With all the acrimony expressed here & elsewhere it doesn't really feel like a victory. Still, thank you everyone who felt my work deserved a vote.
There are precedents.
In the Jan 2007 poll simple buttons took the lead against other - apparently more complex - pcx. Congratulations to Partizanac for that one.
There stopped being a separate poll for tech icons in late 2007. At that time there was some feeling that tech icons could not compete against other kinds of pcx. With permission from Flamand (then in charge) I entered the steampunk techs as a set in the March 2008 poll. I did not expect to win against the high level of creativity and the experience of the other creators. Thank you to everyone who voted for the tech set. Those votes & the kind comments encouraged me to keep creating.
It has always worried me that perhaps the preview/presentation rather than the pcx themselves may have won that vote. In May of this year there was some discussion about limiting entries to a single file & previewing only the game ready pcx. (posts 543-547 in the Monthly Competitions Submissions Thread II). This did not become a rule, but seemed to be in the spirit of an ideal poll. The July 2012 poll showed that a simple unadorned city pcx could make a good showing against work previewed with in-game screenshots. Congratulations to Zubareva on that well-deserved outcome. The earlier discussion & her winning entry were enough encouragement to present a simple, indexed, game-ready graphic.
As indicated in the submissions thread the Tardis button was in part based on the blank buttons posted by Lord Malbeth. I would not have made it except for Grandraem's thread about new button ideas. I can't think of a single thing ever uploaded to CFC by anyone that did not in some way incorporate the creations of others. Any success of my art is based on the shared experience, support & encouragement of all the great creators who were here when I showed up. And those who have come later but set equally high standards with their own work. Thank you all.
Finally - and most importantly - a special thanks to Kyriakos for his consistent effort. It is sometimes discouraging working on one of the long-term projects that are taking years to complete. I think of him on the other side of the world, hunched over his computer, working to make better & better cities. Keeps me going.
