Hey it's me, that guy with the mage and the chibis. Since it was announced, I've been seeing a lot of hype from some of the people in this community regarding the new Unit Design contest, and since we just got the concrete info on it, I thought it'd be a good idea to make a thread that could offer some practical help so that everyone can make their best possible entries and have a better chance at winning. By no means do I claim to have the ultimate knowledge regarding this event, I know as much as you guys do, but still I'll try to list some hints and tips based on logic and observation of the new rules and how the previous contest was resolved. These guidelines mostly have to do with the general creation process, it's not about your individual character/kit concept, as I think the Megathread might probably cover that better. I also encourage everyone with useful ideas to post them in the comments so that everyone can benefit from them and make the best out of this chance to show some of our creativity :)

1. Is it worth it??

First we should get this out of the way. The prize this time is a full STMR bundle(meaning 4 units) of your winning character or in the case of the monster, an in-game badge and 15k lapis (so no guaranteed anything). Last time the prize was basically an unit of choice (but it was released at a time before 7* units and we got the prize at the moment they announced the winner, not at the unit's release. Later we did get two copies of our own unit tho). Take a look at what they're offering you and decide if it's something that sits well with you. Are you doing it just for the joy of seeing your lil dude in an official Final Fantasy game? Great! Don't think it's worth your time and effort? That's fine too. But it's a good idea to go into these with a clear knowledge of the rewards so that it doesn't lead to salt and disappointment.

2. Different contests, different rules

This is super important, as I'd imagine a lot of people will be inclined to look at the previous winning entries to have an idea on how to submit their entries. The new contest seems to be a lot more focused on the visual aspect of the design as opposed to the complete character kit as was the case in the previous one. There is no field in the submission form for skills, TMRs and the like, something which was not only encouraged but mandatory for the first contest. This is the most important thing you have to consider before you even attempt to create a character. It's probably for the best if you try to avoid cluttering the image you submit with detailed information of your guy/gal's abilities, unlike the examples from last year who almost all had a lot of text included.

3. Categories make life easier

A lot of you guys are super creative and have a lot of unexplored ideas waiting to be splurged on paper/digital paper. The contest rules allow you to make a total of 7 characters. This is a huge change which can work in your favor. Last time, we were allowed to make 10 characters total, submitted in any order and during the 5 fan festas that took place. These actually made us overthinkers a lot more worried about the contest. Do I submit all my entries at once to have a better chance of one of em being shortlisted? That'd mean if they don't, I won't even be able to apply for the next round, do I submit just two for each lap? (ughhh OCD is a bitch).

This time around, while the amount of entries you can submit has been lowered, the category sorting makes it a lot more simple, and it lets the voting be more fair, as people won't be comparing apples(Dmg dealers) to oranges(healers/buffers). Many of you are already taking into consideration some fields will be a lot more crowded than others (everyone wants healers and tanks and I have yet to see a single proposed DD this time), but you can always go the extra mile and submit all 7 entries to cap your chances! No min/maxing involved this time!

4. Be VISUAL

Now on to the proper tips. Regardless of how you feel about the skillsets being partly ignored, you have to admit a lot of the weight in these contests comes from the visuals. So allow me to be a little blunt here: your entries will need some level of visual creativity in order to stand a chance. Try to keep this in mind right from the beginning of your brainstorming process. You might feel bad that the bulk of your winning chances rested on the super awesome kit you came up with that allowed your tank to snort the boss for three turns, but you can still think of a visual way to show this on your character. Maybe he has a ginormous nose, and his attack animation is him sneezing, maybe she has a wind turbine strapped to her belly and her hand rests right on top of the switch. In short, make the visuals match the skills, and find a way to make the character relevant without the need to read a 10-page manifesto in order to understand his/her motivations. They fight because they lost a loved one? Maybe their winning pose has them checking that locket around their neck and shedding a tear. They're super clumsy? Maybe they trip on a banana while attacking and hit the enemy with their butt.

5. Concept and presentation > Art skills

This might stir some posters but believe me, it is true. I know some of you are disheartened that your drawing skills are not on par with the previous contest's entries and again, being blunt, this will be a problem, not only because it's more of an art contest than the previous one, but because the voters this time will be the untamed savage monsters of the internet, as opposed to the select club of people that cared about FFBE so much they made the effort to attend a live event. BUT, not all is lost and I'm here to tell you the smudgy sketch of a great idea still has a good chance to beat the renaissance painting of a bad one. There are some basic steps you can all take to make a humble drawing look better: For the love of god, if you're doing traditional art, make sure you use a blank piece of paper, not the back of your coffee-stained math homework. Scan it properly, clean it a bit if possible using the 1000 filters available nowadays (assuming you don't have anyone with some digital touch-up skills). Submit your piece in the right format and size... but most importantly, put extra effort in the concept of your character. Make it stand out from the crowd. Don't make a paladin that looks like every other paladin EVER, particularly if you know your art skills won't be able to make people naturally turn their eyes at your work. Quirkiness can be the factor that makes up for artistry, particularly if people voting are able to remember that stick figure laser shark rider will be reworked into a badass sprite by a professional.

6. No furries

Just kidding. But what I actually mean is, the game is coded in a way that it doesn't allow for transforming characters like werewolves or the like, so try not to submit concepts that would only work if the character has different sets of sprites during the battle. Beryl was supposed to work like this, and even CG Cecil, who's important enough to warrant a friggin CG LB, has mode switching in his kit while still keeping the same sprite. There are ways around this if you still want to make a transforming character, like constraining the transformation to certain animations only. Say you have a guy that turns into a behemoth: he can be a guy with a red mane during the idle animation, but the attack animation has him grow a huge clawed purple hand to slash at the enemy, which then shrinks back to normal as he returns to idle. Then he fully turns during the LB and is back to normal once it's over.

7. Don't give your life's work to Gumi

Read the not-so-small print. When you submit your entry, it becomes Squeenix's property. So please be careful not to submit that magical girl that's the lead character of your comic or the dinosaur detective that's secretly the main villain of the videogame you're making. Make something from scratch or adapt them enough that you know you'll still be fine using them on your own projects without fear of future lawsuits.

EDIT: More important tips from /u/AmaranthSparrow :

Ideate and Iterate: No matter how much you like your first design, produce multiple variants and try out different ideas. In the end you can combine the best elements of all your iterations and produce a superior final design.

Add, then Subtract: Keep pushing your design until you take it too far, then remove what doesn't work. Don't leave ideas untested, otherwise you may not reach a design's full potential.

Well, that's all I can think for now. I hope this helps some of you on the fence of participating or guides those who already decided to do it but are a bit lost on where to start and what to do. Like I said, if you have some extra advice, you'll be helping everyone make this contest a lot cooler by posting it here. Have fun and give it your best!