The new lioden poll states the following;


“Crowd-source mutated art - allow artist players to submit their versions to the game
Official artists would take a role in approving player-submitted art, but otherwise the workload would not shift. If this were to be voted in, we would set up a system for players to "claim" a decor to work on, upload their files, get approval (or rejection) from the artists, and for the decors to be completed.

This would have much stricter rules than Custom Decors as it would become official game art. Players would be given Gold Beetles in exchange for completing these decors, the amount dependent on the level of work involved to convert the decor for mutations.

This would be the longest time-scale for completing mutation decor art as it would involve coding the system to submit art, waiting for players to submit, waiting for approval from artists. However, the game's event and development updates would continue as normal while this happens.”


I think, instead of this option, Lioden should do another round of “hiring” artists.
These artists would only be hired in order to complete mutation decor art porting, and nothing else (I suppose unless the art team decided to keep a few of them on afterwards?)

This would make it so that the art styles being accepted are vetted and chosen ahead of time, instead of having hundreds of people waste their time submitting decor art that won’t ever be accepted since they don’t meet standards.

PROS OF DOING IT THIS WAY:

1.) increased quality control
2.) no “settling” for decors that could be better
3.) doesn’t waste the time of people who can’t style match
4.) don’t have to code in an entirely new system, just code in the ability to upload decors for mutations as you would have to anyways

CONS OF DOING IT THE OTHER WAY:

1.) wildly inconsistent site art from hundreds of people
2.) easier to make changes and adjustments
3.) easier to assign tasks (you do primals, you do dwarves, etc)


TLDR;

Hire a group of 8+ experienced artists to specifically make decors for mutations instead of complete community sourcing