewards

    • Shroud of the Avatar KNIGHT Level Pledge ($800 value! Can be divided into smaller pledge tiers for multi-person teams)
    • Game box will be signed by the entire dev team
    • Shroud of the Avatar T-Shirt

Grand Reward

Chris Spears has also released some very useful Unity Tutorials which should get you up and running. Additionally a special deal has been struck with Unity in support of the Scene Jam, read Chris Spear’s recent update on the SotA forums.

Unity Tutorial 1

[youtube UhQo6KuS2kc]

Unity Tutorial 2

[youtube 9s3WCcpl2VM]

Unity Tutorial 3

[youtube DVpulk0MqeM]

Unity Tutorial 4

[youtube HTTfVrgWfJg]

To support the creation of your scenes there are tonnes of assets available for Unity and you can choose how much you want to pay or not pay at all as there is a lot of good quality free content which can be found on the Unity Store and TurboSquid.

Keep up to date on the event over on the SotA forums by checking the following threads:

Finally I thought it would be helpful, based on the information Portalarium have released, to provide a schedule to keep track of what is going on, please enjoy this below but keep in mind it is subject to change (last updated 07/09/2013).

Challenge of the Avatar – Schedule

Event 1 – Lunar Rift

The first Unity Scene Jam was a great success! This scene challenge involved a design that included a “Lunar Rift” and the ruins around it. We asked for the Lunar Rift to be one up on a plateau or at least on top of a very steep hill (see challenge design description here).

  • Friday 20/09/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 1 announced – Documents and YouTube video released
  • Sunday 22/09/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 1 scene submission deadline
  • Friday 27/09/2013 – Challenge 1 winner revealed

Unity Scene Jam #1 Winners:

  • First Place: Richard Matey
  • Second Place: Team of Charles Howell and Mark A. Barros
  • Third Place: Melchior Meijer

The winning scene is showcased by the Dev team in the embedded video:

[youtube JjPDcbmDvzQ]

Event 2 – Catacombs

“A massive, interconnected underworld with a story and ecology all its own!”

You can get all the details here: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=30078

  • Friday 04/10/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 2 announced – Documents and YouTube video released
  • Sunday 06/10/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 2 scene submission deadline
  • Friday 11/10/2013 – Challenge 2 winner revealed

Unity Scene Jam #2 Winners:

  • First Place: Kevin Eslinger
  • Second Place: HasuKimchi
  • Third Place: Melchior Meijer

The winning scene is showcased by the Dev team in the embedded video:

[youtube XR3usio65FU]

Event 3 – It takes a village (LIVE)

For this scene challenge the Dev team want you to build a village.  This event is currently LIVE, read the full details and watch the video on the SotA website.

  • Friday 18/10/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 3 announced – Documents and YouTube video released
  • Sunday 20/10/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 3 scene submission deadline
  • Friday 25/10/2013 – Challenge 3 winner revealed

Event 4

  • Friday 01/11/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 4 announced – Documents and YouTube video released
  • Sunday 03/11/2013 6PM CDT – Challenge 4 scene submission deadline
  • Friday 08/11/2013 – Challenge 4 winner revealed
  • Friday 08/11/2013 – Overall winner announced???