One growing trend in recent years is art shows orchestrated by publishers to help celebrate (and promote) an upcoming or recent release. A fairly recent example is the Art of the Assassin show that Ubisoft orchestrated, which was a tie-in for Assassin's Creed 3.
But Square Enix is doing it slightly differently; the one they're putting together for the recently released Tomb Raider reboot will be online.
Destructoid reports that DeviantArt will host the contest, which is challenging everyone to depict “Lara Croft's latest transformation”. As they explain:
"As a survivor, Lara Croft relies on her resourcefulness and intuition throughout her journey. Amid the chaos, Lara experiences several metamorphoses but ultimately emerges a fierce victor! Give us your interpretation of Lara Croft along her journey and your work may be chosen to be used as official Tomb Raider merchandise!"
The top prize includes $6,000 in cash, a Tomb Raider-stylized Xbox 360 console, various bits of apparel, a one-year premium membership to DeviantArt, plus 8,000 DeviantArt points.
To the person the street, those eight thousand points might not be a big deal, but to a DeviantArt member, it's a huge deal. We think? Also, the piece that nabs first prize will also be made into a print that will be sold internationally via the Tomb Raider store.
And because twenty-five winners in total will be chosen, there are plenty of other prizes up for grabs as well. The deadline is March 14th.
Full contest rules can be seen here. As Destructoid has noted as well, by far the most interesting one is how your vision of Lara cannot resemble Angelina Jolie.
At any rate, tapping into the DeviantArt community is very wise move on Square Enix’s part; it’s filled to the brim with top-notch talent, who love produce video game fan art. Often, their members go to work in the video game industry as full-time, professional artists.
