Hero Creation Contest: Portals

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Welcome to a brand new hero creation contest! It's time to test your DotA 2 creativity and be IceFrog for the day! For the next two weeks you will have time to craft a hero concept based on the theme and rules of our contest.

The theme of this edition is portals. The contest starts today (June 26th) and will end in 2 weeks from today (July 10th); the following week the hero concepts will be judged and the winner picked.

What Can I win? The best hero concept will have the chance to win the following prize: Bladeform Legacy Bundle + the special Hero Creation Contest badge That's not all, we're going to have 5 hero concept runner-ups, which will have the chance to win the following treasure: Fall 2016 Treasure IV

How Can I Participate? Craft a new hero concept based on the theme of this edition (portals) and post it in our "Hero & Item Ideas" section. If you have already created a hero concept that respects the theme of this edition, you can update it and use it as entry. Revise and polish your hero concept, make sure it's in best form by the final day. If you'd like more opinions or reviews on your hero concept just link it in this thread or ask for feedback on our Discord server. Collaboration and asking for help is both expected and encouraged. :) That's it! We'll judge all the hero concepts posted during the contest period that respect the theme and also the rules.

What Are The Rules? You must have an unique hero concept that respects the theme of this edition by the final day. Your hero concept must fulfill these material requirements: Hero basic information (stats, primary attribute, lore, etc.) At least 4 original abilities An explanation on how the hero's supposed to be played (optional) You're allowed to make changes to your hero concept at any time. Plagiarism is strictly prohibited and will automatically disqualify your guide. NOTE: BBCode does not belong to any one writer and does not fall under plagiarism rules

What Will the Hero Concepts be Judged On? Quality - not anyone can create a great hero Think about all the heroes that you know, people wouldn't even consider playing them if their creation didn't receive enough thought and effort. Make sure that your hero and its abilities are interesting while also making sure that the descriptions and formatting make it easy for the readers to understand how your hero works. Originality - every hero must be unique Originality is the most difficult to obtain yet it is the key to a great hero. However, not everything about your hero must be super special and complicated, but there must be something memorable and unique about your creation in order for it to fit well in the DotA world and to make people be interested in the hero. Play Style - hard and fun or easy and boring? There are heroes like Invoker which are difficult to play but really fun and enjoyable but also heroes like Viper which are easier but not as exciting as others. Now it's time for you to decide how your hero will roll! Now, all you have to do is get started! Start crafting your hero concept now! Also, don't forget the portals!

Who's Judging This Contest? Hades4u TheSofa Sando Safecyn Here are our illustrious judges! However, the opinion of the community will also count towards the final decision.

Fine Print Hero concepts must be crafted respecting the rules and the theme of this edition, portals. Open to registered DOTAFire members only. Not a member? Register now and craft your hero concept! Contest is worldwide. Prizes are awarded through Steam trading. Contest will be closed 2 weeks from the start of the contest. After contest is closed there will be a 1 week judging period. Winners will be notified by email after the judging period and will have 7 days to claim their prize.

Feel free to ask questions and whenever a hero concept has been posted, take a look and let the author know what you like or dislike so they can improve their work!

Thank you all for joining, let's support our talented and dedicated hero creators!

Alright everybody. This competition ends on my birthday, so please put some thought into your presents!

OTHERWISE I WILL JUDGE POSTE HARSHLY AND THERE WILL BE PAIN.

But that's only if I manage to rustle up the energy for it and, let's be honest, I haven't had the energy for pain in years.

Good luck all!

Wow lucky me cause i was working on a hero already her name is ziba the lady luck two skills are already written her bloody lore is written as well but the problem is the theme she is rather a hard to play hero cause she is the lady luck so her skills damage or disables are like ck , not relied that much . Hmm portals. dual roamers are quite popular right now so if i... Ohhh this idea is gonna rock (or fail really bad)

One more thing i only play dota if my hero is like a champion , god or something tell me now cause i dont want to waste my time on a non original thingi

Hey!

Of course we don't want you to copy a champion from league or something and just implement it into dota, that would ruin the whole point of the contest! However, if you take ideas from here and there I'm sure it'll be fine.

As a judge, to be clear, we'll be judging from all points of view, not only from the three categories listed above. For example, this is (most likely) going to be how I judge the heroes:

1) Beauty + design: How well the post was formatted, the lore, the ability description, how easy is it for me to picture this hero in the game?

2) Originality: No one likes the same old **** over and over again. As cyn so brilliantly said: "0/10 hero is basically just a ranged Sven"

3) Balance: Is the hero overpowered? Underpowered? I'll give everyone the good ol' Yzreel treatment here

4) Theme: Does it really fit with the portal theme?

It might change, and different parts are weighted differently, but at least you have some idea what I'm looking for (it's also different between judges so)

My judging will be pretty similar to Sofa's, although I'd add:

- Presentation. Is important and done right can give us a flavour of your character better than text alone. What I really want for xmas though is clear, concise descriptions of how your hero and powers work. Make it easy for us to understand your ideas, and picture how your hero would work ingame.

- Originality. This is difficult to describe, it's more "I know it when I see it". Basically try to avoid retreading existing ideas too much and come up with new stuff.

I would also say here though that often the simple ideas are the best - yours shouldn't need half a page of description and a packet of paracetamol for somebody to get their head around. 4 skills is standard for DOTA heroes, go beyond this only if the design justifies it.

- Balance/Design. This is a big issue for a lot of character creators - many designs are horribly OP. Spend a bit of time on things like movement speed, stats and starting armour. Make sure they're reasonably close to 'normal' heroes unless you have very good reason. Don't make level 1 skills too strong. Spell costs should reflect heroes' intelligence stat, cooldowns should be in line with the power of the ability.

All DOTA heroes have some kind of synergy between their skills; try to find interesting ways to connect them together. Also remember that not every skill needs to be a showstopper - 1 or 2 signature skills with a few others supporting them is generally a much better design.

I want to see your hero has both strengths AND weaknesses, this gives them texture, and balance. It lets them interact with other heroes in interesting ways and is critical to the core dota design. You can also have bigger and more interesting strengths if you have corresponding weaknesses.

- Theme. There's a hundred different ways you can approach this, and we don't have any preconcived ideas about what's "right" and "wrong". You do need to make this a core part of your concept though; don't just shoehorn it into a bit of lore and forget about it.

Does art play into the judging at all? I've been poking around the "Hero & Item Ideas" sub-forum and saw that the inclusion of art varied from thread to thread.

I'm not a fantastic artist. If I included some found art to express my ideals more fully would that hurt my score since it isn't my artwork?

Hey lonelyfreak!

Art is not a must, but it surely makes the hero concept look better. :)

Hey lonelyfreak!

It is fair to use art in your idea. If you plan to use artwork that is not yours, be sure you have permission and cite the source!