Questions
Q: How - and why - is this different from our current Design Contest?
A: Concepts empowers not only our artists, but our entire community, to shape the direction of all Highrise art. An updated scoring system gives everyone a better chance to influence a Concept’s winning designs, and by sharing our staff’s designs before they’re released, we can dissolve the boundaries between “official” and community designs. Concepts lets everyone share in the experience of creating and watching as your favorite items travel from idea to your closet.
Q: Do we still get items, gold, and Inspired By Attribution?
A: Yes! For now, we’re retaining much of the structure of our current Design Contest prize distribution. Unless otherwise stated, all winning Concept artists will receive 5 copies of each item they make and 5k gold per item.
Sometimes, we’ll run special Concepts with cash payouts (as in the case of Sale items). Our team will let you know what information we’ll need to send your compensation.
Q: I want to support my friend's design by voting for them. How do I find a specific submission?
A. Every artist needs an audience who supports their creative endeavors! However, Concepts is not about seeking out specific entries. Rather, the feature was designed to help level the playing field and prevent any design from rising to the top based on the popularity of the designer.
Every submission is randomly paired, which means that every single entry stands a fair chance of acheiving a high rating using the Elo scoring system.
Q: You mention that Concepts can allow simultaneous Submission and Voting phases. How is that fair? Won't earlier submissions get more votes?
A. Technically, yes. BUT, total votes does not equal a higher score. That's the magic of Elo!
The Elo rating system is designed to predict the outcome of a matchup. If an entry is performing well, it will fall in the ranks quickly if a new contender consistently defeats it in a matchup. This allows for a newer submission to quickly gain a higher score than older submissions, if it's performing well.
While Concepts does allow the possibility of a simultaneous Submission and Voting phase, for our first Concept (Artist's Lounge), we'll be keeping the two phases separate.
General Guidelines
WHAT TO SUBMIT
Every Concept will have a brief description of the theme and item type you should create, but these are only starting points: your vision is at the heart of this feature, and of Highrise as a whole.
- Medium: Feel free to create your Concept using pen and paper, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, or any other medium you’re most comfortable with.
- Re-entries: If one of your Concepts or Contest designs doesn’t get selected, you may resubmit your Concept art to any number of relevant Concepts. However, please stay on theme!
- Originality: Your work should be your own. Any artwork lifted from Instagram, DeviantArt, or other art communities will be disqualified, as will designs depicting copyrighted characters or other IPs.
- Drawing Assistance: You may use references, drawing aids, and staff-made Highrise items as bases in your Concepts. We’re looking for good ideas, which is not necessarily the same thing as good art!
- Redesigns: You may submit a redesign of any existing staff-made Highrise item in your Concept, regardless of the Concept’s theme.
- Player Items: Anyone may freely use Highrise items designed by staff as references and in redesigned items. However, you may not trace items designed by other players. Please report any designs you believe to be using player material, and our team will review the submission.
- All submissions will be regarded as User-Generated Content as defined in the Pocket Worlds Terms of Service. By submitting a design, you acknowledge Highrise will own the rights to the finished items, and that your compensation will take the form of free items and/or gold.
CREATE MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS
Got lots of ideas? Great! Share multiple concepts in multiple submissions. This is to help ensure that when someone views your concept, they are able to clearly identify the item they’re voting for. We’ve increased the maximum number of total submissions you can create to account for the new Elo scoring system. Help us keep Concepts fair!
COLLABORATIONS
It’s dangerous to go alone! Take a partner - if you like. Collaborations are allowed in Concepts, but for now, collaborations are limited to dynamic duos only. If you have a partner, please have only one person submit your shared Concept, and add your partner’s name on the entry.
- Our messenger only supports 1-1 conversations, so please keep in mind that whoever submits your Concept will be responsible for all communication with our team.
- Additionally, we do not increase total compensation (items, gold) for collaborations. When dividing your prize items, we’ll split your total as evenly as we can, and send any spillover items to the artist who submitted the Concept. For example, if everyone gets 5x copies of their item, the submitter will receive 3, and their partner will receive 2. Feel free to redistribute the items and gold afterward!
BE REAL
Attempts to artificially boost your score by offering gold or other incentives in exchange for gold is not allowed. Additionally, any other malicious behaviors outlined in our Community Guidelines (ie, witch-hunting, newsfeed campaigns against another artist, etc) may also result in your disqualification from a Concept, and possibly lead to a mute, suspension, or a ban.
Tips
- Looking for more info on how to create Highrise items? Check out our Avatar Item Layering Guide in the FAQ for more info!
- Teamwork makes the dream work! When communicating with Highrise Staff through the Concepts messenger, please be respectful and remember that we’re all in this together, and all want to see Highrise continue to evolve into its best self.
- Worried about whether your Concept suits a theme? Don’t be! No one will ever get disqualified for trying something new, or slightly misinterpreting a Concept’s prompt. In any case, the people will decide whether your design matches a theme or not, and bubble up the best, most creative entries.