Qualifying Round 3 - Youth Is For The Young

First Prize: $35 Gift Certificate to Amazon.com

Round Opens: Saturday, March 5, 2005 Submission Deadline: Monday, April 4, 2005 at 11:59pm PST Winners Announced: Saturday, April 9, 2005

The Challenge There's a little kid inside of us just screaming to get out. This round will help you release your inner child along with those of your favorite RPG characters. For this round, the challenge is to depict one or more characters from an RPG as children doing something children do! For example, you might show Sephiroth playing hopscotch, or maybe you'll illustrate the cast of Dark Cloud in their third-grade classroom. The possibilities here are limitless, but here are a few guidelines you should follow: You can choose any characters to depict as children as long as they can actually be made to look like children. All characters you select to "kiddify" must be primarily shown as teen-aged (approximately 13 years old) or older in their games. When you kiddify a character, you must show them at an age no greater than approximately half of their primary in-game age. For example, if you select Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7, he is approximately 21 years old (except for some in-game flashbacks, but you can ignore those), so you should depict him as a child somewhere in the age range of 0-11 years old. No character should be depicted as being older than age 18. So if you pick the Old Man from The Legend of Zelda, for example, you can show him as being any age from 0 to 18. You can have some characters depicted at their normal in-game age, but they should serve to support the kiddie characters. Don't forget to show your RPG kids doing something that helps show their ages! Want some more examples? For toddlers, you might have your characters playing with toys or crawling around their crib. Show older kids playing sports, going to school, hanging out with their friends at the arcade, or anything else you would associate with kids! Clarification #1: Age zero (0) means newborn. No sperm, eggs, or zygotes, please!!! Clarification #2: Drawing a chibi version of a character does not automatically make him or her look younger. While chibis are not forbidden, they are discouraged unless you can successfully make the character look younger in addition to looking smaller and/or super-deformed. Please be sure to specify what character(s) in what game(s) you are turning into kids in your work because it might not be very obvious! Except as specified above, all other normal fan art submission guidelines apply. Please be sure to include "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your submission e-mail's subject line. All entries should be submitted to fanart@rpgamer.com by 11:59pm PST on Monday, April 4, 2005. Please note that we cannot accept entries after this deadline for any reason. For confirmation that your entry was received, please include an automatic read receipt request with your e-mail.

Judging Criteria 60% Implementation of Idea 25% Creativity of Idea 15% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines