Okay, first off, for those of you looking for the final scores, here they are:

509 1. Barbarian
506 2. Brigand Armor
488 3. Armor & Hair
451 4. Gentleman
383 5. Turnip Armor
233 6. Top Hat

The entries were judged on three standards, on a scale of 1 to 50 for each.  The scores of all judges in all categories were added up, and the highest scoring entry was the contest winner.  These categories are:

• Creativity - Self-explanatory.  Overall originality of the entry.
• Execution - The technical strength of the entry.
• Effort - Time spent, and completeness.  Incomplete or small submissions score lower here.

The entries were judged by the OGA staff (bart, ceninan, and qubodup) and pixel artist MdNight.

Before I go on, I'd like to point out that this was a really close contest.  We got a number of excellent entries, and it was quite a difficult decision.  All in all, I'd call this contest wildly successful, and I hope the participants will take part in the next one.

Here are the complete results, with commentary:

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Turnip Armor from the Depths of the Mysterious Evil Garden of Turnipland  by Blarumyrran

Note: This entry was disqualified due to incompleteness, and is not eligible to win the cash prize.  Nevertheless, it's awesome.

ceninan:

Creativy: 50  Execution: 45  Effort: 15

Uh. I don't think much needs to be said about this one. It's a... turnip armor?

Unfortunately this entry doesn't qualify due to being incomplete - these frames are all there is to it. Shame, as I'd certainly like to see the full sprite sheet on this one! Because, in the artist's own words, turnips are good.

Full points in creativity for the utterly absurbd idea. The other ones are trickier - how do you judge the quality of turnips?

MdNight:

Creativity: 50 Execution: 5 Effort: 5

I think that if this entry would have been finished. This could very well be our winner. Unfurtunely it is not so...

bart:

Creativity: 50  Execution: 45  Effort: 10

This is hilarious.  Unfortunately it's not eligible to win because it doesn't cover all of the frames.  Someday it would be pretty cool if someone would pick this up and finish it.

qubodup:

Creativity: 50  Execution: 50  Effort: 8

This would be so kick butt as a whole set! :D

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Brigand Armor  also by Blarumyrran

ceninan:

Creativy: 36  Execution: 48 Effort: 43

Blarumyrran's second entry. The skill that was hinted at in the Turnip entry is shown here again in, you know, something you can relate to. Really, this is way beyond my ability to judge the execution of. I can see that there's some nice color use in there (possibly a bit overused in a few frames). Blarumyrran was slightly late with this one, which I guess has to count for something, so I'll lower the effort score a little bit.

As for creativy, it's a nice, well-made armor which doesn't look exactly like the rest. But neither is it something truly different. To be fair, what Blarumyrran wanted to do here was simply to give the poor guy some clothes - creating something that is of great use to a lot of people and in a lot of situations in the process. So while not truly "unique" (as in different), I still have to give it a rather high score here as it's fitness for it's purpose is undeniable.

MdNight:

Creativity: 40 Execution: 45 Effort: 45

A nice and simple armor that can be used for a lot of things. It is very readable and he did all of the states that were asked for.

bart:

Creativity: 38  Execution: 45  Effort: 41

I like this one a lot.  Clearly a lot of work was put into it.  On the technical side, the shading and dithering make it really obvious that the grey material is chain mail and the red material is cloth.  All in all, a very solid entry.

qubodup:

Creativity: 25  Execution: 50  Effort: 50

Excellent! It looks soo nice! Nice spikes, detailed look. Full effort points for providing the equipment as a layer!

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Armor and Hair  by LokiF

ceninan:

Creativy: 37  Execution: 44 Effort: 46

One of our earliest entries - a solid armor with some hair thrown in the mix. I mean, come on - what good is an "anime style" base without outrageously pointy hairstyles and absurbdly colorful hair (the most common haircolors in anime seemingly being red, blue, green, magenta, white, indigo and various shades of purple with a few odd ones thrown in - like the occasional blonde and the very odd ones - brown and black).

In my limited knowledge if spriting, I can see that Loki makes quite good use of dithering in places. The palette is rather basic, but works very well. Like Blarumyrran's armor it has it's own flair, but is still a "mundane" armor (nothing wrong with that - it's exactly what we need, in my opinion!). The layout is very clean, and Loki provides both the armor overlayed and on it's own. Still, I'd rather see png's with proper transparency over the dated gif format.

(The sloppy hair placement is my doing, not LokiF's.)

MdNight:

Creativity: 45 Execution: 50 Effort : 50

This was a nice and simple entry with everything finished, another one of my favorites.

bart:

Creativity: 38  Execution: 38  Effort: 45

This is a cool submission, but I have to knock off a few points for execution -- something bothers me about the way the armor is shaded.  That said, it's quite usable, and the hair is excellent.  A very good submission overall.

qubodup:

Creativity: 25  Execution: 30  Effort: 40

Great hair, great armor look! The armor looks very strange in some of the special animations so no full effort points even though item is provided as layer sprite.

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Top Hat (Lolhat)  by Qubodup

Note: This entry was submitted by a site staff member, and was not eligible to win the cash prize.

ceninan:

Creativy: 35  Execution: 30 Effort: 20

Thanks to Qubodup for getting this contest started :). One thought in particular came in mind the very moment I laid eyes on this entry: "Are contest judges even allowed to enter!?"

After that, I clicked the link to see the actual image ;). So, what can be said about it? It's a top hat. It's round, and looks mostly the same from a lot of angles - compared to the full armor suits, this is easier and therefore gets a lower effort score. The simple execution works quite well and is has it's charm, but I can't help but wonder why some of the frames are antialiased and some are not? It earns a decent creativity score because tophats are always nice :).

MdNight:

Creativity: 25 Execution: 25 Effort: 15

This is just a piece of the gentelman pack so I don't if this counts.

bart:

Creativity: 35  Execution: 25  Effort: 20

This is a fun entry, but it's a lot smaller than the rest, and it needs a little more in terms of shading.  Still, I can't help but like it.

qubodup:

Creativity: 1  Execution: 1  Effort: 1

No creativity, idea taken from the TIGSource Gentleman "trend". It looks horrible and like the artist used MS paint.

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Gentleman With a Side of Steampunk  by Redwyn

ceninan:

Creativy: 45  Execution: 40 Effort: 38

Bionic arm, monocle, suit, top hat -  is there anything in here not to like? Redwyn tries to pack a lot of stuff into this one. Sadly he doesn't complete it all, but I think that the sheer amount of changes in here weighs up at least partly for that. Now if only there was a cane in there too... ;). While there may be others in this competition whose skills have matured more, Redwyn clearly has talent and goes out of his way to show it. I hope he will stay with us and that I'll get to see him mature into something truly great.

("Now, where did I put my cane?")

MdNight:

Creativity: 35 Execution: 30 Effort: 40

Although he could not finish the entire sprite, there was a lot of content that was finish. Overall I like it it. It could have used a little more contrast on the suit maybe even hue shifting.

bart:

Creativity: 43  Execution: 43  Effort: 32

This is another excellent entry with a lot of really useful pieces, but I have to knock some points off of Effort for the incomplete suit.  Kudos, though, on dividing this up into multiple independant parts.

qubodup:

Creativity: 50  Execution: 20  Effort: 35

Looks a bit bulky but super-inspirational. Much content/different items is a bonus Too bad not all items are complete.

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Starsteel Barbarian/Armor/Claws  by Redshrike

ceninan:

Creativy: 45  Execution: 45 Effort: 40

This entry has it all. A barbarian, gigantic claws, and...and... that's it. But that's all it needs. I mean, how can you not look at this entry and think "Awesome!" ? If you really do manage to think otherwise, take one good look at him and tell him straight to his face. I dare you. And just wait until you see him laugh...

Good execution and effort - that the creativity score is also good goes without saying. Overall a very solid entry, and the changes Redshrike did to the base sprite gives us one badass looking barbarian.

("I promise, I don't know anything! Please don't hurt me! Whoever it was that stole your pants, it wasn't me!")

MdNight:

Creativity: 45 Execution: 50 Effort: 50

This is one of my favorites entires for this contest. He manage to do two versions of the sprite, and both were very well done.

bart:

Creativity: 40  Execution: 45  Effort: 39

This is definitely a fun one.  The scar and the beard make him look rugged and fierce -- not the kind of guy you'd want to pick a fight with.  Also, he comes with his own weapons, which is cool.

qubodup:

Creativity: 30  Execution: 40  Effort: 40

I love the beard and I like the claws, the armor looks a bit like a backpack o_O.

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That's all for now!  Thanks again to all who entered!