Monopoly City Streets Hosts 3-D Design Competition

Summer’s nearly over, and with kids back in school and vacation season quickly coming to a wrap, most of us are in “back to the old grind” mode. If you’re up for one last fling, here’s a fun diversion with a 3-D design twist: Toy giant Hasbro, in partnership with Google is hosting a 3-D design competition around their new game, Monopoly City Streets, an online multi-player game that uses Google Maps as the actual game board.

The game, which launched this week to thunderous demand (enough so that the servers crashed yesterday on opening day), lets players around the globe compete against each other in the traditional Monopoly fashion. Yet the online/Google Maps twist means they  can buy any street in the world and build not only houses and hotels, but stadiums, castles, even skyscrapers in their quest to become the reigning real estate champion.

To accompany the roll out, Google and Hasbro are teaming up on a design competition where people can compete to have their building designs incorporated into the new game. They’re looking for three new pieces to be included as part of the game. There’s also a chance to win a Google SketchUp Pro 7 license, a $495 value.  Deadline to submit your entry is Sept. 27, 2009 at midnight, EST.

Here’s how to participate: Design your 3-D building model in Google SketchUp and upload it to the Google 3D Warehouse, marking it so it’s entered into the competition. The winners will be announced on Oct. 6 and the winning buildings will make their official debut in the game later in the month.