I don't recall the exact time the announcement indicated "Accepting Submissions" but I've always had the cutoff for past challenges right at midnight UTC-11 (the last timezone of the day with any landmasses in it) so your submission was at least 4 hours before the deadline. :)
One of WithTheLove's submissions was actually submitted before the opening, though. That doesn't mean it's disqualified, but I have to exclude all votes that occured before the start-of-challenge point on that submission. :/
Considering the intent behind the asset's creation, I feel a bit dubious about that statement.
It's true the line between 'infringing' and 'inspired by' is a weird one. It is often difficult to know what is allowed and what is not. In this case, it's best to be safe. As for what to change... pick any feature or proportion. Be creative. Figure it out. Currently, the only thing significantly different from the trademarked character is the color scheme.
@MNDV: I... had no idea that was there. I think that's a functionality used by the old LPC style contests. I'm going by tags to determine who has entered. You're all good. :)
@Dyrewulfe re: spamming: Only if OP specifies they aren't looking for 3rd party teams to hire. The posts with embedded links are answering the original request and the links themselves are relevant to the topic at hand.
EDIT: Ah, I see; a DUPLICATE posting of company. I missed that at first. Yes, that's a bit spammy. Fixed.
Well, JoshAS, this isn't fan art of "Eggman Robotnik" since his name is "Eggplantman", but I think leeor_net has a point. This could probably be argued to only be inspired by Dr. Robotnik, but it's also pushing the limit. As WithTheLove once said, just being in the realm of 'reminds me of' is fine, it's when you get to 'easily mistaken for' that the trouble starts.
Although Theo the Teddy is probably inspired by Sonic, a reasonable person would not mistake him for Sonic. This asset is over in 'easily mistaken for' territory, I'm afraid. Any chance you'd be willing to make Mr Eggplantman a bit more of a unique character that is easily distinguishable from certain Saga trademarks? I think this is fixable, but until then I have to mark this as having a licensing issue. Thanks for understanding and let me know if you have any questions about this.
I'm not much of an artist myself, but I wish you luck in finding one to help you. I found some stuff you might be interested in if you haven't already seen it:
GrafxKid's Classic Hero stuff is about the right size and stylistically similar, but a bit more chibi-ish. Disthron, DezrasDragons, and Umz made some nice derivatives to his set as well.
Calciumtrice did some characters that are bigger than 12x12 pixels, but are stylistically similar to Thy Sword. Several people produced derivatives as well. Basically everything in this collection is worth taking a look at for inspiration. Might work well with LUNARSIGNALS' hsv hero generator: https://mechaelephant.com/hsvhero
I'm sure you're looking for that very specific style and dimensions that only a pixel artist can customize, but I'm hoping these may help out or give you inspiration. :)
Those spell icons look like 7Soul's work: https://opengameart.org/content/496-pixel-art-icons-for-medievalfantasy-rpg
I don't recall the exact time the announcement indicated "Accepting Submissions" but I've always had the cutoff for past challenges right at midnight UTC-11 (the last timezone of the day with any landmasses in it) so your submission was at least 4 hours before the deadline. :)
One of WithTheLove's submissions was actually submitted before the opening, though. That doesn't mean it's disqualified, but I have to exclude all votes that occured before the start-of-challenge point on that submission. :/
Considering the intent behind the asset's creation, I feel a bit dubious about that statement.
It's true the line between 'infringing' and 'inspired by' is a weird one. It is often difficult to know what is allowed and what is not. In this case, it's best to be safe. As for what to change... pick any feature or proportion. Be creative. Figure it out. Currently, the only thing significantly different from the trademarked character is the color scheme.
@MNDV: I... had no idea that was there. I think that's a functionality used by the old LPC style contests. I'm going by tags to determine who has entered. You're all good. :)
...What?
Everything looks great to me. What is the concern?
@Dyrewulfe re: spamming:
Only if OP specifies they aren't looking for 3rd party teams to hire. The posts with embedded links are answering the original request and the links themselves are relevant to the topic at hand.EDIT: Ah, I see; a DUPLICATE posting of company. I missed that at first. Yes, that's a bit spammy. Fixed.
Nice. .pxm is a proprietary format, though. Any chance you'd be able to include a .png version?
Well, JoshAS, this isn't fan art of "Eggman Robotnik" since his name is "Eggplantman", but I think leeor_net has a point. This could probably be argued to only be inspired by Dr. Robotnik, but it's also pushing the limit. As WithTheLove once said, just being in the realm of 'reminds me of' is fine, it's when you get to 'easily mistaken for' that the trouble starts.
Although Theo the Teddy is probably inspired by Sonic, a reasonable person would not mistake him for Sonic.
This asset is over in 'easily mistaken for' territory, I'm afraid.Any chance you'd be willing to make Mr Eggplantman a bit more of a unique character that is easily distinguishable from certain Saga trademarks? I think this is fixable,but until then I have to mark this as having a licensing issue.Thanks for understanding and let me know if you have any questions about this.Those are pretty good symbolic rocks IMO. Even without context my impression of the symbols are:
The earth logo hints at rocks and dirt as well as being mountain-shaped. I can't imagine a better symbol for an Earth element.
I'm not much of an artist myself, but I wish you luck in finding one to help you. I found some stuff you might be interested in if you haven't already seen it:
GrafxKid's Classic Hero stuff is about the right size and stylistically similar, but a bit more chibi-ish. Disthron, DezrasDragons, and Umz made some nice derivatives to his set as well.
Calciumtrice did some characters that are bigger than 12x12 pixels, but are stylistically similar to Thy Sword. Several people produced derivatives as well. Basically everything in this collection is worth taking a look at for inspiration. Might work well with LUNARSIGNALS' hsv hero generator: https://mechaelephant.com/hsvhero
Master484's Mini Knight stuff seems to be about the right size and style.
Some other honorable mentions worth looking at
I'm sure you're looking for that very specific style and dimensions that only a pixel artist can customize, but I'm hoping these may help out or give you inspiration. :)
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