Star Citizen modding competition announced

Veteran PC game designer Chris Roberts and his company Cloud Imperium Games today announced a modding competition for the upcoming space simulator Star Citizen.

Called The Next Great Starship, the competition challenges teams of up to three people to design, model, and rig an in-game spaceship that could appear in the final game.

The winning team will not only have their creation featured in Star Citizen, but will also take home $30,000. Teams can register for The Next Great Starship competition October 31-December 31.

Before creating a ship, teams must pass a preliminary challenge of creating a fully designed wave particle, which will be submitted through YouTube and judged by a nine-member panel featuring Roberts.

Initial entries will be winnowed down to 16 finalists, one of which will be chosen by Star Citizen backers. Those 16 teams will then appear in a YouTube series where their work-in-progress spaceships will be judged and narrowed down until only two remain.

The final two teams will then compete live in front of the judging panel and community during the final episode in the YouTube series, which will be filmed on June 8 in Los Angeles.

Second prize is $10,000 in cash, while the third place team will take home $5,000. For more on The Next Great Starship competition, check out the event's newly launched landing page.

The crowdfunding campaign for Star Citizen originally launched one year ago this week. To date, the effort has raised more than $21.5 million, making it the most crowdfunded project--of any kind--in history.