vgmstream logo contest by hcs at 11:52 AM EDT on June 23, 2008
vgmstream has been in development for about half a year, and is coming along nicely. We'd like to do a beta release for promotional purposes soon, but while we have some of the best decoders in the field we don't have a logo! And as we know, the logo is the most important part of a successful project (well, after the name). So I propose:
A contest to design the vgmstream logo!
Before I list the rules, let me make clear that I welcome pretty much anything, and I want to see as many suggestions as possible. I just don't want to have to deal with legal crap, or crap submissions.
The rules:
1) Within the next 14 days (last day July 7th) post your suggested logo in this thread. It need not be finalized and polished, line drawings are OK, vivid descriptions might be marginally acceptable if they describe something sufficiently awesome. Note though that preference may be given to complete, usable logos. You don't have to put the image inline (with the [img] tag), you could just post a link to wherever you have it.
2) Submissions must be accompanied by a statement explicitly allowing their reproduction without restriction (though you may demand attribution if you like).
3) No limit on the number of submissions per person, joint submissions are OK but you'll have to decide among yourself how to split any (potentially awesome) prize.
4) Submissions should not be made of copied stuff, i.e. sprites from games and such. Freely drawn images of such things or custom sprites are fair game, though.
5) I'd like to see incorporated the concepts of A) video games B) music and possibly C) streams/rivers/etc (though don't struggle too much with that). Something that came up in early discussions was to avoid suggestions of lo-fi game sound (i.e. Space Invaders ships or such). As much as I love chiptunes, and though they are iconic and recognizable as video-game-related, vgmstream deals with prerendered streams, so such images may be misleading. This is more of a guideline than an actual rule, though, just letting you know ahead of time what my position is likely to be.
6) Please no intentionally stupid submissions. I'm sure they will be funny; let me laugh at them ahead of time to save you the trouble. Ha ha ha! And also LOL.
7) Winners will be selected by hcs (me). There may be more than one winner, there may be none if this turns out miserably. Though I only foresee using one logo as a primary (to avoid "diluting the brand") I see no reason not to reward sufficient awesomeness and maybe have a random spare image.
8) Winners will receive random items from my collection of random items, posted to wherever they happen to be (limited to Earth, sorry). You might get a choice if I can't decide. While I can't say what the value of the prizes will be just yet, they will be at least interesting. And of course you win the right to have your logo on some awesome software.
So that's it, real prizes and fame for your good ideas. Since HCS Forum has a relatively small readership, please post about it elsewhere with a reference back to this thread (though please only somewhere appropriate, where people might be interested, and avoid seeming too spammy).
Edit #1: A question, Is it ok if the image is nintendo oriented?
Edit #2: or perhaps, if you're familiar with highly advanced, you might know of how the retarded cat pictures show every so often when you tag a gsf. Maybe multiple images could be in order? (with a GCN, PS2, or XBOX logo showing every so often)
Here's an idea. If enough logos/good enough logos show up, maybe the logo could change depending on the music type played. An Xbox/X360 logo for Xbox/X360 formats (there are some that are specific to console types), an NGC/Wii logo for NGC/Wii formats, an NDS logo for NDS formats, and PS2 logo for PS2 formats. Oh, and for formats that cross multiple consoles (ADX for ex.), a "Generic" (or maybe ADX specific?) logo could be made.
While that'd be spiffy, I'm doubting it will happen, because that'd require a few more logos, as well as the fact that it might require extra coding to get it to show the various logos in that fashion.
Now that I've had the idea though, maybe I'll put some effort into making multiple logos... Knowing me though, I'll be lucky to get 1 logo made, let alone 5. Mouser X over and out.
It needs a lot of work. The "VGM" needs to be thicker, to help it show up more. The green circle is meant to imply the X360, the blue line is to imply the Wii, and the "font" of the VGM is meant to imply the PS2. Mouser X over and out.
Glad to see some activity! Here's my own entry: An old in_cube logo proposal. The idea was to go for the iPod silhouette effect, but with the GC's light glowing.
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n204/Syphor_2006/Tech/VGM-3.png -- i like the way you're thinking, could play around with that idea more, perhaps make something more condensed/iconic.