In the all-new $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, aspiring game developers create modifications (“mods”) for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3 in a range of categories including levels, characters, weapons, game types, tools, vehicles and more. Winnings exceed well over $1 million in value, consisting of one coveted Unreal Engine 3 license as a grand prize in addition to other cash awards and prizes, including Intel Software Development Products and Velocity Micro PCs based on the Intel Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform with two Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processors. The 2008 “$1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest” will be judged in four preliminary phases and a grand final. Judging began in June 2008 and will conclude, with the grand final prizes being awarded, in late 2009.

In each category, cash prizes of $2,500, $2,000, $1,500, $1,000 and $500 will be awarded for first through fifth place winners, respectively. First place winners in the categories for Best Deathmatch Level, Best Capture the Flag Level, Best Vehicle Capture the Flag Level, Best New Game Type, and Best Character/Customization Pack will also receive a high-performance Skulltrail PC featuring dual Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core processors courtesy of Velocity Micro.

“These $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest winners demonstrate the imagination and innovation developers and enthusiasts have achieved on the PC gaming platform,” said Jeff Abbate, marketing director, Intel Software and Solutions Group. “Combining Intel developer products, our Intel Core processor family, and high-performance platforms with the Unreal Engine modding tools provides a wonderful opportunity for aspiring developers, machinima artists, and modders to unleash their creativity.”

Added Randy Copeland, president and chief executive officer of Velocity Micro, “Selecting winners was tough because there were so many cool submissions to play, but the winners deserve the accolades for their really unique mods. Velocity Micro is honored to support the winners by awarding them our fastest Raptor PCs to help power their future game development. I can't wait to see what's next.”

“On behalf of everyone at Epic Games, I would like to congratulate our Phase 1 winners. We have been blown away by the quality and variety of the mods submitted in the first round,” said Mark Rein, vice president, Epic Games. “I'm really looking forward to future phases to see what these amazingly talented mod-makers can do when they have even more experience with the Unreal Engine 3 toolset that comes with UT3. I'd also like to wish special thanks to our sponsors Intel and Velocity Micro for their participation in the judging and prizes and to the 3DBuzz folks for putting together videos that have trained so many up and coming developers how to work with our technology.”

The Best Deathmatch Level category winners are as follows:

Salvation, a gorgeous multi-level map by Daniel “KaMi” Díaz, first place;
Calibrah, a map with beautiful visuals and notable weather effects by Matthias “sklare” Cytatzky, second place;
August, a stunning one-on-one level by Nick “neoduck” Donaldson, third place;
Acquisition, a thoroughly fun duel map for up to six players by Ben "Slainchild" Edney, fourth place; and
Xiao, an ancient temple map with great gameplay by Sander “ZixXer” Vereecken, fifth place.

The Best Capture the Flag Level category winners are as follows:

Touch, an extremely fun, medium-sized level with a highly coveted sniper nest by Cory “Spoondog” Spooner, first place;
React, an accessible, compact map with great versatility by Raffi “pinnacle” Bedikian; second place;
Safeguard, a map with a high-tech feel named for its signature alarm by Bryan “bazzwano” Sparksman, third place;
Ephemeral, a minimalistic yet elegant map set in an otherworldly temple by Stephane “aeternus” Perriard, fourth place; and
Sloth, an urban-themed level supporting a range of combat styles by Opeyemi “Jayoplus” Ajayi, fifth place.

The Best Vehicle Capture the Flag Level winners are as follows:

Megastructure_SE, a popular map set in a colossal underground structure by Thomas “Setheran” Browett, first place;
TheDig, a map that uses a U-shaped battlefield to encourage varied combat strategies by Chris “Plutonic” Blundell, second place;
OfftheRails, a greatly detailed level set in and around a train station by Neil “plugh” Hodges, third place;
Luracia, a striking map set in a frigid, industrial world by Christopher “Twigsby” Smith, fourth place; and
CanalWarfare, a map with loads of aesthetic and gameplay variety by Neil “plugh” Hodges, fifth place.

The Best Warfare Level category winners are as follows:

Valley, a wintery map designed for nonstop action by Scott “Cr4zyB4st4rd” Coxhead, first place;
MoltenCore, a level in which the battle for the core wages across fields of molten lava by Aaron “SmokeRingHalo” Woodland, second place;
Beachfront, a map featuring grand battles in tropical training grounds by Nathaniel “_N_” Rossol, third place;
InfectionForest, a level with dense forest vegetation and two primary nodes for each team by Bryan “Sanch3z” Cole, fourth place; and
Synapse, a map containing a countdown node that that fires a giant beam at the core by Josh “CaptainSnarf” Turpen, fifth place.

The Best Character/Customization Pack category winners are as follows:

Rodents Faction, a mod featuring beefy, mutated beasts by David Hagemann, first and second place (for characters “Bunny” and “Zombie Mouse,” respectively);
Project Stealth Custom Character, a mod featuring the new “Spy” character from the Project Stealth total conversion by Mason “goodkebab” Doran, third place;
Hel Character, a mod with custom physics, materials and first-person arms by Arn “ShadowBlade” Richert and Nolan “Dark Carnivour” Richert of Runestorm, fourth place; and
Nyota, a mod including the female character belonging to the IronGuard faction by “Apoptoid,” fifth place.

The Best New Game Type winners are as follows:

The Ball: Pehua, a single-player first-person puzzle mod with an Aztec theme by The Ball Team, first place;
Galtanor’s Invasion, a cooperative game type that pits human players against hordes of invading monsters by Michael “Galtanor” Wells, second place;
UT3DOM, a mod with Domination, Double Domination, Vehicle Domination, and Vehicular Double Domination game types by Mitchell, third place;
UT2D, a game type that turns UT3 into a side-scrolling shooter by Team Joe Bates, fourth place; and
Battle Team/Freezetag Arena, a mod that contains four competitive game types by Nico “BattleMode” de Vries, fifth place.

The Best Mutator category winners are as follows:

Sentinel, a deployable, automatic cannon with multiple weapons and upgrades by Miles Asva, first place;
BattleRPG, a completely operational RPG mod that supports all UT3 game types by Nico “BattleMode” de Vries, second place;
Excessive Overkill, a mod that turns every game into an over-the-top frag fest by Dan “MadNad” Woodall, third place;
Psionic Storm, a mutator that allows players to levitate, become invisible, phase shift and more by Andrew Glover, fourth place;
Apoc MatrixMoves, a mutator that enables bullet time, slow motion, bullet trails and other cool effects by Rob "[Apoc]Death" Gutermuth, fifth place.

The Best Weapon category winners are as follows:

Thor Lightning Gun, the extremely popular weapon that that takes out enemies with an arc of electrical energy by Arn “ShadowBlade” Richert and Nolan “Dark Carnivour” Richert of Runestorm, first place;
Pitbull Shotgun, a classic, close range weapon, easily capable of dispatching enemies in close quarters by Arn “ShadowBlade” Richert and Nolan “Dark Carnivour” Richert of Runestorm, second place;
Mobile Portal Emitter, a weapon that allows players to place linked portals anywhere in the world by Keith Miron, third place;
Coda Sword, a weapon in the Coda mod that delivers Instagib but with swords by Denrei, fourth place;
RealWeapons, a mutator that replaces UT3 firearms with real world weapons by John “bez” Beswick, fifth place.

The Best Tool category winners are as follows:

UWindow2, a powerful and flexible graphical user interface by James Tan, first place;
UnrealScript Studio, an sophisticated UnrealScript editor by Sam Harwell, second place;
Unreal Visualization Toolkit, a utility that creates heat maps and visualizations for levels based on aggregated player behavior data by Alastair Hebson, third place;
skUT3, an advanced in-game server browser by Nicolas “SkorpSSS” Imbert, fourth place;
UT3 Tweaker, a script that allows players to browse UT3 servers without running the game by Brad Gothard, fifth place.

The Best Use of Physics category winners are as follows:

The Ball: Pehua a single-player first-person puzzle mod with an Aztec theme by The Ball Team, first place;
Blockland, a deathmatch map with optimized physics and destructible environments by Simeon “Lord_Simeon” Spargo, second place;
Nowhere, a deathmatch map featuring destructible environments, thunder, lightning and water foam effects by Remus Brailoiu, third place;
Cubes of Serenity, a third-person 3D horror puzzle mod by Anna Beck-Thomsen, Lawrence Johnson, Jens Hammerhøj, André Johansen, Martin Larsen and Janusch Häring, fourth place;
Unreal Demolition 2, a mod showcasing exciting and destructive vehicle combat by Dan Weiss, fifth place.

Epic will begin accepting submissions for Phase 2 of the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest on September 30, 2008, and the entry deadline for Phase 2 is October 17, 2008. Participation in Phase 1 is not required for eligibility in Phase 2. Visit www.makesomethingunreal.com for more details on the contest.