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Posted on May 7, 2013, Ian Miles Cheong The Best of Dark Souls 2′s Shield Design Contest

Namco Bandai and From Software are running a creative design contest for their upcoming game, Dark Souls 2. The contest was announced last month as a way to build up some hype for the title, and they’ve collected thousands of design entries since then.

The shield design contest allows gamers on Facebook to submit their own designs, and for others to vote for their favorite shield design entries to be implemented into Dark Souls 2. The winning entries will be fully added into the game, with credit given to their creators. The developers will be choosing two shield designs from each region to be in the game, out of the top 30 selected designs.

In addition to seeing their creations in-game, the chosen winners will receive an actual, real-world recreation of their shield. Not bad!

With only five days left on the clock to submit a design, we’ve decided to highlight some of our favorite designs, with links to their voting pages so you can go vote on them if you’d like to see them added into the game.

It’s not too late to submit your own designs, so be sure to read the following rules if you want to participate:

● Become a fan on the official Dark Souls II Facebook page

● Check out the Shield Design Facebook application

● Download the blank shield template

● Create up to three original masterpieces of heraldic design

● Submit your finished designs via Facebook before May 14, 2013

The submission and voting period for shield designs will begin today and run through May 13th. Beginning May 14th no further submissions will be taken and the contest enters into a “voting only” phase until May 20th. On May 20th the shield designs that receive the most fan votes will be submitted for a final round of judging by the Dark Souls II development team at FromSoftware in Japan. The FromSoftware development team will select the final six winning shield designs to be included within the final Dark Souls II game. The winners will be announced at San Diego Comic Con taking place from July 18th through the 21st. The six lucky winners will be able to engage in battle with their friends online while proudly bearing the shield of their own design. Other players will also be able to carry the shields designed by their compatriots into battle.

Without further ado, here are 25 of our favorite designs.

1. Greatshield of the Raven Godess

Voting Page

2. Green Man Shield

Voting Page

3. Guardian Shield

Voting Page

4. Ire

Voting Page

5. Tide Warden

Voting Page