My entry for round 2 is not turning out as I was hoping. But I shall plow on!

Let me stop looking at all these pictures before I drown myself in sadness

I had my lot almost completely finished, only a bit of landscaping and terrain painting left and my game crashed. Turns out I actually hadn't saved after beginning the interior so I'm going to take a day off to cry before starting over.

Especially when the build that really blows your mind, is in the same world, on practically the same lot, in a similar style, using some of the same cc as your lot. My delete button is demanding overtime pay! *cries*

Plus, my CAST is glacially laggy and I have sooooooooo much decorating to do. *sighs* Looks like another night of vodka and microwaved hotdogs.
...judges going outside

I actually only have the rest of tonight and half of tomorrow to finish since I'll be out of state for the remainder of the round I should get going considering I have a ton of landscaping left.

Adonis / Kmoldovan -- Platforms are fine!

Also...at first I was like "Okay! Gonna update the first post with the four / five new lots. Then, I found out that I was skipping pages, and it turned out there were like 25 lots done. Then I was like

Thanks!
 

Klaartje68 Thanks so much for you answer! :D

Aww... thanks, guys. And thanks to the others who've said they like it. I had a ton of fun working on it

NOTE TO JUDGES: You have probably not started scoring Round 2 yet, but in case you have, I just edited my post. There were a couple of screenshots that were misleading, because they were taken before I removed some stuff from the patio, so I swapped the pictures out for some proper ones. And since I was in there I swapped out a couple that had bad lighting, too. And finally, I also had to add velocitygrass' remove stencil mod to the cc list. Sorry for any confusion!

Using nothing but a seeing-eye dog, a hearing aid and my super-dooper-sheldon-cooper-sarcasm-o-meter, I have reason to believe that your .gif might not truly reflect your true feelings on this matter.

Might I suggest 'shoot all the entrants and drink a barrel of margaritas'.jpg

I never even thought of this until someone mentioned platforms, but friezes are considered a floor, not a foundation...yes?

So sorry to hear that. When mine happened it was like the end of the contest for me since all my work was gone. But I braced ans am almost finished. I will cry with you because its a sad thing. Best luck redecorating.

The saving grace for me is that the exterior was saved, and it took me close to four hours to get the roof and room parameters the way I wanted them. Interior I can re-do. Hey, I may even get a design I like better because the living room was crap. I am okay with this.

*Clings to you and cries anyway*

Is there room in the crying corner for one more? I just caught sight of another contestants WIP pics on his simblr and saw that he had the exact same "unique" idea that I had (and probably did it better) I was really pleased with myself for thinking up something that nobody has tried and thought, "even if my lot turns out crappy at least I can say it had something original". I can't even say I thought of it first; his pics are older than my lot. This round sucks! XD

/me kicks minion

LMAO...I thought it might get some attention....






You are planning to upload this lot, right?.....drools

Thanks so much!

Here is my Round 2 house "Modest Modern". No story this time either because I am such a bad storyteller. You will have to enjoy the pictures only.
I only use CC from the EAstore.

Required pics:

More pics:

Only the urls are showing for the pics, and one of them you can't click to link to the pics.

They both go to photobucket slideshows for me.

Same here :D

Maybe you were looking while I was working on making them. They both go to slideshows when I click on them so I don't know what to fix.

Round 2 Louisa's luxury
 

When Derek and Amanda Butterworth died suddenly they left their teen daughter in possession of a drab rundown two bed with under ground parking. Louisa's inexperience soon showed however as she set the kitchen on fire trying to cook. the resulting blaze gutted the house collapsing the floors down into the garage. Now back from uni Louisa has used her insurance money and contractors to make sweeping changes. Gone are the garage and wooden stairs. The house now rerendered in crisp white has glass spiral stairs and a sunken private outdoor area. With a sauna and cinema filling the remaining old garage. upstairs now has an upgraded ensuite and larger bedroom with the small room left over now a gym. Finally the old oak was cut down to make way for a wind turbine and new carport.







CC credits: ea store TSR(Manuke, Dot, Mutske, Cyclonesue, Gosik)
I would like to add that i have noticed that the outside space looks like 2 different tiles under the arch. it is the same, just the shadow (annoying me )

I bet you are right because now they have the line under them and I get the pointer finger to click on the link. I've only been here a dozen times today looking at any new posts and pics. I'm loving this contest! There are so many cool entries.

4 days left and I have not even started yet. :P

Just running backups of my freshly installed system, and I intend to attack installing games on the afternoon. Will be a hurry, but hopefully I can scrape something up before the timer runs to zero! :D

All the entries in already look great! Good job everyone.

Old World Charm
 

CC Credit:
MTS: QBuilderz, Flabaliki, and HugeLunatic
TSR: NynaeveDesigns, Severinka, AnoeskaB, and tifaff7

I have no doubt that you will post a spectacular specimen! I am a big fan of your work, and You always do

My Goodness, so this is what this contest is all about. Just too speechless and the so many wonderful entries in both rounds. How i wish i could build like that. So many of you rock well in your designs

@Missroxor, just saw your round one entry and I must say that is interesting.
Loved the way you made use of the Armiel build set.Thats a house to have for sure

@Dewtay, your two entries are superb and your split concept has much fun in it. Love it.

@Livini, what can i say, both your entries deserves credit and I love your spirit of glass. Small and lovely.

@jhd1189 definitely, If I was a Professor, i would love that house to live in. Love the Love the Victorian and cottage feel of the house.

@Fairycake89 you sure delivered there. Am in love with your castaway. Real ingenuity

@Armiel, the Pink Bushes entry is amazing.

@Naiyasfury that s a real hunted house. and I just love it.

@Ajabilene, Ecoasis is damm too good. loved your play with the glass roof top. Good work

@Morphead, real two lovely entries you have. Love that first one of yours.

Okay, now back to my building. Lovely weekend all.

Extension Request
 

I'd forgotten to check the countdown for a while and this reminded me... Shoot.
So my actual house is done, but I still have to landscape and do pictures and all that.

I'm also away two of the next four days, at school the other two and have a mountain and a half of homework to do somewhere in there. I'm sick and sleeping more than usual, too. Unless I can either create more time or pull an all nighter when I get home at 2am on Wednesday (before school later that day. Maybe not the best idea), I don't think I'll be able to do it.

So, I'm going to please request an extension - 14ish hours would be very much appreciated, because the round ends at 8am Thursday for me but the next time I'll definitely be right to work on it is after 4pm Thurs. I was really trying to avoid asking for one but because I've ended up sick I really can't avoid it. Thanks in advance.

Peaceful Living
 

Finally the kids grew up and moved out of home. But it wasn't long before retirement dreams where interrupted by a brood of grandchild. Now every holiday season there is the standard stay at the grandparents place. At least in this large home there is enough room for the whole family and the kids have their own basement to be noisy in. The only problem is looking after all the extra rooms during the rest of the year!












Far out, i don't check this for a few days and there are so many posts and houses to look through! Some amazing houses being built, i feel sorry for the judges. Can't wait to see the scores from round 1 when i get back from my weekend away =)

Edit: Warning; may contain traces of nuts, CC and store content.
(store content only)

Pondside Retreat
 

Pondside Retreat

Two bedrooms, one bathroom. Suitable for a family of three or four. On the side balcony awaits a relaxing view of a nicely landscaped pond, along with a barbecue area. And the stony framework would assure a sturdy and weather-proof home that would last for generations.

Very nice build--love the 1/2 walls. Where are they from?

Sowwy *hangs head and offers guilty hugs*

Hello Again! I come back with my Round 2 Entry - Cozy Elegance
Warning 30 pics (CC credits at the end of Extra)

Awww... :lovestruc

Might happen to me too since I don't look at other contestants' entries before my own is finished. Well, it's finished now but I still have to take pictures and to prepare my post. I'll look at the pictures later.

I think this is part of the "game" - to see if others have a similar idea for a build and how they do it. Even though I haven't seen your entry or any other one I'm sure they're all lovely.

Isn't it amazing to see so many different lots, knowing that all those creators started with the same foundation?

Blue in the Mountains
 

My round 2 house is done! This time I experimented with windows and I ended up making modern house again...but I guess thats what I like to create :P

Nearly got my entry done now. Just the landscaping to go before I take the pictures. I lost momentum for today though otherwise I would have been submitting it now.

You just made a bunch of people feel better Yogi-Tea. There are similar ideas, but everyone executes those ideas differently. It's not that "its" been done, but our unique spin on the idea that counts.

I've just been looking at the house you have all created and I just wanted to say that you are all amazing at building house

Hey being that it is two days till R3 May I be allowed to UN-Drop Out? I figured out what was wrong with my comp and Plopped TS3 back in. I am sorry for any inconvience it causes (if any) and I understand if I am unable to drop back in

I think that you already posted for R2. You can still continue with R3. The dealine is still not over and am sure QBUILDERZ will not mind

Absolutely! "Differently" is the right word for it.

No one should think bad about his own entry or should think that others are better. They're only different because all people are different and so our building experiences are different, too. Instead of trying to compare apples with pears we should just enjoy being part of the challenge because this is the best way to improve building skills and to... well... challenge ourselves to try something new.

I'm looking forward to round 3 since I'm on holiday next week an I'll have plenty of time to get my 3rd entry done. Yay!

Ack! Sims is not working all of a sudden on my computer. I thought it was the new EP I just installed Saturday, but I uninstalled that and still nothing. I can't uninstall the whole game because I can't remember where I put the base game. Getting old here. Hopefully, cleaning out some CC will solve it, but I've heard that you can get digital downloads of the games free from Origin as long as you've registered your hard disc games. Is that true? (I hope so cause I might need to get drastic here.)

You can download the digital versions from Origin, but you need the serial number from the base game.

(Sorry for bad english skills, I'm from germany )

I love this challenge - so many awesome buildings! :lovestruc
I did a Speedbuild on my YouTube channel for this challenge. I hope you like it! I would be really happy if you could also visit my channel for more Speed Builds.







No CC used. I hope you like it. My YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGr...Q?feature=watch

The lack of submissions for round two is very frightening to me

/me is considering giving a few more days to everyone.

G.A.T.E. Modern
 

So for round 2 I decided to go for a community lot. Without further ado, I herewith present you a museum, G.A.T.E. Modern (lame pun, guess what building it's based on )

Dwindling Water


A bit about the house:
Here is the inspirationally named, Dwindling Water; if you can guess what iconic architectural building this is named after then reward yourself with a cookie. Now you might say that this house is modern in style, well I hope you do, because I never really make modern houses, and to say I struggled with it would be a gross understatement! I cannot express in numerical value the amount of time I spent on this house, well I probably can, but I don't care to, because it was a lot more than is proportional to the quality of the finished product. Nevertheless, I have made a modern(-ish) house, and my presuppositions about building modern houses as being "easy", it is safe to say, have been abolished.

The house itself is quite small, the entry level contains a completely open plan kitchen, dining area, lounge and study, while the downstairs level contains a double bedroom and bathroom. Outside the landscaping is very simple (you would not believe how hard it was for me to avoid shoving vegetation here there and everywhere), and there is a simple pond with a waterfall leading to the lower pond. There is semi-covered parking outside for one car.

Read enough mindless blabber? TO THE PICTURES...

Qbie: Honestly, I think its because scoring took so much time. Yes thats totally our fault too, but I for one really hesitated this round because I don't know if I'm going to be making the same mistakes or not. (Well that and I had three birthday parties this week.)

I'd love an extension. My game is still acting up but I'm sooooo close.

This is very true. I have sent out PMs to the judges in order to get this sped up. I'll add...er...four days on? Does that seem fair?

There are two judges who need to finish scoring yet. It is only for the latter half of the entrants, so if they manage to get on tonight there is a high possibility of it being done tomorrow.

4 days feels very fair to me, thank you. May I suggest editing the title so others know too? I keep getting paranoid I've missed an announcement here because the thread can move so fast sometimes.

Alright! Title AND first post updated. Thanks for being so patient, everyone!

QBUILDERZ, sorry to bother you, but I have noticed that my entry for round two was not added to the list in the first post. I just want to make sure it will be scored and that it wasn't accidentally missed. It is located here. It also seems like IshigreenSA's round 2 entry (which is right after mine on the same page, here) was not added either.

Seriously? That defeats my purpose. Hmmm... I need to find my base game for the future. Fortunately, for the moment, it started working after I uploaded a software update. Not sure why that had anything to do with anything. But glad it worked.

QBUILDERZ--Thanks for the extension. My game's working now, but it wiped out all recent activity up til at least a couple months back so I have to start all over.

I could have just finished in the allotted time, but this is much better!

First post updated with the past days round two submissions

An Occidental Orientation

Sometimes the easiest progression is to forge straight ahead, however some of the best results are achieved by completely changing directions. What started out as a more traditional home, with its dormers and hipped and gambrel roofing, shifted into a mixture of the West meets East, clad in checkered decorative tiles and Moorish-inspired bands of brick, sporting a minaret-reminiscent tower. The four bedroom, four bathroom home features Orientalist interiors decorated with tiles and intricate patterns.

No CC, but various Store content used throughout.

Deluxe Designs I like what you did with your home. It's well decorated and I love the leaking rock wall.




<3 cutsocks I just love what you did all around

Thank you for the extra time! I finished my house last night and will be working on pictures tomorrow. They would have been done today but my first day of classes were today and needless to say I had homework due tonight.


From the looks of the Round 2 submissions everyone's houses look amazing!

Well, I'm glad I didn't catch up on this thread until just now, 'cause knowing there are extra days added would've just been procrastination fuel.

AMAZING entries this round! While I'm a frequent skimmer for tidbits of news, I didn't really start looking at the other Round Two entries until I had my own lot to a "point of no return". So many of them dropped my jaw to the desk... A cantina, Egyptian ruins, shipwreck, old castle, haunted-y house... I'm going to need to step up my game (and themes) for the next rounds! Beautiful work, everyone!

Dagressi Modern
 

Dagressi Modern

@ Cutsocks and Adonispluto, I love you guys building.

This extension makes me happy. First reinstalling my whole system, then real life stuff pushing in the way of building, then getting crazy with recoloring bushes! Even though I would have only asked for one I I was seriously running out of time, it's nice to know I don't need to hasty crap my CASTing. :D

My interior work is still on such a phase, exterior is fully done though.

Thank you so much for the extension. I was holding off on my entry because I'd like to see the judging for my first lot, so I can improve. That, and this month is just crazy.

As it stands, I am one of the judges Q mentioned that has marked all of his Round 1 entries. I have also commented on 90% of them. Everyone received a comment on at least ONE of their entries, unless I could find nothing to fault/constructively criticize. I have also marked all currently submitted Round 2 entries. This doesn't mean that you cannot edit your post, change pictures, etc. You are welcome to do this until the round is over. Please just tell us as such so we can go back and re-assess it. Originally no judge was planning to mark in-round but the entry numbers have made that a sort of pipe-dream that we had. It seems like a distant memory now..

A quick note for anyone reading; IF YOU DID NOT ENTER ROUND 1 AND ARE JUST SHOWING YOUR LOT TO OTHERS (WHICH IS FINE; WE DON'T MIND SEEING THEM), PLEASE MARK YOUR POST AS SUCH. IT CAN BE CONFUSING FOR THE JUDGES WHEN IT COMES TO ADDING YOU TO THE SCORE-SHEET (OR NOT, AS WOULD BE THE CASE).

I don’t understand. Are you saying that this is not a cut-throat, fight to the death, last man standing, winner takes all sort of contest?! That just doesn’t sound right. Did another contestant tell you that because I think they’re yanking your chain... I mean, what other type of contest is there?

Yours sincerely,


Monica Geller

You can count on me to always be a last minute entrant Qbie

Note about bonus rounds

I hate to have to be a buzz kill (despite my previous post and signature) but any rules regarding the judging criteria and points distribution should have been laid out at the very beginning, in the first post. I’m afraid you can’t alter or add to them once the contest has started so we can’t allow this new addition.

In any case, I don’t really see the need since you already have bonus points available which, as stated on the original post, will only go to those truly deserving of them.



^This should pretty much cover it.

I agree completely. Bonus bonus points seems unnecessary (and break da rulez). However, I think an appreciative drawing that we could print out and display on our fridges would be a nice alternative. Or a sunshine sticker.

I don't know if I have missed something essential by not saying anything about CC in my posts with my houses. I have no CC except for the EA store stuff, free and buy. Never downloaded anything from any other place. I hope it is OK that I haven't mentioned it before. Do I need to confirm that for the next house, or is it enought that I have mentioned it here?

We apologize for the change, and we'll remove it immediately. We thought that adding some extra points without changing rules or judging criteria would help to break up the numbers, not realising that it would throw off so many people and break contest rules. Again, appologies.



It is appreciated to at least mention that you've used store content; you don't need to go into detail, listing items, but its good to just mention that your lot includes content that is not seen in-game, it avoids us confusing store content with cc and deducting points for not mentioning that you've used some. Really, its not much of a bother as its usually quite easy to distinguish store content from fan-made CC.

Maybe I'm blind (that happens often ), but i think my submission for R2 wasn't listed: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...136#post4221136 Sorry, if it was and I just haven't seen it. :D

I can't go back and edit my first house post, I don't think Im allowed to do that, but I will edit the second house post.

Thank you

Who wants to go do the with me. This will help take off the stress a bit.

Ohh, good! An extension!

My net has been very very bad the past week or so, to the point where I couldn't even download the foundation. It seems to be running a bit better now, though, so I may be able to do this! :D

Unfortunately you cannot join the contest officially anymore, since you've missed round 1... You are allowed to post buildings you've made (as you did, thanks for sharing your work! ) but you cannot be judged. Hopefully there will be another contest soon in which you can participate! BTW if you have Sims 2, there is a contest just starting, so you would have time to join that. Can be found here: Contest

Oh seems that i have missed that fact. Anyways, it was fun to build it

Have the scores been posted?

I really like this build. Where in the world did you find triangular windows?

To Qnshr - I had the same reaction when I had to re-install last year, but sadly, it is true. After the base game though, I didn't have to enter any serial numbers for the rest of the expacs or stuff packs.

To gogolinopz - Very nice build 2nd round. I didn't see your 1st round submission.

Tudor for Two - my entry for the second round

The foundation inspired me for creating a very classy Tudor style house that is suitable and spacious for a couple. I used the basement as a garage and a gym and I also created some porches wich are great for relaxing in the open.



I left the black tiles as they were and I didn't use CFE so the terrain is as required and I also painted the other tiles after I finished, but in gray, so they wouldn't merge with the others.

I usually don't say/ do much in the forums - I'm more of a lurker, but I sure am glad I found this contest in time and took the plunge. I am so amazed at the crazy-different designs everyone has come up with. QBUILDERZ, thanks for coming up with this concept and hosting through your busy RL. Judges, thanks for taking time out as well. I am so looking forward to these next rounds. If this round is any indication, I expect the quality and skill level of the entries to just go up ad up. Exciting times! (Or, maybe I just don't get out much.) <3

Ok. That's annoying. Thank you. It's really good to know that. I'm glad to see I only need to find the base game, because I've lost LN & Generations, too! And I can't remember what I had for dinner last night. :p

I edited my round 2 submission post to say that it may contain traces of nuts, because you just don't know with people's allergies these days CC and store content
I'm not really sure if it's 100% necessary to say what i used exactly and i didn't for three reasons; I'm not 100% sure what i used and where (I dumped several GB worth of content into downloads after round 1), it said round 2 could use anything so i thought i would be ok to use anything and not really have to think about what sort of content i used, And lastly because i did it in a rush before going away for the weekend, thinking the round would be over when i got back.

I'm very appreciative of all fan made content. Let's just leave it at that.

Oh and could we know if listing where content comes from is a definitive thing we have to do for future rounds? Don't really want to lose points over something silly.


Thank you! I wish i knew =P i would assume a store item. I'll edit later once i hunt down what it is.
Hunted that one down fast.
Rice Paper WallPart of the Itadakimasu! Japanese Inspired Dining set.

Thank you!

I’ve not been checking the photo sizes on every entry (and shouldn’t really have to) but my computer is a huge grass and keeps letting me know when a page has loads of huge images on it. Can the following (and anyone else I've missed who may be guilty) please re-size their images to something more computer friendly (and within site guidelines) for those with lower end computers. Remember, those poor judges have to look at all the images and some of you have a whole world of potential lagging misery hidden away in those spoiler tags.

If you’re using something like photobucket you may be able to just resize them there without re-uploading to your image hosting site.

• Dreamfoil (second time I’ve asked about the same pics)
• Fenisa
• Mage4Dragons
• gogolinopz

nanatoana, please stop double, triple and quadruple posting when you can easily say it all in one post. Check out the site posting guidelines if you’re not sure what is and what isn’t frowned upon

Moonshadow
Perfect for a family, this modern 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home features a clean colour palette of black, white, greys and splashes of strong colour. The first floor features an open plan kitchen/dining/living area as well as a toilet with separate hand basin. On the second floor you will find a master bedroom and ensuite, as well as two kid's rooms and the main bathroom. The walkout basement is home to a small study and games room.






CC Used (All from MTS):
armiel - CAST yourself a Chimney & Painting
granthes - OMSP
Kilc*a - 7 Small Vases
QBuilderz - Match Things Paintings & Slate Roof Texture
sionelle - CASTable artwork: 3x1 Frameless Painting

Sorry, I will try to fix this.

Pictures
o You are REQUIRED to upload the following pictures with each round:
----->• Front picture
----->• Back picture
----->• Floor plan pictures
o Extra pictures are recommended, but not required.
o No photoshopping please!

Rereading the guidlines helped me to see where my mistake is. Sorry. I just don't have time to do that right now. The judges will decide wether to discard my entry or to deal with the resolution.

So....................who's looking forward to round 3 then?

I resized my pics to 800x500 (roughy 150KB each alot smaller than most people's pics) the first time you asked. The rules state pics at least 800x600. I haven't changed them a second time. But since you've asked again, I'll try to reduce the file size without losing the image size or quality.

EDIT: Sorry I haven't been able to reduce the file size without the pics becoming smaller or pixelated. If I'm disqualified oh well, it's been fun
EDIT: If you were also refering to my pics from round one, I've resized them again and reuploading them now.

Thank you!

Missroxor--sorry. I guess I lurk and post too often. I will try to be more diligent in spacing my postings.

Kflr--well said.

Well I made it! It took me some time to do so but I resized all pics in my entries, I didn't realize how many screenshots they were untill I had to edit them all at once for my 4 houses :p

I changed the resolution of my pictures and reaplouded them on modyourpanties and I edited the post, but my pictures still have a bigger resolution than 1280x1024. How can I fix that, should I rewrite the post?

EDIT: Done, my pics are 1280x723 and 1024x768 now.

You don't need to space your postings, just put everything in one post. It's completely acceptable to reply to different people in the same post. If you have something to add and you were the last post, just hit the EDIT button and add whatever you want to it. If you feel your post is getting too long, don't quote the entire post you are responding to, just the part you need for clarity.

To add a second quote to a post, right-click on the REPLY button and choose "open in a new tab". From the new tab, copy the text you want and paste it back into your original post.

Hope this helps. :p

I only checked the first pic of yours last night and it was over the max kb (iirc the smallest of the images I looked at of all four contestants named was close to 500kb). Is it possible you just forgot to resize the first pic? We don't expect anyone to resize the images to the point that they're not even usable; only that they keep them between the min-max that I quoted from the guidelines. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about that in my last post.

Some of the entries I've been pointing out had close to 20MB worth of images unnecessarily, whereas plenty of folk with a similar amount of images have their images at or just under the max limit (about 1-5MB worth of images per entry) and their images came out lovely That's why I got my nagging hat on

nanatoana, Aeval99 pretty much covered what I was going to say

SoulofSilence's 'Relictus Castle' is for round two but I noticed it was listed as a late round one entry. Just thought I would point that out.

Round 2 Submission
 

Cherry Manor is named after all of the wonderful mature Cherry trees that can be found on the property. This wonderful home belongs to Erin Smythe and her daughter Keely. When Erin left Ireland after her divorce was final, Keely was no more than 6 months old and she had no one in the world to help her. Determined to be a good role model for her daughter Erin started working as daycare assistant. Living in a one bedroom ran down apartment wasn't her idea of living big. So Erin took the plunge and enrolled in college to become a licensed daycare provider and early education teacher. After finishing school it was time to find a house. 6 years later Erin and Keely have found the perfect home and are just settling in.







Custom Content

MTS Creations -
rolltocrit, Alopex, Axpl, omegastarr82, Huge Lunatic, cmomoney, armiel, SeeMyu, Menaceman44, Simmiller, granthes

TSR Creations -
Livingdeadgirl, hudy777, Mutske, missyzim (all items were free)

Other free content -
ATS3 and ClioSim3

TS3 Store Content a mix of bought items and free

Credits

QBuilderz for hosting this amazing contest. I have had a lot of fun thus far and look forward to Round 3.

For those who are having trouble with resizing images I recommend trying IrfanView. I downloaded it for free from the web and it's been a life saver (just Google it). It easily re sizes images and allows you to condense the files sizes using the Save for Web feature with out losing much quality.

Alrighty! Waiting on just ONE judge to finish up! Keep checking back for the scores, guys!

that's actually exactly what I was going to say. I love the batch re-size option, it's great for easily re-sizing and renaming a large amount of pictures :D

Plus freeware = awesome ^^b

Spacious three bedroom house featuring an at home spa, a sunken garden and a two-level pond complete with a waterfall.

I hope it's ok to have just one really small pic as a presentation. Roofs are hard even without weird shapes, but I put one on anyway. There is store content, but no CC.

Warning, there are a lot of Pictures!

Picture Sizes
 

I read missroxor comment regarding file sizes and pixel dimension, and I just thought that this might help.

The first thing I learnt was that I can control the pixel that I want my images to be at. So you can always set your image size to within the MTS guideline. This you can do from within the games option menu in the graphics option.
Here you can set he pixel dimension you want your game in. This will also ensure that all images and screen shots will fall within that. For me I have mine set to 1280x768 pixel. That is the window limit I set for my game and this indicates that any image I take using the inbuilt capure key or with an external image software like fraps will fall(the software I use) within this range. If I want a 800x600 pixel image from the game, all I net to do is set it to that from the options menu. Note this does not apply to using the Print key (this will capture everything on your screen including your desk top which means you have to resize).

Also,from my experience, I came to realize that most times, most of the large file size comes from using the capture key (c) in taking the screen shots that are required. When using the capture key, the file size are usually large. See the below image.

The left side shows the screen shot I took using fraps. If you look at the file size, they are way smaller than the 250kb maximum required. To the right are the images taken by screen capture key (c) and from the file size they are way too large.

So my guess is that some use the capture key (c) for taking their screen shots, and then decides to upload the images that way. Doing so is not recommended since the file size is large. If you use the inbuilt capture key (c), then you need to open the image with any image software that you use, and then resave the image. This will reduce the file size drastically without affecting your image quality. I use Infranwiew, Paint.net or Photoshop. Here is a re save I made using Paint.net

Circled is a before and after the re-save of the image. This reduced the size by much.You can always do this with any editing image software of your choice. Luckily, paint.net and Infranview are free.

I hope you find this useful.

@Sulyuki Love the fresh and vibrant feel to your build!