Welcome to the 2025 Game Art Challenge which gives artists the chance to compete for cool prizes by creating Art and Assets for use in realtime game engines.

Scenario

Imagine diving deep into the forests of Elderwood, where forgotten cities slumber beneath the leaves or shimmer with secret enchantments! Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to conjure up a Realtime Environment bursting with mystery and awe. Or perhaps you'll unleash spectacular Realtime FX, painting the landscape with natural wonders or weaving spells of pure magic within those lost city walls. Or you can create a Game Art Tool that would be the ultimate sidekick for artists embarking on this thrilling creative quest!

TOP PRIZE | DELL LAPTOP

There are three main categories you can choose to enter which each offer their own challenges. The best entry in each category will win a DELL Laptop. 

The details about this device will be published later. 


BEST REALTIME ENVIRONMENT

Create an environment that includes the remnants of a lost city. This environment should be build in Houdini and brought into Unreal or Unity to create the final realtime experience.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

  • 3 Beauty Shots [1920x1080]
  • 30 sec cinematic video [1920x1080, 30fps]
  • Scene files [Houdini and Unreal/Unity] and HDAs 
  • A written or video recorded explanation of your thought process

 

PRIZES

  • First Place: 
    • Dell Laptop
    • Houdini FX [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Second Place: 
    • Houdini CORE [SideFX]*
    • SWAG  Pack
  • Third Place: 
    • Houdini Indie [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Honorable Mention: 
    • SWAG Pack
  • All the winners get a chance to interview for an internship position


BEST REALTIME FX

Create a magical effect that suits the world of Elderwood, a destruction effect such as the crumbling of a building or create a natural effect such as a river or waterfall. These should be realtime FX that can be imported into Unreal or Unity.

 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS 

  • 3 Beauty Shots  [1920x1080 ]
  • 10 sec cinematic video [1920x1080, 30fps] 
  • Scene files [Houdini and Unreal/Unity] and HDAs 
  • A written or video recorded explanation of your thought process

 

PRIZES

  • First Place: 
    • Dell Laptop
    • Houdini FX [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Second Place: 
    • Houdini CORE [SideFX]*
    • SWAG 
  • Third Place: 
    • Houdini Indie [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Honorable Mention: 
    • SWAG Pack
  • All the winners get a chance to interview for an internship position

* All Houdini licenses are one year rentals


BEST GAME ART TOOL

Create a Houdini Digital Asset that helps you create realtime artwork in Unreal or Unity. This tool should exhibit a user experience that allows other artists to create amazing artwork for their realtime projects.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

  • Houdini Digital Asset [.hda]
  • Unreal/Unity Scene with the Asset in place
  • Video of asset being used in the Game Editor [1920x1080, 30fps]
  • 3 Shots of the result generated by the Asset[1920x1080]
  • A written or video recorded explanation of your thought process

 

PRIZES

  • First Place: 
    • Dell Laptop
    • Houdini FX [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Second Place: 
    • Houdini CORE [SideFX]*
    • SWAG 
  • Third Place: 
    • Houdini Indie [SideFX]*
    • SWAG Pack 
  • Honorable Mention: 
    • SWAG Pack
  • All the winners get a chance to interview for an internship position

HOW TO ENTER

All entries need to be posted into the 2025 Game Art Challenge forum before the deadline of July 14, 2025 at Midnight EDT. Add your submission in the thread that matches the challenge you are entering. All three challenges will have their own thread. 

You can also set up your own WIP thread if you want to share your process with the community. 

The entries will be judged on the following: 

      • Aesthetics - how aesthetically pleasing is the game art created by the scene/asset 
      • Game Art Quality- ability to generate quality results that streamline your workflow 
      • Elegance - the technical sophistication and appropriateness of the solution to the problem 
      • Innovation of technical solution - out of box thinking/unique problem solving perspective 
      • Level of Difficulty - how challenging was the technical solution 
      • Comprehension - how well does the entrant explain their intent and show the tech art achieving its goals

GAME ART CHALLENGE FORUM

FREE 6 Month Houdini Indie License

If you are entering the Game Art Challenge and were planning to use Houdini Apprentice, you can work Watermark free with a 6-month copy of Houdini Indie. Click below to sign up for this FREE license:

APPLY FOR LICENSE


EARLY  ACCESS to Natsura Foliage Tools

Natsura is a powerful toolset designed for artists and production teams in games, film, and creative industries who demand high levels of control and efficiency in foliage generation. It is currently in beta and you can access these tools for the duration of the contest,

APPLY FOR EARLY ACCESS

RULES

This contest is open to any 3D artist anywhere in the world.

  • All entries must be received on or before July 14, 2025 at Midnight EDT
  • All assets must be designed to work in Houdini 20.5
  • This contest is void where prohibited
  • Do not use blackbox digital assets - the inner workings of your asset must be available for review
  • Employees of SideFX or any of their agents may participate in the contest but are not eligible to win
  • The judges' decision is final
  • SideFX is not responsible for submissions that arrive late, or are lost or damaged during submission
  • If the prize cannot be awarded due to unforeseen circumstances, no cash alternatives are available
  • Assets created for these challenges must be created using Houdini products. Winners will be asked to submit .hda and .hip files to verify that Houdini was used for all aspects of the tool. If you do not submit the files then you will be disqualified
  • All content must be the property of the submitter. If you are running Houdini on an employer or school computer make sure that this does not compromise your ownership rights
  • Entries that clearly infringe on the copyrights of another company will be disqualified
  • The Entrant retains ownership of all intellectual and industrial property rights (including moral rights) in and to the asset. As a condition of entry, the Entrant grants SideFX a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, transferable, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, adapt, modify, publish, distribute, publicly perform, create a derivative work from, and publicly display the asset for any purpose, including distribution on the SideFX website, without any attribution or compensation to Entrant.
  • In respect of the Asset, the Entrant grants to Houdini Community Members a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide right and license to use, adapt, create derivative works, create imagery, create content for video games, publicly display, publicly perform, digitally perform, or advertise. The Entrant also grants to Houdini Community Members to use any trademarks, service marks or trade names incorporated in the Asset. The Houdini Community Members may not re-distribute, sell, publish, or otherwise make the Asset or substantially similar adaptations available to any third party.