Shacknews Document
EPIC GAMES AND NVIDIA ANNOUNCE FIRST-ROUND WINNERS OF THE "$1,000,000 NVIDIA
MAKE SOMETHING UNREAL®" MOD-MAKING CONTEST
Mod Designers Win More than $50,000 in Cash and Prizes;
Winning Entries Showcased at CPL Winter 2003 Championship in Dallas, TX
Dallas, TX - December 19, 2003 - Epic Games and Digital Extremes, co-creators of the award-
winning Unreal® game franchise, along with NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), Atari, Inc.
(Nasdaq: ATAR), AMD, and Alias® today announced the first-round winners of the "$1,000,000
NVIDIA Make Something Unreal" mod-making contest (www.makesomethingunreal.com).
More than 400 aspiring 3D artists and game developers from around the world entered game and
entertainment mods (a new game or add-on created with tools from the original title) into the
contest. Mods were entered in various categories, such as "Best Mod," "Best Level with Original
Content," "Best Level," "Best Mutator," "Best Model," "Best Tool," "Best Voice Pack or Audio
Modification," and "Best Game Type." The winners of the first-of-four contest rounds take home
a share of $50,000 in cash and high-end PC equipment. The contest is one year long and set to
conclude in the fall of 2004.
"The first-round finalists and winners developed some phenomenal mods," said Mark Rein, Vice
President of Epic Games. "We have been so impressed with the entries received that we've
decided to extend the contest by adding a fourth phase and additional prize money."
Winners were selected by an expert panel of judges comprised of programmers, artists and
designers from the sponsoring companies. First-round winning mods demonstrated great
originality and technical expertise in all the categories. The first-round winners in the
"Best Mod" category made significant changes to the Unreal Tournament 2003 gameplay by creating
new game experiences. The winning mods include Deathball (the first place winner), which is a
futuristic soccer/lacrosse/football-like sport, and fourth-place winner Jupiter Effect: Influx, which
was created as an art school project and is an anime inspired battle between giant robots. In the
"Best Game Type" category, winners created a new type of gameplay with the mod Riftwar,
which incorporates three teams within the structure of the existing Unreal Tournament 2003
game. Created by a young man currently serving in the German military, the "Best Original
Level" is Aristocracy, a mod with deathmatch gameplay set in an old European fantasy village map.
The winning mods can be viewed and downloaded today at
http://www.unrealtournament.com/ut2003/contest_winners.php. Additionally, NVIDIA will have
each of the winning mods on display at their booth during the Cyberathlete Professional League®
(CPL) Winter Championship event taking place this week in Dallas, Texas.
Events Supporting the Contest
In order to make the contest accessible to the widest audience, Epic Games contracted with Jason
Busby at www.3dbuzz.com to create the website www.masteringunreal.com, which contains more
than 100 hours of free downloadable Video Training Modules (VTMs) geared toward educating
users on how to program and build content using the Unreal Tournament Game Engine. This fall
Busby conducted the "$1,000,000 NVIDIA Make Something Unreal Buzz Tour," an educational
tour conducted at iGames game centers nationwide, where Busby lectured on mod making. In
addition, in November, 2003, Epic Games sponsored Unreal University, a weekend-long event at
North Carolina State University, where modders from around the world came to learn about how
to create mods to enter into the contest, win cash, or possibly jumpstart a career in gaming.
Most recently Busby joined Alias at their annual 3December® event in London, England where he
brought down the house with demos of how to use Maya Personal Learning Edition to build a
mod for the contest. More than 1,000 artists and computer graphics professionals and games
enthusiasts attended the event.
Upcoming Rounds of Contest
Second-round winners will be announced in early Spring 2004. The third phase will conclude on
April 30, 2004, with selected entrants from that phase being shown at E3 (Electronic
Entertainment Expo) in May, 2004. The newly-added fourth phase comprises only two mod
categories - best FPS mod and best non-FPS mod with $50,000 in prize money split among those
categories. Phase four will conclude on August 20, 2004. Selected entrants from phase four will
be shown at ECTS where the five grand finalists shall be announced. Following ECTS the five
grand finalists will be given until October 1, 2004 to make additional changes and improvements
to their entries for grand prizes consideration with the grand prize being announced shortly
thereafter. By the end of the contest next fall, winners will have received cash prizes totaling
US$550,000, and more than $300,000 worth of high-end PCs equipped with NVIDIA GeForce
FX graphics and nForce2 platform processing units and Maya® software. The overall grand prize
winner will receive a commercial Unreal Tournament engine license (valued at $350,000) in
addition to the money prizes and a loaded PC. In order to participate in the "$1,000,000 NVIDIA
Make Something Unreal" mod-making contest, contestants will need to ensure that their mods
are freely available for download and work with Unreal Tournament 2003 (available now at retail
stores), or Unreal Tournament 2004 (coming in early 2004). For more information about the
contest go to www.makesomethingunreal.com.
About Epic Games
Epic Games Inc, based in Raleigh, NC and established in 1991, is a developer of cutting-edge
computer and video games. The company is best known as the creator of hit PC 3D action games
Unreal and Unreal Tournament, both award-winning blockbuster hits having each sold more than
1 million units each. Epic is also well known as creator of the Unreal Engine which it has
licensed to several major game developers. To date over 10,000,000 games have been sold that
utilized Epic's Unreal Engine technology and the number is growing steadily each year. Prior to
their 3D success, Epic Games was well known for the hit shareware games Jill of the Jungle, Jazz
Jackrabbit and Epic Pinball. Additional information can be obtained through Epic's Web site at
www.epicgames.com.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA Corporation is a market leader in visual computing technology dedicated to creating
products that enhance the interactive experience on consumer and professional computing
platforms. Its graphics and communications processors have broad market reach and are
incorporated into a wide variety of computing platforms, including consumer digital-media PCs,
enterprise PCs, professional workstations, digital content creation systems, notebook PCs,
military navigation systems and video game consoles. NVIDIA is headquartered in Santa Clara,
California and employs more than 1,700 people worldwide. For more information, visit the
Company's Web site at www.nvidia.com <http://www.nvidia.com>.
About Atari
New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is
one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The
Company's 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining games such as DriverT, Enter the
MatrixT, Neverwinter NightsT, StuntmanT, Test Drive®, Unreal® Tournament 2003, and
Unreal® Championship; and mass-market and children's games such as Backyard SportsT,
Nickelodeon's Blue's CluesT and Dora the ExplorerT, Civilization®, Dragon Ball Z® and
RollerCoaster Tycoon®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames
Entertainment SA (Euronext 5257), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more
information, visit www.atari.com.
About Alias
As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops award-
winning software, custom development and training solutions for the film and video, games, web,
interactive media, industrial design, education and visualization markets. In 2003, the company
was awarded an Oscar® for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences for its development of Maya software, the professional 3D animation and effects
package. Alias also offers a powerful range of services for new to advanced users in the most
demanding environments. Learning Tools and training, support, and professional services help
meet rigorous production deadlines. Entertainment customers include: Acclaim Entertainment,
Inc., CNN, Core Design Limited, Digital Domain, Disney, Electronic Arts, Industrial Light &
Magic, Factor 5 LLC, Midway Games, Nintendo, Pacific Data Images (PDI), Pixar, Sega, Sony
Pictures Imageworks, Square Co., Ltd., Warner Feature Animation and Weta Ltd.
# # #
Copyright © 2003 NVIDIA Corporation. Unreal is a registered trademark of Epic Games Inc. Alias
is a registered trademark of Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited in the United
States and/or other countries worldwide. Maya and 3December are registered trademarks of Silicon
Graphics, Inc., exclusively used by Alias Systems, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited. Oscar
is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All rights reserved.
All company and/or product names may be trade names, trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the
respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications
are subject to change without notice.
