GUI Olympics 2004 Details
Saturday, February 28, 2004 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
This Monday, the GUI Olympics 2004 will begin. It's a contest to see who can create the world's best visual styles, icons, and Winamp 5 skins. Sponsors include Stardock, Nullsoft, ATI, nVidia, and others. Microsoft is also providing prizes to the contest. In total, over $10,000 (closer to $15,000) in cash and prizes will be given out including ATI video cards, an Xbox, tons of software and probably some surprises.
You will be able to enter skins individually or as part of a team. The top teams will get a big bonus prize. Anyone can form a team and there are no restrictions on the size of team (though obviously the bigger the team, the bigger the split in the prize money). You could have a Team MyfavoriteWebsite or a Team "l33t". It's up to whoever starts the team (on Monday there will be a mechanism on www.guiolympics.com to create your own team).
The rules are fairly straight forward. You have to enter submissions that are NEW. They can't be things that already exist. They also have to be in WindowBlinds visual style format. But if you've ever made a .msstyles visual style, it's pretty easy to make a WindowBlinds one and SkinStudio can convert a .msstyles file to WindowBlinds visual style format. And then from there add the missing features to make it competitive.
The contest begins on March 1 but JUDGING won't begin until April 5 so you'll have over a month to actually put together your stuff. And judging goes on during the entire month so you may potentially have nearly 2 months depending on what events you're concentrating on.
Here is the schedule of events:
April 5: Most minimalist visual style, Most creative Winamp skin, Most original icon package
April 8: Best Power user visual style, Most useable Winamp skin
April 12: Most usable visual style, Best power user Winamp skin, Best "themed" (icons go together the best) icon package
April 15: Most creative visual style
April 19: Best themed* visual style*, Best themed* Winamp skin, Best pseudo-OS icon package
April 22: Best Pseudo-OS visual style
April 26: Best overall visual style, Best overall Winamp skin, Best overall icon package
April 27: Top Team/Individual: WindowBlinds, Top Team/Individual: Winamp, Top Team/Individual: Icons
April 29: User's Choice: Best visual style, User's Choice: Best Winamp skin: User's Choice: Best icon package
*themed skin as in the whole skin keeps to a particular theme.
16 Events. Over $10,000 in cash and prizes. Anyone can enter.
The judges will be admins/employees from Stardock, Neowin, deviantART, and Nullsoft.
So there you have it. WB visual styles, icon packages, and Winamp 5. For $10k to $15k in cash and prizes spread among 16 main events.
Regarding entries:
Submissions will begin mid Monday afternoon. Most submissions probably won't come in until April so don't feel rushed. But remember, youc an update your stuff as often as you want.
When you do enter in a submission, you will first which contest (WindowBlinds, Winamp, Icons). Then you can pick up to 2 events. All skins will automatically contend for the various "Overall" contests (i.e. "best overall skin" for instance).
Example, to use MetalX (top skin from GUI Olympis 2002) as an example, I would probably do:
[X] Best Power User Visual Style
[X] Most Usable Visual Style
[ ] Most Creative Visual Style
[ ] Best Pseudo-OS Visual Style
[ ] Best Minimalistic Visual Style
[ ] Best Themed Visual Style
We learned, the hard way, how problematic it was to judge 140 skins for every contest. That's just not doable.
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Reply #2 Saturday, February 28, 2004 11:25 PM
Reply #4 Sunday, February 29, 2004 12:37 AM
Reply #5 Sunday, February 29, 2004 1:41 AM
DavidK, you had some of the best skins in the last one. I'm really excited to imagine what you might come up with!
Reply #7 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:09 AM
Reply #9 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:18 AM
'Power User'.....complex - using all the features available.
'Pseudo OS'.....styled to give the impression of a 'theoretical' or imaginary Operating System.....like Windows 2010, BeOS 12, or Linux v3127 revision b 0.5 alpha edition 2c.....
Reply #10 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:32 AM
Oh Wait Jafo already mentioned that one....Windows 2010
Reply #11 Sunday, February 29, 2004 9:22 AM
Reply #12 Sunday, February 29, 2004 9:27 AM
Reply #13 Sunday, February 29, 2004 10:22 AM
This is from the front page of the GUIO's page.
I hope I'm reading this right. That the skin suites can look the same, because that's what I'm doing. Windowblinds and icons to match and possibly a player.
I was wondering about that, also.
I'm just hoping people don't just use mac icons like most of the MSStyle ports are for the shell style. I would think that it would have to be (all origanal) works from top to bottom.
[Message Edited]
Reply #14 Sunday, February 29, 2004 1:44 PM
Reply #15 Sunday, February 29, 2004 1:58 PM
Reply #16 Sunday, February 29, 2004 7:58 PM
| #9 by Admin Jafo - 2/29/2004 8:18:21 AM 'Power User'.....complex - using all the features available. |
I think that would mean that the skin uses all available options
Reply #17 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:14 PM
Reply #18 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:16 PM
[Message Edited]
Reply #19 Sunday, February 29, 2004 8:30 PM
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Reply #1 Saturday, February 28, 2004 11:19 PM