2000 Euro prize offered for best 'Savage' mod

Digital Jesters announced today that they are offering a 2000 Euro prize for the best mod for their upcoming game Savage: The Battle For Newerth.

Britsoft publisher Digital Jesters is launching a competition to find the hottest new game-making talent, with a unique 'mod'-making contest held in conjunction with NVIDIA and PC Format.

With games such as Counter Strike originally emerging from such game-altering modifications, this is a very real chance for would-be programmers to take existing technology and morph it into a game of their choosing.

The competition centres around the new release Savage: The Battle for Newerth, which itself is an evolutionary game, uniquely marrying the first-person-shooter genre with the resource management and hierarchy of a real-time strategy game.

There's €2000 up for grabs for the winning individual or team, along with five NVIDIA GeForce FX cards for the winner or winners.

Savage is a multiplayer-only game of brutal combat in which teams of up to 16 players battle against other factions. Each team comprises 15 warriors who battle from a first-person perspective and one commander who builds bases and weaponry and issues tactical advice to his side. It is this fusion of viewpoints that has created a fanatical US community, which has been enjoying Savage since its release there late last November. Indeed, the New York Times has described as "the most innovative game of the year".

By way of inspiration, European gamers will be treated to an extra special bonus pack which contains a host of new maps and mods for Savage which illustrate the real diversity achievable through modifying the original game engine.

To enter the competition, players simply head to;

http://www.savageeurope.com/index.php?page=modcomp.html, where the necessary tools are available for download. Additionally, hints and tips will be available in PC Format's new insert 'The Game Maker'. Further inspiration can be found on the Savage forums.

The winning mod will be chosen based on its originality, balancing and playability and all entries will be available for download from www.savageeurope.com. Full terms and conditions can also be found on the site.

Savage: The Battle For Newerth European Edition will be released on February 27th 2004 in the UK, priced £29.99, and throughout Europe in March and April.