Faction design contest

The faction design contest was a competition run by Stardock, where GalCiv III players submitted their custom-made factions for a chance to win $1,000 and be included in the game as a minor race.

Submission
Players could submit their race in two ways:
 * As a mod, which allowed for more freedom in defining their race but required greater technical proficiency
 * As an in-game created race, which was more limited in options but required only the ability to use the in-game faction creation tool.

Judgment
Stardock chose eight finalists and four honorable mentions to be voted on by the community. Note that the factions were made for version Galactic Civilizations III Beta 6, so compatibility of the factions with newer versions is questionable with the links provided for those factions.

Finalists

 * Cladjinn Resistance by dbenndorf
 * Favixi by pendrokar
 * Jia Kuja Anomi by Dumhed
 * Spefields Society by dbenndorf
 * Asterit Crystals by Ronnar
 * Mirrion Symphony by Szkeptik
 * Orphica Enclave by Psiyon
 * Judgement of Karn by Earth Force Captain

Honorable Mentions

 * Derpanian Clutch by tjknapoleon
 * Galactic Simulations 3.0 by Boli_Delish
 * Masque by InquisitorFelix
 * Core Network by Inbasis

Voting
The community was able to vote for three of the eight finalists. At first, voters were also able to download the races. But due to announcing the finalists at about the same time as releasing a new version of the game caused incompatibility problems, so the links were removed. The top vote-getter, Orphica Enclave, was declared the winner.

Winner
The Orphica Enclave by Psiyon was judged the most worthy by the community. Psiyon won $1,000, and the Enclave will be included in Galactic Civilizations III as a minor faction.

Psiyon was also entered into the Hall of Fame along with previous Stardock contest winners.

Downloading the other factions

 * Favixi by pendrokar Steam Workshop