Tue 19th Jun 2012 | News
The winning entries to the Double Happy creature design contest on Game-Artist.net have been announced.
First of all the whole Double Happy team would like to express their admiration and joy at how the field of artists have all contributed to this competition. They've been blown away by the variety and quality of entries, and it has been great to see our fellow artists showing us how their art can still work within the universe we are creating for Double Happy vs The Infinite Sadness.
THE WINNER IS
VertexBee - who wowed us with the amount of thought, research, skill and polish that went into their entry. Stay tuned for more extensive critiques of all the work over at Game-Artist.net, but suffice to say that the only real problem we had with VertexBee's entry was that the bad guys look so cool that people might be cheering them on. As an Oolark Elite Guard, they would truly bring fear to all but the most stoic Shyala.
"The Oolarks are sure an interesting creatures and this is my depiction of them. I wanted to show a couple more thumbnails explaining possible fighting animations and typical oolark behavior and stuff but I run out of time. Anyway, great competition , thanks"
THE RUNNER UP is.
Barkal...who gave us a brilliant piece of visual narrative. In one image, we can see not only a fearsome predatory Oolark and their tools of death, but also the prey cringing in fear. The explanation of technology, both through the image and the accompanying text made great use of the brief and existing information about Pharos.
"hi guys, the story of the illustration: It is a snapshot of a moment IMO filled with lot of tension and danger. An oolark is hunting for shyalas in the marshs of the dead forest. its dark and deadly silent . one shyala with its baby has sensed the upcoming danger coming and hides under a big dead trunk. The irony of this scenery is that the holy bugs that are the source of light and energy (and therefore life itself ) are putting the lives of these two hiding shyalas dramatically in danger by almost giving away their hide-out. The shyalas are scared to death. The parent tries to cover the babies mouth with one hand not alllowing him to make a noise.
...and (in no particular order) the three artists who make up our top five...
ReganS...who made us shudder a bit, with a disturbing group of Oolark and Shyala concepts. These are beautifully detailed characters that took some cute proportions, and made them...well...not cute. The creature that the Raider is riding gave us sleepless nights.
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Allstar87...gave us a group of Shyala concepts that felt confident enough to survive in the swamps of Pharos, while also being vulnerable enough to be easy prey for the predatory Oolark. We liked the subtle, and low tech use of Glitzer Bugs in their everyday life and the fact that these guys really look well suited to their swampy environment.
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KozlowskiJakub...who gave us a less fearsome, but beautifully realised Oolark with some lowtech/hitech tools of the trade. A less polished entry, but nonetheless one that tells us a lot about the Oolarks, and how they hunt. We loved the lowtech looking night vision goggles. This and more of the entries are available over at the Double Happy contest pages on Game-Artist.net
The Judges and the Double Happy Team would like to thank EVERYONE ELSE...who gave us a wide range of designs, styles, themes, skillsets and quality. It has been great to see how inclusive Game-Artist is in regards to software usage and artistic interpretation of concepts. This is a really broad forum, and it has been awesome to see how you work as a community. Your comments to other entrants along the way have shown a respect for a wide range of styles and this is something that the Double Happy team are seeking in the future.
There are many worthy winners throughout the thread, and I'm sure that whoever you are, we have probably missed some of your favorites...this was a difficult job and it was impossible to cram all of our favorites into the top five. We will attempt to get some mini critiques out there over the next few weeks, your effort deserves some reward whether you made the winner's circle or not. In the meantime, stay tuned for the critiques of the winners, we will put them together as quickly as we can.
Once again, thank you all for entering...you have struck a blow against The Infinite Sadness.
There will be a lot happening in the Double Happy universe over the next few months, including more competitions, so come and join us in the next round of Double Happy madness. Register at Double Happy to keep up to date with coming competitions and news, and come join us on Facebook and Twitter.
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