Dark Souls II Shield Design Contest Winners Announced!

Personally my favorite shield in the whole competition was this one:



It just has so many awesome throwbacks. The Crow obviously being a reference to Velka. Painted fresco quality, color scheme, the noose and dagger representing Judgment though battle (which ties in w/ the Velka theme) and ultimately a throw back to the adjudicator's shield. The wheel with the rose also reminds me of a Catherine wheel or breaking wheel popularized in DkS lore with the Bone Wheel Skeletons. In the classical era the rose represented reason, virtue and dedication. So to show a device of torture juxtaposed under a symbol of justice under a crown represents sacrifice for justice and to the crown. In this case the crown would be Velka, the Goddess of Sin. The pardoners listen to the confessions of sinners, urging reflection and salvation & symbolize separation from worldly desires. (speculation) A separation of worldly desires though sacrifice of the flesh though torture.

I may be reading way to much into the authors intentions when making this shield but it struck me as beautiful as well as looking historically authentic which I feel suits DkS aesthetic even though it's brightly colored.

Have they said why they deleted the facebook post of the winners?

Toafer wrote:Have they said why they deleted the facebook post of the winners?

 No, nothing so far. The last time I looked (which was on Thursday evening), there was quite a few negative comments. Some of which were about how some of these shields should be disqualified.

I don't know what's going on, but to be honest I really liked some of the shields. I hope that From hasn't totally changed their minds about their choices.

I was surprised they were actually serious about putting them in the game, and using Facebook as a means to find winners. I'm pretty sure FROM is just going to get a top list of what's good, using Facebook as a filter to get rid of the horrible ones in this contest, and then, just, cherry picking what they want. 

They don't always stick to their Facebook competitions. There was voting for what to use in the DkS2 E3 trailer, and the ones that were REALLY far ahead were "Sacrifice Everything" and one other one, but they chose "Go Beyond Death." Which is just way cooler.

SadPanda wrote:No Marcus Shield 

 this a million times. it was hideous and that guy has to much of an ego already. good info or not i dont watch his stuff because he is a bit pathetic. souls are great, but his life seems to rotate around it. poor lost child in a mans body.

all the winning shields look great too. im glad they put more than just one in this time. or ...wait. those arent all going in game right? the devs pick a couple now.oh lord...marcus better not get that ugly pig/butt face thing added in.

wonder if any of the in game shields will have special abilities like before, or just be there. was a bit awesome that the fan made shield is one of the most commonly used ones due to its regen affect.

passivefamiliar wrote:

SadPanda wrote:No Marcus Shield 

 this a million times. it was hideous and that guy has to much of an ego already. good info or not i dont watch his stuff because he is a bit pathetic. souls are great, but his life seems to rotate around it. poor lost child in a mans body.

all the winning shields look great too. im glad they put more than just one in this time. or ...wait. those arent all going in game right? the devs pick a couple now.oh lord...marcus better not get that ugly pig/butt face thing added in.

wonder if any of the in game shields will have special abilities like before, or just be there. was a bit awesome that the fan made shield is one of the most commonly used ones due to its regen affect.

I respect people's opinions but calling someone pathetic because you don't like their content is rude beyond belief. I can understand not liking him but he does more then just Dark Souls and has his own family that he does care for. His life doesn't revolve around the Souls games at all. And for the record, ENB never supported the person who created the Marcus shield nor the shield itself.

Not sure how I feel about one person winning more than one spot.  Nothing against the artist but they kept advertising it as even though you can enter multiple shields, each person could only win once since every winning shield got a copy of the game. Just seems like it would be more fair if each shield had a unique creator.

And where did the Rose Shield come from? I looked through all the Japanese shield entries on Facebook and it doesn't exist.

Toafer wrote:And where did the Rose Shield come from? I looked through all the Japanese shield entries on Facebook and it doesn't exist.

I remember seeing it awhile back, but I don't recall it being in the top 30

Marionx wrote:some of these shields should be disqualified.

I was also saying my shield should be disqualified, because even though I was honored to win a top slot, I didn't read the rules and submitted to the wrong Regen. Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file and when I sent it I also told them I was from the US and not Asia so I understood if that disqualified me.

The next morning the Facebook page was down, so I wouldn't be surprised if that played a role in it.

Drascoll wrote:
I was also saying my shield should be disqualified, because even though I was honored to win a top slot, I didn't read the rules and submitted to the wrong Regen. Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file and when I sent it I also told them I was from the US and not Asia so I understood if that disqualified me.

The next morning the Facebook page was down, so I wouldn't be surprised if that played a role in it.

 That wasn't ever really an issue though, they only did the regions to try and distribute the designs more evenly - you could live in America and submit an Asian template design if you wanted. They confirmed that a few times on the page.

That said, I am confused as to why they took it down and haven't even mentioned why. Was it because one person won both Tower Shield entries? Or was it the Rose shield thing?

Too bad this was a first come first served thing,  the ones that got picked are good but not nearly as good as the ones that got submitted in the later weeks,  the rose shield looks pretty lame imo and Solaire?  Really?  The rest Rest are good but very disappointing.

Rose shield: A ceremonial shield used at Knightly and Royal weddings. Despite its unconventional use, it can be used in battle. 

Can be looted from a corpse in a church or from a place of divine worship. Since it's not meant for battle it only reduces damage by 90.0% but is one of the lighter metal shields in the game. 


Add to the idea if you want.

I was really hoping mine would win! Even got into the top 30 too!

Marionx wrote:Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file

They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

Toafer, that was my favorite shield. I really want that in the game.

 ALSO, if they could put in an Adventure Time shield in there, that'd be great.

... I really hope they put some kind of Adventure Time reference in DkS2. I know it's selfish, but.. it'd be awesome. Jussayin.

Toafer wrote:

I was really hoping mine would win! Even got into the top 30 too!

Marionx wrote:Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file

They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

that looks incredible!

imo it looks more like a shield for other fantasy RPGS over dks, but at the same time i'd love that shield to be put in dks2

nice job

Toafer wrote:

Marionx wrote:Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file

They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

 Yeah, I actually did reply to the email. I even asked the community manager on the facebook page and he said that was fine to send by replying.

I basically followed their instructions. I made the files as big as possible, uploaded it on wetransfer.com and send the link to the files in the reply.

Interesting thing I noticed about the announcement being taken down was that there was another facebook page, Dark Souls 2, that had the winners announced. In the comments, the manager of the Dark Souls page had asked the admin to take it down. Apparently they are going to come back soon with new information, probably explaining why they took down the announcement in the first place.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.398537946930585.1073741827.229877787129936&type=1

Marionx wrote:

Toafer wrote:

Marionx wrote:Form had asked me to send an HD *.pds file

They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

 Yeah, I actually did reply to the email. I even asked the community manager on the facebook page and he said that was fine to send by replying.

I basically followed their instructions. I made the files as big as possible, uploaded it on wetransfer.com and send the link to the files in the reply.

Interesting thing I noticed about the announcement being taken down was that there was another facebook page, Dark Souls 2, that had the winners announced. In the comments, the manager of the Dark Souls page had asked the admin to take it down. Apparently they are going to come back soon with new information, probably explaining why they took down the announcement in the first place.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.398537946930585.1073741827.229877787129936&type=1

 Ok i did the same and even sent a message with the wetransfer.com link to their facebook page after the email confusion but never got a response so was worried they never got it. but it sounds like we did the same things so its all good.

 And thanks for that tidbit of info about the other page. I'm dieing to know what they are doing lol.

Cronotis wrote:That rose shield will be in game?  Wow, doesn't seem like it fits in the Souls series.

 Garuntee you it gets scratched and worn away so the rose is more like an engraving.

Toafer wrote:
They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

 I was told to send it though a file share sight. The whole thing actually seemed a bit shady tbh. I even PMed the facebook page and never got a rely.

Drascoll wrote:

Toafer wrote:
They asked me to do this too. Did you just reply to the email or did they send you another address cause i just replied to the same email address that they used to ask for the files but i got a auto-reply email saying something like i replied to a no-reply email and that if i wanted to contact them to go to their site or something.

 I was told to send it though a file share sight. The whole thing actually seemed a bit shady tbh. I even PMed the facebook page and never got a rely.

Totally understandable. I even questioned it's legitimacy, but it was confirmed by another contestant that it was legit. She PMed the facebook page and got a reply from the community manager (the same guy that sent those emails).

@Drascoll: You're the one who made the Disunion shield? That's awesome! Congratulations! About that whole "which template to use?" you were okay to use a Japan/Asia shield. Just like what was said earlier, you can use any template as long as you labeled it correctly. I also don't think it should be disqualified, despite what I've heard. I would rather see From add a second shield, from the Facebook gallery, to go along with it.  

The Rose shield should still be in because I sort of feel like they were running two contests.

Marionx wrote:@Drascoll: You're the one who made the Disunion shield? That's awesome! Congratulations! About that whole "which template to use?" you were okay to use a Japan/Asia shield. Just like what was said earlier, you can use any template as long as you labeled it correctly. I also don't think it should be disqualified, despite what I've heard.

 Thanks, yes Disunion was my design, I would love to see my shield in the game it would be a huge honor. However, I also would understand if they disqualified it. I'm just crossing my fingers waiting to see what happens next because this all came out of left field for me and with them pulling down the results it is quite confusing.

passivefamiliar wrote:

SadPanda wrote:No Marcus Shield 

 this a million times. it was hideous and that guy has to much of an ego already. good info or not i dont watch his stuff because he is a bit pathetic. souls are great, but his life seems to rotate around it. poor lost child in a mans body.

all the winning shields look great too. im glad they put more than just one in this time. or ...wait. those arent all going in game right? the devs pick a couple now.oh lord...marcus better not get that ugly pig/butt face thing added in.

wonder if any of the in game shields will have special abilities like before, or just be there. was a bit awesome that the fan made shield is one of the most commonly used ones due to its regen affect.

I have to agree. Not with the pathetic/ego part, but I don't like ENB. His speculation is pretty bad, Vaati is MUCH better. I just don't like the way he speaks either, to me it does seem a little condescending. Not to mention the majority of the lore he got, he didn't find himself. He has like 3 open series he never finished. Him, SLB, and (no salt please) Rosie are the most popular, not nessesarily the most contributing. That's not to say they didn't bust their *** to make videos on a frequent basis, and they deserve respect for that.

Personally, I think Vaati is the biggest contributor to the community lore-wise, and the best Dark Souls uploader. Alright, back on topic now.

There should be a bonewheel shield where the R2 is a rolling attack.

could we do sword design contest?  if there was enough of designing i understand

passivefamiliar wrote:

SadPanda wrote:No Marcus Shield 

 this a million times. it was hideous and that guy has to much of an ego already. good info or not i dont watch his stuff because he is a bit pathetic. souls are great, but his life seems to rotate around it. poor lost child in a mans body.

all the winning shields look great too. im glad they put more than just one in this time. or ...wait. those arent all going in game right? the devs pick a couple now.oh lord...marcus better not get that ugly pig/butt face thing added in.

wonder if any of the in game shields will have special abilities like before, or just be there. was a bit awesome that the fan made shield is one of the most commonly used ones due to its regen affect.

yeah , I just found out that Leeroy shield is in Dark Souls because it won a japanese only contest in 2011 before the game release:biggrin:  . I wouldnt be suprise that at least one of the winners shields will have special powers  

I like the eye shield, although it didn't make the cut.

facebook link
Dark Souls Facebook just reposed the winners of the Shield Design Contest unveil: