Best Entries
Sina Jafarzadeh, Heliumizer (see page 3)
I loved this weapon for the puzzle possibilities it provides. A gun that controls your position on the Z-axis opens up a world of new gameplay possibilities. Of course, the danger here is that it makes level design exponentially more difficult, but I believe it's worth the challenge.

Andrea Wästlund, Sense Gun (see page 4)
I loved how this gun redefined FPS gameplay. Thinking about what your tools are (that is to say, "what you can effect") is one of the key skills of a game designer, and this weapon clearly demonstrates that.

Kylan Coats, Doppelganger Gun (see page 5)
Once again, I had a very hard time choosing this third-place winner. There were many excellent entries, but the doppelganger gun won out because it took a principle I've rarely seen in an FPS -- taking over enemies -- and implemented it in a potentially feasible way. Mind control is a difficult ability to balance, but this weapon's fire rate means that a player would have to be hitting an enemy consistently for more than five seconds in order to take control of him or her. Five seconds in an FPS is a lifetime. Perhaps this one is balanced.

Honorable Mentions
Best Use of the Physics Engine: Nikhil Murthy [PDF download]
Nutballs. That's all I have to say. When I read this my jaw dropped. Way to put the physics engine (and your high school physics course) to use. I actually had to pull out some of my old college books to read through this one.

Mr. Murthy, my hat's off to you.

Highest Form of Flattery: Tamar Goldberg, Qualta Blade (see page 6)
Tamar drew inspiration from a weapon in one of his favorite sci-fi shows and simply tried to write out what its stats would be in the context of an FPS game. This gave him a fantastic and versatile weapon that could be the only weapon in an FPS game and still give the player a satisfying experience.

Don't be afraid to take ideas from other media and translate them into games, as Tamar did.

Standing on Principle: Daniel Eißing [PDF download]
"As I see machine gun-type weapons successfully established in almost every game, I came to the conclusion there is a need for that mid-range, average-damage, medium-accurate kind of weapon."
The above paragraph in this entry stopped me. First, he told marketing "You're wrong." This is a dangerous thing to do, but sometimes it's necessary. Second, it addresses what function a machine gun plays in most games and approaches the challenge from the perspective of "How do we make a weapon that fulfils the same role without actually making a machine gun?" This is an excellent way to approach the problem.

Sharon Hoosein, Bronco Blaster (see page 7)
"The Bronco Blaster is a gun that can be ridden like a horse." Need I say more?

Image by Sharon Hoosein