There have been a few changes to the Black Pearl and Golden Apple coats over the past week, including the introduction of some brand new items that you can submit illustrations for. Here's an overview of how the Black Pearl now works.The Black Pearl now lets you submit illustrations for Golden Apple coats (as before), Helios's Ray (backgrounds for your horses' pages) and the Horn of Gold (coats for the companions).
The Black Pearl costs 2 passes and you need 5 karma points to be able to use it.
Creation of illustrations
To create a new illustration, you can use any computer graphics editing software such as Paint, Photoshop or Gimp. You're not allowed to just submit a photograph - it must be an illustration or drawing and it must be your own work - don't copy it from anywhere or you risk having your account suspended. Make your illustrations as life-like or imaginary as possible.
If you're not sure where to start, many Howrse players provide outlines of horses (line art) that they've given their permission for other people to use and submit as coats. Check out the Black Pearl - free line art forum post if you'd like to use one. So you could start with of these and just colour it in any way you like!
To send your illustrations, you must use the templates provided by Howrse:
- for the Golden Apple
- for Helios's Ray
- A black frame marks the position of the horse to help you position your landscape properly
- The frame and the horse it contains must be erased before you send your illustration
- for the Horn of Gold
- The top frame is for the awake Companion
- The bottom frame is for the sleeping Companion
Your image must be placed on the transparent space on the provided template. You must not change the size or format of this template.
Make sure you follow Howrse's instructions or your artwork may not be accepted. You must save your work as a .PNG file.
Publishing your illustration
Now, when you send in your illustration via the Black Pearl, it won't be published right away.
Firstly, Howrse will check it to see if it meets all the criteria for submission and then it will be sent to the Creation Space for other players to vote on it.
If your illustration wins the vote then it will be published on all versions of Howrse at the end of the month (including the different language versions). You will also earn passes as your illustration is used by players - see our post on the Creation Space to learn how much you can get.
If your illustration doesn't win the vote then it will appear again in the Creation Space the following month to allow players to vote for it again. If after 3 months, it still doesn't pass the vote, it will be removed.
If your illustration doesn't get voted on to the game then you will get back the passes you spent on the Black Pearl. However, if your coat isn't accepted because it doesn't fit Howrse's criteria - which can be found on the Black Pearl page you won't get your passes back - so be careful!
Good luck with your illustration submissions and let us know how you get on.
Lucy
