Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is no stranger to featuring community-designed weapon skins, or rewarding the designers well for them. But the newly announced Dreams and Nightmares competition is likely the biggest weapon skin drive the game has ever seen.
The competition is aiming to gather ten community created weapon skins designed around the theming of, of course, dreams and nightmares. All winning entries will earn their creators the tidy sum of $100,000 and will be added to CS:GO in a future update as part of the Dreams and Nightmares weapons case.
© Valve
The CS:GO Dreams and Nightmares art competition will accept submissions from July 22, all the way up until October 21, 2021. A key detail to note from the competition FAQ is that Valve does not take ownership of any art submitted. The original artists will retain the rights to their work and can use it elsewhere, whether successful or not. Artists are also free to submit as many entries as they like within the competition period. Winners will be picked by the CS:GO dev team (with contact by November 21, 2021), and all other designs will also be considered for future cases as well.
© WhoisVac9
Valve has established a dedicated website for the competition which should serve as some inspiration for artists looking to take part. Scrolling down the page reveals a range of designs in their original artwork and how they look mapped onto CS:GO’s firearms.
According to the brief, designers are free to adapt existing in-game skins or craft entirely new designs. The terms of the competition also list the available weapons to work with, the rarity tiers included, and the expectations for the finish within each tier.
Any skilled artists new to the concept of weapon skins will also find a guide for how to get started with CS:GO’s systems linked on the page. Designers are also encouraged to sign up for the contest forums to talk and share ideas with other creators.
