I didn't have as much time to spend on a polished submission this year, so I whipped up a drawing in my trusty old brown paper sketchbook this year. I took a photo of it, which didn't come out as sharp as I would have liked, so the quality isn't quite as good as the original paper drawing.

This bad boy was rendered with only the finest tools: A black, Bic ballpoint pen, and 4 of my kids' pencil crayons. Nothing but the best for you, NG!

HAPPY ROBOT DAY!!!!!!!!

-- EDIT --

Yes, this is a martian tripod from the War of the Worlds. However, I drew my inspiration from sources MUCH older than the Tom Cruise movie. This is a story I have been obsessed with since I was a kid.

I think it really started with the Jeff Wayne rock opera version. My old man had a copy on vinyl, and it came with an art booklet depicting the martian invasion. (Its on youtube for any curious folks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlpl-RzsCck )

They also used to play the Orson Wells radio play every Halloween. When it originally aired in 1938, people thought it was an actual news broadcast and that Earth was actually being invaded my Mars. (check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g )

And of course, who could forget the classic 1953 War of the Worlds movie (here's a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUY1KYEABz0 ). That movie had some really iconic flying saucers (which I actually used as a boss in my old Ravage game: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/51909 ) because making walking tripods was beyond the special effects of the time.

Then there is the original H.G. Wells book itself, which I read when I was older. If any of you are fans of the steampunk genre, that book is one of the grand-daddies of the genre, and STILL one of the best I have ever read, in spite being over 100 years old.

In the book, Wells describes the martians as being sort of an evolved octopus type race. They couldn't move about well in our gravity, hence the use of the tripod walkers.

My vision of them was always something of a sea creature inspired design, hence the crab-like legs and shell. I also have some subtle homages to the 53 saucer design in the cockpit shape, as well as the use of 3 'eyes' all over (the martians had these weird 3-part eyes in the movie which always stuck with me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdHNGP8XkmY ).