Make Something Unreal Contest changes

We've received a lot of feedback on The $150,000 Make Something Unreal contest and we're working with GT and Mplayer to change some of the rules and categories to be more community-friendly. One of the changes revolves around the fact that people felt hosting the top mods exclusively on Mplayer might limit the number of entrants and reduce the ability of the contest to spread the word about all the great Unreal content being made out there. We're also trying to incorporate a more general category that can accommodate the mods we don't have categories for including all the interesting code-based and single-player mods - we'll probably have to combine one of the Unreal Tournament map categories to make room.

There seems to be some confusion over commercialization of contest entries. Epic and GT wanted to maintain the right put some or all of the contest entries in a CD collection for a wider audience to enjoy. However IF we ever decide to actually do such a thing (which is not at all certain) then we would negotiate a DEVELOPER ROYALTY with each and every entrant we want to include on the CD. As a developer ourselves the idea was to look out for fellow developers and ensure that they received their FAIR royalties (in addition to their contest winnings, if any) for anything that finds its way into a retail product. Too many times cool community-created stuff ends up on a retail shelf without the developer earning any royalties and that is NOT acceptable to Epic. We figured that if we, Epic, controlled this then we would be able to ensure it was done right. We're considering just removing this condition so people feel more at ease but with $150,000 in cash and prizes AND fair royalties being paid for any contest entry used, it's hard to argue that we shouldn't be able to do this at some point in the future if we want to. According to the End User License Agreement people can NOT release their Unreal-related works for commercial gain (they can give it away on the internet for free but not sell it or use it for commercial purposes in anyway) without a specific written license from us anyway so we don't really see this as being restrictive. In fact, we see this as a potential opportunity. If anyone feels they can not enter the contest because of this particular clause I'd like to hear why. Unreal Tournament will carry a similar End User License Agreement.

This contest was originally intended to be a contest solely for amateurs. For some reason that language disappeared from the rules somewhere along the way. I'm not sure why but I'm hoping to get it back in. The idea was that if you work for a game company that has previously published or had published on their behalf, or intends in the future to publish or have published on their behalf, a computer or video game you're not supposed to be eligable. We were also going to rule out all present employees of our Unreal Engine licensees. We're trying to keep the contest fair. This is not intended to reward the people who are already being rewarded for their talents. This contest is intended to reward the folks out there who are making "something Unreal", for Unreal now and for Unreal Tournament after it gets released, the sheer fun and enjoyment, without any other form of financial reward or incentive, and giving away for free on the internet. In fact the idea of the Early-Bird category was to have a category specifically to reward and highlight all the great stuff users have blessed the Unreal Community with in the past. Note: early bird entrants are ALSO eligable for the other categories as well, including the $25,000 grand prize.

One last thing: We haggled and haggled with all the lawyers from the various companies involved and we just could NOT come up with a way to extend this contest beyond the borders of the United States of America. As a Canadian myself you can probably imagine how hard I fought to make this an international contest. Unfortunately I had no luck. Some countries (I won't name them) insisted that with a contest this size we post a bond at least as large as the total amount of cash and prizes we intended to give out. Of course having squeezed $100,000 in total cash out of GT, Mplayer, 3DFX and ourselves there was just no way we could comply with this. So here's what you should do if you're outside the USA: make an American friend 18 years of age or older! Get him/her to be you or your team's spokesperson and the person who submits your entry. Make sure it's someone you can trust who is actually going to hand over your cash if you win. Likewise if you live in Puerto Rico, Vermont, Maryland, North Dakota, Minnesota you need to find a buddy in another state. I have no idea why these states had to be exempted but, as we're finding out, contests where skill and talent are involved can be very tricky things to organize from a legal perspective.

>It will probably take us a week or two to haggle with the lawyers over the updated legal language and get the site changed over. This is going to be an AWESOME contest. It's hard to keep everyone happy but we're trying our best. I'd like to thanks those individuals whose feedback helped us to make this a better contest - you know who you are.


Mark Rein,
Epic Games Inc.

Visit us at http://www.epicgames.com