Fall Festival 2020 - Winner Announcement

The results for the 2020 Fall Festival Contest are in! This was a very close race with lots of love to all of our candidates and their submissions. We apologise for the delay, but we had to do a revote as we missed a submission. It would've been unfair for me to arbitrarily decide, so we went through another week-long vote.

As a reminder, the criteria for placement is based on:

Quality
Creativity
Uniquity

Not all items will go in exactly as shown here. Some may receive texture updates and other small visual changes - no design changes! - to work better in-game.

As teased, we will surely be having quite a few runner-ups, so be prepared for a long list! Without further ado...

Winners

https://i.imgur.com/gL5dXnV.png

We fell in love with this depiction of the simple joys of Halloween, unfortunately out of reach for many this year in our real lives. In their submission e-mail, Ivvan spoke about how Gummi Gruoks, being so rare, are basically the full sized candy bar of Istaria - definitely making this lair a hit!

https://i.imgur.com/5M3xolj.png

Dark colors and green elicit fear in many Istarians, making this mask set perfect for the Halloween season. Truly what is a Blight other than poison, seeping into the veins of the world? Reminiscent of our Blight, yet unique on its own, the Poisonous mask set will fit right in with more creepy characters!

https://i.imgur.com/IsiwDhT.png

The cross-stitch effect on the banner is a very creative idea and not something seen very often, giving homage to a craft that is often overlooked - on a mob that’s normally overlooked!

Congratulations, you three!

Runner-Ups

Now, we had far too many submissions to give placements to, so we’ve a good batch of runner-ups to show off! In no particular order, these are other submissions that were received very well.

https://i.imgur.com/XEpARCQ.png

According to Arkasia,
"When the naka duskael required the assistance of dragon kind to cure the dulling disease of Zymosis, many primalists wore this old, beaked mask. It had been rumored to enhance primalist abilities." A very clever reference to plague doctors!

https://i.imgur.com/sWrYA5k.png

Dia de los Muertos is a very beautiful Mexican holiday about the celebration of the lives of those who are passed. This mask pays homage to sugar skulls with its bright white skull-like base decorated with bright and beautiful patterns similar to those you would see in real life.

https://i.imgur.com/JqiKVcM.png

A very simple yet creative design that makes good use of the asymmetric nature of the Dragon textures by providing a unique silhouette and under-the-eye variations.

https://i.imgur.com/nRRSQWb.png

The attention to detail in the scales is very impressive in this mask, as well as the large variety of color introduced without anything looking too clashing.

Bonus Additions
For some folks who placed, their other submissions ended up getting a lot of love and favor in the voting process, sometimes almost tying the submission that placed. As no one can place twice, they were initially no longer considered, but it felt like such a waste to throw away the wonderful ideas and designs we were given.

With the artists’ permissions, we’ve included some other submissions of the above players as bonus additions - inclusion to the game, but not treated as any additional win / giving no additional reward, like a normal submission.

“Greed” by Azramael Akharosh

While unable to be attached to this forum post, Azramael spun a curious tale of the greed of a wealthy merchant’s grandson itching for the gold of his late grandfather…

https://i.imgur.com/A8pZscN.png

A secondary submission by Ivvan, these matching masks were very cool to see! Dragon armor is a well-requested feature, so having more armor-style masks is always welcome. The bipedal counterpart gives a fanciful variant to your bland old platemail and lets you match your scaled friends while hunting Epics. Meanwhile, the Sleeper's Claw mask pays homage to the all-important story of the Riftrender, the Sleeper, and the disaster that followed and shapes Dragonkind to this day

https://i.imgur.com/lyQXYX8.png

Another beautiful mask set from Fenrisullfr, emphasizing the beauty of the night sky. As a personal lover of the night, I adore its beauty being captured in such a mystical set.

https://i.imgur.com/jUddAdH.png

Seetha brings another biped mask - a ferocious oni, guaranteed to ‘encourage’ more candy into your bag!

Congratulations to everyone! We hope you all enjoyed this contest and everyone in-game will enjoy the amazing work put in. If you did not win this year, don't fret - you'll always have another shot! Next time, we will be looking into a public vote system to hopefully have a faster turnaround and a greater variety of opinions.

It's a bit late now, but happy Fall Festival, happy Halloween, and have a wonderful fall.