Ranking the Pico Day submissions is really unpleasant; I'm so appreciative of everyone who participates in Pico Day, it pains me to have to put them in order, knowing a lot will get snubbed.
First place was especially difficult this year, as we had two amazing contenders. The-Swain and Toonimated were the front-runners for most of the day, but EvilSeed joined the fray late in the day and was a total stunner as well. A lot of thoughts went through my mind when trying to choose between these two. Ultimately, Flashback 00 was just packed with so much NG goodness, from the perfect depictions of popular NG characters (I love the giant P-Bot), to the eerie Pico flashbacks, to even including sounds from the original Pico game (such as the machine gun and Hanzo's night vision)... Not to mention the NG level icon weapons being rattled in the crowd... It was such a celebration of everything "cool" about NG, it managed to snag the #1 prize.
1. FlashBack 00
Time Tank is one of the best looking Flash movies you'll ever see, so be sure to watch it too! While I love it that most the Pico Day submissions utilized the Audio Portal, I was also very impressed with The-Swain's original soundtrack.
Zombie-Pimp managed to repeat last year's victory, once again snagging the third place spot. This was an extremely close race for third, so ultimately it was hedged by the audience vote.
Tim Frommeyer's submission was the subject of much debate here at the office, with some of the guys considering it the #1 Pico Day entry. It's totally quirky and packed with great NG references. It also gets points for being the most insane of the Pico Day entries! It's like Story of Khale on crack, or worse.
While the top four happens to reflect the audience voting, the game submissions tended not to score as well as the movies, so I decided some re-arranging was in order, to give the games their dues. Therefor, I bumped Pico's Blam Jam up a few notches from what the audience voted.
I also decided to bump up Pathway Through NG. The first impression of this submission is misleading; I'll admit it didn't look as polished as some of the other submissions, but it's loaded with heart and tons of NG nostalgia, earning it a higher spot in the rankings.
If you haven't played Pico's Surprise Party all the way through, you're missing out! Just remember, only shoot the bat when it's about to attack! The auto-targetting is totally hot; it's like a side scrolling version of Pico 2, only it's actually been released.
Herpes Escape is the second most insane entry of Pico Day - be sure to click the "Continue" button in the beginning or you'll miss the rest!
Pico of the Dark Ages was a great game... The themes weren't completely Pico'ish, but it was totally Pol'ished.
I was excited to see a continuation of Pico's School the Movie, since I love where Lalo is going with it.
The $200 "Almost in the top 10 if not for those pesky games" awards go to the ultra-cool PiCo ..vs.. DaRnELL and Reblammed!
A $100 "Better late than never" prize goes to Pico Sim Date 2 (v.1)!
A $100 "Best Pre-Loader" prize goes to Pico Day Incursion! It was just too funny to not win something.
I'm also giving a $200 "Pico Spirit" prize to Darnell's burn 'em up! It was beaten by other games, but it warmed my heart (fire pun not intended) the most.
Just to prove there is no favoritism at NG, Luis, TrueDarkness and BoMToons won nothing this year. And yeah, I do feel like I have a black heart. They made amazing games!
I would love to shower more money on everyone, but in case you haven't noticed, there are barely any pop-ups on NG anymore. :(
At this time I would like to ask EVERYONE who participated in Pico Day to PM our CSS / spreadsheet wizard, Bob (that's his username: Bob) with the following info:
1) Your full name.
2) Your mailing address.
3) Your t-shirt size (S, M, L, XL, 2XL) and color pref (Black, Gray or Blue w/ NG logo - or red AngryFaic).
If you were part of a team, be sure to include how you want the money divided!
The top 10 prize winners will get an immediate prize pack, but we're putting together a second prize pack (won't be ready for a few weeks) that we'll send out to a bunch of people who participated on Pico Day... Not EVERYONE who participated, most likely the top 30 who happen to respond with their info.
For those of you who don't know what the hell Pico is, you can watch The History of Pico. :)
Once again, congrats to the winners and my sincerest apologies to everyone who didn't win. I hope I've done a reasonable job at picking the winners. It's a bittersweet ending to my favorite day of the year!
