Making Better Designs
The CS: GO workshop community constantly amazes us with weapon finishes and stickers of increasingly high quality. We have currently shipped over 70 tool submissions made by the community and all together, CS: GO weapon finish creators have earned over $3 million, with each complete earning over $40, 000 on average.
Since shipping the first community case, we've gathered and responded to a variety of contributor questions. Common questions include "how do I get my submission in a case? ", and "what can I do better to get my work noticed? ". These are useful questions to answer for all contributors, so we've outlined our answers in the form of contributor tips below:
Tips for Contributors
Submit only top quality designs that were made by you. The entirety of the submission must be your creation; no clip art. It must be original content and if the work is the result of collaboration then every contributor must be listed in the contributor revenue share. The designs that you submit should be of high quality in execution. Showing your process is a great way to stand out and demonstrate the quality and originality of your work.
For system finishes, consider making finishes for weapons that have few good quality submissions. Some weaponry don’t have a lot of premium quality finishes submitted for them (Duel Berettas and Negev for example). Making high quality original finishes for those guns is great way to be noticeable and increase you chances of making it into a case. Keep in mind each item in a situation gets an equal share of the revenue.
Vary the techniques, themes and finish types, and try to experiment with new ones. When putting together cases and capsules we look for items that vary in technique as well as theme. Technique is the type of artwork that is used. Graphic patterns and hand painted designs are examples of different techniques. Example for themes would be finishes that look Sci-fi or Military. If you are making finishes for a particular weapon you may want to make one with a technique or theme that is under-represented, or hasn't been attempted yet. Certain types of surface finishes are also underrepresented in the workshop. In particular coatings that allow for flexibility in the way a pattern is applied to a gun. These offer players a chance to get a unique version of a equipment finish.
Don't fixate on bold styles. Cases and capsules also contain models that vary in saturation and contrast. Currently on the class we see many high contrast highly saturated designs. These patterns can be identified from a distance but equally important are designs that are subtle enough to only be noticed when held, as different gamers have different preferences when it comes to broadcasting their spy tools finish choice. Try making designs that vary in saturation and contrast. Sometimes making a subtle design is actually harder than a bold one.
Don't forget about popularity. Getting your finish upvoted and also noticed is a great way to demonstrate desirability along with collect feedback that will help you iterate on it. One of the factors we use to gauge community interest is the popularity of a submission.
Hopefully this information is helpful when you are creating decisions on what to work on. We look forward to seeing even more amazing work from the CS: GO Community.