If you’re any kind of gamer, then you’ve likely experienced many of those ‘perfect’ moments in battle, where hours of careful planning, resource management, strategic positioning, and no small amount of luck have culminated into a brilliant conflagration of fire, explosions, and righteous victory against those who oppose you. Or maybe by some random, unexpected twist of events, you’ve witnessed a military blunder of such epic proportions that the only proper way to articulate it would be through a well-timed screenshot. Sword of the Stars is an excellent prospect for moments like these thanks to the ship customization options, the wide range of unique weapons available, and (most importantly) the detailed graphics engine powering the game’s Newtonian-based 3D combat scenes, so why not exploit these traits with a simple contest?

What do I need to do?

It’s easy: Send us a screenshot. Preferably, a really awesome screenshot. While a basic image of a half-dozen Tarka Destroyers shooting lasers into a planet might be enough to get the attention of your epileptic grandmother, we’d really like to see something that stands out. Something that you don’t see very often in the game, like all six of the game’s races participating in the same battle at once, or a fleet of cruisers trying to tow an Asteroid Monitor into a planet using tractor beams. Try and be creative, but don’t forget the basics either – even glitzy images of beam weapons discharging from all angles can look amazing if taken at the right angle.

Submit your images by emailing them in . You can submit as many screenshots as you like. The contest is also open world-wide, so everyone is eligible!

How do I make pictures?

A good approach would be to make use of the game’s free-roaming camera function (Ctrl+C by default), which lets you pull the camera from the action and move it anywhere you want via the arrow keys. You can then use Page Up, Page Down, Insert, and Delete to elevate and rotate the camera for the best shot. Once you have an image, simply hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard to create a screenshot which will then be placed in your Sword of the Stars installation folder.

Note that the game creates images in the somewhat-beefy TGA format by default, so please, please compress them to something a bit more portable before emailing your submissions. The ever-popular JPG format would be the most ideal, and you can re-save the image in this format with free tools like Microsoft Paint (built into Windows) or IrFanView .

What can I win?

Up for grabs are three possible Sword of the Stars bundles, including a copy of the original game, the Born of Blood and (just released) A Murder of Crows expansions, and a release of the first official novel based on the Sword of the Stars universe, The Deacon’s Tale. The three possible winners will be contacted through the return email address used in their submission emails, so make sure these are accurate (and check those spam filters!). Contest winners and their images will also have the privilege of being posted here, of course.

But wait – I don’t own any of the games! How can I still be eligible for the contest?

Don’t worry! Submissions from the freely-available demo version of the game will also be accepted, so think of this as a great chance to finally snag the complete game bundle, free of charge. send us your screenshots and win a free copy of Sword of the Stars, Born of Blood, A Murder of Crows, and the first official Sword of the Stars novel, The Deacon’s Tale. What could be easier? If you’ve been waiting for a chance to check out the latest additions that the Sword of the Stars series has to offer, now is the perfect opportunity.