We are here!
This is the final week of the Pizzaween, the four part contest with no prizes, where the only reward one can get is to become even more of a pixel nerd. What could be more fitting as a crown jewel, if not making the best pizza possible?

We are making a pixel pizza in top view, but it cannot be anything ordinary. It has to be a weirdest and nerdiest pizza ever imagined, because this is the Nerd's chef's dish. No mozzarella, tomatoes and pepperoni's (pineapple gets a pass). I want to see ingredients like unpeeled bananas, old shoes, keyboards, alien tentacles, swords, mousetraps, used car tires, planets, skeletons, crowns, screwdrivers, vacuum cleaners, bricks, glass bottles, game dice, magic rings, Ouija boards and crystal balls.These are just some examples, not requirements. You can use any of them or none of them if you have your own ideas, as long as there are minimum 3 different topping ingredients.

You are not limited to a circular shape (even if preffered for a pizza), oval is fine, but even if it will be a square, a diamond or a triangle, it will need some rounded corners and irregularities on the edges. Use transparency for that. The colour limit is multiplied by four.


Canvas Size - Max. 314x314.
Colors - Max 32.
Transparency - Required.
Animation - No.
Ingredients - Min. 3.

PJ pizza bussiness turned out to be a huge success. The Nerd has so much work that he had to use his multiplication machine to keep up with every task. He need to make pizza, take orders, drive the delivery bike/car, buy ingredients, and of course don't forget making pixel art, playing games and doing all the nerd stuff, like going to cosplay Nerdcon.

Draw 3 different sprites of the Nerd in various versions (the Nerd multiplication machine is able to change gender, race, species...) in different costumes with different RPG roles. You can make a PJ Pizza team of a pizza baker, delivery driver, restaurant waiter, but you can also make a party of nerds after work, in their RPG cosplay costumes. You can even force them to make pizza in their RPG costumes, or just go full fantasy/ sf mode and make them fall into wormhole to travel in time and between dimensions, and nerd out in any possible fictional universe.
 

3rd challenge, so the colour limit is now multiplied by 3.

If you are new to the RPG Party challenge types and wish to dig up some of the lore of the series, ask away here or on discord!

Canvas Size - Max. 300x300.
Colors - Max 24.
Transparency - Required (to separate the sprites).
Animation - No.
 

Draw a game map, on which our Nerd is operating.

It can be a cute town with streets and buildings, but he can also deliver pizza in medieval fantasy or in space, because why not? It can even look like an old pirate treasure map, with X as the destination. Your map can have the Nerd character (or his vehicle) on it, with marked route ahead of him, but it is not a requirement. Same goes for a map/game title, or a UI. Those are completely optional. Because it is a second challenge we are doubling the number of colours. Go PJ Pizza!

Canvas Size - Min. 160x120, max. 640x480.
Colors - Max 16.
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.

The challenge thread will have all the challenge updates. The thread is also a great place to post your WIPs.

Ok, here's the story:

The PJ Nerd has been very busy as of late, staying up all night pixeling (challenges, Pixelween, mISOlogy), and he has sustained himself soley on Pizza. The upcoming Secret Santa made him think, that starting his own pizza delivery will not only give him unlimited acces to pizza, but also allow to save some money. How could making pizza be much different than making pixel art?

We, pixel artists, prefer squares over circles, so to be of any help we will design a pizza box cover for PJ Pizza - the company our poor PJ Nerd just started.

Bring out your best fancy pixel fonts and all the cool design chops. You have to use exactly 8 colours. You can choose to go minimalistic on raw cardboard (for example, use the available colour limit for realistic cardboard texture and one or two ink colours), or choose a wide range palette and dither us a photorealistic pizza drawing. Make it irresistible to tip the delivery person.

Canvas Size - Min. 100x100px, (have to be a perfect square).
Colors - Exactly 8 (as many as pizza slices inside).
Transparency - No.
Animation - No.



*The PJ Nerd will not use your design for commercial purposes without your permission, and/or fair compensation.
 

Another year, another bountifull harvest of Pixelween entries both amazing and terrifying. The competition has been close in terms of scoring, and the final standings include a few shared postions, but we have now decided on a winner!

This year's entries were judged by a team of amazing pixel artists & veteran community members: Gecimen, Trigonomicon, Weerdmeester, Irenaart , StevenM, Jeremy, vrine, Skamocore, Aamatnieks, Cyangmou, and Hapiel.

With that out of the way, here are the winners:

Reo - Wins a printed Masters of Pixel Art book volume of your choice, and a software key.

gawrone - Wins a 25$ steam gift card, a Masters of Pixel Art e-book, and a software key.

Mermaid and hby - Each wins a 25$ steam gift card, a Masters of Pixel Art e-book, and a software key.
   

4th: Oke - Wins a Masters of Pixel Art ebook, and a software key.

 

5th: Mirre (#1) - Wins a Masters of Pixel Art ebook, and a software key.


6th: Matt and Umbohr - Each wins a game/software key.
   

7th: Tipleloop, Space-AgeWrangler, and bluexel - Each wins a game/software key.
       

All participants will receive a trophy, they should be in your profile soon.

We will be in contact with the winners shortly to arrange their prizes. Also, should the prizes be passed down, more winners will be announced in this news post.

That's all for this year! Let us know what you thought of this year's Pixelween in the comments. A big shoutout to all who participated, and we'll be back next year with a new challenge!

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