Topic: 30th Anniversary (September) Sprite Contest

[Belmontoya]

Ok!

Well I made this like 4 years ago. hahaha.

But what the hell. I may as well share it here. I like the idea of the dragon still. It's the crest from the Order of the Dragon.

I wish I had the time to make something new!

[Shiroi Koumori]

Submissions are closed.
Please vote for the winner.
The judges can now submit their votes and thoughts.

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

So here we go...

Having reached a decision as to who I think is the winner of this contest was no easy feat. While there is usually quite a deal of subjectivity involved in art, there were actually quite a lot of details that I found could easily be quantifiable and measured for "superior" qualities and investments of time at a glance. However (and rather ironically), my greatest difficulty in deciding the winner of the contest was coming to the eventual realization that the participants that clearly (to my own eye) depicted renditions of a Castlevania logo that were more detailed than the others would not necessarily be the winner in my judgement. Such is the nature of subjectivity, but in fairness to the spirit of nature of the theme of the contest, my decision was largely based off imagining what, if any, of the logos could I see Konami executives choosing in a board meeting in an alternate universe 30 years ago.  Given this criteria, I feel that my choice for the first prize became much more intuitive and logical.

With this being said , here is my hierarchy in ascending order from 3rd to 1st place:

3rd place : Belmontoya
There is much that can be said for the quality of this rendition. The color palette was quite rich, and easily the most "high-def" of the submissions. Very reminiscent of not only the Castlevania Dungeon logo, but also the GBA titles.
While I could easily see this design in the context of the GBA games, what failed to win me over is that the art, while striking, seems to be living in the wrong era to me ; if anything, the high resolution makes the depiction seem too "modern" for the representative time period of 1986 art. With that being said, I still think this could have made for some amazing Castlevania title work.

2nd place :  Dracula9
As previously mentioned, I can tell that some of the submissions simply oozed not just with quality, but also showed a level of devotion that only a die-hard fan could match. This is one of those submissions that pained me to look at , but not for its lack of artistry ; for clearly, the references to the said "30 Years of Castlevania" make for a visually striking culmination of the origins of our favorite vampire-slaying saga. The pixelated and spritey feel are everything that encompasses Castlevania and then some!

However, if anything, I feel that this rendition, while a creative rendition in every respect, suffers from being too "busy" strictly as a logo. Having had to go through the process of logo design quite a few times, I am often reminded that the best logos are usually the "simplest" ones, at least from a marketing perspective. So while undoubtedly a heartfelt inspiration from all that Castlevania has had to offer throughout the past 30 years, I felt that I had to downgrade this entry to second place ; which is quite unfortunate, because I feel that quality wise this (in terms of the NES time period represented) this is easily 1st place material...

With that being said...

1st Place : ThePlotTwist

Firstly, evaluating this logo on the most basic level, it is everything one could expect to see on a NES in 1986. The feel is spot-on.
Simple, yes, but for me, this is very much beside the point when dealing with the "spirit" of this contest. (No pun intended). The logo very much encompasses what Castlevania could have been.

It's no secret that Castlevania itself is quite a mish-mash of classic horror villains--especially from classic films and flicks (or derivative of books).

The first three Castlevania games bear the classic cinematic film roll on the title screens as a sort of reference to this,  and Castlevnia 1 is especially noted for its allusions to even the classic actors who portrayed titular villains such as Dracula (C. Lee) and others. The fact that the original games themselves appear to be a collective homage to such clasic works make it seem totally viable that the games creators could have brainstormed the idea to make a title screen/ logo that made a direct reference to such old films. "Hey guys, let's make the logo like an old horror flick cover!"

It is for this reason that ThePlotTwist, in making the reference to the Bela Lugosi film, edged out the competition for this contest. It does the job simply and effectively, but maintains the essential elements of artistic fidelity to the 8-bit games, but also remains faithful to the spirit of the series roots ; namely being the collective works of fiction that inspired the game.

Overall, an exemplary job by all. I know that a lot of hard work went into these designs, and it is not my intention to seem critical of quality at all, because believe me, there is no issue of quality lacking in any of the designs at all.

Once again, great job everyone!

[theplottwist]

Yay thanks dude!

Not just Jazz Paladin, but everyone who joined the contest both by participating or voting!

[Belmontoya]

Nice work Plot!

I got 3rd place by default! LOL

I'll take it!

I wish I would of had time to make something new for the contest. But I'm sure the results would of still been the same anyways! :-P

Great work guys!

[BMC_War Machine]

I like them all  but damn man, Drac9, sorry dude.  If i had more time to get on i would've voted yours.  Not anything negative whatsoever to the other contestants, Drac9's was my favorite.  I think the coolest part was how you have simon in the logo on the top right 

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

I wish I would of had time to make something new for the contest. But I'm sure the results would of still been the same anyways! :-P

I plan on making a few other CD's available for contests in the future...maybe we can see about getting a larger window of time for those...

[Belmontoya]

You're still going strong in my iTunes mix brother.

Love that jazz...

[Shiroi Koumori]

Tally of the votes so far:
          D9         plot          belmontoya
Poll     2            4                1         
Jazz    2            4                1
Bloo
total

I'll wait a few more days for Bloo to submit his comments before formally announcing the winners.

And stay tuned for the next contest.

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I'm sorry I don't write as much as other judges I'm not good with words. ._.


1rd place: theplottwist
Simplicity wins here. There isn't too much to look at here, and it's easy to tell what's what. The old horror movie aspect of the logo fits Castlevania perfectly, and I feel it does reflect on what the series was originally about. The colour contrast is easy on the eyes. The winner, of course, however, it was a tough choice.

2st place:  Dracula9
This was defenitely a tough choice here. The choice of colour looks great, and the logo defenitely is Castlevania. However, there's simply too much to look at here. While I can still easily tell what's what, it's still kind of cluttered. The "30 Years of" at the top seems tacked on.

3nd place: Belmontoya
This just doesn't feel Castlevania, really. It almost looks like it belongs in an older flash game. While not bad, I feel the balance is really off. The use of fancy effects didn't really help either. The "C" looks really weird.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Thanks Bloo!
So here we go with the final tally.

          D9         plot          belmontoya
Poll     2            4                1         
Jazz    2            4                1
Bloo    2            4                1
total    6           12               3

1st place= theplottwist
2nd place= Dracula9
3rd place= belmontoya

Congratulations to theplottwist for winning this one! Please contact Jazz Paladin Productions on how to get your free Jazzyvania CD.