Christmas-Fest- ROUND ONE RESULTS!

[tmrd]

Judges comments are below.
Congratulations everyone!
If you did not submit for round one you are still able to submit for round two. Your name will then be added to the leaderboard.

[tmrd]

Judge Comments Part 1:
Manuel Alejandro95
Judge 1:
Creativity: 7/10 - A relatively basic design, but the unique game choice and overly joyful mood give it a boost to stand out amongst other designs.
Presentation: 8/10 - Simple, clean and professional. Compliments the cover nicely while maintaining consistency of previous submissions.
Attention to Theme: 9/10 - Joy is clearly presented throughout the design. The game choice, characters and color scheme give off an overload of happiness.
Image Quality: 9/10 - Near perfect. The custom approach almost guarantees crisp, crystal clear images and high quality.
Overall Appeal: 8.5/10 - A very well designed cover. Bonus respect for going with such a unique game among what most will have decided on, and the custom artwork and generally joyful mood of the cover simply make this a fun design.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 8.5/10 - An unusual game choice, in a great way. The layout is a little bit generic but it works in this design.
Presentation: 8/10 - I love the red strip and the simplicity of the presentation. The watermarks are very distracting though. Luckily as a majorly white box it is not as bad as it could have been though.
Attention to Theme: 9.5/10 - The art definitlely portrays happiness. Colour was used very well.
Image Quality: 9/10 - Everything is of great quality.
Overall Appeal: 6/10 - The front appeals to me, but the lack of a back half is very disappointing. Otherwise, a very appealing, top-notch design.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 9/10 - Making the entire boxart custom art is fantastic, especially when it's well done.
Presentation: 9/10 - I have always liked Manuel's simple and effective presentations.
Attention to Theme: 7/10 - The characters on the box are certainly joyous. A back would have helped in this situation.
Image Quality: 9/10 - High quality artwork.
Overall Appeal: 9/10 - A great piece of work, though a back would make it better.


Madoublex
Judge 1:
Creativity: 7/10 - The pink color scheme and hearts theme seemed a bit cliche at first glance, but I'm getting a serious Valentine's Day card-like vibe, and it's pull off fairly well.
Presentation: 6.5/10 - I'm not entirely a fan of the dark, grungy texture, but the color scheme and heart help keep it in line with the cover and theme.
Attention to Theme: 8/10 - Even if predictable, there's no denying it stays true the emotion it's suppose to represent. The game itself is an excellent choice as well for this specific theme.
Image Quality: 8/10 - Catherine's lovely artwork is presented in great quality. No distortion or blurriness to point out, and it's fairly high-res as well.
Overall Appeal: 7.5/10 - The front's attractive, both in the sense of the theme and as a design in general. The back suffers from some overabundant text and cramped screenshot positioning, but overall it's very solid.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 7/10 - Portraying the idea of love through hearts isn't very creative, but forgetting the theme, a very individual and unique box.
Presentation: 6/10 - The grunge is a strange choice for a design centring around love, but it works. The thing that lets him down is the distortion in the 3d-ing of the template. That spine is messed up.
Attention to Theme: 8/10 - Definitely does portray the idea of love, it just feels like it needs something more. What is in love? Who is in love? It sort of just feels like random hearts have been used to fit the theme. I do love the colour though.
Image Quality: 9/10 - Great quality work here.
Overall Appeal: 8/10 - Great, but I'm not sure of the font and colour choice of the synopsis on the back. Other than that amazing submission.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 9/10 - The use of the hearts is very creative.
Presentation: 5/10 - I do not like the template he used at all. The background just looks like a wallpaper.
Attention to Theme: 9/10 - The pink works extremely well here. Coupled with hearts it really does feel like love.
Image Quality: 9/10 - Surprisingly high quality work seeing as how little artwork there is for this game.
Overall Appeal: 8/10 - The template is just god awful. The box itself is really good but the template detracts.


Amad2
Judge 1:
Creativity: 7.5/10 - Blood splatters, saws and a lot of meat. That's what I'd expect from a Super Meat Boy cover, but the smaller touches are what get to me. For example, I love how realistic hearts are used in place of the minimalistic ones we've come to expect from love-themed designs (and that's used prominently on the front here). The intention of the hearts is obvious, but with SMB's twisted nature mixed in, it's so much better.
Presentation: 7/10 - Clean, sleek, and the red obviously works with the cover and doesn't detract from the red theme cover. The logos at the bottom help give it a sense of officialness.
Image Quality: 10/10 - Perfect. From the crystal clear artwork to the ultra-high resolution. Image quality can't get better than this.
Attention to Theme: 8/10 - The front's emotion is pretty clear, but despite the huge heart in the center, is subtle in a few ways. Like I already mentioned, the hearts faded in the background are a perfectly twisted take on love. The blood splatters and various bladed saws lying around add to this as well. The back's emphasis on sadness is almost exclusively seen through the broken heart, but it's done pretty well. The fat guy in the center flipping me off sort of kills the mood though.
Overall Appeal: 8/10 - Fun design, good emphasis on sadness and love, and excellent image quality. It all comes together to make a great cover.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 8.5/10 - I really love the design in this, and there are some really cute, clever and original elements here.
Presentation: 6.5/10 - Nothing special, but it does its job. I think a slightly darker or lighter colour would stop the box blending into the background.
Attention to Theme: 7.5/10 - Emotions are definitely present here, but he could have done some things to improve and exaggerate these emotions more.
Image Quality: 7/10 - The paint/blood splatters on the back are slightly blurry. Other than that all good quality though.
Overall Appeal: 7.5/10 - Great, although the front seems a little bit empty. Its missing the oomph that the back has.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 7/10 - I like the concept, but it's nothing I haven't seen before.
Presentation: 6/10 - I feel it blends too much with the background of the box and I need to really look at it to see that's not the case.
Attention to Theme: 8/10 - The front doesn't scream "love" to me as much as "happiness" but the back definitely screams "sad".
Image Quality: 8/10 - Decent.
Overall Appeal: 8/10 - I don't really have anything special to say. Good job, amad2.


Deathmania
Judge 1:
Creativity: 7.5/10 - I've never played Minecraft, so my knowledge of what exactly I'm looking at is pretty limited. It does appear unique though, and I like the effort in making the front dark and mysterious despite the visual style of the game.
Presentation: 6/10 - Again, I'm assuming the guy on the right would only be understood by fellow Minecraft players. It doesn't detract from the presentation, but the thing on the left isn't particularly appealing.
Attention to Theme: 7/10 - The front captures this pretty damn well, actually. I admire the effort put into it, and I'd think it'd be fairly difficult to attain this mood with a game like Minecraft. The back doesn't quite follow suit, though, and looks messy/unorganized more than anything else.
Image Quality: 5.5/10 - Alright, I know Minecraft's graphics aren't next-gen calibre, but I'm pretty sure the blocks aren't blurry and distorted. The low resolution doesn't help either.
Overall Appeal: 6/10 - I like the front's dark, creepy vibe. But the questionable image quality, and awkward layout on the back aren't doing it any favors. Not bad, but not great.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 9/10 - very creative work and unexpected game choice.
Presentation: 7/10 - Humourous. I like it. It takes away from the box a fair bit though, I wish it was smaller.
Attention to Theme: 7/10 - Yes, I can very easily see the fear, but I can also see the humour behind it, which isn't very scary. A great box but not the best for the theme.
Image Quality: 8/10 - Nothing looks low-quality, but I wish I could see the actual boxart a bit larger.
Overall Appeal: 8.5/10 - A very appealing box. The colours, the humour and everything all work together to give us this. Great job.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 9/10 - Really creative, fits the theme and is slightly funny.
Presentation: 7/10 - A bit plain for my liking.
Attention to Theme: 9/10 - Works extremely well. I definitely feel fear.
Image Quality: 9/10 - Surprisingly high.
Overall Appeal: 9/10 - I don't know if this matters, but I feel Deathmania has the best box this round and deserves to win.

[tmrd]

Judge Comments Part 2:
Hazzy25
Judge 1:
Creativity: 7/10 - It's unique in a sense, and I applaud you taking Call of Duty in a route alternate to the Michael Bay level of explosions and generic soldier casually walking towards the viewer.
Presentation: 6.5/10 - Basic, but that can't be entirely faulted as anything more complex would distract from the cover or even making it difficult to discern. The 3D box is a nice touch although not really necessary.
Attention to Theme: 5/10 - I understand the intentions with this cover, but I don't get a sense of fear when simply looking at it. This emotion is difficult to pull off effectively, and requires subtlety and finesse. Simply saying it's about fear, using the horrors of war almost as an excuse, doesn't work for me.
Image Quality: 6/10 - Image quality isn't necessarily bad, but this style doesn't go hand in hand with sharp, jagged edges. At a higher resolution you could have smooth, clean edges and quality without losing the feel of the design. Plus, this makes the text unreadable.
Overall Appeal: 6.5/10 - This does something different for Call of Duty, and fairly well I might add. Aside from the choppy image quality and low resolution, the design is interesting and flows well. However, the supposed fear is almost nonexistent and doesn't really work for this competition in particular.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 10/10 - Woah. That is some creative thinking right here. The use of text on the front, and the black and white colour scheme, it is so original.
Presentation: 6/10 - Nothing special. It doesn't detract from the design but it doesn't enhance it either.
Attention to Theme: 7.5/10 - I'm definitely getting the fear out of this. There are definitely some things that could be done to the design to enhance this though.
Image Quality: 6.5/10 - The boxart themselves are quite small, I can't even read the synopsis. Almost nothing is pixelated or stretched though.
Overall Appeal: 9/10 - I'm not a big fan of this sort of game but this box sells it for me. It looks amazing, the small splashes of green colour, the black and white design. It all looks amazing.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 10/10 - I am not a fan of this box, but I gotta hand it to Hazzy that this a creative and original take on MW3.
Presentation: 6/10 - It's fine, it does its job.
Attention to Theme: 1/10 - I literally get no feeling out of this. How is this supposed to represent fear? I can't make it out through all this grunge and splatter.
Image Quality: 7/10 - Mixed quality.
Overall Appeal: 6/10 - I don't really like this box. It really doesn't belong in this comp since it gives absolutely no feeling or emotion.


Ronthis The Werewolf
Judge 1:
Creativity: 4/10 - Sorry, but there's little creative about this. Generic covers aren't bad, mind you, but this doesn't attempt to break any new ground and sees fit to stand amongst the other white/red Arkham City covers on the site.
Presentation: 6/10 - Nothing noteworthy really, aside from the odd color choice. Why green?
Attention to Theme: 6.5/10 - I get the anger, at least in the front, if only because Batman always looks pissed off. For some reason, the blurriness seems to add to the anger. I can't put my finger on why, though.
Image Quality: 7/10 - This is difficult to rate, as the blurriness can be considered bad image quality or an essential aspect of the design, depending on who you talk to. I personally feel the latter over the former. The light glow applied, especially on the back, looks pretty nice.
Overall Appeal: 6.5/10 - The black/white/red color scheme is as predictable as they come when making an Arkham City cover, but it's not bad in any immediately obvious way. The distorted, almost aggressive nature of the front works well for the theme, and the front as a whole is not bad at all.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 6/10 - Not a very creative design, I do feel like I've seen it before.
Presentation: 6.5/10 - The fade of the reflection should be larger and squished vertically to look more realistic. I also think that using red instead of green would have accented the box better.
Attention to Theme: 6/10 - I do see the anger in this, but I think you were relying too much on angry artwork and not enough on an angry design.
Image Quality: 4/10 - Everything seems really blurry.
Overall Appeal: 6 /10 - It isn't bad but I feel like I've seen it before. I think that Ronthis can do a lot better than this, but this is by no means awful.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 5/10 - This take on Arkham City has been done time over time. Fairly uninspired.
Presentation: 6/10 - Again, it's fine.
Attention to Theme: 2/10 - I seriously don't get any emotion out of this. How is Batman hanging onto a ledge looking like a gargoyle anger?
Image Quality: 3/10 - The front is unbearable to look at and the text on the back has awful effects on it.
Overall Appeal: 3/10 - Disappointing. I've seen and know Ronthis can do much better than this.


Takahashi2212
Judge 1:
Creativity: 5/10 - It's a Yoshi's Story cover, so being creative will take some extra initiative. This is pretty standard Yoshi fare, so I can't rate it very highly in terms of creativity.
Presentation: 0/10? - I'm not sure how to rate this, other than not to, since it doesn't have a presentation.
Attention to Theme: 7.5/10 - Yoshi games in general are cheerful, lighthearted games, so the feeling of joy and happiness shines through pretty clearly. I'm a little disappointed that more wasn't done to emphasize the emotions other than simply placing Yoshi's happy face across the cover. It works, but more could have been done.
Image Quality: 6/10 - The images within the template are fine, the grainy look giving it a bit of charm reminiscent of the N64 gameplay. The logo, unfortunately, and images on the template itself aren't rendered very well and some obvious choppy, white strokes are left behind.
Overall Appeal: 6/10 - A back would have helped this submission, but as a fairly standard Yoshi cover emphasizing on happiness, it does pretty well. The lack of a proper presentation (any, really) and below-average rendering hurt the overall appearance, but it still does it's job.

Judge 2:
Creativity: 3/10 - Not very creative at all, unfortunately this is just a wallpaper on a template.
Presentation: 1/10 - There was no presentation to mark.
Attention to Theme: 6.5/10 - Although this is official artwork, there is no denying that there is a sense of happiness and joy in the design.
Image Quality: 4/10 - Some images such as the logo have been poorly rendered and the image isn't of a very high resolution. However, there wasn't much pixelation.
Overall Appeal: 5/10 - As one of the newer members of our site, Takahashi has done very well. He could definitely use some help but as a beginner, he can only get better. I can see improvement over his last couple of boxes and he deserves recognition for that.

Judge 3:
Creativity: 7/10 - Nothing I haven't seen before.
Presentation: 3/10 - There isn't one. The template is fine but it's just the slip.
Attention to Theme: 9/10 - This box oozes happiness and makes me smile.
Image Quality: 6/10 - The logo is blurry but the art is hi-res.
Overall Appeal: 6/10 - Could be better but could be a lot worse. Good work.

[madoublex]

I came in SECOND?!?!? Holy shit, I was considering just giving up. I need to get started on the next box.

[amad2]

Congratz Manuel for coming first! Ohhhh, drawn 3rd position and only 0.1% from 2nd, a close call.

[Deathmania]

Congratulation Manuel for wining the comp.
And god "Judge 1" hates me.

[madoublex]

Everyone did awesome work. Good luck in the next round!

[Manuel_Alejandro95]

Definitely unexpected, and seems like without the latest threads on the main site I'm bound to disover things a month after they're posted, gonna have to change my habits a bit.
Well, congratulations to everyone who submitted, and good luck for the next round!

[amad2]

Definitely unexpected, and seems like without the latest threads on the main site I'm bound to disover things a month after they're posted, gonna have to change my habits a bit.
Well, congratulations to everyone who submitted, and good luck for the next round!

Can we take a look at your box? Pretty please?

[Manuel_Alejandro95]

Can we take a look at your box? Pretty please?

Nahhhh
As the judges said, the box's pretty unfinished without a back. I'd be ashamed to show it publicly here. I'll work on it and then post

[amad2]

Nahhhh
As the judges said, the box's pretty unfinished without a back. I'd be ashamed to show it publicly here. I'll work on it and then post

You entered a box you're ashamed to show and you still got higher than me.

[Manuel_Alejandro95]

You entered a box you're ashamed to show and you still got higher than me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm pretending to be better than anyone here. I just feel I shouldn't make it public if I didn't finish the whole work.