PopCap Games announced the winners of the first-ever Peggle Art Contest, which began in March as part of Peggle Fever. The three-month long contest drew hundreds of submissions from throughout the U.S. and Great Britain, from feverish fans ranging in age from 13 to 51. The grand prize winners, Michael and Stephanie Liu, a brother and sister team (ages 13 and 11, respectively) from Naperville, Illinois in the Youth category and Matt Ward, a 22-year old from Heanor, Derbyshire in England in the Adult category, will enjoy all-expense paid trips to Seattle, Washington. There, they'll visit PopCap's headquarters to meet with members of PopCap's art team and work on the incorporation of their winning entries into a future bonus level pack for Peggle Nights. (A complete list of the winning entrants, their submissions and prizes won, can be found at www.popcap.com/promos/peggleart.
"You never know what sorts of ideas will come out of a contest like this, and it's safe to say we were amazed at the passion and creativity found in so many of the Peggle art submissions," said Stephen Notley, senior writer and lead Peggle level designer at PopCap, and one of the contest judges. "Peggle obviously inspires people to think outside the box, and many of the contest entries just blew us away."
Most contest submissions took the form of hand-drawn suggestions for new Peggle masters and power-ups, while others involved detailed peg layouts and/or level background designs. PopCap expanded the number of semi-finalist winners from two to three such that those three semi-finalist designs, along with those of the two grand prize winners, will all be digitally rendered as individual all-new levels in an upcoming "fan art" bonus level pack for Peggle Nights.
Michael and Stephanie Liu, 13 and 10 respectively, were the co-winners in the Youth category with their reinterpretation of the classic "Das Bucket" level from the original Peggle. "We decided to take our favorite level of the game – for that sweet Extreme Slide – and add our favorite characters," explained Michael. "Of course the main character Bjorn, plus Renfield and Tula for their contrast." His sister Stephanie added, "We're so excited to visit PopCap and see how the Peggle levels are made; it's going to be so awesome!"
Matt Ward, a 22-year old from Heanor, Derbyshire, England was the grand prize winner in the Adult category for his "Kid Radical" entry – a whimsical background scene depicting Bjorn the Unicorn in his crime-fighting regalia and Jimmy Lightning as his boy-wonder sidekick. "When deciding to enter the contest I wanted to draw something that fit into the game's design but introduced something new," Matt said. "After playing Peggle Nights for a few minutes I thought that Bjorn's superhero alter-ego was missing a sidekick; and so 'Kid Radical' was born. Ever since first playing Peggle it's always had a place on our computer for whenever my partner or I want to relax with a nice, chilled out game. It was a huge surprise to have been selected as a grand prize winner, I can't wait to see where these games are made and see my design incorporated into the series."
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