Winners! The 10 pumpkin-carvers who win Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles

by Christopher Grant { Oct 31st 2007 at 9:15PM }

You've made your choices and we're pleased as punch to announce the following 10 winners of the 2007 Joystiq Pumpkin Carving Contest. Each winner will receive a copy of the Halloween-tastic Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles for the Sony PSP (winners, keep an eye on your inboxes). Without further ado, the winners:

Takayoshi's Mario pumpkin with 14% of the vote
Roy's Illidan Stormrage from WoW pumpkin with 13% of the vote
Adam's Wind Waker-era Ganon pumpkin with 7% of the vote
Sherita's Shadow of the Colossus pumpkin with 6% of the vote
Stephen's Nintendo pumpkin lineup 5%
Chuck's Master Chief-splosion pumpkin with 5%
Cory's Weighted Companion Cube pumpkin with 4%
Eric's Paper Mario pumpkin with 4%
Michael's Portal pumpkins with 4%
Dan's Bubble Bobble pumpkin with 4%

For the statistically curious amongst you (you know who you are), peep the full poll results after the break. Happy Halloween Joystiq-land!

Note: Michael's Wario pumpkin and Christopher's Stubbs pumpkin were disqualified as they both used a publicly available template. Two of Stephen's four Nintendo-themed pumpkins were homemade, so we let them stay.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Joshua @ Oct 31st 2007 9:27PM

The winning Mario pumpkin looks like a cookie, and it looks delicious.

JL @ Nov 1st 2007 12:49PM

Im still pissed that the Jack Thompson pumpkin wasnt a finalist.

Santo @ Oct 31st 2007 9:30PM

Now you need to pit Illidan and Mario against each other in a one-on-one runoff to determine the true winner!

Flyy (NDF) @ Oct 31st 2007 9:39PM

Goddamn. I can't get over how good that Illidan looks. I usually hate all things WoW too.

Justin @ Oct 31st 2007 9:50PM

"Two of Stephen's four Nintendo-themed pumpkins were homemade, so we let them stay."
-Maybe only half of his votes should count!

Jason @ Oct 31st 2007 10:21PM

I think #3, the Wind Waker Ganon, is a fake. And as such should be disqualified. I thought it was really good (and voted for it myself) until I saw 2 other wind-waker pumpkins that didn't make it to the top 25 voting list... I found the original images on zelda fan sites, and the resulting pumpkin is per-pixel accurate, nearly impossible when converting to a 3D pumpkin surface. Simply put - photoshop. It's a good job, but not in the true nature of the contest. I think he/she should have to submit more photos, from alternate angles to prove it's authenticity.

Kevlar @ Oct 31st 2007 11:58PM

I did the comparison, as you suggested, and it looks legit. The actual image's sleeves are larger, and his head isn't tilted forward as much. I had to stretch it out taller just to get it to fit in the first place. I'll agree they're close, but it actually looks like a real carving, for once. [Comparison: http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=comparisonsz2.jpg ]

Jason @ Nov 1st 2007 10:16AM

Kevlar, I stand corrected. I'll have to say it's legit. (like I said, it still got one of my votes)

Saria the Cat @ Nov 1st 2007 1:50PM

I have to say that the Wind Waker themed pumpkins (that are "carved" in a similar fashion to this Ganon one), as well as the winning Ganon, look pretty fake. I was fiddling around with them in Photoshop and the actual "carving" designs don't really match up well with the actual pumpkin in terms of hue, contrast, levels, etc. :\ But maybe the image quality is just really bad. Either way, they look sketchy from my perspective. If they did carve, what kind of tools/technique did they use, I wonder?

Anyway, congratulations to all who won. :) Carving pumpkins is hard work, and these look awesome!

Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Oct 31st 2007 10:22PM

As long as both Portal-related pumpkins won, I'm happy.

Dio @ Oct 31st 2007 10:23PM

OMG these are all amazing!

flameofdoom666 @ Oct 31st 2007 10:42PM

How come Michael's Wario pumpkin with 8% isn't part of the top 10 winners?

Rubang B (NDF - Heart) @ Oct 31st 2007 10:55PM

Disqualified for using a template.

flameofdoom666 @ Oct 31st 2007 10:57PM

Ohhh fine print! whoops :-)

Thanks

Matt B @ Oct 31st 2007 10:45PM

Congrats to all who took the time to do this!

Geist @ Oct 31st 2007 11:04PM

Woah woah woah. I like Mario as much as the next guy, but holy shit that WoW one is better. I'm sorry. It just is.

Also, I think a better portal one would be to have a person enter one portal, on one pumpkin, and then to have them exiting out of another portal, on another pumpkin.

dsub @ Oct 31st 2007 11:13PM

From an artists' perspective, the Mario pumpkin would be the more difficult of the two to carve. Why? Because it's an actual 3D representation of Mario, whereas the WoW pumpkin is only a 2D representation. The WoW pumpkin would be like simply drawing the outline on a piece of paper, whereas the Mario pumpkin would be like having to draw the entire thing.

Get it?

That Mario pumpkin is perfect.

MagusDF @ Oct 31st 2007 11:57PM

Tho a 3d pumpkin may be a bit harder to carve a 2d pumpkin has to take a lot more in from a design perspective to make it work.

Arturo @ Oct 31st 2007 11:28PM

Yeah, but I still like the WoW one better. I don't go by what was harder to make, I go by what I think looks cooler.

fatmajinboo @ Nov 1st 2007 12:21AM

WOW! Photoshoped pumpkins!!!

Paul Gale @ Nov 1st 2007 12:26AM

Happy Halloween to all of you at Joystiq.

Here are some pictures, and one video of the Super Mario Galaxy Pumpkin I made this year:

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Mk9ypJBeI

Pictures:
1) Front:
http://www.paulgalenetwork.com/images/A_0/0/5/5/5500/hm2sra1r.JPG

2) Back: http://www.paulgalenetwork.com/images/A_0/0/5/5/5500/nme53ren.JPG

Wow, now those were some awesome pumpkins. Congratulations to all of the winners.

Sieged Eagle @ Nov 1st 2007 12:53AM

Congratulations to the winners. They really gave all their effort and, although only 10 won, the rest were nicely done. And I'm happy to see that even though he didn't reach the 1st. place, our beloved Companion Cube managed to win part of the contest.

Bravo for the work you guys!

chispito @ Nov 1st 2007 1:22AM

All very nicely done. I think the order pretty much corresponds with the overall quality of the pumpkins, though the Colossus pumpkin is far and away my sentimental favorite.

FR3SH JIV3 @ Nov 1st 2007 1:37AM

I still want to see progress shots of the top mario pumpkin. I just can't believe someone carved that out by hand.

rhoymand @ Nov 1st 2007 3:45AM

Thanks for all the votes and positive comments guys!

If anyone wants to try and carve Illidan for themselves here's the pattern I made:

http://www.rhoymand.com/illidan_pumpkin_pattern.jpg

Be warned though... YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!!

KnightRicer @ Nov 1st 2007 4:04AM

In Stephen's nintendo lineup, both mario and bowser are templates. He should be disqualified

http://www.zombiepumpkins.com/pixel.php

GameOverChump @ Nov 1st 2007 8:41AM

Once again Psychonaughts gets stiffed.

sqweak @ Nov 1st 2007 2:10PM

I call shenanigans.

The official rules said:

"Carvings must be the submitter’s own personal work/design with a video game theme. Designs must be original. No template cutting/carvings allowed."

Not, "no COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE template..." just "no template". I carved a Ratchet & Clank Future pumpkin that I didn't submit because of this rule, and now a vast majority of the winners obviously used other peoples work as a template for their carving (I.E. the Illidan pumpkin is straight from the wikipedia image of Illidan). lame.

I mean to take nothing away from the winners. Carving with a template is still a difficult and time consuming process, I'm just a bit miffed that the "official rules" aren't being followed.

Takayoshi Sugawara @ Nov 2nd 2007 1:41AM

i feel for you, i definitely wished the contest rules were clearer and enforced consistently. if the contest is an annual thing, i'm sure this will serve as a learning experience. i hope. and i'm sure that the people organizing it struggled more than we can imagine, considering how they had to make aesthetic decisions across all these pumpkins (impossible!) and balancing legal issues while trying to make it as entertaining / accessible as possible.

i had the same mental fit when they said "no templates", but i dismissed it, out of common sense, because no artist spontaneously spews out masterpieces. hell, pumpkins are seasonal and cost too much to even practice on. although i went 3d this time, i agree that templates are still a necessity for most complex designs and take a lot of skill. however, when commercially available and mass-produced designs are used in a competition that touts "creativity and originality" as grading criteria, it undermines a lot of creative license and effort that others put into their original templates.

Sakeyoko @ Nov 1st 2007 7:34PM

Hey, this is Sherita who did the Colossus pumpkin. I was wondering when you guys were going to get around to sending the confirmation emails?

PunkBouncer @ Nov 2nd 2007 12:54AM

I'm very glad your Colossus pumpkin won! And congrats on the double nominations. They were both excellent designs.

avalonmusic @ Nov 5th 2007 4:37PM

I know I read the rules and saw it said "Designs must be original. No template cutting/carvings allowed"

So i did mine by freehand carving.
If i knew you could use a template of a drwing I made I would have had a better looking pumkin.

This is just another reson I stopped submiting artwork to contests with rules.
Whoever runs it is blinded by someones work that does not follow the rules and everyone elses work it pushed to the wayside.