Topic: March 2015 Castlevania Dungeon Sprite Contest

[Shiroi Koumori]

Duration: From now until March 31st
Deadline for submissions: March 28th (11:59 PM PST)
Judgement: by tribunal and popular vote from March 28th to March 31st at midnight and Winners announced on the morning of April 1st (or earlier if the judges are already done)

Volunteer Judges: Donvermicelli, theANdROId

Theme: "Castlevanize" a character from another videogame
Prizes: Award medals for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners.

Guidelines for Participants:
-Provide your sprite in 1x and 2x zoom at least if your sprite is small. (High resolutions sprites need not have a 2x version)
-The character should be drawn in the sprite style and proportions of CV
-It is okay to make alterations so long as the character itself is recognizable (write who is the basis of your character)
-OPTIONAL: try and choose characters that are dissimilar enough to provide adequate challenge
-Contestants may update their entries freely before the submission deadline.
-You may withdraw any entry at any time before the judgement begins.

Important info: Due to some controversy regarding the use of sprites from other members from our contest be sure to mention from now on if you want your final entry to be open-sourced or not. Meaning other members can or cannot use your sprites for their projects! (Just so we are clear.)

Guidelines for Judges:
-Judgement will use a point system.
-4 points awarded for your first place choice.
-2 points awarded for your second place choice.
-1 point for your third place choice.
-When posting your scores write up an explanation/critique of your judgement.
-Additional rounds of judgement will be used for tie breakers.
-Judges cannot participate in the contest.
-There will be a poll to vote for the most popular sprite and this popular vote would serve as an extra judge.

Entries:
Jop: (if someone want to use Jop's sprites, pm him first)
1. Rune Walsh from Phantasy Star IV The End of the Millennium

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Here is a image of the character:

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2. Isaac Clarke from Dead Space 1st place

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I based the sprite with this image:

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for the contest its only the 2nd and the 3rd, the 1st its the same as the image, later I changed to make looks like more like an armor instead of space suit (Just a Little), the 2nd and the 3rd are the same, the only changes are the weapons, one have a laser Axe and the other have a Laser whip.

3. Wren from Phantasy Star IV The End of the Millennium

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4. Journey

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http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120324152638/journeygame/images/f/fc/-Journey-PS3-_.jpeg

e105beta:
Knight Artorias 3rd place

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I never even realized we had sprite contests.
I'm still a bit unsure of the acceptance criteria, but I think I've whipped up something that fits in with the Castlevania asthetic:


I almost exclusively stick to Fire Emblem-esqe palettes and styling, so this is a bit of a venture for me.
EDIT: Not from the game itself, but I used this for reference:

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EDIT: This can be open-sourced. I have no aspirations of ever making this hobby monetary, lol.

darkmanx_429:
Raziel - Legacy of Kain SOTN-Styled

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NOT open-source

Dracula9:
1. Legacy of Kain - Kain, SotN-styled 2nd place

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Entered as public domain, with the request than any who may want to use it contact me so I'm aware.

2. Servbot, Megaman Legends

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Entered as public domain, with the request than any who may want to use it contact me so I'm aware.

Kokushibyō:
Zero, from MegaMan X2 converted to SotN style with a Pkachu familar.

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[Shiroi Koumori]

Please comment if there are things that I've missed writing on the guidelines.

And I need volunteer judges!

[theANdROId]

I don't think you meant for judgment to last from Feb 28 until March 31! ;-)

Also, to be clear...one can take a games original sprite and alter that to match this month's theme...yes?  I'm sure the end result would both resemble the original character, as well as be significantly different enough to be "original" in a sense.  That's how I'm understanding the allowance for alterations, but I don't want to take all the time to do that if I'll end up DQ'd.

[Jop]

Question:
1) It have to be the other game in pixel or can be from a game on 3D? I can think that the Castlevania in 3D dosnt count since they are castlevania but Im saying from other games.

2) I dont know if I dont understand the part of "Castlevanize", its to make the sprite art of a Castlevania or its to grab a character from another game and add power and stile of a character from the Castlevania?

Sorry if my questions are stupid but Im not sure of thats things and its better to ask.

[Shiroi Koumori]

@Android: re. the date, oops. hehe

And for the clarifications on the theme....
You may copy a sprite from another game and do some edits on it to make that character fit in with the Castlevania world. Or you make make your own sprite based on the original character (this would be the only option if you're using a 3D character) while adding Castlevania elements.

[darkmanx_429]

What constitutes the  criteria of fitting within the Castlevania wold?

Are you guys looking more towards sprite style (because if that's the case we really don't have a template for that and it depends on which CV game that you choose), adding accessories (i.e whip,), or both?

Maybe we should narrow it down, because it sounds to me that we are going to have entries that are all over the place....

[uzo]

Are you guys looking more towards sprite style (because if that's the case we really don't have a template for that and it depends on which CV game that you choose), adding accessories (i.e whip,), or both?

If it was done in a CV game, it's fair game. That is how I interperate it. Whether its the NES trilogy, Bloodlines, CV4/X86/DraculaX+, CotM, HoD (why would anyone, lol), AoS, the DS Trilogy, or Haunted Castle.

I would imagine it is up to you to pick what you think will end up looking the best. Personally I'd recommend going with DraculaX+ (meaning any game using the style started in Dracula X). People tend to like the level of detail, and dislike the anime outlines of the DS trilogy.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Exactly what uzo said, and yes, we prefer detailed sprites based on past contests.

[Dracula9]

I interpret the criteria as, for example, taking Zero from the Mega Man series, altering his armor and design to fit the overall medieval and gothic look of Castlevania, replacing his Z Saber with, say the Crissaegrim, and then spriting that in an appropriate style.

Stuff like that.

[kaonstantine]

I just want to share my opinion...

I was thinking on a form of spriting based on a personal interpretation, beyond "SOTN style" or "AoS Style" or "DraculaX Style" etc.

What i meant by "Castlevanize": "Do whatever you want to any character you want, so, that customized character becomes castlevanized" (whatever the term castlevanized means to you). The idea (at least, the original idea) more than making a "foreigner" character fitting the style of a particular castlevania title, is about interpretation. Show how your mind (and artistic skills, of course ) is "affected" after years and years of exposure to castlevania titles 

Want to take a Mario sprite and "paint" an Alucard suit over it? Fine, do it

I interpret the criteria as, for example, taking Zero from the Mega Man series, altering his armor and design to fit the overall medieval and gothic look of Castlevania, replacing his Z Saber with, say the Crissaegrim, and then spriting that in an appropriate style.

Yeah, do it if that's what you want. ¿Are you interested in having Chun Li seated on the Dracula's throne? Go for it!

Maybe we should narrow it down, because it sounds to me that we are going to have entries that are all over the place....

This was the most important goal to me: Variety of entries. "Oh, but this is going to be difficult to Judge". Yeah, But it could be fun. Well, that was my intention behind the "Castlevanize" thing. I know it is not the most compatible idea with the sort of contests that had taken place recently in the forum.   We'll see how this idea takes form.

[Dracula9]

Oh, that's not actually what I plan on doing, it's just an example of how I interpreted the criteria.

[darkmanx_429]

ROFL, that's why I asked...lol

[BLOOD MONKEY]

I interpret the criteria as, for example, taking Zero from the Mega Man series, altering his armor and design to fit the overall medieval and gothic look of Castlevania, replacing his Z Saber with, say the Crissaegrim, and then spriting that in an appropriate style.

Stuff like that.

youjusttoldthemwatiwasgoingtododammit

[Dracula9]

And nobody had any indication that's what you were doing until you said something?

[Donvermicelli]

I guess I'm going to be too busy to participate this time around so I'd like to sign up as a judge.