Congratulations to all the artists who entered our Guns of Icarus Online character design contest on DeviantArt. Here are the final selections, and our thoughts on them.
First Place: ~VinzentVoight’s “Red Coat Girl”
Not only was the submission well drawn and professionally presented, the costume took pseudo-Victorian styles and added a bit of grittiness, like the holes in the stockings and the stained white dress. Combine that with the unique design of the red coat, and you have quite an appealing captain costume.
Second Place: ~Bijutsu-san’s “Red Engineer with Gas Mask”
Things we liked:The baroque styling of his accessories, such as the sculpted faces on his metal kneepads and mask, were an interesting, creative touch and totally scream steampunk. His costume features the pouches and heavy gloves that follow our existing engineer motifs; it’s fairly easy to discern his class at a glance.
Third Place: Astra Wijaya’s “Dark Engineer”
Things we liked: Nice and grungy. One can picture him in the engine room. One of the nice things about this character was his facemask/monocular scope combination, because it looks like it actually serves a purpose as a self-constructed respirator. Again, pouches and utility belts are a running theme with the engineer class. The pads on his knees, elbows, and shoulders all match.
Honorable Mention: ~Ana-TheCreator’s “Steampunk Engineer Lady”
Things we liked: Some of the details on this costume were very well designed, and struck a nice balance between aesthetics and practicality that feels just about right for a comely young engineer working on a steampunk airship. Steampunk costume cliches like the under-bust corset are modified to fuction more like a tool belt, accessories like a headband with earflaps echo historical aviation fashions, and the pouches affixed to her legs are anchored with little gear buttons. As with the “Red Engineer,” the armored accents have a nice antique vibe to their design. Also, even though this has no bearing on the actual costume itself, the constrast between the large wrench and skinny, long-haired girl is quite charming.
Special NPC: Astra Wijaya’s “Very Important Person/The Mayor”
Things we liked: What can we say? This character, whom we nicknamed “The Mayor” was probably the single most talked about entry. One of the primary goals of character design is to evoke aspects of the character’s personality, to establish the character through visual cues. The designer should make interesting characters that inspire the viewer to invest themselves in the story. The fact that some of us started doing his voice, and describing scenes in which you would have to provide passage for this fussy, important person who knew very little about airship travel and quite a lot about ordering people about, indicates that the artist was able to accomplish this feat quite well.
Prizes –
Winners:
- Concept art be made into final in-game costume
- Developer credit in Guns of Icarus Online
- Five free copies of Guns of Icarus Online
- One Guns of Icarus Online t-shirt
- One copy of Guns of Icarus Online poster
- Advance game sneak peaks
Finalists:
- Credit in Guns of Icarus Online
- Three free copy of Guns of Icarus Online
- One copy of Guns of Icarus Online poster
- Advance game sneak peaks