Habbo Hotel: Origins
Habboween Furni Design Competition — Winners!
The results are in!
Hey all and happy Habboween to everyone, Stonghandle here! I missed the foreword this time around, but this article literally cannot be made before I am ready, so I can slide my words in here without a worry. Not that I would've said anything that special in the announcement, same thing as always with little bit different words most likely. Same deal most likely in this post too!
So, we had around 90 entries this time around, and without going back to check the older ones, I think that was the most we have had. And yet again the judging has been hard for me, lots of good things, lots of similar things, lots of things that toe the line of "is this new enough to reward" etc. Yet again I have picked the top 20 and top 10 as well and fair as I could, and hopefully not too many people are disappointed.
Like with the past entries, I am not going to look for my past comments, but I feel like I have adressed something in these before about the judging process and whatnot, so I'll do something like that here. It is about AI this time. We did add no AI in the rules in the past, and it should still be there. But it is continuously more difficult to spot. There were couple very clear instances of it, but after my preliminary pickings of about top 35, there still was couple entries that seemed little bit off after a closer look. And the hard part starts, deeming what could be AI or not. After all, with proper cleaning up, there really is no way to know. I have skipped couple items that could've made the top 20 under suspicion of AI. I just need everyone to understand that it is a hard call to make when it is not absolutely 100% clear, and I have not done this maliciously even though I dislike AI as an art tool, you are free to do whatever outside of these competitions. And also forgive me if something has slipped through even after a general checkup. We truly live in a weird time period, huh.
But after all that doom and gloom and maybe unnecessary apologies, here is the top 10 and top 20 of the entries of this spooooooky competition! Like always, the judging is hard, is subjective and margins are thin, maybe little thinner this time than previous times! I have commented on the top 10 finishers as is tradition around here, usefulness of the said commentary is under scrutiny though!
Until the next time, whenever that might be!
-Stronghandle
Winners
#1 — spirit-sea
Feedback: There was surprising amount of Glukko related things in the mix this year, which in hindsight is not that surprising since it was the long running narrative going on this month. And this was standing on top of that hill for me. And looks like the hill is more general one as well. I guess that seems fitting considering Glukko taking everything else over this past month huh. My main criticism with this piece is that the wooden stake at the left and the rope do not actually seem to have much function? They work visually in the arrangement sure, but maybe the rope should at least go around the petrified habbo? But again, it works visually.
#2 — eugeen
Feedback: Real nice one, simple but nice. I personally loathe making stone textures and I think this does it well. Wings are also not easiest one to draw, good job there too, I did not find any matches by quickly looking through own stuff so I am assuming they are are from scratch. The top two are very statuesque it seems like. Maybe everyone will submit statues next time around?
#3 — funkydonuts
Feedback: I think it is fun to finally have one of these gachapon adjacent items where you could go in instead of just being a hand item provider. If this had been number one, I would've mostly drawn the candy corn that would be behind the habbo in the... bowl? I am assuming those are missing because of the going in aspect, but we have layers to fix that!
#4 — frog
Feedback: This batch did not really have that many items of this shape category, where they have been popular in the past, maybe because they are somewhat easy to get look really nice. I am not saying that to downplay this either, but they just visually hit me well. I think this is also just creative one, having it being made of patchwork like Frankensteins monster, even has that bolt on the side.
#5 — ElCarritas
Feedback: Fifth place goes for gothic drama with a richly lined open coffin. Sleek, detailed, and unmistakably spooky — a piece that speaks for itself.
#6 — Demoncat
Feedback: I think this is quite lovely decoration element. More witchy than halloweeny if that makes sense. But who says witches are not allowed in halloween! Not me. Again, this is animated to have a evil black cat to pop up from it, but I personally like it without it so selfishly I put the image of the cauldron.
#7 — hermis
Feedback: Another Glukko item. I think I have in past contests tried to underline preferring original stuff, but obviously using old assets to best of one's abilities is a good thing (for example the previous winner was made of lot of things slapped together well). This is obviously a riff of the samovar, and I think a pretty good one. Other things in placements have also had parts of other things, obviously, this just made me think of writing it down.
#8 — Jeca
Feedback: Solid work in the spirit of habboween. It is rather large on a tile though, so that lost some of those imaginary points that I do not distribute in this judging process.
#9 — weske
Feedback: Since the article images are stills, need to inform the readers that this one provides you water. For some reason. Thats fun, and I just really like the huge gaping mouth of the ghost croc. And overall real cute.
#10 — Honk
Feedback: This is this cycle's "Simple is the best" entry. I don't know which image is included for this in this article, but Habbo can go stand in the beaker and we see dissolved bony legs there, in case that does not come through.
Runners Up
Kenzo
codigo
dm-avenger
ellie
jeen
Marcos
perfectionist
sprig
Xtal
yooco
Thank you to everyone who entered and brought their spookiest ideas to the table. The creativity on show this Habboween has been brilliant, and we’re grateful for every single entry.
The top five will receive their prizes as outlined in the competition article. All 20 ranked entries will also receive the Habboween Design Competition badge — congratulations!