Microsoft and developer Rare have teamed up to kick off a contest inviting gamers to take snapshots of their personal contraptions in Banjo- Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Rare is handpicking a grand total of seven of the very best creations and will award winners with “in-game immortality.” That means your design will be included in the official game, presumably through a title update, for all other players to see.

Rare will be judging creations based on sheer creativity and if you are thinking of paying homage to another product, be sure to do so in a way that does not infringe on copyrighted material or reference other works, as entries not abiding by this rule will be disqualified. The contest concludes on January 4, 2009 at 12 a.m. PST.

Full announcement is after the break.

Rare Contest To Reward Top Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts Creations With In-game Immortality

Twycross, Outskirts of Nowhere – Attention builders, racers, pilots and boat captains! One month after its worldwide release, “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” has flown, driven and sailed off store shelves and the response from the fan community has been overwhelming. Every day, the “Banjo-Kazooie” Showroom is flooded with new screenshots and blueprints of fan’s custom creations, so today Rare announced a contest to recognize the top seven user generated contraptions created in “Banjo- Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.”

Key members of the “Banjo” development team will be poring over the in-game photos uploaded to the web in a quest to track down the seven very best player-built contraptions. The reward? In-game immortality. The seven winners will experience bragging rights galore when their designs are integrated into the game for other “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” players to experience.

Additional details around the contest can be found on the official Web site at http://www.rare.co.uk/company/news_bkcomp.html

Once the team has made its selections, the contraptions’ creators will be contacted via their Gamertags and asked to send Rare their blueprints.

Contest Details:

* · To upload a screenshot of your creation to the official contest Web site:
o Press Start to access the Pause menu, select Photos and Replays, and then select Take Photo. Use the left and right sticks to position the camera, and then press A to take the picture. (Photo mode is available during single-player games or while watching replays.)
o Select Photos and Replays from the main menu in “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts”
o Select Open Photo Album, then My Photos
o Highlight a photo you wish to upload and press the Y button to upload it to banjo-kazooie.com
* The deadline for entries is Jan. 4, 2009, 12 midnight PST. This gives players the whole holiday to be creative
* Anyone with a copy of “Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” and an Xbox LIVE account can enter.
* Participants can enter as many contraptions and submit as many photos as they’d like; just remember that the cream always rises to the top
* Be creative! The Rare Judges are hard to impress and the creations that have already been posted to the web are outstanding, so competition is sure to be fierce
* Be careful! Contraptions that infringe on copyrighted material cannot be considered in this contest

The exact specifics of the reward will be shared in due time, so contestants should get busy, get creative, and get building!