Category Archives: Character Design Challenges

Don't forget, you only have one more week to get your submissions for the Super Omega Deathbattle Warzone Apocalypse Contest! The winners will get their characters painted in full color in a promotional piece for this new awesome game by professional artist Livio Ramondelli of “Transformers: Autocracy” and “DC Universe Online” fame.

If I were you (and be thankful I'm not, because none of those Oreos in your house would still be around if I were) I'd pick out the nine most outstanding characters I've ever designed with HeroMachine and send them in as my entry. You're not limited to new characters only, folks, so go with your best. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Have you ever wanted a character of yours to be on a poster or website promoting a real live game? Well, now's your chance, because the makers of "Super Omega Deathbattle Warzone Apocalypse (the Most Dangerous Game Ever Made)" have turned to you -- yes, YOU! -- to help design the characters they'll use in their promotional materials! How cool is that?!

Here's an example of the kind of thing where your characters might appear:

And your prize isn't just getting your character added to the promo, but getting it fully illustrated in an awesome pose within that promo by Livio Ramondelli of "Transformers: Autocracy" and "DC Universe Online" fame. Check out his fantastic DeviantART work -- this guy is seriously fantastic.

So to recap, you get a character you designed painted in full color, to be used in promotional materials for a cool game that you can actually show your friends. This is big, folks.

You can find the complete rules here (PDF viewer required). But, here's the short version:

• You have two weeks instead of one to get your submissions ready. We want them to be really good.
• You can create up to nine characters and you don't have to say which archetype(s) they are for -- let the design speak for itself.
• They're much more interested in the character design than the actual piece. For instance, they don't care about flashy backgrounds or anything like that. You can add them in if you want, but all the judge will be looking at are the actual character designs. So if you get frustrated at your inability to create the kind of elaborate set pieces of people like Kytana or dblade, this is your chance to shine with just your design vision.
• By submitting a design, you are granting Thunderpunch Studios the rights to use it in their promotional materials. You are not granting them the copyright to the image outside of their official promotional materials, however. In other words, you're giving them the ability to use it how they want for themselves, you're not giving up rights to the character altogether.
• Winners will be announced on May 11 and will be chosen by Thunderpunch Studios executives.

To avoid accusations of "he stole my design!", we're going to handle submissions like for a "Friday Night Fights" session.

• Instead of posting links to your character(s) here, you will need to email them directly to me (afdstudios@gmail.com), all in one single message. You can ZIP them up if you want or you can do them all as separate attachments, so long as I just get one email from you.
• Each file should have your HM user name and your character's name so I know who's who.
• A description would also be nice but isn't mandatory.

Also, once you hit SEND, your submission is final. No takebacks or do-overs.

Good luck, everyone! I know you'll do us all proud. If you have any questions, please speak up in the comments below and I'll try my best to get them answered.

Edited To Add: DO NOT POST YOUR ENTRIES AS LINKS IN COMMENTS HERE! YOU MUST EMAIL THEM TO ME! Please, read the directions above, folks.

Your character design challenge this week is to make an awesome space pirate! I realized in our last mix-and-match contest that I had neither space nor pirate listed as options and that is clearly unacceptable. So this week we're going to combine them!

The rules are the same as usual:

1. Use only a HeroMachine applet (no PhotoShopping except for basic cropping) to create a PNG or JPG of your entry, named as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
2. Enter the name of your entry and a link directly to the image in a comment to this post. The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest.
3. The link to your image should go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
4. I'll choose a winner next Monday, who will receive his or her choice of any item or a portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program, or a "Sketch of the Week" style black and white illustration (you pick the subject and I draw it up however I like).

No limit on entries this week, so give it your best shot!

We had a fun time in Character Contest 67, taking two names from a list to make a mish-mash type of character. I thought it would be good to do that again for the new folks who've joined the community since then, and to give the old-timers another crack at it as well.

Note that you can't re-use characters from any other contests!

In the past I've done a few different Sketches of the Day that involved combining two different archetypes into one. For instance, there was Redneck Wizard, Ninja Cowboy, and Cyborg Pirate.

Thus, your challenge this week is to design one or more characters by combining two words from the following list (slightly updated from last time):

• Cyborg
• Ninja
• Cowboy
• Cheerleader
• Robot
• Dinosaur
• Teen
• Werewolf
• Spirit
• Ghost
• Samurai
• Alien
• Kid
• Doctor
• Shogun
• Zombie
• Sorcerer
• Wizard
• Redneck
• Golem
• Lord
• General
• Captain
• Mutant

So for example, you could do a "Cyborg Cheerleader" or an "Samurai Alien" or "Dinosaur Doctor".

Otherwise the rules are the same:

1. Use only a HeroMachine applet (no PhotoShopping except for basic cropping) to create a PNG or JPG of your entry, named as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
2. Post the image to a publicly accessible website (ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, etc.).
3. Enter the name of your entry and a link directly to the image in a comment to this post. The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest.
4. The link to your image should go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
5. I'll choose a winner next Monday, who will receive his or her choice of any item or a portrait to be included in the final HeroMachine 3 program, or a "Sketch of the Week" style black and white illustration (you pick the subject and I draw it up however I like).

No limit on entries this week, so give it your best shot!

I'm envious of all the great entries in our last contest so I'm going to be a glutton and combine the last two Seven Deadly Sins into one. You know the drill by now -- create something cool using the concepts of gluttony or envy. You might do a green-eyed temptress or a huge fat ogre or Jabba the Hutt getting eaten by a green-eyed temptress. The sky's the limit! Then we don't ever have to do these again.

The rules are the same as usual:

• All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, whatever);
• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest;
• Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
• Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
• All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose a winner.

The person with the winning entry as selected by our expert panel (i.e. me) will win their choice of a) a portrait to go in HeroMachine 3, b) an item to go in HeroMachine 3, or c) a custom black and white "Sketch of the Day" style drawing (also by me).

No limit again this week, knock yourselves out.

Good luck, everyone!

I'm skipping the Blank Caption Contest this week for a variety of uninteresting reasons, and instead want to run a more open-ended character design joint.

Your challenge this time out is to create a science-fiction version of a "standard" D&D style archetype. So you might do a "Sci-Fi Ranger" or "Sci-Fi Dwarf" or "Sci-Fi Sorcerer" or "Sci-Fi Mapper" or "Sci-Fi Kobold". It's up to you, but the goal is to translate something familiar from the fantasy genre into space. Like this guy:

The rules are the same as usual:

• All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the UGO Forums, whatever);
• Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
• The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine character design contest;
• Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
• Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). If you see "preview" or "rotate" somewhere in the link you're probably doing it wrong.
• All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose a winner.

The person with the winning entry as selected by our expert panel (i.e. me) will win their choice of a) a portrait to go in HeroMachine 3, b) an item to go in HeroMachine 3, or c) a custom black and white "Sketch of the Day" style drawing (also by me).

No limit again this week, knock yourselves out.

Good luck, everyone!

Next up in our Seven Deadly Sins series of character design contests is Slothfulness!

Your design challenge for this week is to create a character or characters based on something related to the idea of "slothfulness".

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