The Small Worlds contest
Imagina's first community event. Build one small world between September 7 and October 7, then the community votes.
Imagina's first community event is a world building contest. It runs from September 7 to October 7.
Pick one of the two themes below, build a small world, and publish it. Every entry is held to the same budget, so size is not what wins.
New to building?
A Small Worlds entry is about a weekend of work. The budget below is small on purpose, so this is a reasonable first thing to build.
The two themes
Pick one of the two. You get one entry, so choose the theme that fits what you want to build.
One Place
Pick somewhere and never leave. A house, a ship, a school, a walled town.
Rooms, decks, wings and districts are all fine. The story just stays inside the place you chose.
The rule: one setting, at most five sublocations, and at most six NPCs. Nothing bigger than a city.
Trust No One
Three companions, and one of them is lying to you.
Allies, rivals, lovers, a crew, a court. Whoever they are, one of them is not telling you the truth about why they are here.
The rule: three to six NPCs, and at least one of them carries a hidden truth.
The Small Worlds budget
On top of your theme's rule above, every entry is held to this:
| What | Limit |
|---|---|
| NPCs | up to 6, and at least 3 for Trust No One |
| Locations | up to 5 sublocations for One Place, up to 4 for Trust No One |
| World trackers | 6 |
| Endings | 3 |
Everything else is up to you. If an entry comes in slightly over budget while entries are still open, we will ask you to trim it.
Ask Ima is free during the event
For the length of the event, Ask Ima in the world builder is free on LongCat. Pick LongCat in the model selector at the bottom of the Ask Ima panel and it will be marked as free.
It is useful for testing a premise before you commit to it, and for checking whether your cast actually sounds like different people.
How to enter
- Build and publish your world between September 7 and October 7.
- Submit it through the entry form. This is the only channel that counts as an entry. A world posted on Discord but never submitted through the form will not be judged.
- Optionally, post it in the world-sharing channel on our Discord. Not required, but it is where people will find it early.
Conditions for entry
- Your world must be published. A draft cannot be played, so it cannot be judged.
- It must be first published inside the event window, September 7 to October 7. Existing worlds do not qualify.
- SFW only. Adult worlds are not eligible for this event.
- Original work. No real people, and no characters or settings from existing franchises.
- One entry per creator.
- Submitted through the entry form before the deadline.
- Admins decide eligibility. We check every entry against its theme rule and the budget before it reaches the vote, and that decision is ours. Ask on Discord if you are unsure whether something qualifies.
Free play during the vote
Until October 18 at 01:00 UTC, story turns on every admitted entry are free with LongCat 2.0 or LongCat 2.5 Preview. Pick one in the model picker when you start a journey.
Everything else keeps its usual price: memory, images, read aloud and the Storyteller chat.
Voting
Voting runs until October 18 at 01:00 UTC, on the entries page.
- Rank your three favorite entries, first to third. Both themes share one ballot.
- First place is worth 3 points, second 2 and third 1.
- You can change your ballot until voting closes.
- You cannot rank your own entry.
- To vote, your account must have been created by October 8 at 23:59 UTC and have a verified email address.
- Rank a full top three and you get 200 credits once voting closes.
We check the ballots before results. Votes from fake or duplicate accounts are removed.
How the winners are chosen
- The five entries with the most points become the finalists. If the last spot is tied, the jury settles it.
- The jury, Aranom and Naoki, plays every finalist.
- The jury picks the top three and their order.
Results are announced here and on Discord a couple of days after voting closes.
Prizes
The top three entries across both themes each get:
- One month of Imagina Pro. If you are already subscribed, you get 25,000 credits instead.
- 10,000 credits.
- A contest badge on your profile.
- A featured spot on the home page for three weeks, with a landscape cover we make for your world.
The winner also leads the large banner at the top of the home page for at least three weeks.
Every creator who entered a published world gets the Small Worlds participant badge. Creators whose entry was admitted also get 1,000 bonus credits, whether they place or not.
Where the event happens
Entries go through the entry form. Discord is where everything else happens: questions, ideas you want a second opinion on, and creators showing what they are working on.
Posting your world there is encouraged but never required, and it has no bearing on eligibility.