We have the results in for the Psdtuts+ Delta Dawn Video Game Cover Design Contest. I hope everyone had a lot of fun! We had a tremendous competition with loads of high-quality entries. We had a whole lot of artists enter the contest, and well over 250 submissions.
Up for grabs is a Wacom Intuos4 Medium Tablet, iPhone 3G S, Nintendo DS Lite (thanks to CSSRockstars), loads of marketplaces credits, and 1-year memberships to Psd Plus. Learn all about the winning entries at the jump!
About the Contest Judging
We looked at overall artistic quality, technical execution, originality, thematic execution, and video game cover style in judging these entries! Thanks to everyone who entered. Now let’s give it up to the winners. A round of applause please!
First Place Winner
The first place winner is Quintin Schnehage. The author has gone above and beyond the contest brief by providing a realistic-looking back cover with a blurb and game style screenshots, and a CD cover design. It’s a package I can genuinely imagine picking up in a game store. Overall the author has created something that looks like a game cover (paying mind to texture, shadows, and layout! Fantastic job on this design!
Congratulations, and your prizes are:
- Wacom Intuos4 Medium Tablet or USD $370 (cash only if outside shipping area)
- 1 year Plus membership (valued at USD $117)
- $100 to spend on GraphicRiver, AudioJungle, Flashden, VideoHive or ThemeForest
Second Place Winner
The second place winner is CorPaige. We’ve chosen this one for second place because it really looks like a video game cover. It’s a very powerful image and has a clear central point of focus. The originality and theme execution is strong.
Congratulations, and your prizes are:
- iPhone 3G S 16GB or USD $200 (cash only if outside shipping area)
- 1 year Plus membership (valued at $117)
- $75 to spend on GraphicRiver, AudioJungle, Flashden, VideoHive or ThemeForest
Third Place Winner
The third place winner is stebrfc. This is an original design. The main character has a strong cybernetic energy that radiates a glow against the muted composition. Highly stylized and unique cover design.
Congratulations, and your prizes are:
- Nintendo DS Lite or USD $130 (cash only if outside shipping area)
- 1 year Plus membership (valued at $117)
- $50 to spend on GraphicRiver, AudioJungle, Flashden, VideoHive or ThemeForest
Psdtuts+ ‘Delta Dawn’ Video Game Cover Design Contest Concluded
Congratulations to our winners! Great job to everyone that participated in the contest. I’ll be contacting the winners shortly to assist them with collecting their prizes. The winners should keep an eye on the Flickr email boxes for the next couple of days.
Some More Great Entries
There were quite a few entries that came very close to winning and we’d like to give them an honorable mention here. Also, there are certainly more good entries submitted into the contest that are in the Psdtuts+ Flickr Group. Here are just a handful more that really captured our attention. Also, feel free to submit a tutorial concept for your contest entry designs. Many of the designs I saw would make great Photoshop tutorials.
Sponsors
Special thanks go to CSSRockstars for providing the main prizes!
CSSRockstars provides PSD to HTML service in just 3 days, for only $149. They take your existing design and transform it into valid, high quality, hand-coded markup. They also offer templating/skinning of the hottest CMS, Shopping Carts, and Blogging platforms such as WordPress. With semantic markup, microformat inclusion, documented CSS / HTML, and a money back guarantee, CSSRockstars offers one of the most feature complete packages available.
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Congrats to the winner. As for everyone complaining that it is not the best cover your are wrong. This contest was about creating a Video Game cover not just the best photoshop work. If it was then the first place would not have won.
Also 6th place never make the xbox branding blue or another color your entry while very awesome is not something i could see picking up at the local gamestore.
let me get this clear… a contest on PSDtuts is not about creating the best photoshop work?
I say the 2nd design should have one. Looks futuristic and like and interesting game. Looks like a real game instead of just a picture of a kid in the front cover.
So going by what you’ve just said, ‘when kids are on front covers’ they aren’t real games? Rubbish! A game is a game, regardless of the front cover, futuristic or not.
If you read the brief, it said you could interpret the war theme any way you wanted – be it futuristic, wars from the past, or any other war themed design. The story of the first placed entry featuring this kid, as you put it, could be a deep story of how a child takes control over his destiny to fight the oppression against the evil dictators. Just because the cover features a kid carrying a gun, it doesn’t make it any less a game, remembering that games have stories surrounding the events in game and the characters portrayed in them, especially the lead character. Also games appeal to certain age groups, depending on the content.
Too “psdtuts” for me…
I didn’t participate, but I don’t think that 1st place deserves to be there.
If a back cover and some CD mock ups where the main factor in winning then that should of been made clear in the contest rules and we all could of done it. Personally, i dont like any of them.
They have the look of every other on the shelf game in this genre.
The winning entry has mediocre typography and the picture says nothing about war…the fella looks like he is out of a catalogue and he is holding a super squirter.
There were many, many better entries than all of those pictured above.
Sorry PSDTUTS fans……..i think we’ve all been cheated.
For the next contest ill submit my design and send you a lovely bunch of flowers…now thats going beyond the call of duty. i think i’ll win it
What A Cop Out
At least this one is different…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeislee/3782870402/
and alot more work went into than simplie cuting out a few stock images.
I agree too, if everyone knew that the cd mockups and back cover design would be entered into the competition, then one place would not have won first place.
I think I have been cheated to…..lol
i think the winner cover looks professional but it would have been extremely better without the guy & the second entry have some stuff that doesn’t look right but still looks like a video game cover, i really loved the red skull made of weapons is clean & attracts the eye without having a lot of stuff in it:) also there were other really good entries in the psdtuts flickr group. Congratulations to the winners^.^
Yeah, that one’s def. the best.
It’s not typical bad-guy-in-postnuclear-apocalyptic-warzone, and it keeps to the them. Truly creative.
My God. This is just incredible. This came at just the right time for me. I’m simply blown away – thank you all so much!
I’m sorry to see so many unhappy comments. I realise that my entry didn’t follow the brief exactly, but I had an image in my head, followed it through and submitted it anyway. I honestly didn’t expect this. I thought there were many, many other designs that were much better than mine and that followed the brief a lot more closely. I also hope that I didn’t win just because I went to extra trouble with the presentation, but admittedly I did do it to stand out a bit, since that’s what a freelance designer must do to get noticed. My first goal with this contest was to have a bit of fun and to test the extents of what I could do, which is – I hope – what pulled me through in the end.
Congratulations to the other winners, and all other entrants! I’m inspired and humbled by all the fantastic designers out there. I hope to see a lot more of all your work in the future, and I’ll be spending a lot more time in this fantastic community.
Congrats Quintin!!
I really like your entry.. excepting the character weapon ^^
Anyway, this one, was my entry:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40729471@N02/3767265418/in/photostream/
If you guys, can give me any advice.. it will be apreciated
Greetings!
And sorry about my bad english… u.u
you don’t have to justify yourself quintin, you did nothing wrong, just have fun with your victory, don’t overthink it. All the unhappy comments were aimed to psdtuts, who, and i don’t think i’m wrong, don’t follow what they said. Except for the typography ( wich i mean you could have worked on it, arial sucks for this kind of things bro’ ;p ), your entry is great. good composition, colors are ok, no amateur problems. It’s just that PSDTUTS give a precise brief of what is the contest, and don’t follow it. For the new dawn contest, it was just the same, ” this story takes place in a post apocalyptic cityscape “, and the third was a desert scene… Unbelievable.
So , quintin, i hope everybody joins me to wish you good luck for future, and again, Congratulations, enjoy your victory !!
noone is having a go at you quintin.
psdtuts can’t even abide by there own rules.
enjoy your prizes mate.
congrats buddy
to be honest – u design is ace and u helped other designers imrpove their work
so 2 thumbs up from me
Richie
Nothing against you quintin or your work.
i know u made a nice effort. congrats
its just how people behind PSDtuts handle their contests, They dont respect the effort that some participants put in their works.
I chose not to participate this time because i feared the same weird winners selection as in previous contests.
By what i see im not wrong.
I’m not with you on that max , true the results of this comp my be kind of weird but the entries were genuinely below what we expected to see on this site and non of them is a clear winner , but let me remind you of the last comp :
http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/contests/psdtuts-new-dawn-poster-design-contest-winners/
the winner design as as good as a real movie cover , and the runners up were amazing , and as a conclusion no one complained about the results .
I personally think the team behind psdtuts have done a great job as always and i hope the MacApStorm comp raises the bar . ^^
Good for you mate , congrats . ^^
Great work by all, there are definitely some great artists out there
they are all so awesome i cant really pick one. how do I get these guys to work on websites for me. they are all so great! if any of the top 20 want to do some graphic work for me please get a hold of me.
Hey Rob,
I’m currently available for freelance work and would be glad to help you out. Feel free to drop me an email.
same here as well
check out my other work – http://digitalrich.deviantart.com/gallery/
richie
I like most of them so much.
Honestly though, the only thing that stood out with the first place winner was it looks so good and legit. Unlike most of the others. Second and third don’t really deserve it either, but hey, I don’t really wanna judge. The winners definitely worked hard and deserve their loot!
Contest in PSD tuts? no way no more…
The judge picked HIS top three favorites. He’s not saying that they are the three best. It’s his decision, not yours. It’s only a $500.00 prize so quit whining and get a job.
LOL Matt, l have a job, im not talking about the money kid,
explain me the point of making a contest, if the best are not going to win.
pfff.
what a stupid thing to say.
haha yeah. great cover work and congrats to the winner. everyone should have done a bunch of mock ups and stopped complaining b/c if you were presenting to a professional game company you wouldn’t want to go in there with just a cover if you really wanted the job, you’d go above and beyond… that’s real life.
First congrats to the winner! But I have to agree with many others here, the briefing was “design a video cover” not the cd, the packaging or anything else. This ist unprofessional and unfair. I did not expected to win, cause my design was zero photoshop but more a graphic concept thing. Anyway my personal favourite is this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26153128@N05/3784634069/
because its has just everything a good video-title needs, fresh idea, cool design (not to cheesy), nice typography and a good execution. Wondering why this was not mentioned.
I think the third deserves to beat out the second, that is a great looking cover…but I think the first one is really good…I don’t know there was a lot of good ones, tough decision.
The judges chose the winners.
End of story.
Rite!
I tried to resist but ultimately couldn’t. My work has been thoroughly trashed all day, and that I can deal with. However, the comment above about Quintin’s entry that says, “its very curisous, that the winner is probably the most active person on psd tuts…and his work i would do in about 30 minutes….” is ridiculous. I don’t care if you’re exaggerating to make a point. It’s one thing to have your own opinion on what constitutes good design, but anybody that would insinuate favoritism and write off an entry like that as being just “thrown together” should be embarrassed.
PS – Glad at least one guy liked mine!
So many hours….put into this…..hurt…. I think….my heart was crushed by my fav PSD site… agh!!
sh^t….and I thought I would step outside the box and not use any photography and digitally paint the whole thing….
I was pissed beyond belief at the winner. (Still a little sore.) But you take your loses and just keep trying. What I did get from this however, is a better understanding of painting in Photoshop.
I may write a tutorial…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kochusan/
Why you not given to first place thierd winner
Great stuff guys and congrats to the winners although I do dislike the amount of complaining in the comments… if you think that there’s something wrong with the way the contest is being run then make your own competition. Just because PSDtuts decide what’s a winner and what’s not does not necessarily dictate the best design.
Yes the first entry went above and beyond the brief but it didn’t detract from it, if anything it added and created a more complete solid product.
everybody is free to their own oppinions
sorry if my english writing is terrible.
Of course and that’s why I voiced mine
hello,
so congrats to the winners but i must say there were far more better ones.
i just think they didnt see all the entries in this contest. some of our work didnt even get judged i thiink.
but my favor im asking all of you if you got some spare time to check the cover i made using photoshop and some stock photos. the character was made using zbrush. tell me what i drastically need to change to become better any negative comment is appreciated. i want to learn to become better thank you all
domenico
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41021834@N03/3785479501/
i love the red skull one…
Congrats to the winners..
but seriously, this is art. Its not exactly like you could be right or wrong about what u like or dislike. Anyway I think the 1st place deserved to win. (he went above and beyond what was required.)
I would have liked this one to be mentioned.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dzaini/3753549169/in/photostream/
congrats Winner! Good going…
The red skull is bad ass! Simple and effective.
i really dont like the skull
i like it but think its better as a movie poster
when people talk about the simplicity and effectiveness of photoshop images, it still need to measured on an artistic scale. personally I dont find the first place artistic in any perspective. unless if you say that it’s the art of marketing or the clever, surreal STRATEGY to win this contest
Hey guys, it’s me again, the 6th place winner. I just wanna know how many people would want to read a tutorial written on my entry? and for the editor, considering the quality of this work, how great is the possibility for you to accept it?
6th place author is what I meant to say.
WoW, so many whiny people, so you did not win, move on and then enter the next contest if you want to or don’t.
You did not make the HM, do they even get a price, if not, then why bother mention it.
i my opinion i don’t think 1 place is the winner, but i am not the judge.
Also, cover is front and back not just the front. And everyone know the the front cover is most important, then the back. Why do you think back side is the most expensive if you want to have an AD there on magazines?
Strange things to compare :S
However i agree. To much whine. Some found a polite and argumentative way of writing their thoughts and i respect that. But what’s up with all the unhappy-spoiled-kid comments?
Btw: nice 2advanced effect on you site
http://v4.2a-archive.com/
ha ha ha, thanks, but as you guessed it, thats where i got the idea from, but nowhere close to what they id. love that site!!!
Ok so I don’t post really at all here, but I must say the winner in this contest should not have won. If the brief was to design a game box, then the ultimate goal is to have the person buy the game.
Coming from a pure marketing / visual stimulation stand point the winner should have no way won. There’s not visual enticement on this cover, it shows nothing of a story line, in fact is reminds me of one of those stupid kids at the gym who wear their ski hat in 90 degree weather.
Questions should have been answered: What genera is this game? Shooter, Futuristic Fantasy? Is this a war conflict, alien, etc? Where is the game setting located? Earth, a space ship, another planet?
Any trained graphic designer should answer should answer the 5 W’s with their piece when dealing with advertising.
who, what, where, when and why.
The brief was to design a game box, not to do an interpretive piece on teen age gym rats with guns.
Sorry, PSDTuts is loosing some cred here. If you’re going to run a contest that is just about marketing as design, you should understand marketing in design.
Just my two bits,
Steven
wow… okay, first: you spelled genre wrong. we all see your level of expertise. secondly, a video game box does NOT need to explain the story line or the five Ws. You will find VERY few covers that explain clearly where a game takes place, almost none show when unless you want to be as broad as a decade, and I have never seen a game cover that explains a reason for the game. that’s usually on the back of the box, and told through other media (commercials, articles, etc., not to mention through the game itself) to make a fair comparison, have you ever seen a movie box or poster that explains ALL of the Ws? no. because this is done with previews and such. not the box design. all the box REALLY needs to say is who and what, with the occasional where, and when. The box shows who (the kid) and shows what (a sci-fi shooter, which is evident however much you pretend that it’s not possible to tell). you can also gather that it’s in the future (yeah, we totally have glowing guns right now!), and the rest is explained on the back of the box.I feel like you’re just criticizing for the sake of it. none of your comments were even valid.
I would also like to point out that not a SINGLE entry has the five Ws which you claim are so necessary… so. I guess everybody except you fails then, yeah?
actually, I’d like to see your attempt at this. I doubt that you even CAN explain every single W in the cover without making it too complicated and distracting.
These are all slick designs. If any of them were real, id buy it xD
I must say, my spirits are rather dampened by the negative posts as well. I understand perfectly that not everyone thought my entry should have won, but the fact that many commenters made unfounded and rather personal remarks irks me to no end.
I freely admit that there are better designers than I here on the site. That I won is as much a mystery to me as any of you, but the judges have made their decision, and they have their own criterea. It’s completely unnecessary to make judgements on others’ artistic ability.
I appreciate the congratulations to myself and the other winners, and for the the entrants that weren’t selected who accepted it with grace. Humility and realism is what makes a good designer, and if you’re in it for the fun of it, there’s no such thing as a bruised ego.
Congratulations to CorPaige and stebrfc again, and to everyone who took part.
Unfortunately that’s part of being a designer/artist- receiving criticism, and often times harsh criticism.
However, don’t take it too bad, I have a feeling that quite a few of the negative comments were a bit exaggerated in an effort to take some anger out on PSDTUTS, not yourself.
I have nothing against criticism, as I’ve said. It’s just the slights in the comments that annoy me. There’s no need at all to make this personal, and yet some people have gone there.
right!
I think you’re all missing the point. Design is so subjective. You will always disagree about who is better than whom. When you go to school, the marks wont necessarily reflect your skill or the skill of your classmates.
IMHO, all entries were great, but all looked the same and made me think, there’s not much to “the work of design” on psd tuts anymore. As long as you have an okay idea, you can juice it up with photoshop surreal effects and everyone is happy.
1st place winner is just a dude holding a cool weapon in front of buildings. There is nothing cleaver about any of the entries.
I agree with you across the board.
As far as the design goes, it had to be recognisable as a videogame cover, and that means sacrificing originality for familiarity. That’s why it was a design contest, and not an art contest.
gaaaad. so many whiners. why not just take the time you spent complaining and come up with more designs. or better yet, get a job. where you can earn more than the prizes of these contests.
still, kudos to all of you, you’re all brilliant.
my personal fave, should’ve been mentioned at least.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26153128@N05/3784634069/
Alright, this may be my first post on this site ever. And as many negative complaints as I’ve seen- I still don’t believe there have been enough.
This is the type of contest that I myself would think I wasn’t good enough to win at the moment, but now after seeing the winner? I think anyone that’s been using photoshop for more than a few months could have won.
It’s just an extremely amateur looking design. I hate to say it, but if I saw that game in a store I’d literally chuckle a bit. Looks like the lame Madden covers when people throw themselves on the cover. Just odd.
There were many great entries, but the winner wasn’t one. Even some that weren’t mentioned at all were better. And for the record- again- I didn’t have an entry. I just think this was so ridiculous that everyone should say something. Just to get the point across.
If my boss wanted a cover design- that’s what I’d do to my best ability. I wouldn’t throw in extras to make up for the lack of quality, and if I did – I wouldn’t expect it to do me any favors.
Next contest, i took my decision, i make a design, make the back/front/sides/tail/up/down/left/right/blue/black/white/red versions. I print it on a huge poster sized paper, and take a picture of me with it. Make The Cd design, and also reinvent the CD format making it Square or Cubic, rent models to hold the box on a picture, put the design on a washed up reflexion on the ground design, make it with bad typography, Ask the newspaper to talk about it, take the design and put it in the fridge for 5 days, then perfume it, polish it, and then finally send it. Maybe it will flatter the judges. haha.
Quintin, just a joke, don’t take it bad.
No problem – I was canning myself after “make it with bad typography”.
thats not gonna make you win, if you don’t wear a fancy suite on presentation day
wth? the last one makes NO sense. “Resist or assimilate”… ummm. check the dictionary on that one, pal. that makes absolutely no sense… at all. the definitions for assimilate are digest, understand, and resemble…. none of which fits. a little advice: stick to words you actually know. you sound like less of an idiot that way. you don’t sound like a kid trying to sound smarter than he is by inflating their language. especially in the game industry, where your marketing to a wide variety of people of all ages and educational foundations, it’s best to keep things simple…
First and farmost, thank you PSDTUTS for considering my piece and recognizing me in Honorable mention, and congrats to the winners.
I was wondering if there is any type of recognition for my work I am able to put on my online portfolio, it would make a great addition to the rest of my portfolio. Thanks
am i the only one that doesnt like the skull cover?
I like the cover but find the skull a bit of a cliche. I would prefer it without the skull!
Drama meter [LOW] · · · · · · · · · • [HIGH] ?
wow…I’m just starting out in design…but I had no idea that designers were such sore losers…get a grip. Let the winner enjoy his prize!
the first place almost got me!!!
if wasn’t a contest i could buy the game
Firstly, I would like to thank PSDTuts for running the contest and thanks to the judges for placing me third. Thanks also to those people who commented saying they liked my entry!
I did not expect to place so I am very pleased to. I entered the contest as a bit of fun and I expect that most people did. In regards to many of the comments above – i think a lot of people have lost sight of this.
I do agree that people have a right to say which entries they prefer but the criticism being aimed at certain people is a bit unfair and comes across rather petulant. I would have chosen different winners myself but its not my or any others decision at the end of the day. Some of these comments are a bit over the top.
I had fun entering the contest. Thanks again.
All you holy rollers with your ‘stop whining’ and ‘its only a contest’ etc………………Noone is complaining about the winners…people are complaining that the competition brief had no resembelence to the winners submitted work.
get off your high horse and allow people to complain as much as they want. If the brief contained all the points that they were looking for then noone would be moaning about the result.
as for quintin noone is insulting him or calling him names. they are voicing what they think of the design. like it or not its not a crime to say why something is not liked.
i dont like any of them. they are all clichéd and obvious for want of a better word.
If people are happy at the results and the way the contest was run then good. be happy and enjoy the whole episode.
if people aren’t happy at the results and the way the contest was run then good. moan away and voice your opinion.
——————————————————————————————————–
why don’t we all chose our winners and post your favorite…and dont just vote for yourself because you wont get a prize or anything.
“why don’t we all chose our winners and post your favorite…and dont just vote for yourself because you wont get a prize or anything.”
My favorites… #7 from above and this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26153128@N05/3784634069/
Aside from my own. lol
Well, so much negative hype about this one… To be honest, I don’t like the results either, I like the No 9 very much – military theme, ass kicking perspective, great colors,… The winning cover design has nothing to do with the original concept – skinny kid with a laser tripod? Gimme a break… Yes, I know that teenagers buy computer games and that they can identify themselfs with the kid on the cover, but the question is, do they really want to look like that, or do they want to look like the super-heroes, -soldiers, etc?
IMHO, the PSDTuts team made one big mistake – guys this supossed to be a cover design competition, you were clearly asked if it was necessary to design the back cover, CD cover, and so on, and you said no. Now, when you explain why this design won, the first thing you say is: “The author has gone above and beyond the contest brief by providing a realistic-looking back cover with a blurb and game style screenshots, and a CD cover design”. Well guys, next time try to decide what you really want and then stick with it, because most of the unsatisfied contestants feel like they wasted their time by designing the front cover only. IMHO, by making such comments, you also put the winner “down”, it looks like he won just because he made the complete design, and not because he made a great cover.
I agree.
I think PSDtuts+ can’t just ignore the awful comments because most of these people that are complaining are frequent readers and subscribers. I’m sure it will help the site. (decide better .. and of course website traffic)
It is a bit absurd to hear things such as “really looks like a true game cover” or “the only cover I could actually imagine seeing on a shelf”, and so on and so forth. We must be open minded that some amazing work in the flickr pool could be the game covers you’ll be seeing in future years or so. They shouldn’t have been utterly judged upon the “conventional” game covers of today. Yes, the designer must be aware of the mainstream design of a basic game cover in stores but they are just as important as its ‘originality’ (means something you haven’t seen before yet remarkable) and artistic & technical execution.
I lost and it was disappointing of course. It was worse, when I scrolled down to see the winners, to see winning designs I didn’t expect to win. I don’t question their ability, they were great but it was more of a sudden reflection to myself: “Ahhh… those were the types of designs the judges were in-favor of…” The contest brief should have been clearer in a way that it can’t be interpreted by an entrant in his/her own way. (making additional back cover, etc.)
At the end of the day, it’s just a contest.
In every contest, there are winners and losers.
In the PSDtuts+ Delta Dawn game cover contest, there are seasonal witty judges, egotistic losers, and underrated designers.
Congrats to the winners. Peace.
Congrats to the winners, but did anyone notice that on the winning design the guy is holding a tripod as a weapon.
When I realized it was a tripod I laughed in joy. He really snuck that in under the radar. Nice work Quintin.
can i have the .psd of the sixth one plzzzzzzzzzz any body??
maybe? I still have it..
can you send to me plz this my email i.green@hotmail.fr i would be very happy if you send it to me man come on
I’m writing a tutorial on it to put on this site, get a plus membership and so you can have the psd file when the tutorial is out.