Adventure Game Studio

AGS Awards 2015 ceremony will be Sun 15th May at 8pm (UK) using the AGS Ceremony client.
A download link will be available here before the weekend. Previous versions will not be compatible.
Please check back soon for the download link! NOPE! Wait for Jack Lucy to let us know when the client is ready.

Festive greetings, developers!

As usual, I am here to remind you that you need to add your game to the Database (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/allgames/) before the year is over if you want it to participate in the AGS Awards 2015!
Don't procrastinate, do it now!

This year I won't be running them, if you want to pick up the task (very simple task, 95% of the work is done by AGA and Snarky), contact one of them!

Thanks for all your 5% hard work with the awards the last years bicilotti! You've been a great host ;).

Many thanks! And Yay!, bicilotti finally returned to the AGS forums.  :cheesy:

Quote from: bicilotti on Fri 25/12/2015 09:57:49
This year I won't be running them, if you want to pick up the task (very simple task, 95% of the work is done by AGA and Snarky), contact one of them!

I'm afraid I'm out, too. I have a thesis to finish right about at that time, so I really can't devote any time to it. I might just about be able to update the game with the new nominees, but any fixes or new enhancements (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51823.msg636509915#msg636509915) will have to be someone else's job, I'm afraid.

It's usually the commercial titles that don't find their way into the AGS database. It seems that this year we're missing Technobabylon, Alum and The Charnel House Trilogy. It would be a real shame if those games won't be eligible, since all them deserve at least a couple of nominations. Was it Primordia that missed out on the awards a few years ago because of this?

I think if game developers want their games to be eligible for the awards, they should add them to the database in time.
If they don't care to add them, why should we care to nominate them?

Yes, I totally agree with the rule, adding a game only takes like a few minutes anyway. It's just a shame that they don't bother or want to for some reason.

I thought  the decision (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49765.msg636477796#msg636477796) last time this issue came up was that eligibility was based on the game release date, not whether it was added to the database in the year in question. It needs to be registered by the time the nominations open, of course, but we usually have a FYC thread and stuff before that.

I think commercial game makers forget to add it to the database because there's so much stuff to do around their releases, and there's really very little point since you can't download the game through the AGS website anyway. There's nothing to stop others from doing it for them, actually. (In fact, I might just add quick stubs to the db right now... Edit: Done.)

Quote from: cat on Thu 31/12/2015 14:37:08
If they don't care to add them, why should we care to nominate them?

Quote from: Snarky on Thu 31/12/2015 16:52:33
I thought  the decision (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49765.msg636477796#msg636477796) last time this issue came up was that eligibility was based on the game release date, not whether it was added to the database in the year in question.

I've long given up being shouted down about my desire to see commercial games kept out of the awards, not only for the reasons mentioned above. But I'm clearly in a minority. Still...

The AGS awards are a community endevour, and this remains a community of largely amateur hobbyists, despite the elevation of some developers and titles to professional status. As an (lapsed) amateur developer myself, I never fancied, come awards season, the idea of going up against those developers for whom developing games is now a living. Or games that have, y'know, a budget.

Last years awards were dominated by commercial games, with only a single non-commercial game nominated in the big five. Okay, so we didn't sign on to exclusively promote the amateur, freeware side of the community, but with the commercial side of AGS now plying it's trade outside the community (while reaping praise and the occasional award), I still believe the AGS awards, if reduced to freeware titles only (while retaining a single "Best Commercial Game" award), could play a big part in rallying the creative spirit within both new and old developers, while giving them something tangible to achieve.

That's my two cents, for another year. I still support the AGS Awards, whatever form they take, and I urge everybody to play and consider all the eligible games, not just those that cost you money. :P

I agree that there should be some separation between Free and Commercial game awards, Best Freeware AGS Game and AGS Game of the Year. Its a little more healthy, IMHO.
I would also like to see a category for the short games from the contests (MAGS, OROW, etc), a sort of MAGS-Uber-Winner.

Quote from: LimpingFish on Sat 02/01/2016 01:40:32
I've long given up being shouted down about my desire to see commercial games kept out of the awards, not only for the reasons mentioned above. But I'm clearly in a minority. Still...

(...)

I still believe the AGS awards, if reduced to freeware titles only (while retaining a single "Best Commercial Game" award),

+1

I don't play commercial games, which means last year I was only able to vote for Best Demo...  (roll)

It surprised me too when I attended the AGS awards ceremony for the first time last year.

There was only one category called "best freeware game created with AGS".
I had expected it would have been the other way around - one category for "best commercial game".

After all, most attendants are amateur and most AGS games are made by amateurs.

We had a vote (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50187.0) on this exact question. So could we please refrain from going over the whole damn thing all over again?

Quote from: Snarky on Sat 02/01/2016 20:22:34
We had a vote (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50187.0) on this exact question. So could we please refrain from going over the whole damn thing all over again?

Indeed we did. :)

I think it's a valid discussion to have every year (even in passing), though, since the number of commercial AGS games continues to grow.

Quote from: Snarky on Sat 02/01/2016 20:22:34
We had a vote (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50187.0) on this exact question. So could we please refrain from going over the whole damn thing all over again?

What?!?  Public opinion evolving over time, you say?  Next they'll want their fancy votes at regular intervals!  Darn these blasted democrats.  Darn them to heck!

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Sat 02/01/2016 06:24:49
I would also like to see a category for the short games from the contests (MAGS, OROW, etc), a sort of MAGS-Uber-Winner.

^^ has this been done or discussed before? ^^

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Sat 02/01/2016 06:24:49
I would also like to see a category for the short games from the contests (MAGS, OROW, etc), a sort of MAGS-Uber-Winner.

For MAGS there is usually MAGGIES, which is basically what you want: voting for the MAGS-Uber-Winner of the year *nudges Stupot*
For OROW there was a voting over all entries - I don't see the need to make an additional category.

All games made this year and added to the DB, even MAGS or OROW games, can be voted for in the regular AGS award categories.

Quote from: LimpingFish on Sun 03/01/2016 03:47:05
I think it's a valid discussion to have every year (even in passing), though, since the number of commercial AGS games continues to grow.

The total grows, of course, but were there really more commercial games in 2015 than in 2014? What are the commercial releases from 2015?

Technobabylon (partly a remake of games that competed in 2010-2011)
Alum
The Charnel House Trilogy (includes Sepulchre, which competed in 2013)
Rogue State (non-adventure)
Dustbowl
Warptile ("name your price", including free; non-adventure; not in db)
Quasar Deluxe (remaster of a game released in 2011, which is the date in the db, so probably not eligible for most awards)
... any others?

To me the more relevant issue is how to deal with the games where some parts were previously released and nominated as stand-alone games, whether re-released as a remake or compilation. (The precedent is not to worry about it: Bestowers of Eternity was nominated for 5 awards and took 2 in 2003, and The Blackwell Legacy was again nominated for 5 and won 1 in 2006.)

And here are some updated stats on how much the awards have been dominated by commercial games over the years, counting wins:

2009: 4 of 19 by a commercial game (Time Gentlemen, Please!), including Best Game
2010: 0 of 17 by commercial games (11 by The Journey Down, which was free but was later remade as a commercial, non-AGS, title)
2011: 9 of 17 by commercial games (Gemini Rue and Blackwell Deception), including Best Game
2012: 13 of 17 by commercial games (Resonance and RAM Ghost, a Bake Sale game), including Best Game
2013: 0* of 17 by commercial games (Primordia was withdrawn from competition; Heroine's Quest took 11)
2014: 10* of 14** by commercial games (Blackwell Epiphany and Quest for Infamy), including Best Game

* Not counting Best Demo for Troll Song and Tales, planned as future commercial titles
** Not counting Best Freeware Game

Quote from: Baron on Sun 03/01/2016 03:47:56
What?!?  Public opinion evolving over time, you say?  Next they'll want their fancy votes at regular intervals!  Darn these blasted democrats.  Darn them to heck!

Well, the vote was pretty lopsided (though the number of participants was low: it lost 4 to 9), and we've run all of ONE year of the Awards under the new system, so IMO it's too soon to fight this battle again. Anyway, the frustrating thing is that each time we have this argument, it always seems that half the participants have no memory of ever having had it before, even if they were around back then.

One note, as far as I remember, Primordia wasn't added to win over Cat Lady and Resonance, we were having this discussion with the writer, Mark Yohalem, how it was stupid not to add the game to the database on 2012, and i asked bicilotti, who hosted the awards then, if he thought it was "cheating" to add Primordia then and make it eligible, and then we had a discussion (community one) whereas Mark, m0ds that is, said that he felt it would be unfair for other games, and so I said that i'm okay with that. So it was a community decision somewhat. I mean I remember saying that if someone was not okay with it participating, we wouldn't mind not participating. I don't think it was ever part of the competition to be ever withdrawn.

As far as commercial vs free, I don't think we need that much of a separation. Whether something is commercial or not, doesn't make a game instantly better. Ben Jordan games won a lot of awards and they weren't commercial.

Ehh, I don't follow all of that, Dualnames. I just meant that under long (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=28928.msg368178#msg368178)-established (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=32684.msg422437#msg422437) rules and precedent (e.g. Automation (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/694/) was released in early 2005 but not entered into the db until 2006; it was deemed eligible for the 2006 awards and nominated in two categories), Primordia was eligible for nomination in 2013, even if there was some confusion and controversy around that, so by saying it wasn't going to compete, you withdrew it from awards consideration.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49765.msg636480574#msg636480574

But let's not go raking up old business. The rules were changed afterwards, so this shouldn't be an issue in the future. I just mentioned it because it was relevant to the stats for 2013 that the most likely commercial awards contender did not compete.

I know i did withdrawn it, but what i'm saying is, that it was more of a community decision than us (Wormwood Studios) being forced in a corner.

Quote from: cat on Sun 03/01/2016 08:56:51

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Sat 02/01/2016 06:24:49
I would also like to see a category for the short games from the contests (MAGS, OROW, etc), a sort of MAGS-Uber-Winner.

For MAGS there is usually MAGGIES, which is basically what you want: voting for the MAGS-Uber-Winner of the year *nudges Stupot*
For OROW there was a voting over all entries - I don't see the need to make an additional category.

OK, so I looked into Maggies (didn't know about this one) and it's been dormant for three years now!
So I'm proposing to incorporate it into AGSawards, and as well as to lump all the short-timeline-contest into one award for the year. Thoughts ???

Quote from: Snarky on Sun 03/01/2016 10:53:13
The total grows, of course, but were there really more commercial games in 2015 than in 2014?

True, for me to imply that there are more individual commercial games per year was erroneous. However, if we look at the data you provide, and with the exception of 2013, a person could be forgiven for inferring a building (if fluctuating) commercial dominance of the awards.

And with developers who had strong awards showings in the past now making the jump to commercial status, that dominance might become the norm as the playing field becomes more skewed.

I'm in full agreement with Dual.  My unsolicited take, for what it's worth, is that the debate usually revolves around the assumption that the commercial titles have access to resources not available to non-commercial games.

When Conspirocracy (2013) was nominated, it was considered a "commercial" game, because it was being sold commercially (seems reasonable).  But the game cost all of $500 for me to produce, and the overwhelming majority of revenue it raised went to charity.  It was a fundraiser for the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

Rogue State (2015) can also considered a commercial game, but it was produced with approximately the same budget as Conspirocracy, give or take a few bucks and neither Problem nor I were able to give up our day jobs working on it.  Practically speaking, the playing field was level and the only distinction, therefore, between our game and one that is non-commercial, is that we tried to make money.

At the end of the day, it'll be what it is, but I wanted to at least voice the opinion that if you stratify commercial games from non-commercial games, you're effectively making the statement that the second you charge money for a product, you're in an entirely different caliber.  This doesn't really reflect the reality that a lot of the free games can well be superior to what other people will put paywalls in front of.

I kind of like the idea of a MAGS uber award as an AGS category. I think some short games are projects people spend a great deal of time on, and so coming up against short games where a dev had a limited time to create the project isn't necessarily unfair but with MAGS you rarely have time to get everything you want in the game. I think a category reflecting that would be cool.

I kind of like that best MAGS game award idea. But actually some mags games get extra polish after the mags deadline and turn out even better. And then they just compete in the awards as normal AGS game releases...

about the ageold commercial vs hobby games discussion, I'm on the side of separation to honor the great free games we get even more. Either one award for best commercial game and have all the other award criterias only apply to freeware games or run all criteria awards for commercial and free games each. I don't mind if we vote on this again or not, but I don't want to reiterate all pros and cons again.

and I'm kind of confused why Technocrat & Wadjet Eye Games added technobabylon (demo) to the database on 31 Dec 2015 and not in spring, when it was released?

True, I suppose some do polish them up. Maybe just Sox and I are in the minority of terrible devs who leave our games as they were on MAGS release unless we need to fix a game breaking bug. Lazy, lazy devs, we are.

In which case MAGS award for fun and no other reason if people really do work on them that much after the initial release.

Quote from: Myinah on Wed 06/01/2016 02:28:13
True, I suppose some do polish them up. Maybe just Sox and I are in the minority of terrible devs who leave our games as they were on MAGS release unless we need to fix a game breaking bug. Lazy, lazy devs, we are.

In which case MAGS award for fun and no other reason if people really do work on them that much after the initial release.

This is a good point, Myinah, Selmiak, perhaps to qualify one has to have the original version in the database as '[MAGS]Game Name Here'  subsequent versions would have to be separate and drop the [MAGS] tag. From what I know this is sorta how many already do it. An honour system really.

I'm not sure about MAGS games as being part of the main AGS Awards, because there is already a MAGS award for the best MAGS game of the year.

I would, however, feel that commercial games eligible only for 1 main award (i.e. Best Commercial Game) would be an improvement, and I don't remember if I voiced my opinion, but it was the same last time around. Interesting how AGS opinion oscillates, though :D.

Many MAGS games are not even in the database. Actually, MAGS has its own database. Maybe we should just do the MAGGIES this year and promote them more? I'll contact Stupot.

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Mon 04/01/2016 03:28:15Rogue State (2015) can also considered a commercial game, but it was produced with approximately the same budget as Conspirocracy, give or take a few bucks and neither Problem nor I were able to give up our day jobs working on it.  Practically speaking, the playing field was level and the only distinction, therefore, between our game and one that is non-commercial, is that we tried to make money.

Would it be feasible not to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial, but instead having a single category for "Best Game by a Full-Time Developer", and leaving the rest to part-time devs? I would say that's where the real difference lies, as Kodiak's post demonstrates.

Should be a simple matter to make the list of the few AGS games that were made by full time devs.

I mean, so blackwell won pretty much everything last year. Look at the game's page on wadjet's site. Does it mention the AGS awards or even AGS anywhere? No. It's only adulation from mainstream sites that was deemed worthy.

Quote from: Jack Lucy on Wed 06/01/2016 10:41:30
Would it be feasible not to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial, but instead having a single category for "Best Game by a Full-Time Developer", and leaving the rest to part-time devs? I would say that's where the real difference lies, as Kodiak's post demonstrates.

Even non-full-time developers can, and have, released games that were commercial. Not to the success and/or popularity of, say, your average WadjetEye game, but still they were sold. See Ben There Done That et all.
And Chance of the Dead was not only a MAGS game but also Cardware (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcardware), only I forgot to write that down in the readme.

__
Not to break the thread or anything, but I feel the true issue is that the AGS community has simply more people who work on their games in their free time, and charge nothing. And to those (me included) a commercial game already has a huge "award"- it earns their developers money. And they get publicity. And thus overshade those who live the freeware dream. I'll be frank, I used to feel that way. It's a bit of a tough nut and I don't think there will ever be a solution to it though.

Quote from: Jack Lucy on Wed 06/01/2016 10:41:30
Would it be feasible not to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial, but instead having a single category for "Best Game by a Full-Time Developer", and leaving the rest to part-time devs? I would say that's where the real difference lies, as Kodiak's post demonstrates.

Should be a simple matter to make the list of the few AGS games that were made by full time devs.

It's actually not that simple. Most of the (non-Blackwell) games published by Wadjet Eye did not have the lead as a full-time game developer, for example (JBurger and Vince Twelve weren't, and I don't think Technocrat, Grundislav or the Primordia leads were, either), and AFAIK almost none of the non-Wadjet commercial titles have technically been full-time â€" the leads have held other day jobs, though some have gone down to 80% positions or taken short leaves of absence. If someone was unemployed or on sick leave for part of the development period, does that automatically mean they were full-time, professional game devs? Plus it might vary from category to category, with e.g. part-time freelancers on graphics, at which point it gets very messy.

Besides, some AGSers who make freeware games are actually professionals in the game industry (e.g. Theo with Skygoblin, and a few others who've worked for various game companies but make AGS games in their spare time), and many are professionals in the categories they contribute to (e.g. music, art, programming).

Those are practical objections, but I have a more philosophical disagreement with the whole proposal.

I absolutely don't want to have this discussion again, but fundamentally I think excluding commercial/professional/full-time games makes a mockery of the categories. "Best Game Created with AGS"... except a bunch of other games that might be better, but were excluded because some people thought it was unfair having to compete with people who are so dedicated to AGS and adventure games that they've actually made it their living. Same with all the other categories: Talking about "Best Background Art" out of the year's AGS games is a lie if a bunch of great-looking games weren't allowed to compete. At best it becomes the Paralympics of AGS prizes.

Since quite early on, AGS has encompassed both free and commercial games. The balance has shifted a bit, simply because a few people, having built up years of experience with AGS through lots of free games, have gotten more ambitious and thought to make a career out of it. But these commercial titles are just as much AGS games as any others. If you exclude them from the awards, it simply isn't the Adventure Game Studio Awards any more. You could call it the Amateur GameS Awards or whatever, but the AGS Awards will no longer exist as far as I'm concerned.

Quote from: cat on Wed 06/01/2016 10:01:24
Many MAGS games are not even in the database. Actually, MAGS has its own database. Maybe we should just do the MAGGIES this year and promote them more? I'll contact Stupot.

We could always incorporate the MAGGIES announcement into the AGS Awards ceremony (which I think I vaguely remember has been done in the past) even if it's run under separate rules.

I'm on holiday at the moment but I'll rig up something for Maggies once December's winner is known :-D

Quote from: Jack Lucy on Wed 06/01/2016 10:41:30
I mean, so blackwell won pretty much everything last year. Look at the game's page on wadjet's site. Does it mention the AGS awards or even AGS anywhere? No. It's only adulation from mainstream sites that was deemed worthy.

That's unfair.  Dave has invested fourteen years as an active and thoughtful member of the AGS community, so let's not penalize him for what he does or doesn't put in his shiny, well-stocked and well-deserved trophy case.

Quote from: Snarky on Wed 06/01/2016 12:47:34
I absolutely don't want to have this discussion again

As a moderator, that's your call.  But assuming another vote is ultimately held, I suggest pinning the outcome and rationale to the forums and pointing to it if anyone wants to crack the issue open.

Quote from: Snarky on Wed 06/01/2016 12:47:34
I think excluding commercial/professional/full-time games makes a mockery of the categories. "Best Game Created with AGS"... except a bunch of other games that might be better, but were excluded because some people thought it was unfair having to compete with people who are so dedicated to AGS and adventure games that they've actually made it their living. Same with all the other categories: Talking about "Best Background Art" out of the year's AGS games is a lie if a bunch of great-looking games weren't allowed to compete.

This absolutely reflects my view.  I don't mind losing every single year to Wadgeteye's titles because they ultimately set an incredibly high bar for me to pursue, and the awards, to me, are a showcase of the accomplishments of the engine, not the pursestrings and time invested by the winner.  I would, meanwhile, be a little disappointed if I was alone in losing every single year to Wadgeteye's titles because I wasn't permitted to compete any other category. 

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Wed 06/01/2016 14:52:25
As a moderator, that's your call.

No, this is a personal opinion, not a moderator instruction. I am fed up with it, but that's not a valid reason to close down a discussion within the community.

By the way, if there are going to be any awards at all, someone's going to have to step up to organize them! Otherwise this discussion is moot...

Quote from: selmiak on Tue 05/01/2016 15:43:45
and I'm kind of confused why Technocrat & Wadjet Eye Games added technobabylon (demo) to the database on 31 Dec 2015 and not in spring, when it was released?

This really had me stumped for a while, and I think I found the simple solution to that question, they just don't want search engines to spit out the ags page too while selling the game on various other channels...



about that one award for commercial/fulltime devs only, I'm kind of torn, I think the commercial devs sure also like seeing their games compete in all categories as much as hobby devs like seeing their games not beeing crashed by fulltime devs in the same category. Even I as a non commercial dev would like to see how all the commercial/fulltime titles compete against each other in the different categories. Actually some part of me likes to see how free/parttime dev games compete against fulltime dev games, but I think the rest of what I write here is still fairer for everyone involved. And as I said before, I'd like to see some free games compete against each other in all categories and also win something to honor them even more and encourage the devs to challenge themselves more and give us even more fun free games.
In case there are split awards, I wouldn't mind if this makes the awards ceremony 30 minutes longer or so, that's up to the hosts if they want to announce the winners for e.g. best music on a commercial game and best music on a free game at almost the same time by the same host or have complete commercial awards first then free games awards (or the other way around...). Though the latter sucks and would make people leave too soon (/ join late?) ;)
And also just one award for the commercial games would probably keep a lot of the commercial devs out of the ceremony and make them only show up when the one award is announced if at all, and what crappy awards ceremony it would be without some celebrities being there and spamming the chat and so...  :-D 8-)

another point is, you should have had played all the games nominated to finally cast a vote in the awards, so the paywall puts some kind of votewall in there. So people will just vote for the games they bought and played (even though told otherwise...), so the bestsellers have a greater chance of winning. Probably. Maybe this game sold better just because it is better and deserves to win or some commercial underdog goes unnoticed as just noone bought it but actually it is better... just a thought.

Quote from: Snarky on Wed 06/01/2016 12:47:34
If someone was unemployed or on sick leave for part of the development period, does that automatically mean they were full-time, professional game devs?

Being able to work on your game full-time makes you a full-time developer, but does not imply the skill of the developer. That's what the awards must determine.

But there is a hell of a difference between being able to work on your game full-time, and having to work on it after you've already done your day job. I totally recognise that the people who made the two games that dominated last year's awards are legends, and that in most cases it's their hard work and creativity that's earned them the resources to do what they want. Better than that, many of them come from this very community. I just don't think it's very interesting to see which of the two games from the same studio will win most of the awards that year, or how they will be divided between the two. And I don't think there's any way to really compare a full-time game to a part-time one.

You are assuming someone out of work for whatever reason has full time hours to work on a game. Some people are parenting kids, others are looking for work which in itself can be basically a full time job. Then there are people like me who are disabled and can only work part time because they are sick. I may theoretically have all day to work on a project some days, but the reality is that due to my condition it doesnt work out that way. So you might label me a full time dev because I have the hours technically, but really I don't.

I have more time than a hobbyist but I'm not full time by any stretch. I think a lot of other indie devs are similar and keep themselves going through sporadic freelance work etc. Its not as cut and dry as you are making it out to be.

I'm not assuming that. I wasn't talking about technical or theoretical hours, but actual ones.

With your condition and and other responsibilities taking up your time, do you think that your games could be compared on even terms to someone who has 8 hours each day to work on theirs? Would you have made a different game if you knew you could work on it each day for 8 hours?

It's not as simple as black and white, but I don't think improvements are impossible. What I initially suggested was a bit extreme, but it's just a suggestion. Obviously the AGS world is changing, I don't think it's realistic to expect that the AGS awards can remain static while still being relevant.

I have more to say, but for now...game makers do not have to release a game every year. They can work on their games for 2, 3 or 4 years and then release it. So to me, time working on a game should not come into play during this discussion unless it is a MAGS game.

Some game makers release games every 2 months. This is their choice. Others work on and polish their games for years before release. So to me, it's the final product, and time has no factor.

My opinion last year was simple. Have an award for best game (commercial and freeware) and one for best freeware game. I love the idea of rewarding a Dev for making a game I don't have to pay for. So bravo to them. All other awards besides a MAGS game award, could be judged together.

I'm on board with Nicky. If there is going to be a seperation, I think it should only be in the game of the year award. Heck the same votes could just be reused when ranking the freeware games!
But if it's going to make the people who make it all happen rage-quit, well it's not that big of a deal...

The people that bring us the awards should be given an award. Most of us spend free time making and playing games, while these people spend a large amount of time bringing us the winners and putting on a show. I salute you!

I actually feel bad for saying what I think should be done, when I have nothing to do with the awards. So for that I say, do what is best and easiest for those involved.

Sorry to ask, but I was just wondering when the "For Your Consideration" thread is going to open?

Hi there, im still relatively new to the Forums so i didnt really realize something like an Award existed. (Yes i browsed the Forums mainly for technical questions i confess...) But since i read the Posts now i wanted to put my two cents into the slot mashine.
I agree with the opinion that the time and experience, and therefore also the amount of Money, if any, he want to charge should matter to a games grading.
As Long as a game is made by one (well maybe up to three) Person it should also be able to compete on head with the rest. As already mentioned not everyone has the same amount of time and experience, commercial or not. And since we do not know who has how much of time, experience and energy, we should compare everyone, and therefore every game on the same Level. Besides, not not sure if anyone mentioned it, if you go commercially and full time, dont think your work ends with making the game! There is for sure a lot of marketing and economical bullshit you gotta do that also takes a considerable amount of your time. Time that a free game developer doesnt need, because he doesnt need to care.

On a side note: I was surprised to read my own games Name here(i think snarky mentioned it) and wanted to mention something. I consider it some Kind of early Access, so i dont think ist done yet. So i dont know how to deal with tis in Terms of putting it in a contest. But in this case i will accept whatever is decided. So far you can still download i without problms, although ist not in the ags database.

Greez Stromvin

I know there is a lack of hosts for this year's Live AGS Awards...But is anything at all being planned?

The awards could just be run without the live event if that's what needs to happen...(worst case scenerio of course)

Is nobody stepping forward? Shame. I would consider it but not finding myself with much free time these days :-/

Since I want to participate in the awards with a game I made last year, I don't think I should host it. :(

While I can see the argument for avoiding even the appearance of a conflict of interests, I believe AGA can independently confirm the vote numbers, so as long as you don't make any controversial changes to the rules, hosting offers no real special ability to rig the awards. I think SSH was nominated and even won for a few different things in the years he hosted.

The results are crunched by a script on the AGS website, there's no room for manipulation of votes anyway; I usually use that as my source when I update the awards in the games page anyway.  It just might spoil the surprise slightly for them if the organiser wins!

Is this happening?

QuoteThis year I won't be running them, if you want to pick up the task (very simple task, 95% of the work is done by AGA and Snarky), contact one of them!

If this means collating the data & running the ceremony, I think 5% is a little off ;) Still, what exactly is needed? There doesn't seem to be much info to give anyone an idea of the task they'd be taking on...

Still, I can probably give it a shot, certainly a text/irc based edition. Maybe there's a clever way to broadcast skype video calls or something, but I'm not personally prepared to muck around with the AGS live setup. Great as it is, I don't feel I have time or patience to co-ordinate that kinda thing right now, unless it's super easy lesbians. If someone else wants to do the AGS live stuff then please take over this task ASAP!

If I'm gonna do it then I'll insist that Best Freeware Game be a certainty alongside Best Game (commercial or otherwise). I'm open to Best MAGS Game also being part of the actual ags awards, but as cat I think said a lot of them aren't even listed in the db. That said, it's up to these developers to put them in the db not us, so it's probably best if we let that particular issue rollover to next year and for now just concentrate on an extra step to split commercial and freeware game chances up a little, as someone said, accommodate the changing landscape. Don't really want to get into any other suggestions tho, just that one for now.

So unless someone has picked this up and not come forward to say they have yet (please do so!), I'll speak to bici and aga/snarky asap about sorting something out.

Quote from: Mods on Tue 02/02/2016 01:44:28I'm open to Best MAGS Game also being part of the actual ags awards, but as cat I think said a lot of them aren't even listed in the db [...] it's probably best if we let that particular issue rollover to next year

The voting is open for MAGGIES 2015 (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53117.0) (which is basically just a Best MAGS Game anyway) with the tentative voting deadline of March 15, the idea being that the winner could be announced as part of the AGS Awards, whatever form that takes.

Sure thing! Seems like good way to do it.

Ok so a likely schedule...so you know it will happen soon enough...

FYC thread very soon, Monday at the latest.
Nominations, 22nd Feb ish for 2 weeks
Voting, 7th March ish for 2 weeks
Ceremony, end of March 27th or 28th something like 8pm GMT, most likely

Long live the new king!

If no one more familiar with the awards steps forward, I will do my best to update the scripts of the latest version of the awards ceremony client source (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50165.0) that's available.

Someone should make new backgrounds and tropies. We can re-use the backgrounds if we have to but IMO we should not re-use the trophies.

Good going Mods!

Quote from: Jack Lucy on Thu 04/02/2016 10:32:53
If no one more familiar with the awards steps forward, I will do my best to update the scripts of the latest version of the awards ceremony client source (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=50165.0) that's available.

That would be this: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51823.0
However, because of limitations set by some of the people who donated character avatars, the public version has been stripped of some of those resources. I'll share the "uncensored" version with whoever takes over the development.
I could probably - in a pinch - do the simple bit of just updating the nominees for the current year, but unfortunately I don't have the time to tackle the bigger feature requests (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=51823.msg636509915#msg636509915), so if you or anyone wants to have a go at that, by all means go ahead. It's also necessary to have some basic IRC knowledge and to set up (and protect) the appropriate channels on the AGS IRC server; I might have some notes on that from last year that could come in handy.

QuoteSomeone should make new backgrounds and tropies. We can re-use the backgrounds if we have to but IMO we should not re-use the trophies.

I'm not sure what this is referring to.

Quote from: Snarky on Thu 04/02/2016 15:16:02

QuoteSomeone should make new backgrounds and tropies. We can re-use the backgrounds if we have to but IMO we should not re-use the trophies.

I'm not sure what this is referring to.

In the credits to this (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1130/) there was mention of someone making trophies. It might be relevant to that year only or maybe it's the tradition to keep re-using them every year. I really have no idea.

I do think someone should make a new auditorium BG. It would be nice to not have to use last year's one, though there's nothing wrong with it. Maybe something in 720p, 16:9 AR. That would sure help with the crowding issue.

I probably won't have time to tackle the feature request list either this year. So someone more familiar with the awards who has more time would be ideal.

I'll sit in my corner and happily watch this, crumble and graciously fall.

While this plays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E6b3swbnWg

I've enlisted the assistance of the community (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53217.0) in creating the needed assets.

I saw the video of last year's awards and switching hosts seemed to cause quite a few delays. Perhaps there should be only one host this year.

If it is apparent already, it's time to nominate!

"Theirs" also a pm with the links and info in your inbox! ;)

Oops I was going to query why Space Tunneler wasn't in the list and when I checked realised I'd released it on 1st January 2016! :-[:-[

Why do I have to name a specific character in the "Best character art" category? I thought this category was about character art in general.

Quote from: cat on Tue 01/03/2016 19:07:35
Why do I have to name a specific character in the "Best character art" category? I thought this category was about character art in general.

Bug.  Fixed!

Thanks!

Haha, the ghost of Best NPC past...

Ghost best NPC?  So Joey then?

Him or blowie, yes!

Bump. Thanks for nominating so far folks! 0.22% of the community, that is ;)

Still plenty of time to do it though :=

NOMINATE PEOPLE! 7 days left. Not many people have yet... f*** all people tbh, but thanks to those of you who have ;)

Spread the word - OI, GET NOMINATING! :=

I thought the deadline was on the 15th? Am I wrong or what?

Uh, are all the lists supposed to contain all the games? Why can you nominate commercial games for "best freeware"? Or why can you nominate full length games for "best short game" or "best demo", and regular adventure games for "best non-adventure game"? Does that make any sense?

That's one for AGA. I have no idea why it isn't more defined per category. I can however answer that the 15th is correct. But you can always go back and edit your nom noms so feel free to submit a draft today :)

Because the database isn't designed that way.  Games have no information stored that describes them well enough to categorise them.  And I'm definitely not going to categorise a hundred games myself!  If lots of people are stupid enough to nominate a game for an inappropriate category, that's their nominations wasted, so it doesn't really have an impact.

That's the spirit. :=   Couldn't find Space Tunneler by CaptainD in the nominations list. Perhaps I just missed it.

Quote from: Red Fez on Wed 09/03/2016 08:42:24
(1) Couldn't find Space Tunneler by CaptainD in the nominations list. Perhaps I just missed it.

Sorry this is my fault - I did mention it on the FYC page, but when I saw it wasn't on the noms page I went back and checked, I'd actually released it on 1st January 2016!  (So if you wer going to be kind enough to nomintate it, please remember it in a year's time! ;))

Quit question... were did my nominations went?
I nominated some the other day, now Ihave a bit of time, so thought I would continue, but the list are empty! Can't see what I have and have not nominated anywhere? 8-0

Cassie do you have this message at the top of your page? 
"AGS Awards nominations close at 17:59 GMT on Tuesday 15 March 2016. You've already nominated, so you've got 2 days and 20 hours left to wait before nominations close!"

I think it's done so you can re-nominate if you want.  What I'm not sure about is whether what you nominate after your first set is added to what you've already nominated, or completely replaces it.

No, I have:

Quote
Nominations close at 17:59 GMT on Tuesday 15 March 2016, so you've still got 2 days and 20 hours left to play the games and decide which are deserving of your nomination!

Hmm... something could have gone wrong I guess, but Mark will be able to confirm if your nominations have been received.

Guess the question is: Does the site use cookies to check for who voted and what they voted for, or if it checks from the server the submitted info. At the moment, am inclined to believe it uses cookies, as that would explain why it disappeared...

It checks the nominations database.  According to which, Cassiebsg has voted.

I've been tucked away for some months working (a lot) (also on some games tbh), but the nominations time pushed me back! (laugh)

Less than 24 hours left to nominate games - to make sure some games are involved in this years awards ;) Thanks to those who did it today or yesterday and bumped up the count, would be nice to get some more in the last hours! 0.44% of the community, not quite half a percent... so poke some people and let's try to make it at least half a percent representation :) this includes me, who still needs to nominate in the next 18 hours.

Quote from: Mods on Mon 14/03/2016 23:06:47
0.44% of the community, not quite half a percent...

Is that active community or total community?

I'm assuming the latter, in which case the percentage isn't very surprising. If it were the former then I would be shocked.

I waited as long as I could to nominate, so I could play as many games as possible.

Sad to say, I didn't even make a little dent in the games list.

Quote from: NickyNyce on Tue 15/03/2016 00:00:46
I waited as long as I could to nominate, so I could play as many games as possible.

Sad to say, I didn't even make a little dent in the games list.

Same. I hate this time of year because it always reminds me how many cool games I never actually get around to playing.

I have nominated now, but havent got time to vote in all categories.  Though, Vistor 3 has done well out of me, nomitation-wise :-)

I also enjoyed nominating 'Jimi Hendrix' as my favourite character from Jimi Hendrix Case :-D

4 hours more! Don't forget, you do NOT have to nominate each category, hell if you just nominate 1 category, it is appreciated!

Anyhoo I think that's the last time I'm gonna say this, so thank you for doing it over the last couple of weeks! :)

ps I'm not sure "active" community is even measurable?
pps 0.51% now, yay!

Quote from: CaptainD on Sat 12/03/2016 21:28:46
I think it's done so you can re-nominate if you want.  What I'm not sure about is whether what you nominate after your first set is added to what you've already nominated, or completely replaces it.

I'm still somewhat unsure about that point.

Just in case people want to add further nominations in one category or other in the next two hours, would this action render prior nominations void?
(Sorry in advance, if this has been clarified already and I simply overlooked it.)   

Quote from: NickyNyce on Tue 15/03/2016 00:00:46
I waited as long as I could to nominate, so I could play as many games as possible.

Sad to say, I didn't even make a little dent in the games list.

Same here. I always feel a little guilty about it because I just wind up nominating the games I liked / remembered while loads more went unplayed. :undecided:

0.51% of 8631 people is still more than 40 people. I call that a good number compared to the 0.16% who have voted in MAGGIES (and had twice as long to do so :undecided: )

These numbers are actually surprisingly low. Has it been like this in the past years?
On the other hand it's good to know that each vote really matters and carries a lot of weight.
My props to the vocal minority :)

Quote from: Mods on Tue 15/03/2016 14:00:11ps I'm not sure "active" community is even measurable?

For instance, take all members whose last login date is less than a year ago.

People nominated and every category has its max number of entries... that's what counts. Pretty much every game from the list got nominated at one point or another (though that doesn't necessarily mean they made the top 5) well, except that Ocenaspirit dennis entry (laugh) (sorry)

So thank you! We'll get voting underway hopefully on Monday :)

ps. No idea on previous years, aga or bici might know. It's not a big deal though. Nominations are the more difficult task, as many say it can be quite hard if you've not played many games in the year. But even 1 or 2 nominations in just 1 or 2 categories is appreciated. Anyhoo, done and dusted now, time to move on!

Just a little notice to say voting will start this evening at 6pm GMT. The forum will undoubtedly remind you at the top :)

Could you finally announce the nominees officially? I mean, they have been visible in the DB for a few days already...

Where can we see the nominees ?.

Here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/AGS_Awards_2015) are the nominees.  I need to make the formatting match other years', but you'll get the gist of it.

Quote from: AGA on Mon 21/03/2016 16:16:35
Here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/wiki/AGS_Award_2015) are the nominees.  I need to make the formatting match other years', but you'll get the gist of it.

Thanks AGA! :cheesy:

Thanks for this AGA.  If possible, grateful if you add Problem as the co-creator of Rogue State.

Thanks, AGA! I noticed they were in the DB when looking through the recent comments on the side of the game page...

Congrats to all nominees! Lots of my favourites got nominated (though I'm a bit sad that others didn't).

I'm super excited that Cornelius Cat got 3 nominations 8-0 :-D
With all the amazing games that were eligible for nomination, I didn't think this would be possible...

Now comes the hardest part - the voting! I have no idea how I should go about deciding on the best game in each category. They are all great!

Yay, voting is OPEN!

"AGS Awards votes close at 17:59 GMT on Monday 04 April 2016", reads the banner.

Given that the clocks go forward next weekend, is that 18.59 British Summer Time?

Alright, voted! :D

And thank you so much for including our little dinosaur game! That was unexpected, but totally pleasant for us. :) Congratulations for all the other nominees as well!

Quotee're sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /site/awards/ on this server.

You do not have permission to access this server. Before trying again, close your browser, run anti-virus and anti-spyware software and remove any viruses and spyware from your computer.

Your technical support key is: 4d07-1a46-b40c-8ddc

You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.

If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact the WEBMA5TER and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.

???

does the script check for referers that I usually block?

Quote from: selmiak on Mon 21/03/2016 22:00:58
does the script check for referers that I usually block?

Same problem here. :~(

Thank you very much :)

Voted! 8-)
Thanks everybody, especially the staff :D

Quote from: KodiakBehr on Mon 21/03/2016 18:49:34
Thanks for this AGA.  If possible, grateful if you add Problem as the co-creator of Rogue State.

It is a wiki!  I just used the names given in the 'main author' field in the games database.  Fixed it now though.

Quote from: paolo on Mon 21/03/2016 21:21:06
Yay, voting is OPEN!

"AGS Awards votes close at 17:59 GMT on Monday 04 April 2016", reads the banner.

Given that the clocks go forward next weekend, is that 18.59 British Summer Time?

BST.

I'm really happy and honoured to see Rogue State nominated for 5 categories - but to be fair, there has never been a Demo for Rogue State. So I don't think we should have been nominated for the "Best Demo" category. :)

Anyway, congratulations to all nominees!

Quote from: Problem on Tue 22/03/2016 08:43:40
I'm really happy and honoured to see Rogue State nominated for 5 categories - but to be fair, there has never been a Demo for Rogue State. So I don't think we should have been nominated for the "Best Demo" category. :)

Anyway, congratulations to all nominees!

Thanks for your honesty.  I've removed Rogue State from Best Demo, and the next down the nominations league (Reality on the Norm: Reality Check 4 DEMO (Cancelled)) is now up.

Dustbowl nominated in 4 categories?! :O
Many thx guyz and gals and congratz to all nominees! :)
I just downloaded some games I didn't play in order to vote in the best conditions.

Commander Moss and friends are very thankful for the nominations. Congrats to all the game makers that made a game in 2015.

May the slime be with you!

Congratulations to all the nominees! Great to see some of my favourite games from this year get the recognition they deserve :)

Thanks to all those who nominated The Terrible Old Man! That was a very nice surprise :)

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Mon 21/03/2016 22:33:53

Quote from: selmiak on Mon 21/03/2016 22:00:58
does the script check for referers that I usually block?

Same problem here. :~(

tried again and it works now! Thanks AGA, no matter if you did anything or not.


I want to vote for mortimer mouse as best character, not the cat. Meh, then I vote for Jimi! :P

Thanks, voted...

Had to delete my forum cookies though. (wtf)

Only think the script checks externally is your forum session.  Everything else is done from the database.  So yeah, clearing cookies would have helped!

Just noticed this game of mine (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1878/) has been nominated for best demo. I only added it to the database last year but I made it in 2013 and it was available to download. So I think it ought to be disqualified.

Quote from: selmiak on Fri 25/03/2016 11:55:48
I want to vote for mortimer mouse as best character, not the cat. Meh, then I vote for Jimi! :P

Mortimer is very happy that you like him *squeak*

Thank you to everyone who has voted so far! Just under 48 hours to do so if you haven't yet (nod)

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/awards/vote/

Very honoured and surprised to have Camp 1 up there amongst the nominees. :-D
I'm still allowed to vote, right? (I voted in categories where my own game was not nominated...)

Is there a date for the ceremony yet?

Quote from: cat on Tue 05/04/2016 12:31:13
Is there a date for the ceremony yet?

You need a date for the ceremony, babe?

I'm standing right over here!

Don't be shy, sparkle-eyes!

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 06/04/2016 14:03:02
You need a date for the ceremony, babe?

So let's see... your avatar is a bird, Cat's is a ... well... a cat.  There's only one way this is going to end...

Quote from: CaptainD on Wed 06/04/2016 14:38:02

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 06/04/2016 14:03:02
You need a date for the ceremony, babe?

So let's see... your avatar is a bird, Cat's is a ... well... a cat.  There's only one way this is going to end...

Don't worry...

My bird-ass is already hanging out in the seedy back-alley next to the the AGS awards theatre selling illegal backstage passes:

Get 'em while they're hot!!! (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1898/)

Sometime between now and end of the month for the ceremony. Not too sure when yet but will try and create a week's notice or 2. Right now I'm not so sure the exact date, the client isn't properly tested yet and I've just bought a new pc so am getting used to it (and just playing games and ignoring ppl for a fortnight ;) ) but definitely want to ceremonize by the end of April @ the latest.

That would be great! I have the last week off from work, that would mean I could just sit here all night long! (nod)

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 06/04/2016 14:03:02
You need a date for the ceremony, babe?

I'm standing right over here!

Don't be shy, sparkle-eyes!

How could I resist such an invitation? See you at the theatre ;)

Quote from: cat on Thu 07/04/2016 13:29:05

Quote from: Mandle on Wed 06/04/2016 14:03:02
You need a date for the ceremony, babe?

I'm standing right over here!

Don't be shy, sparkle-eyes!

How could I resist such an invitation? See you at the theatre ;)

Yay! :-D

Right we'll get this done on Sunday 1st May. sorry it wasn't this weekend. In order of likeliness:

1. A forum thread with the results
2. An IRC chat
3. Ceremony client

Yes, ceremony client is the least likely to happen, because if you remember, the awards team that created it stepped down. I only partially understand the setup of it at the moment. So it needs a new team in place, ready and willing to make it work for a particular year, which I think takes a little more than a couple of weeks notice, as it has done in the past. That isn't really the case this year, I'm "kind of" happy to try it, Jack Lucy is "kind of" about to deal with it, but these aren't enough really.

And it is pretty much the reason the awards have been delayed and delays are annoying for me and others I guess, so better to find a quicker route so that the awards can be dished out sooner rather than 2018. Winning awards is probably more important than how they are presented and there are plenty of ways to do that, the ceremony app is just quite an extravogant one. I know the ceremony is good fun, but thats cos it's had a dedicated team behind it with plenty of time to create it and make it work year in year out for the past 3. It doesn't have that this year, so please don't expect it next Sunday. But if there is still something possible with it, that's why it's still on the list... Other than that, looking forward to announcing the winners asap!

YEAAH :)

Going to try my hardest to make the ceremony, life has been particularly manic this year!

Really chuffed Bitstream got shortlisted, let alone in so many categories! Did not expect that, big thanks to those that voted :)

Bit of a shame if the live ceremony can't be done, but yeah: Better to not have it at all than attempt it and the fun is spoiled anyway due to technical glitches. If you do try to wing it then maybe have a room ready to go in normal IRC in case the client fatally crashes? Then everyone can just bail there and continue on...

Either way, thanks for the effort in organizing the awards!

Quote from: Mods on Sun 24/04/2016 14:15:32
Right we'll get this done on Sunday 1st May.

Just to say THANK YOU Mods for taking this on. We all appreciate that you're making it happen.

Thanks Mark :)

*marks date in calendar*
Cool stuff!

This Sunday? Gadzooks! I've gotta get my tuxedo to the dry cleaners! :shocked:

What sort of time are we looking at?

8pm GMT.

Slim chance it will be moved back a week, so that it can definitely be run through the client. Watch this space

Ok yeah gonna move it to next Sunday, so we can have the client running it, and I can actually be prepared and ready to do it (I'm not this weekend lol). Sorry to put it off, the app stuff has been quite last minute, but at least this way it can follow on from recent previous tradition rather than revert back to IRC. Info on download and stuff in the week!

Don't think for a moment that I'm taking my tux off. I'm sleeping in this baby until next Sunday. :cool:

Great! Looking forward to it :)

That finger puppet needs a tiny bow tie, Cat. :cheesy:

Is voting closed? I've been a bit of a deadbeat lately...  (wrong)

Quote from: Ponch on Sun 01/05/2016 02:42:58
That finger puppet needs a tiny bow tie, Cat. :cheesy:

Indeed, I just have to finish MAGS first before I change my work clothes for the tux.

Sorry guys, I'm kind of lost :( where is the ceremony happening ?

Quote from: Marion on Sun 01/05/2016 22:12:46
Sorry guys, I'm kind of lost :( where is the ceremony happening ?

Next Sunday in the regular live venue seems to be the current plan. Keep watching the thread for more info I think.

Oh I thought it was this sunday... :( :(

Nobody loves me :( ...

gives MiteWiseacreLives! a hug

Yes, voting was over about a month ago.

Your the best Paolo :)
Hopefully I can join the fun for a bit on Sunday, I'll be working.

Yep! This way (a little delay) you can walk around in the app historic auditorium and stuff once more.

Just to confirm, is it definitely at 8pm GMT or is it BST?

Ahh I see the above post has been sneakily edited, making this irrelevant :tongue:

Quote from: Stupot+ on Mon 02/05/2016 22:14:35
Just to confirm, is it definitely at 8pm GMT or is it BST?

And what about those of us in America? I can't unravel the mystery of your fancy metric time! :=

Quote from: Ponch on Mon 02/05/2016 22:38:52

Quote from: Stupot+ on Mon 02/05/2016 22:14:35
Just to confirm, is it definitely at 8pm GMT or is it BST?

And what about those of us in America? I can't unravel the mystery of your fancy metric time! :=

I know exactly what you mean. Which is why someone should point out what colour it is: http://www.phrenopolis.com/colorclock/ (laugh)

Here you can find the time in your time zone: AGS Awards 2015 (https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=AGS+Awards+for+2015&iso=20160508T20&p1=136)

Yayyy 5 AM, Monday!

Quote from: Danvzare on Tue 03/05/2016 11:37:32
I know exactly what you mean. Which is why someone should point out what colour it is: http://www.phrenopolis.com/colorclock/ (laugh)

Finally! Time expressed as a color wheel. Why didn't someone think of this sooner! Now if only we could do everything else this way! :=

A party? Sunday? On my time zone?
I think I've got some onions to sell on Sunday but you wouldn't mind if I join the party smelling of onions would you?
I will not have time for shower but maybe somebody will bring some of those scented towels?

Yep bst.

A small issue but nothing untoward: Who deals with IRC please? Nickserve won't let me register, keeps telling me my password is not obscure enough. I'm trying some pretty obscure ones but every time... apparently I (ideally) need this to register to be able to host the ceremony, but perhaps it's not 100% necessary. If anyone has brute forced a nickserv nickname password, please let me know how :)

Surely anything at least 8 characters long, containing capital letters, lower case letters, numbers and punctuation should be good?

Quote from: Mods on Wed 04/05/2016 00:21:53
Yep bst.

A small issue but nothing untoward: Who deals with IRC please? Nickserve won't let me register, keeps telling me my password is not obscure enough. I'm trying some pretty obscure ones but every time... apparently I (ideally) need this to register to be able to host the ceremony, but perhaps it's not 100% necessary. If anyone has brute forced a nickserv nickname password, please let me know how :)

You really should register, because otherwise you're not guaranteed to have admin or channel op privileges in the channel, and then you won't be able to run the ceremony.

What format are you using for the registration command? I seem to remember from last year that a lot of the documentation I found online was misleading, and had me writing the command in the wrong format. Could it be that NickServ interprets some other part of what you type as the password?

In my notes I have two alternative formats for the command, you might want to try both:

Register new account (your current nick): /msg NickServ <password> <email?>
Register nick: /msg NickServ REGISTER <nick> <password>

Sorry for the change, moved it again to next week. The client is not ready, not gonna pretend it's good to go nor fumble around with hours to spare to make this work. So a bit more patience, 3rd time lucky...

ps. Thanks for the nickname tips, I'll give those a go!

Sorry for the delay but the last few weeks have been nuts.

All that's missing on the new client is the new director controls. Now that I have some extra time I'm going to straighten out some GUIs too. (Did you know you can't practically have more than one textbox on a gui at the same time?)

Any chance of moving it to Saturday instead of Sunday? For a lot of people (Korea/Japan/Australia/etc.) 8pm Sunday means around 4am Monday morning, which is very tough to do on the first workday of the week.

Wouldn't the middle of the weekend give more leeway in people's schedules either time-zone direction?

Either way, I'll still probably be there. It just means getting to bed and trying to sleep at like 7pm...

I'm in GMT+1 and would also rather have it on a saturday....

Quote from: Mandle on Sun 08/05/2016 02:27:54
Any chance of moving it to Saturday instead of Sunday? For a lot of people (Korea/Japan/Australia/etc.) 8pm Sunday means around 4am Monday morning, which is very tough to do on the first workday of the week.

Wouldn't the middle of the weekend give more leeway in people's schedules either time-zone direction?

Either way, I'll still probably be there. It just means getting to bed and trying to sleep at like 7pm...

Yes, I would prefer this too. It's easy to be up at 5 AM Sunday morning and recover for Monday, but not so easy when it's Monday morning.

Aww, bummer. I have a wedding to attend next weekend, maybe I can jump on IRC on my phone :P

Nooooooooooooo :(

Man, this tux is going to be awfully stinky after another week. :=

Also, can we get AGA* to pimp the event on the top of the forums with some cool red text and stuff? Advertising never hurts. :cool:

* Or possibly AJA. I get them confused sometimes.

I won't personally be around on Fri/Sat this weekend sorry. I'll keep an open mind but there's 90% chance on Saturday I won't be in. I suppose it could be pulled back earlier on Sunday, but again that's unlikely. Not mucking around with times just because 2 or 3 people in Korea want to turn up soz. But there IS now still time for someone else to take this hosting over completely (which is fine with me if someone wants to), so I can get on with my own stuff, and you can run it at a time you find more suitable ;) Otherwise you'll have to lump the Sunday date sorry.

With any luck someone will capture it for video or such, but that's up to visitors really. Please remember it's all in a shambles as it is this year, keep in mind everyone else previously involved just "walked out" - they didn't do a handover or try and transition it over smoothly, they just mic dropped/buggered off (kudos to their hard work in the past but I'm not gonna sugar coat what they did this year..) so my advice is to join the team for next year's awards to ensure it has a bit of solid grounding & happens at a time and in a way most suitable for all - this year it just has to run... so instead of "can you do this" and "can you do that", how about you folks consider forming a proper awards committee for next year so it can be done YOUR way? (and at Japan O'Clock, cos then who would we be to argue if you are running it?) ;)

PS. Not moaning, just trying to be transparent about the situation.. :=

Your totally right, Mods. We just need to make it happen this year, then perhaps a proper committee can be formed for next year with something to build on and improve. You and whomever else is helping out deserve credit :)  I wish I had a clue about this stuff, I'd probably try to help...

I have to work the next day regardless if it's on Saturday or Sunday. I slightly favour Sunday because I don't have to work until the afternoon on Monday, but either way there's no guarantee I'll be able to join in. Depends how I feel on the day.

I'm sad to say that this weekend is also completely blocked for me.
*But I keep my fingers crossed that the ceremony gets postponed once more* :-*

Otherwise have fun and many thanks to Mods for making it happen this year (nod)

For the record, Snarky did a bunch of work on the older client before sending it and the resources over to me, so that was a proper hand off.

Weekend of 21/05/2016 would suit me too, if that's a possibility.

Snarky gave you a proper hand off did he, Jack?

*snickers like a schoolboy*

For an appropriate donation, Snarky will "transfer project development" to completion.

Quote from: Stupot+ on Mon 09/05/2016 13:11:09
Snarky gave you a proper hand off did he, Jack?

*snickers like a schoolboy*

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!

Double entendres?! In the AGS Awards thread?! You guys are sullying the good name of the P3N15 Award! :=

Psssssssstttt...

Yeah, you over there...

NO! NOT YOU!!! Get outa here!

You... lurking over there...

Yeah...YOU!

Check this out:

(http://www.leshowdelarentree.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/backstage-pass-vip1.jpg) (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1898/)

100% legit! All areas access!

A classic. Surely game of the year 2015.

So, will it happen this Sunday?
Last year, there was a test-run for the client. Is there going to be such a thing this year as well? If you need people to test it, you should tell us here.

Hmm, To put it simply, it won't happen tomorrow, sorry, realistically - the client isn't ready. And I believe that is the preferred route, the client? I've been holding out but haven't seen a working version of this years intended app myself yet. So it's probably best we just wait til Jack comes here and says it's ready. I see no real issue waiting a bit longer, frustrating as it may be, I think it may even be about time the AGS Awards got an official time of year like June or sth so there's a window every year for a team, client or whatever to be formed & ready. The safest thing to be said right now I think is "June". I can say it'll be this week or next week but ultimately it's in his hands for now and I have no idea when that'll be exactly. I* don't know the workload but I know he could use a little help. If you or anyone have some time to offer some help to Jack, with sourcing nomination images and some other items the client needs, please do pop him a PM and this can probably be sped up. Again please remember this normally has 2, 3 or 4 people working on it (the client) and that has always taken several months to prepare in itself, this year 1 person is working on it so your guess is as good as mine... !

Sorry to hear that.

At this point, I'm inclined to think it would be better to give up on the client and just post the winners here, or at most do an announcement over IRC (or whatever modern group-chat option there is).

I'm afraid that with the scheduled dates having been broken so many times already, more and more people are going to be fed up or not think it worth the hassle if and when it finally comes around. We should keep in mind that many attendees have to arrange specially to be available, and all the uncertainty is almost guaranteed to mean lowered attendance. Reliability in scheduling is more important than the fanciness of the platform, I think. If Jack has prepared something exciting in the ceremony, how about releasing it as single-player game (as SSH did in the past), or even better: recording the "show" and putting it on YouTube?

The longer you wait, the less relevant it's going to seem: it becomes, quite literally, yesteryear's news. A successful AGS Awards to my mind requires a certain momentum, so that you get people excited about revisiting the best games of the year, naming them in the For Your Consideration thread, nominating, voting, and then participating in the ceremony without too much time passing in between.

I disagree that there's any reason why in the future we should need to wait until June for the ceremony. I don't know what Jack has been doing, but the client update is as big or a small a job as you want to make it: major bugs have been ironed out over the years, so it's basically working fine as-is. The only thing that needs to be done each year is replace the list of nominees, and that shouldn't be a huge job. In fact, it should be possible to do it while the voting is ongoing, so that the client is ready before it even closes (last year, even with a major client update, voting closed sometime around 16 March, and the ceremony was held on 22 March). Oh, and AFAIK, the coding of the client has been almost entirely a one-person job since 2011. (Though certainly a number of people have helped out with graphics, music and other resources.)

Things got a bit messed up this year with the switch to new people in each role. So let's just cut our losses, get it over with, and try to make sure things are on track for next year. If Jack has been working on major improvements, that should give him a chance to get it done properly, and not rush something untested to release.

But maybe I'm alone in this view? What do others think?

Hey, glad to see Mods reconsidered and decided to push the date again.

If the ceremony is tomorrow, there won't be a client, sorry. This is my fault, because I've underestimated the volume of work multiple times. It's taking so long because I rewrote the whole client from scratch (getting to do this is basically the only reason I volunteered for the job). I most likely would've made tomorrow's deadline if I didn't get an upper airway infection on thursday. I was hoping I caught it and it would only last a day, but since I still feel like dogshit today, I won't be able to pull it out of the fire for tomorrow.

Only Mods and Snarky have noted their opinions thus far, so please let us know what you prefer. Based on the interest in the awards this year, I don't think we'll see much attendance either way.

Is there something spectacularly new added to the client? Then it's probably worth the wait.
If not, I wouldn't mind having the ceremony this sunday as there is a holday on monday.
I'm with snarky on the whole it gets boring and loses momentum thing, but in the end it's up to the host(s).

For the future, after the awards is before the awards, if the team likes it and feels up for doing it again next year why not slowly start working on stuff already over the course of a year (or a little less maybe ;))

I'm with Snarky here. I absolutely prefer to have just an IRC chat ceremony or last year's client with updated nominees over moving it again just for having a new (untested) client.

For your information, and to keep things transparent.

1) I love you m0ds, and i think it's hard to do this on your own. But I have to make this post, cause I'm mad.
2) Every time I made the client (twice actually, it was just me working a month or so before the ceremony, and it was literally just me and #clubgalen. Wyz was always busy with the exams, and everyone know how much i value his work and ethic, but this was Wyz setting up the things, and me taking over. To begin with, the community cared initially about this, like absolute zero. And only when we had it out, and after the ceremony did it enjoy a small warm response. The fist time I had the chance to test with about 20 people, mostly AGS friends, and gladly that went more or less well. The second time, and the last one, people focused on the lesbian joke more than they cared about this year's ceremony (and that year's ceremony), which says an awful lot about this community. There's still the chat log of people commenting on boobs in vulgar ways and then making a post on that topic shaming me, so heaven forbid, I walked out. But there was a somewhat proper transition, I open-sourced the files, and I had some back and forth pms with Snarky and then some, and suddenly the lesbian jokes, that also existed on that version, offended no one, rofl. It was on the back-end, yeah, that makes sense.

3) I did this twice, on my own more or less. AGS Friends, like m0ds, bici, nemo, peder and countless others did their part, but the client part was more or less on me.
As far as i know the client situation is pretty stable after Snarky's reign, so.

If you really think about it, each year, it's just one person doing all the work.
This year it's m0ds, last year it was Snarky, and so on.

Holding it purely within IRC never hurt the awards before.

Since the job of hosting the awards usually falls to one person, perhaps limiting the amount of extra work that needs to be done would be the way to go. The client is a nice novelty, but it shouldn't take precedence over the ceremony itself. If the client isn't ready, then the client isn't ready. We move on.

Postponing the awards twice, and still leaving people without a concrete date, is just going frustrate.

Despite the good initiative of Mods and Jack, I think we can safely call this year's Awards a 'slight hiccup'. Might be best to just get it over and done with and try to make sure there's some kind of structure in place so that this kind of lapse in momentum doesn't happen again next year. Personally, I see little reason that the 'nomination' phase shouldn't begin in early January in time for voting and Awardsing in Late Feb or March, while people can still remember some of the games.

It's easy for me to say. I've got no real ability to help out much beyond adding my two-cents to the pot, but every little helps, as they they. That said, if there is some way I can help out that doesn't involve any coding, I would of course be happy to see what I can do

What happened to our IRC? Couldn't get club Galen to work.. Are we doing this today over there?

Mods postponed it indefinitely yesterday.

No, please not just an IRC ceremony. I
'm so looking forward to the new client! Hooray, Jack and Mark, for so much dedication :-*

Are you posting this an hour after the event should start? 8-0 Or you forgot to add GMT to it? :P

Thanks Jim, there's no question you and others were dedicated. Honestly, that work now falls on Jack Lucy (not me, haha). I thought it would be as simple as > download old client > replace some sounds > do ceremony. But Jack, whom I am giving the benefit of the doubt, is saying it's being rebuilt or such. So I don't know, and I'm beyond pushing it to know now. I had no intention of getting involved with the technical side really, just pushing forward the other necessaries. Not a stab at you Jack but I don't know the guy, I don't know if he's a "deliverer" or not. I'm happy to wait a little bit longer but I do agree with Snarky and others that the 2015 results need to be announced this side of armageddon. So there is simply no way that this will go much beyond the end of the month. That gives Jack ample time and it's not a huge stretch for the rest of us to wait 12 days and see if it transpires or not. But fingers crossed that it can cos it would be pretty fun! (as line, ___, once known as Amelie, says).

Can we maybe decide on a date and time, announce it in the top bar of the forum (instead of the Mittens announcement) and if the client is ready by then, use the client, otherwise just do it in IRC chat?

Quote from: cat on Wed 18/05/2016 12:47:26
Can we maybe decide on a date and time, announce it in the top bar of the forum (instead of the Mittens announcement) and if the client is ready by then, use the client, otherwise just do it in IRC chat?

Seconded!

Meanwhile, while we're waiting for this year's ceremony, why not revisit the very first AGS live show?

[embed=640,480]http://youtu.be/8s7B1a9BYDk[/embed]

It's come quite a way, eh? (Though ALREADY AWESOME in its initial outing!) I see we lost the spotlights somewhere along the way; maybe we could bring them back at some point, at least for when the hall is darkened?

I agree with cat, if we could nail down a date and update the forum header that would be great, the forum header announcement is kinda essential and needs to be done asap once a date is decided. The client is a lovely novelty but I've been to enough AGS awards to know that it can be just as much fun when held in the IRC room.

Thank you to Mark and Jack and everyone else who is working to get this sorted, let's hope we can rock this before I have to return my suit ;)

Okay, I'm back to dev tonight. Not going to push the pace I did before though, where I came home from work and did 4 or 5 hours on client dev, that's insane.

Cat's idea suits me, as would a date at the end of the month.

Quote from: cat on Wed 18/05/2016 12:47:26
Can we maybe decide on a date and time...?

Quote from: Snarky on Wed 18/05/2016 15:18:27
Seconded!

Quote from: Chicky on Wed 18/05/2016 15:20:51
I agree with cat...

Me too! A definite date and time will help a lot.

Quote from: LimpingFish on Thu 19/05/2016 01:05:25
A definite date and time will help a lot.

I'm not taking off this tux until we have a ceremony! :=

yeah, I can smell it to over here.

or is it the rotting corpse of the awards :P ;-D

I still don't know how to find the chat anymore ???
Is this still public knowledge?
Good to hear things are progressing Jack :)
Also good to now that tux still fits Ponch! Now is that a custom cummerbund covering your udder?

Maybe next year we can have the ceremony in January or February, when it still makes any sense to have it, and if nobody will volunteer to fix and host a deluxe version, we'll just make it an IRC session, or even just publish the darn results here in the forum?

Having a 2015 award ceremony in late May of 2016 is just silly. I'm not pointing fingers here, just stating obvious facts. Especially since the aftertaste of past events have been on the bitter side I don't anyone thinks it worth the hassle.

So, we nominate games in January. If nobody has volunteered to fix a client by the end of the month, we step down to an IRC event. If nobody will take it upon themselves to host that either, we just compile the results and publish it in a thread before the end of February.

I've never been able to attend the awards ceremony in the past so hoping this will be the first.

I assume the ceremony is held mid year to allow people to actually play the games made in the previous year, if they haven't already, and then nominate and vote for their winners?

Quote from: Haggis on Thu 19/05/2016 10:04:54
I've never been able to attend the awards ceremony in the past so hoping this will be the first.

I assume the ceremony is held mid year to allow people to actually play the games made in the previous year, if they haven't already, and then nominate and vote for their winners?

Well, it's never been held this late before. It's usually in February or March, to â€" as you say â€" allow people to play the games, nominate, and vote for the winner.

The necessary steps (given the current system) are basically:

• Pre-nomination:
  
  
  • Time for games that haven't been added to the db to be entered
  • Reminders/discussion of the games released in the last year, a "For Your Consideration" thread
  • Sometimes (too often!) discussion about any changes to the categories or rules
• Nominations
• Voting, and also:
  
  
  • Update the AGS client, entering the data and graphics/resources for the nominees (any other updates can start much earlier)
  • Juries pick the winners in the special awards categories (innovation and lifetime achievement)
  • Scheduling the awards ceremony
• Announcement/awards ceremony

I think the nominations and voting need to be at least three weeks each, to give everyone the opportunity to participate, and the pre-nominations phase usually takes a couple of weeks at least. So late February â€" early March is probably the most realistic time frame for the awards ceremony if everything is well organized.

I'd say we could start on 01 January really, then have three weeks each for For Your Consideration, nomination and voting, then say two weeks' warning before the ceremony.  So everybody put February 18 in your diaries for the next infinity years, job done!

Of course in reality we have those stupid human factors like having day jobs and family lives to worry about, but as Snarky says late February or early March should be doable each year without any difficulty.  I think part of the problem this year was weeks spent trying to find replacements for bicilotti's and Snarky's great work in the lead up to the ceremony.

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Thu 19/05/2016 06:48:39
I still don't know how to find the chat anymore ???
Is this still public knowledge?

Details here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/community/irc/), but you will not be able to get into #clubgalen this way. Don't ask me how, I think it's invite only, of maybe specific compromising acts must be performed first.

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Thu 19/05/2016 06:48:39
good to now that tux still fits Ponch! Now is that a custom cummerbund covering your udder?

It's elastic. I'm 43, and at my age it's important to buy clothes that stretch. :=

Quote from: Jack on Thu 19/05/2016 12:48:22

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Thu 19/05/2016 06:48:39
I still don't know how to find the chat anymore ???
Is this still public knowledge?

Details here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/community/irc/), but you will not be able to get into #clubgalen this way. Don't ask me how, I think it's invite only, of maybe specific compromising acts must be performed first.

Actually, you are wrong. To join #clubgalen all you gotta do is connect to irc.clubgalen.com and then type in: /join #clubgalen
Club galen is not some kind of elitist society, it is not invite only. Anyone can join.
The link on the "community" page of the site is outdated though, so it says that you have to connect to irc.agsarchives.com which was the old address for the channel.

Here is a quick mibbit link to join #clubgalen: https://client02.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23clubgalen&server=irc.clubgalen.com

A lock on the date would be good. I can't just come out with something right now though sorry, but now there's something to get excited about cos there's a test build... so I will talk to Jack and hopefully we can agree on a solid date over the weekend :=

There will also be a failsafe contingency plan to make sure it will happen on that date. Codename: Maintanence Jack.

Quote from: Ibispi on Thu 19/05/2016 18:57:38
Actually, you are wrong. To join #clubgalen all you gotta do is connect to irc.clubgalen.com and then type in: /join #clubgalen
Club galen is not some kind of elitist society, it is not invite only. Anyone can join.

Haha, I genuinely thought #clubgalen was just an in-joke.

EDIT: What's the point anyway, when you don't have a Babar?

Quote from: Jack on Thu 19/05/2016 12:48:22
Details here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/community/irc/), but you will not be able to get into #clubgalen this way. Don't ask me how, I think it's invite only, of maybe specific compromising acts must be performed first.

Well you do have to strip off nude and recite the secret code words...

That or the server was just down / on the blink when you tried to join. It's really just the AGS Archives chat with a joke name that Peder just ran with until it stuck.

Quote from: Ibispi on Thu 19/05/2016 18:57:38

Quote from: Jack on Thu 19/05/2016 12:48:22

Quote from: MiteWiseacreLives! on Thu 19/05/2016 06:48:39
I still don't know how to find the chat anymore ???
Is this still public knowledge?

Details here (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/community/irc/), but you will not be able to get into #clubgalen this way. Don't ask me how, I think it's invite only, of maybe specific compromising acts must be performed first.

Actually, you are wrong. To join #clubgalen all you gotta do is connect to irc.clubgalen.com and then type in: /join #clubgalen
Club galen is not some kind of elitist society, it is not invite only. Anyone can join.
The link on the "community" page of the site is outdated though, so it says that you have to connect to irc.agsarchives.com which was the old address for the channel.

Here is a quick mibbit link to join #clubgalen: https://client02.chat.mibbit.com/?channel=%23clubgalen&server=irc.clubgalen.com

I owe you a life debt for alowing me into the folds of your exclusive cult 8) I've never felt sooo accepted!
Now should I start by waxing your car or do I just keep whipping my naked body with this USB cable?

Jack will be back with a date soon. I'm letting him weigh it up. But nomination images are in now and he's sorting some other standard ceremony things like voice clips or whatnot so it would appear the ceremony is in good shape again. Just a little more patience and we should be there...

At this rate, we'll be reminding people to have their games in the database for next year's awards, before this year's have even been given out! We're definitely going to have to sort something out for next year, though, to spread the responsibility, and to take the heat off of a lone organizer.

And, because I'm currently on my third drink of the evening, I going to offer what will probably prove an unpopular opinion: Fuck the client. Goodnight!

Quote from: LimpingFish on Thu 26/05/2016 00:51:27
And, because I'm currently on my third drink of the evening, I going to offer what will probably prove an unpopular opinion: Fuck the client. Goodnight!

I think this is a very popular opinion by now...

It's nearly June, guys.

At this point, I'll be crushed if we don't have a client and just did it in irc. It's been a long wait, but it sounds like there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. :smiley:

Maybe we could have the MAGGIES result for now to whet people's appetites. It is intended to be announced in the awards ceremony but we can do it this week, if you all want?

Quote from: Ponch on Thu 26/05/2016 14:50:14
At this point, I'll be crushed if we don't have a client and just did it in irc. It's been a long wait, but it sounds like there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. :smiley:

+1

Quote from: Stupot+ on Thu 26/05/2016 15:05:17
Maybe we could have the MAGGIES result for now to whet people's appetites. It is intended to be announced in the awards ceremony but we can do it this week, if you all want?

It's setup in the client, why do that? So a few people are whinging and others with oh-so motivational comments like "fuck tradition" (roll) but it was their choice not to get involved with the awards and just bark negatives from the sidelines 8-0 Release Maggie award asap [support the moaners] <> Maggies thru the client [support the tradition]. Your choice dude!

It isn't far off now and I also feel we've come this far so let's see it through. There may not be much harmony here in the discussion (wtf) but I think we can all agree we mostly anticipatge the tradition of receiving awards through the ceremony format (nod) Next year, change, structure and me not being involved is most welcome. We can make sure there's a clear period and opportunity (ie recruitment thread) to form a team. And those people can then structure it accordingly, so client is ready in good time etc, if that's the route they'll take.

For now though, as I'm completely un-involved in the technical side, I'm happy for the person that is to do it their way & by their time (even if I agree rebuilding the client was perhaps a bit extreme but beggars can't be choosers).  This year it's just a bit different than it has been the last few because it's not the same people as the last few, not everything makes a smooth transition. Get over it! ;)

The ceremony client will be a bit of fun as always and that isn't far away now... thanks for keeping the faith (some folks at least lol) :=

Some stuff in here I don't trust myself to respond to, so I'll restrict my reply to this bit:

Quote from: Mods on Thu 26/05/2016 17:28:48
Maggies thru the client [support the tradition].

There is absolutely no tradition for this. Incorporating the MAGGIES into the AGS Awards was a new suggestion this year (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53045.msg636527985#msg636527985). How can you not remember this? You were directly involved (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53045.msg636529808#msg636529808) in the discussion in this very thread back in February!

I meant support (or get in on) the AGS awards ceremony tradition. Not specifically a MAGS tradition (if there is one, I wouldn't really know).

The AGS awards still exist?

Heh, well...They are perhaps being brought back from a brief extinction. Hardly the scope or scale of the dinosaurs one...but yes some folks are making out it was or is award-pocalypse thats for sure (laugh) Judging by the length and breadth of discussion about them every, single, year, I'd say the awards still exist, positively or negatively, they are matter ;)

So who won what?

Quote from: ddq on Thu 26/05/2016 20:31:22
So who won what?

You'll have to tune in and watch to find out! :wink:

It was just a suggestion. I didn't know if it was already set up in the client or not.

Quote from: Mods on Thu 26/05/2016 17:28:48
So a few people are whinging and others with oh-so motivational comments like "fuck tradition"...There may not be much harmony here in the discussion, but I think we can all agree we mostly anticipate the tradition of receiving awards through the ceremony format.

Except its not the ceremony that's the problem here, it's the client. The client is neither tradition, nor a vital part of the awards. The fact is, the ceremony is late because having the awards in the client has taken precedence over having the awards. Here's a motivational comment: Have the awards in IRC, which is something we could have done a few times over with the number of Sundays that have passed in the time we've been talking about this.

Quote from: Mods on Thu 26/05/2016 17:28:48
For now though, as I'm completely un-involved in the technical side, I'm happy for the person that is to do it their way & by their time (even if I agree rebuilding the client was perhaps a bit extreme but beggars can't be choosers).

Also, I'll admit to being a little bit miffed that the fate of this year's awards now sits in the hands of (no offence, Jack) someone for whom this years ceremony will be their first as a community member. Yes, it was extreme to rebuild the client from scratch, and not something that absolutely needed to be done this close to the awards; as was pointed out by Snarky earlier in the thread, the job of getting the client ready was only as complicated as the person in charge of it wanted to make it. It seems it was also a decision made on the fly, since I don't remember it being discussed in more than passing.

As for beggars being choosers, I'll say it again: The awards don't need the client for them to function as intended. An IRC-only ceremony suited us for many years past, and I'm annoyed that we have allowed the situation to get to where it is because of a stubborn desire to use the client.

Look, I know it's easy for it to appear as though this is grumbling from the sidelines while somebody else does all the work, and I appreciate the fact that you took the responsibility to arrange this year's awards, but smooth sailing should take precedence over glitz and glam(!). The client is a fun way to hold the awards, sure, but it's only window-dressing. And when window-dressing takes focus off what's in the window...it needs to be torn down.

I'm more looking forward to the community feeling than the actual awards. So I'm fine with waiting in anticipation a little longer. But creators want feedback; writing an ideal-length-review on GameJolt is always nice.

The title of this thread needs to be changed...

Quote from: LimpingFish on Mon 06/06/2016 00:09:22
The title of this thread needs to be changed...

Nah, the word "soon" in the gaming industry usually means twelve years. (laugh)

Client info (download etc) and date will be in a new thread anytime now. basically this Sunday 20:00 is the (final) plan... client or just the winners data... either way, ags awards 2015 ends this coming sunday, that's for damn sure :P

Hmmm...

(http://i.imgur.com/hOO6bJ5.jpg)