Believe it or not, it’s that time again! Yes, another round of the Great Games Contest has come and gone (There’s a third round going on now - you should probably check it out if you haven’t already. The prizes are getting larger and larger). That means that I was able to put down my fonts and gradients and pick up the pen and tablet, and start making some custom avatars! Once again, office sentiment says that it’s nice to share, so here are the winners and their brand-new avatars:

Most Kudos recieved by a Gamer: scottige

This pint and pool loving retro gamer requested a visual update on his old avatar, which looked (to my uneducated eye) like some sort of marshmallow peep in medieval armor. I think it may have actually been something else, though. Regardless, this tiny (and adorable) warrior was a blast to draw.

Most Kudos Recieved by a Developer: oddbob

This request was a bit unusual in that oddbob gave me two suggestions, and let me make the final decision. My choices were Jet Set Willy, or the beastie on the cover of the Tempest 2000 box. In the end, I decided to draw the demon-alien-badguy from Tempest 2000. Although the temptation to do the man in the pink space tuxedo was very tempting, I just haven’t gotten to draw a good alien for awhile. I also decided to throw in the player ship as well - it’s nicely out-of-place with the surroundings, just as it was on the original Jaguar box.

Although there are still three more rounds to the Great Games Contest, there’s only one avatar prize left - check back in two weeks to see the next winner’s circle, and the last custom avatar (Grab the most kudos from now ’till the 19th, and the avatar could be yours, gamers!).

Some of you may recall that a few of the Great Games Contest prizes were custom-made avatars by the artist responsible for the appearance of the Great Games Experiment. Well, that artist is me, and the first batch of avatars have been done. It’s always fun to get away from web graphics and get some actual drawing and coloring done. The other folks around the office suggested that it might be nice to share the images with you all, so here goes!

Most Kudos recieved by a gamer: OnyxAbyss
OnyxAbyss requested a ‘cartoonized’ version of a Templar from the upcoming game ‘Hellgate: London’. I’m always a fan of sci-fi knights in techno armor, and dove right in. It took me awhile to get a pose I was happy with, but I do like the results.

Most Kudos recieved by a developer: Marek Bronstring
Marek asked for a hybrid of Otto von Bismarck (from the Civilization series, and also real history) and Coach Oleander (from Psychonauts). This one was also a blast to do, and took a couple of tries to really get it. The picklehaube (pointy helmet) was an absolute necessity.

The next round of the Great Games Contest has just wrapped up, and there’ll be a new pair of avatars done for those winners soon! Check back for the next set of lucky winners!