We're going to try something big here at RPGamer. Really big. In fact, I do not hesitate to say that this will possibly be the biggest RPG fan art contest in the history of mankind (and maybe even all of squirrelkind). So it is my pleasure to announce OmniArt 2005.

I could go on for ten paragraphs describing this contest with a million synonyms for "awesome," but it would be best if I tell you more about it instead. Here's how OmniArt will work:

For the next 11 months, there will be a new contest qualifying round roughly every six weeks. Each round of competition will have a new theme or objective, and you can expect these themes to be extremely different from anything you've seen in previous fan art contests. These qualifying rounds will test both the talent and the creativity of its entrants, and I know it will produce some of the most amazing and unique pieces of fan art you have ever seen.

Each qualifying round will also be its own contest with a prize for the top finisher. In addition, the top three finishers will automatically advance to the final competition that will take place in November and December of 2005. The judges may also invite other non-top-finishers to the final competition who make a strong showing throughout several of the qualifying rounds.

Once the qualifying rounds conclude and the finalists have been selected, there will be four final elimination rounds in which the RPGamer reading audience will vote for their favorites. The group of finalists will be reduced in size with each round until only three remain for the final round. The winner of this final round of play will walk away with a fantastic prize package. The contents of the prize package are a secret for now, but I can tell you that it will be worth at least $500. I'll gradually reveal some of the prize package's contents as the contest goes on.

Note that anyone may participate in this contest, but only citizens of the United States and Canada may win the prizes. In the event that someone who is not a U.S. or Canadian citizen wins a qualifying round, the prize for that round will be added to the grand prize package. In the event that such a person also wins the final round, that person will receive the championship title and the prize package will be awarded to the runner-up. Employees of RPGamer and their immediate families are welcome to submit entries, but these entries will only be considered for honorable mentions.

One entry per artist, per round. An artist may enter any, some, or all of the qualifying rounds, even if he or she places or wins in one of those rounds. An artist may only win the first prize in one qualifying round. However, an artist who places second or third in one round may still win the first prize in a later qualifying round. In such an event, a fourth place artist may be chosen to advance to the final competition.

We'll have more information, official rules, and a FAQ page for this contest over the next two weeks all on a page dedicated just to the contest. And don't worry, we'll still be having regular weekly non-contest-entry fan art updates, so keep sending in any and all fan art! But since we already have most of the logistics of OmniArt 2005 figured out, I see no reason not to start it now. So withoutfurther blah blah blah from me...

If you've ever been to a videogame or anime convention or any other place where people dress up (or "cosplay") as videogame characters, you may have noticed that one of the most popular characters to cosplay is Selphie, everyone's favorite super-cute, extra-hyper girl from Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts. After all, just put on a yellow dress and some brown boots or sandals and--TA-DAH!--you're Selphie! Well, sorta.

This round will test your ability to tolerate my insane contest ideas create a great piece of artwork from a relatively silly idea. Your task is to depict any character or characters of your choosing from any RPG covered by RPGamer. However, your artwork must adhere to these two guidelines:

1. That character/those characters cannot be Selphie.
2. At least one of the characters depicted in your work must be "cosplaying" as Selphie.

Obviously, cosplaying Selphie is open to a wide degree of interpretation, so if you really need a stronger definition, here it is: someone who is cosplaying as Selphie means that he or she would be recognized (either very easily or after a bit of thought) by someone who has played Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts as wearing a Selphie-inspired costume. You can find pictures of Selphie's outfits in our Final Fantasy 8 and Kingdom Hearts screenshots and art or by searching for Selphie in any major web search engine.

Got it? Great! Remember, your choice of character or characters is up to you, and only one needs to be dressed up as Selphie. And to be fair, you are not limited to using only female characters in your artwork. In fact, I would not be surprised to receive 100 submissions of Barret in a Selphie outfit. Frightened? Yes. But not surprised. Oh, and Selphie can be in your piece, but there must be at least one non-Selphie character cosplaying as her as well.

Entries in this first round must be in the fanart@rpgamer.com e-mail box by 11:59pm on Monday, December 20, 2004. All other normal fan art submission guidelines apply, except that you should place "[CONTEST] Artist Name - Title of Work" in your e-mail's subject line. The results for this round will be announced here in RPGamer's Fan Art section by Saturday, December 25, 2004. If you have questions about the contest, please send them to fanart@rpgamer.com with "[CONTEST] Question" in the subject line.

Your work will be judged on a blind basis (i.e. the judges won't know the artist when they score your work) on the following criteria:

• 40% Implementation of Idea
• 30% Creativity of Idea
• 30% Fulfillment of Contest Guidelines

Judges' scores will not be posted, but we will select a first, second, and third place entry, as well as a number of honorable mentions. The first place artist will win this round's prize, which will be a $35 gift certificate to Amazon.com, and all three top finishers will be invited back to the OmniArt 2005 Finals that will take place in November and December of 2005.