Planning for awards season

[Evil]

Maybe a there should be a voting system for who is nominated. People nominate, lets say, 10 games that they think are worthy of winning an award. Then the top whatever are jugded by the pannel and then everyone votes again.

[Radiant]

I think that what Andail just wrote sounds great. I don't think that abject chaos is going to be much of a problem; if someone involved in the community nominates a game he didn't create, that'd be fine; and if a starstruck newbie with half a dozen posts nominates an inappropriate game, I'm sure the jury could pick that out.

I think Evil's suggestion is too complex. Voting twice isn't going to help, and the whole point of having a jury is to cut away nominations that would be popular but inappropriate.

[Pesty]

I think whatever suggestion involves me not having to do all the work myself is an excellent suggestion and should be implemented immediately.

I like Andail's idea the most. Simply the suggestion of a registration process makes me happy. Also, I've always been behind the idea of some sort of committee to organize it all. It is too much for just one person!

[Vince Twelve]

I'll just link to this suggestion that I wrote in March, though it mostly echoes (or is echoed by) Andail's solution.

[milkanannan]

Not to sund like a broken record, but I also agree with andail

[SSH]

Or, since there are no big guns lets stick with what we had previous years! Whatever, the ball better start rolling tomorrow!

[Snarky]

I feel a perverse urge to object. 

Nah. Andail's proposal sounds great. I'm all for it.

Now we just need to decide on the categories...

[mwahahaha]

When does our game need to be finished to be eligable?

Also, is there just the one award or is there a variety of smaller awards like best sound, graphics, story, puzzles, ect.?

[Pesty]

Or, since there are no big guns lets stick with what we had previous years! Whatever, the ball better start rolling tomorrow!

Saying something like that is the equivalent of volunteering to do it yourself. You'd better start preparing for tomorrow, because I sure as hell am not doing it!

[Peter Bear]

Oh yes I Agreeeee

I just wanted to tell that I agree with andail for this year contest.

For the first point, anyone could ask to rate a 2005's game ( as the creator may not be there to ask for it ).

This will reduce the games to rate for the conquest : OK.

A point

but
Maybe anyone should ask to rate any game, and IF there are too much to rate at the end, you should only pick the X first games ( 30, 20 , 10 ? ) in "anybody" will list. That reduces again the number of games to be rated but can sound unfair to the unknown games that will be proposed only by their creator.

JURY SELECTING

AND : how do you plan to select the jury ? I mean, from my own experience, I am a adventure game hardcore gamer, I've bought the first Lucasarts games when they went in shops like 15 years ago, I'm still addicted to this kind of games, I've made some myself during the last 10 years, but released almost "NONE" on the internet.
I studyied art, am found of drawing and pencil skills, like music too, can appreciate skills in story writing, composing etc ... and leaded some MMORPG and adventure game project with my team, but I am not really active on this board, so I certainly won't be in such a jury, as I am unknown ...

So what are your criteras ( requirments ? )  ?

Categories

Maybe more catégories could be proposed, for the Oscars Ceremony, there are much. : Best performance, male, female, sound track :p

Well for a game you can keep your existing categories but maybe split some, like :

Graphics could become : background, and characters, and animation, movies or cutscenes ( if applicable )

Sound could become : soundtrack, sound effects ( ambiance )

And story could be : interested of story, imagination, and fun. ( a sad story can be interested to play, a game can be really funny, with jokes etc, but the story can make nonsense ... )

And the special Palm of the jury for : encouraging beginning, or "unratable" , I dont know.


Conclusion

I sure will keep an eye on this thread

[mwahahaha]

On the topic of catagories, if you're going to introduce awards for story and the like, it would make sense to have a "most original game" catagory as well as, say, funniest/most stupidly ridiculous game as well, for those games that are,  as leshaussebons said, complete tripe in terms of story, but intentionally.

[Vince Twelve]

Before anyone else suggests something redundant:

There are already categories for best background art, best character art, best music, best sound effects, and best story as well as numerous others.  I personally don't see a reason to have more story-related categories beyond Best Story, Best Character, and Best Supporting Character.  Everyone, to my knowledge, is quite happy with the category selection and only a few category have changed through the years.  So, the categories aren't a big issue.

The issue is with how to do the nominations.  That issue can just be solved by whoever (whomever?) is chosen to run the awards this year.  So, the only real decision that has to be made is who will run the thing... That person can decide to go the comittee route or not and can finalize the categories. 

I say we decide on a person to run the awards the old fashioned way:

* Vince Twelve is not it

or SSH can just do it.

[SSH]

Well, if no-one else volunteers.... I'l be away until 11th Jan, so if someone wants to do something more elaborate by then, fine. Otherwise, I'll do it.

[mwahahaha]

Before anyone else suggests something redundant:

There are already categories for best background art, best character art, best music, best sound effects, and best story as well as numerous others.Ã,  I personally don't see a reason to have more story-related categories beyond Best Story, Best Character, and Best Supporting Character.Ã,  Everyone, to my knowledge, is quite happy with the category selection and only a few category have changed through the years.Ã,  So, the categories aren't a big issue.

But seriously, there are games with no real story, but still have there own story-esque charm, but really has no place for recognition under the "Best story" award. So maybe we need some alternate, like "Most ridiculous story, if it can so be called."

[SSH]

By the way, if I am going to run it, I'll start the nominations process as soon as I am back from my holidays, so consider this time an opportunity to make any detailed suggestions about categories, and also to get any games registered in the games database on the main AGS site. One rule I'll have for sure is that if it is not registewred there, its not eligible for an award. Don't like it? Well, just register the game, f00! Quick, while you have the chance.

[jetxl]

I though about this before, and I wanted to discuss this at mittens but we never came to any conclusions.
This is what I had in mind. 12 categories and 2 bonus awards.

Art- edited
Background AND character art. Usually, games with nice backgrounds have nice character art as well, so to stop omni-voting, why not merge them into one. Everbody is saying that graphics isn't important in an adventure game, so why do we need two sepperate art catagories anyway?
The game with mind blowing backgrounds.

Animation- edited
Animations AND character art. Usually, games with nice character art have nice animations as well, so to stop omni-voting, why not merge them into one. Everbody is saying that graphics isn't important in an adventure game, so why do we need two sepperate sprite catagories anyway?

Music & sound- edited
No sound. The game with mind blowing sound and/or music. Music and sound has to be original (not ripped) and made for the game.

Puzzles-
The game with the best designed puzzles.

Programming- added
The game with wicked programming tricks. (could be non-adventure)

Character-
Merged with supporting character. One game can have several awesome characters, so you nominate the character, not the game title.

Demo-
Non-interactive and interactive, but in AGS (no video clips). There aren't many demos in the database, so make sure to add it. (SSH, isn't it too late to add games, since you can't fill in the date?)

Non-adventure-
Non-adventure or joke game.

Resources-
Sprite sheet, module, plug-in, open source, ect.

Horror/thriller-
Best serious game. (could be non-adventure)

Comedy-
Funniest game. (could be non-adventure)

P3n1s award-
Worst AGS game that should have never been released. A dark stain on the shiny AGS coffee mug.

AGS game of 2005-
The game with the most award becomes the Best AGS Game of 2005. If there are two games with both the most awards, then this catagory is skipped.

Lifetime achievement award- added
The person who changed AGS into something even better.
[/list]

[Pet Terry]

I quite like that idea, Jet, but I would keep the best sound -category as it was before. Sounds effects are a great way to create atmosphere and I think the game with best sound effects should be judged by the way the sound effects are used and how well they work to create atmosphere.

[simulacra]

Well jet, I think your genre definitions are a bit narrow and normative. It isn't exactly so that the two possible genres of point and click games are either comedy or horror/thriller. Can't we come up with something a bit less Hollywoodistic?

I also agree with Petteri that sound is a different cup of tea than music. And how about voice acting? And what about video sequences?

[Mordalles]

will commercial games come into the awards. especially since i dont think the same amount of people would have played commercial games like they play freeware. and that would mean less votes for commercial games.

haha, simulcra, isnt ure game the only game with video sequences? haha. that means my vote goes for u in that regard. 

[jetxl]

I quite like that idea, Jet, but I would keep the best sound -category as it was before. Sounds effects are a great way to create atmosphere and I think the game with best sound effects should be judged by the way the sound effects are used and how well they work to create atmosphere.

Sound is indeed important to a game, but I don't think it is strong enough to have its own category. Nobody ever says something like "Boy, MI4 was crap, but the sound effects made it worth playing."
Almost all the sound effects used in ags games are ripped from other games or found somewere else. And why not, it is easier, the quality is better and there is a lot of choice (my personal sound collection for opening a door has the normal door, wooden door, squeeking door, iron door and church door).
I don't think you should get an AGS award for just finding the right sound effect, unless you made them yourself by creating the sound of footsteps by recording your fists punching the litter box, gunshots by hitting your ruler on the desk and the sound of an alien eating human flesh by ripping a lettuce apart. Untill most ags games use home made sound effects, it can go into the Best Music category.

I want the AGS awards to be seen as a real achievement. A way to define a quality ags game.
No more wonky categories like Most Pimped Game.

-edit- Simulacra, speech and video sequences are just not used in enough games to have their own categories.
Less is more.