This is my entry to the Unearthly Challenge. I worked on the image a bit after the contest deadline - so this has a bit more details than my submission. But kinda got drawn into the world, and had to add those.

First I had a team for the 3D part, but there was not enough time to finish it. So I took the whole thing into 2D. Interesting experience in a way. It has the disadvantage that we really started with 3D in mind. So we were a bit restricted with the ideas - it had to be doable in time, and it had to be logical (no weird 2D trickery). Then again - since I designed out all the separated parts for modeling, I had working designs when starting to paint (you can see them below).
My favs of the contest are this one by Skadi and this one by Litaoart.

#en

The topic was "End Game" - so it had to do something with "game". I noticed a bit late though, that many people didn't quite get the game references. Mainly this is a hint to games like Dig Dug and Boulder Dash. I guess the game is a bit old by now :) So here some screenshots as explanation.

Dig Dug - the main reference.

Also the C64 game Boulder Dash - thats where the boulders are from.

These are sketches for the contest - and a sheet showing kind of the process (this was mandatory for the contest).

So as you can see, I did lots of pencil work - here are the two test concept, that I then later combined to a final design, after checkign back with the team.