Contribution page

“

Think you're good at making TF2 items and avatars? Better even than the people who design the game? Here's the thing: you're probably right. And believe us, this knowledge haunts us every day. Gabe Newell's just an email away, after all. What if you ratted us out?

— TF2 Contribution Page.^[1]

”

The contribution page on the TF2 Official Website was designed to incorporate the creativity of the community into the gameplay of Team Fortress 2. This does not, however, mean that players can choose the effects or statistics of their content. All item submissions are reviewed in order to maintain consistency and quality content, and are only incorporated by the Team Fortress 2 team so as not to cause any unbalance in the game. Avatars, however, have to be flagged if not related to Team Fortress 2 by the community. Accepted contributions are Steam avatars, weapon models, and hat models.

Submission guidelines

File:ColorPalette.gif

Color swatch to follow when creating hats.

To sustain the visual style of the game, the Team Fortress 2 team has established a few submission guidelines. All of the following should be used when designing and submitting your items:

Theme
- 1950's style design
- Maintains character personality and bio
Modeling techniques
- Realistic but slightly skewed proportions to add visual draw
- Details may be over or underscaled
- Keep it simple and clean
Texturing techniques
- Maintain texture quality; nothing higher or lower res than what is next to it.
- Hats are to use team specific or neutral colors
- Textures should be simple and not a distraction.
Technicals
- Hat models under 800 polygons
- Weapon models under 8000 polygons
- Textures no larger than 512x512 pixels, 256x256 being preferred
- Steam avatars must be 184x184 pixels and saved in .JPG format
- Source files must be included for models and materials.
- Thumbnails and in-game images must be 256x256 pixels.