And so it begins...

The GUI Olympics 2004 has begun!

It's a contest to see who can create the world's best WindowBlinds visual styles, icon packages, and Winamp 5 skins. Over $10,000 in cash and prizes will be provided by Stardock, Microsoft, ATI, Nullsoft, and others.

You will be able to enter skins individually or as part of a team. The top teams will get a big bonus prize. Anyone can form a team and there are no restrictions on the size of team (though obviously the bigger the team, the bigger the split in the prize money). You could have a Team MyfavoriteWebsite or a Team "l33t". It's up to whoever starts the team (on Monday there will be a mechanism on www.guiolympics.com to create your own team).

The rules are fairly straight forward. You have to enter submissions that are NEW. They can't be things that already exist. That doesn't mean every single element of your skin has to be new (i.e. you don't have to redo every single component but the overall skin needs to be new). But they must be things that are only available on the GUI Olympics website (after the contest is over you can upload them wherever).

While the contest begins today, the JUDGING won't begin until April 5. That's over a month away. A few events will be judged per week so the contest won't end until the end of April -- 2 months from now.

Here is the schedule of events:

April 5: Most minimalist visual style, Most creative Winamp skin, Most original icon package

April 8: Best Power user visual style, Most useable Winamp skin

April 12: Most usable visual style, Best power user Winamp skin, Best "themed" (icons go together the best) icon package

April 15: Most creative visual style

April 19: Best themed* visual style*, Best themed* Winamp skin, Best pseudo-OS icon package

April 22: Best Pseudo-OS visual style

April 26: Best overall visual style, Best overall Winamp skin, Best overall icon package

April 27: Top Team/Individual: WindowBlinds, Top Team/Individual: Winamp, Top Team/Individual: Icons

April 29: User's Choice: Best visual style, User's Choice: Best Winamp skin: User's Choice: Best icon package

*themed skin as in the whole skin keeps to a particular theme.

16 Events. Over $10,000 in cash and prizes. Anyone can enter.

The judges will be admins/employees from Stardock, Neowin, deviantART, and Nullsoft.

So there you have it. WB visual styles, icon packages, and Winamp 5. For $10k to $15k in cash and prizes spread among 16 main events.

Regarding entries:

You can now submit your entries. You can update those entries as much as you want.

When you do enter in a submission, you will first which contest (WindowBlinds, Winamp, Icons). Then you can pick up to 2 events. All skins will automatically contend for the various "Overall" contests (i.e. "best overall skin" for instance).

Example, you might enter a skin and choose these two entries:

[X] Best Power User Visual Style
[X] Most Usable Visual Style
[ ] Most Creative Visual Style
[ ] Best Pseudo-OS Visual Style
[ ] Best Minimalistic Visual Style
[ ] Best Themed Visual Style


Good luck to everyone!