The Competition
On October 23rd, 2024, @playnewworld announced a Haunted Homes Decor Contest on their X (formerly Twitter) and the official discord. The premise was to submit a Halloween-themed house screenshot for a chance to win a ToA Weapon Skin Code.
The Winners
Let’s get straight to the point here – who won? Well, there were five total winners of this contest, which were announced on November 1st. It seems all participants were judged based on the first image they submitted, with extra photos not baring on the results. I will include them anyway, because they are cool. I have collected their info to the best of my ability, but someone has deleted their initial post (I think)!
Unknown
The first winner we see is unfortunately unknown, as I was a bit slack on this article and it’s late meaning I was too late to catch their original post before it was deleted. So, I am not sure if they included any additional images, but this one was reposted by @playnewworld in the announcement post.
As for the house itself, it looks to be a little Mourningdale house. This front view shows the doors to be blocked by curtains and perhaps the back of a bookcase to create the dark doorway. There are multiple floating candles, which look incredibly cool and contribute greatly to the theme. The jack-o-lantern, candy basket, event throne, and kitty cat all additionally add to the spooky vibe of this front porch.
I find it quite unfortunate that this houses door is blocked off, as this location has a good backyard with a nice fence!
The next winner here is Hazy, with a beautiful Cutlass house packed to the brim with decorations. The porch features plenty of Halloween-y items, some little pets; the spider and the dog. A lovely walkway lined with jack-o-lanterns leads up to the door, which is being held open by the basket of treats. A couple more spooky wall items are placed around along with the cauldron and a mounted skull!
The additional images provided by Hazy showcase two interiors and an exterior, seemingly of their other houses in Windsward and Brimstone. The Windswards first floor is adorned with plenty of fun, somewhat gaudy, Halloween items from The Dragon’s Trove Decor Bundle. The exterior of this house features the cauldron (again!), a summoning circle, and the grave item, just to mention some of the items. The Brimestone house seems to feature many of the same items, including a third appearance of the cauldron, and the same items from The Dragon’s Trove Decor Bundle.
All of these houses are wonderfully scary, and although the unartistic angles of the photos, you can tell much thought was put into them.
The third winner to be discussed is Levaneky of Devaloka. They submitted one single image of their home, however, this screenshot clearly has some thought put into the framing. The cerulean curtains that sit in the foreground give us a perfect view of the centrepiece, the summoning circle and all it’s chairs. There seems to be additional books, candles, and skulls(!?) placed around the circle too. It also looks like this summoning ritual has been completed, and the result was a single pumpklin. The walls of the house appear to be neatly decorated, with a bookcase visible, alongside a couple of lights and a wreath.
Overall, this house is very put-together, the screenshot has been thought out, and the colours are cohesive. I’m a big fan!
Winner number four is Lleroy of Pisces! What can I say? This screenshot, the only one they submitted, is a masterpiece. The beautiful decor, the framing, the colours and tones. Everything is just wonderfully done! Don’t tell the others, but this one is my personal favourite.
All the visible decoration in this image is masterfully crowded onto the porch of this Weaver’s Fen (?) home, right under the window. The kitty on the windowsill. The storage chest adorned by the singular jack-o-lantern, the little stool with the one bottle atop it. The pirate countertop and the fancy little skull, all the various boxes of bottles and the burlap sack. Even a little note on one of the crates. The fishing net over the top of the window, and the lights placed pleasingly. Details like the chains attached to the roof. You can even peek inside to see the dog by the fire, a simple bookshelf against the back wall and more matching decor around the rest of the room. And, finally, the player character, wearing a simple but cohesive outfit, framed perfectly by the window.
What a wonderful submission!
And the final winner is me!
I won’t ramble on too much about my own place, but this is my Mourningdale house. I submitted many images of it, and honestly this is still only a select few out of how many I took. The main feature is my captain’s bed with the little jack-o-lantern on top. The backwards bookshelves to create wall variation and frame the bed, bear rug, and skull lighting fixture are also some parts I enjoy.
The Other Entries
I wanted to give a feature to all those entries that didn’t quite make the cut, because they are truly all wonderful and it is great to see people showing off their house(s)! I won’t bore you with all that writing again, so here’s a little gallery for those remaining.
One Response
Congrats Lishy! 🙂