FYI...here are the nominees for the Make Something Unreal contest
Make Something Unreal Contest Update
We've been reviewing the first phase entries for the $1000000 NVidia Make Something Unreal contest and selecting the finalists in each category for judging by the full panel of judges. One important addition we've made to the competition after looking at the entries is the creation of an additional category, for new game types, with the purpose of rewarding fun new game types that don't have the scope of some of the total conversions being developed, and therefore aren't compeittive in the mods category. The prizes for the game types category will be similar to the tools category. We'll be making an official press release containing this news and other important news about the contest, but I wanted to give the community a heads up here.
For entrants, here's some general overall feedback:
There were quite a few promising entries, particularly in the mod category, that were too early for judging. We're happy to look at them, and get an idea of where you are going, and look forward to seeing more complete and polished versions in phase 2.
We were pretty lenient in this round about confusing installation procedures. Make sure that your entries are easy to install and use in the next phase! Any entry that is provided as a zip file should include paths information for the files in the zip, so that a user can just unzip into their c:\UT2003 directory and have all the files automatically put in the proper subdirectory. Also, please provide instructions with your entry about how to play your mod, whether it is in game or through an external executable/batch file. Also, if your mod has a web page, please include it in your installion instructions.
We frown on mods that make changes to Epic content.
Using mutators as a way of setting gametype options is confusing, and fills up the mutator menu with game type specific mutators. Please use the game options menu for setting options specific to your game type.
If you didn't enter the contest in the first phase, you can still enter in future phases. The three phases of the $1000000 NVidia Make Something Unreal Mod Contest are independent. You can enter any category in the second or third phase, whether or not you had submitted an entry in any previous phase. The only limitation is that there must be significant improvements to an entry for it to be considered if it had previously been submitted in an earlier phase of the contest.
And now, without further ado, here are the Mod category finalists for Phase 1 (in no particular order):
Riftwar
Sweet Dreams
Marble Mania 2003
UnrealSpeed
Fatal Arts
DeathBall
Domain
Faceoff
Conquest Marines
GODZ
Jupiter Effect: Influx
UT2003 Troopers
Jungle Warfare
UETF Chronicles
Global Warzone
13 of the 15 selected mods have been mirrored here btw B)
More info
here