“One small step for one, one giant leap for Spore-kind.”

Yesterday was a huge day for NASA as well as mankind in general – it was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moonlanding.  Maxis wants to celebrate the occasion with a new Spore Contest they kicked off, the Apollo 11 Adventure Challenge!  Read on what MaxisCactus has to say:

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the moon. Millions tuned in to watch the historic event on TV as the new frontier was first explored by people. Find out more about the famous voyage here.

40 years later, to celebrate that momentous occasion, we’re opening the Apollo 11 Adventure Challenge! Create an adventure from our lunar template creation: The Moon.

Make it realistic, with goals such as planting scientific equipment on the surface and collecting samples, or create an entirely new version of the events, such as encountering alien life, or trekking to the dark side of the moon.

To edit the template, save this png and drag it into your Sporepedia, or view the adventure on Spore.com and click “Download Adventure”.

We’ll post our favorite adventures here for you to vote on a winner.

What will the challenge winner get?

Glory of course… and a chance to be featured on Spore.com!

Your adventure:

  • must be an edited version of this template adventure
  • must not contain other authors (aside from MaxisSpore) in the lineage
  • must not have any links or references to other sites in the submission’s tags, name, or description

Submissions that do not meet the above criteria will not be considered for a feature

Additional Requirements:

  • To submit an adventure: publish it with the tag mcapollochallenge.
  • You can submit as many adventures as you’d like
  • All submissions must be in by 11:00 AM PST Tuesday (08/07/09)

Optional:

  • Post a link to your adventure
  • Post screenshots from your adventure
  • Post YouTube movies of your adventure

Challenge FAQ
How was the moon template created?
The USGS Astrogeology research program has published various topographic maps of the lunar surface. Spore’s Kate Compton used bump maps created by artist Robert Johnston from the USGS data to recreate a planet that looks like the Earth’s moon! She added a couple extra craters to make the surface more interesting, so you may want to think of this as “the moon, but after an especially heavy Leonid shower”.

Is contact from Earth required, or can we just use the template to create a moon-based adventure? Does the landing need to occur in the adventure?
You do not need to contact earth. Please keep in mind that the spirit of this challenge is to remember Apollo 11, but that is widely open to your interpretation. You don’t need to include the landing in your adventure.

Does the captain have to be the astronaut? Can we use him/her in the adventure?
You can change the captain, and make it locked or unlocked. The template uses a locked astronaught captain, but you’re welcome to change this aspect of the adventure.

Will there be a Sporecast of the entry creations?
If you make one there will be!