Background Blitz - Spooky (WINNER ANNOUNCED)

[Hannah_Banana]

Spooky Background Blitz

In recognition of Halloween, I'm challenging everyone this month to come up with a spooky background. Take that however you like (could be a creepy forest, voodoo hut, haunted house, cemetery) you name it - the spookier, the better.



As always, entries will be judged on the following and will close on Monday 14 November.

Concept: What is the background about? What sort of mood does it spark? What is, as it were, the big idea?
Playability: What is its opportunity for gameplay like? Walkable areas, hot-spots, and so forth?
Artistic Execution: How well does the picture convey an atmosphere? How well is it executed?

[newwaveburritos]

Oh yeah love this theme!  And I think I'm not alone in that so I hope there's a lot of entries this time around!

[Creamy]

One spooky background right of the hat:

[mattcoles]

Rushed together the below tonight. Spooky happenings in a forest lake!

[Snarky]

This isn't an entry, since it is generated with Midjourney as a test:

(Edit: Image removed since it is not an entry)

[Hannah_Banana]

These are looking great!

Love the alien crash Creamy, nice use of contrasting colours and texture with the smoke and ground indentations.

Mattcoles, nice playable area. I feel like some kind of swamp creatures going to come out of that lake 😂

And Snarky, so eerie. I haven't used midjourney yet, but your entry has definitely got me thinking about how it can be used. Can see this layout working great as a transition scene.

Less than a week to go till voting begins!

[Hannah_Banana]

Votes are now open!

As always,votes are across the below three categories with an overall winner announced, voting closes Monday 21 Nov.

Concept: What is the background about? What sort of mood does it spark? What is, as it were, the big idea?
Playability: What is its opportunity for gameplay like? Walkable areas, hot-spots, and so forth?
Artistic Execution: How well does the picture convey an atmosphere? How well is it executed?

[Sinitrena]

Before I vote: Hannah, could you clarify if you consider Snarky's work an entry or not?

This isn't an entry, since it is generated with Midjourney as a test:

And Snarky, so eerie. I haven't used midjourney yet, but your entry has definitely got me thinking about how it can be used. Can see this layout working great as a transition scene.

Just wondering.

I'll vote later, then.

[Hannah_Banana]

A bit slow replying to this one Sinitrena, but I would've said yes, looks like Snarky has removed it now though. I'm always keen to give people the opportunity to trust new techniques!

So two entries to choose from:
- Creamy (UFO)
- Mattjcoles (swamp)

[Sinitrena]

Too bad, I liked Snarky's entry, but without being able to look at it again, I couldn't vote for it. 

Anyways, two nice entries that we do have.


Concept: mattcoles - I really like the trees in the foreground here. They add a lot of creepiness to the scene.
Playability: mattcoles - Clearly defined different kinds of ground might lead to some interesting puzzles here.
Artistic Execution: Creamy - I like the fact that the alien ship is still smoking! Also, the bit of ground in the bottom front that looks almost like a human liing on the ground and reaching out to the spaceship (intentional?).

[Creamy]

My votes go to MattColes... obviously  
I wonder what lurks in this pool...

Too bad, I liked Snarky's entry, but without being able to look at it again, I couldn't vote for it. 

Just click on the link in Snarky's post to see it.
It's disconcerting that you can get such good results with just a prompt on Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or Dall-E. It makes you rethink the link between efforts and results.
Someone already won an art competition with one of these.

Also, the bit of ground in the bottom front that looks almost like a human liing on the ground and reaching out to the spaceship (intentional?).

A human and horse, yes. I kept the shapes intentionally vague.

[Snarky]

The image I posted was never intended as an entry, for two reasons.

First, I'm not absolutely opposed to AI-generated pictures in contests like the Background Blitz (since although it is a lot less work than drawing a picture yourself, it also has some obvious limitations and weaknesses, so it's not an automatic walkover or anything), but I think it has to be discussed up front, since it is awfully close to cheating. I mean, what if I just searched the internet for spooky pictures and posted one I liked as my entry? That's not so different from this.

Second, even if we say yes to AI-generated (or -assisted) entries, I had this one made as an experiment, with various constraints meant to simulate what a bot might be able to do on its own and to minimize human guidance. So it does not represent an attempt to produce the best possible Background Blitz entry. If I'm to enter the Blitz, I want it to be with a piece of which I can say "this is the best I could do under the circumstances."

On to the voting:

Concept: Creamy
Playability: mattcoles
Artistic execution: Creamy

I like mattcoles' entry a good deal. It has a clear, cartoony look that would work well in a game, and I always appreciate a clearly marked walkable area and exit. But I feel it is badly let down by the lighting, which makes the typical mistake of just turning down the brightness so that everything looks flat and dim. Creamy's entry demonstrates that just because something takes place at night, that doesn't mean you can't use bright colors and dramatic contrasts.

Creamy's entry tells a story, and it is visually interesting to look at. The cyan/purple color scheme is very nice, and the marker-like technique is also cool. I'm having a bit of a hard time imagining what role it would play in a game, though (establishing shots don't count for purposes of the Blitz, IMO). Even the flying saucer doesn't really say "clickable" to me.

[Hannah_Banana]

My votes for this round are:

Concept: Mattcoles - this was a tough one to choose as both had great concepts here and ability to add the 'creep' factor. Ended up choosing Matt's though as I do see so much opportunity and suspense with the swamp and how that could be used as part of your story. I did love Creamy's concept here with the UFO landing and how this would be used in game.

Playability: mattcoles - can easily see how this could be used in game with clear walkable areas, things to interact with etc.

Artistic execution: creamy - love the use of your colour, action within the scene and the smoke in cyan to build mystique.

So overall I think this means the winner this round is mattcoles by 1 vote (close call)! Over to you for the next round. Great work both of you 🥳

[mattcoles]

Thankyou! I'll get the next competition up by tomorrow.