General

What do I get for winning?

Every winning artist will receive 6x copies of their final items, and 10,000 Earned Gold per design. You can read more about Earned Gold here. Collaborating duos will split the prize evenly: each designer in a collab will receive 3x copies of their finished item, and 5,000 Earned Gold apiece.

Additionally, every item you design will have your name in the "Inspired By" field in-app! You'll also have access to your very own Designer Profile on our website, where you can customize collections, backgrounds, and favorites.

What if my item is featured in a sale?

If your design is sold via in-app purchase for cash (Wednesday Wonder, Friday Fling, Event-related specials), you will be awarded an additional 25,000 Earned Gold bonus. Combined with your 10,000 Earned Gold compensation, this will enable you to immediately redeem your Earned Gold for real cash, as you need at least 35,000 EG to withdraw your funds.

How does compensation work for recolors?

Occasionally, our team will edit your design with a variety of different color schemes. You may end up with anywhere from 1-10 different versions of your final item design!

In these cases, we'll send you 6x copies of each new recolored item.

Since compensation is structured on a per-design basis, we'll send send you 10,000 Earned Gold per item design regardless of how many recolored versions we create.

What's the difference between Highrise Concepts and a Design Contest?

Concepts empowers not only our artists, but our entire community, to shape the direction of all Highrise art. An updated scoring system gives everyone a better chance to influence a Concept’s winning designs, and by sharing our staff’s designs before they’re released, we can dissolve the boundaries between “official” and community designs. Concepts lets everyone share in the experience of creating and watching as your favorite items travel from idea to your closet.

Uploading & Voting

I want to support my friend's design by voting for them. How do I find a specific submission?

Every artist needs an audience who supports their creative endeavors! However, Concepts is not about seeking out specific entries. Rather, the feature was designed to help level the playing field and prevent any design from rising to the top based on the popularity of the designer. 

All Concept entries will randomize during voting, so if you want to support someone specific, keep on voting until you find it!

I want to base my design on my favorite anime/video game character. Is that allowed?

In general, we advise against the use of images exactly depicting copyrighted looks, and suggest steering clear of item-for-item recreations of existing characters' outfits. You can feel free to take inspiration from existing media, however.

One way to think of it is that we won't be able to make a design displaying a well known character, but we could make outfit items designed for a non-existent character one could imagine existing in that universe.

Can I enter the same design into multiple concurrent Concepts at the same time? What happens if one of them wins?

First, yes, you can enter the same design into several Concepts at once, as long as it suits the Concept's theme & rules. (For example, enter your design for a strawberry hat into both a "Fruity" Concept and a "No-Theme" Concept.)

We review top-voted entries for Concepts in chronological order. If your entry wins, we'll simply declare it the winner of the first Concept to end. If it wins multiple concurrent Concepts, we'll simply skip over it for subsequent Concept.

What's your policy on AI art?

AI can be a powerful aid in finding inspiration. While we allow the use of AI to help you come up with design ideas, your final Concept submissions should be your own, original work.

AI entries will be removed prior to voting. Please flag any entry you're uncertain about, and our team will take a look.

My design was shadow banned on the newsfeed. Is it shadow banned in the Concept as well?

Nope! The newsfeed and Concepts use different filtering tools. When an image is blocked from the newsfeed, this does not affect the Concept upload.

When an image is blocked from Concepts, the upload will simply not go through. If you see the "upload successful" screen, that is confirmation it has been submitted.

If you get an error during your upload, or are booted back to the submission page, that means your image wasn't accepted by our filter. You may contact support for help with getting your submission uploaded.

Why are some people allowed to win Concepts back-to-back?

Concepts are open to everyone, regardless of previous wins.

Rookies, veterans, staff, players, your cat: everyone has an equal chance of winning a Concept.

Prior to September 2022, we did not allow consecutive wins. However, frequent wins are an indicator that a designer is doing something right: and we want to enable our creators to make as much as they want to.

We're continuing to expand opportunities for all designers to participate in the art creation process; so if you haven't won yet, don't give up! There's something out there for everybody ^-^

Creature Club

Can I design items that match the HCC aesthetic?

Creature Club is a special entity within Highrise: we don't allow any use of HCC-branded iconography in our regular Concepts.

Similarly, we also do not support redesigns of HCC content. Let the creatures be creatures, and you be you.

Can I design a Pet for a single-item Concept?

Pets are also special beings! If you design a winning pet-type item, it would be released as a regular "buddy" -type aura item. Animated Pets, like Owls or Slime Kitties, are not available as subject matter in our Concepts.

But I see player-inspired items associated with the Highrise Creature Club! How can I design for HCC?

Join the club! There are plenty of design opportunities outide of Concepts. Find yourself a Creature or a Land Pet, join our HCC Discord, and chat with the community and staff about other ways to get involved.

Redesign Concepts

For Redesign Concepts, can I redesign my own collab entry? Can I collab with a different person to redesign my collab entry?

You may only redesign a player-made Highrise item if your name is in the Inspired By field, or if the item is by an artist on the Open Redesigns List.

You cannot bring new collaborators into a redesign of a previous collab entry; likewise, any redesigns of items on the Open Redesign List must be solo efforts.

You may redesign any collab work as a solo entry for future redesign concepts. Any successful redesign that you make solo, however, will retain the original duo's attribution. Additionally, all prizes will be shared equally with your previous collab partner.

Can I redesign a player-made item if I have permission from the original designer?

You may only redesign a player-made item if your name is in the "Inspired By" attribution field, or if the item is by a designer on the Open Redesigns List.

If a player was banned, or is no longer active, can I redesign their items?

Nope! Authorship persists when a user decides to leave Highrise. If a player has been permanently removed from Highrise, all items will be attributed to the generic "Player Designed" profile.

I want to redesign an item, and I THINK it's player-made, but it has no attribution. Can I redesign it?

Reach out to our Support team if you're unsure, and we can help verify an item's origin for you.

Item Creation

Can I choose my item's Rarity and whether it's in a grab, rewards, etc.?

Designers have control over an item's aesthetics, how it layers, and naming. The HR Team will determine Rarity, pricing, release channel (grab, sale, collection, gift), tradability, and whether it gets recolors or not.

I'm having trouble with artist who's working on my items. What can I do?

We want to make sure your designs turn out perfect! Our team has dozens of years of collective experience working in game art, so we'll do our best to translate your style into the HR style. If there are any hiccups in production along the way, we'll be sure to clarify technical issues and potential workarounds, and consult you for input if we reach a criticial decision point.

Please reach out to Support or a LiveOps staff member on Discord if you continue to run into trouble, and we'll be happy to help.

How do I get into the Designer Discord channel?

In our Highrise Discord Server lives a private channel for all winning Concept designers. To be added, you must win a Highrise Concept, or have one of your designs handpicked by staff and made into a real item.

The channel membership refreshes every couple of months, so be sure to join our Discord server to ensure we add you at the next refresh!

Unusual Cases

My collaborating partner is the one with access to the Concept Messenger, and they were banned/sick/unavailable! What do I do?

Please reach out to Support! We'll help get you set up with a new Messenger conversation so that you can still participate in the item creation process.

My collaborating partner was banned, or is no longer active. Can I get their split of the prize items & Earned Gold?

Nope! If you enter a member of a collaborating duo, you will receive one half of the total prize, regardless of your partner's activity prior to release.

I'm a solo designer. Can I enter my own item as a collab with myself? Ie, submit an entry as my main account and my side account?

Right now, we only support collabs between two individuals. Since you're one person, you'll enter your submission under one account.

I commissioned someone to make art for me. Can I submit it as my own entry?

Can I collab with a member of staff?

Yes! We love to work closely with designers, and wholeheartedly collaborative working relationships with our art community.

Staff members who win Concepts will have items attributed to them. For full transparency, concept-winning staff artists do receive their items, but they do not receive Earned Gold.