AGS Awards 2019 - Awards are over, see you next year!

Started by cat, Mon 06/01/2020 20:16:59

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cat



Welcome to the AGS Awards, the event where you, the player, choose the best games of the year!



Step # 0 - play them games!
You have some time to play games made in 2019. Do it!
Step # 1 - nomination time!
Select games you deem worthy in each category!
Step # 2 - vote, folks!
Pick from the nominees and we get a winner!

Step # 3 - party!
Big party to celebrate the winners!

The awards are over. Congratulations to the winners and all nominees!

You can watch the video of the ceremony (thanks Cino!)
on twitch
on youtube

The written chat log is from this post onwards:
https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=57686.msg636618465#msg636618465

The winners are:

Best Game Created with AGS
Whispers of a Machine


Best Freeware Game Created with AGS
Metaphobia


Best Writing
Whispers of a Machine


Best Character
"Molly" from Feria d'Arles


Best Gameplay
Whispers of a Machine


Best Background Art
Whispers of a Machine


Best Character Art
Feria d'Arles


Best Animation
Metaphobia


Best Music & Sound
Whispers of a Machine


Best Voice Work
Whispers of a Machine


Best Demo
Theropods


Best Non Adventure Game Created with AGS
Tales of Jayvin


Best Short Game
Tea For Two: A Detective Logan Case


Best Programming
Whispers of a Machine


Best Puzzles
Whispers of a Machine



MAGGIES
A Christmas Nightmare by Alan v.Drake (with Thrymly Disguised and Escape Literature as runner-ups)



Best Innovation Award
densming - For his many video tutorials, that taught a lot of people how to make games in AGS.

Lifetime Achievement Award
CaptainD - For creating many fun games and helping other developers make their own.



The ceremony was held on 4.4.2020 at 18:00 forum time
Spoiler

The ceremony will be held on 4.4.2020 at 18:00 forum time


AGS Awards Ceremony Client Download v5.0.40

Windows (.zip) – 253 MB [mirror]
MacOS (.zip) – 261 MB [mirror]
Linux (.tar.gz) – 261 MB [mirror]

Spoiler
Note on Mac client:
Because the Mac build was made without an Apple developer license, you may get a security alert when you try to run it, and it may refuse to run. In order to get around this, instead of double-clicking the file, right-click (Ctrl-click) and choose "Open" from the menu.

Note on Linux client:
The client is built with AGS 3.4.3, which has a dependency on libpng12.so.0. See the GitHub issue tracker for fix. (Edit: The download has now been repackaged with the library included.)

As before, the Mac and Linux versions do not have clipboard support (copy-paste from outside the app).
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You can also join through text-only IRC, on the server irc.adventuregamestudio.co.uk:6667, channel #awards. If you don't have an IRC client, you can use the web-client Mibbit.

If you can't join the chat at all, there are live-streams of the ceremony:
https://www.twitch.tv/vga256
https://www.twitch.tv/tulevikeu
Thanks vga256 and Cino!

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Here are the nomination results:

Best Game Created with AGS

Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Tales of Jayvin
Whispers of a Machine


Best Freeware Game Created with AGS

Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship
Metaphobia
Tales From The Outer Zone: Fleshworms
Tales of Jayvin
Tea For Two: A Detective Logan Case


Best Writing

Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
Whispers of a Machine


Best Character


"Clotilde Soffritti" from Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship
"Molly" from Feria d'Arles
"Richard Elmstat" from Metaphobia
"Tondbert" from Guard Duty
"Vera Englund" from Whispers of a Machine


Best Gameplay


Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Tales of Jayvin
Whispers of a Machine


Best Background Art

Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship
Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Whispers of a Machine


Best Character Art


Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship
Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Whispers of a Machine


Best Animation

Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Metaphobia
Whispers of a Machine


Best Music & Sound

Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Sumatra: Fate of Yandi
Whispers of a Machine


Best Voice Work

Guard Duty
Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Metaphobia
Tea For Two: A Detective Logan Case
Whispers of a Machine


Best Demo

Another Hero - First Look Demo
Brothers & Wreckers (demo)
Personal Rocket - DEMO
Theropods


Best Non Adventure Game Created with AGS

AGS Awards Ceremony 2018
Hell's Puppy
Mr Bear Teaches English
Tales of Jayvin
Vivarium


Best Short Game

A Christmas Nightmare
Clotilde Soffritti in: Never Buy a Used Spaceship
Tales From The Outer Zone: Fleshworms
Tea For Two: A Detective Logan Case
The World is Weird


Best Programming

Hell's Puppy
Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements
Metaphobia
Tales of Jayvin
Whispers of a Machine


Best Puzzles

Feria d'Arles
Guard Duty
Metaphobia
Tales of Jayvin
Whispers of a Machine


Thanks to everyone who took the time to play the games and nominate!




How do the AGS Awards work?
(This is information mostly for new members, same procedure as every year)

Spoiler
Every year, the AGS community embarks on a quest to find the best games made in the last year. All games are eligible, that were added to the AGS Database in the year 2019. There is a For Your Consideration thread where authors can promote their games and players get a good overview what might be worth playing.

The awards are a two-step process: First there is a nomination phase where all community members can nominate the eligible games in several categories (it will be the same categories as last year). The top five games of each category make it to the voting (as long as they've received at least five nominations). Again, all members of the community can vote on their favourite games.
The final result is then announced in a live ceremony that can be joined either with a special client or any regular irc client.
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Party like it's 1990 in this thread!

cat

Reminder:

Have you already played the games made last year? You can start playing them right away, no need to wait for nominations to start!


Don't forget to add your games to the For your Consideration thread! Do it better now before nominations start!


Everyone is welcome to participate in the Awards!

And if you have any questions: this here is the place to ask  :)

Kastchey

Something to keep in mind for when the nomination phase opens: there is no requirement to have played all games in order to nominate. Sure it would be great if you gave all or most of them a go, but if you only have time to play a few and, say, are really impressed with the music in one of them or the writing in another, it's fine to nominate them in their respective categories! So do not get discouraged if you only have so much time to play, because every single vote counts.

cat

Kastchey is right: You don't have to play all games to nominate. Every vote counts, so start playing!

Nominations will start next week. Developers, don't forget to add your games to the "For your consideration" tread!

KyriakosCH

This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

cat

#5
As you will have probably noticed from the big red banner on top of the page

Nominations have started!

Use the link in the the forum banner to select the games you deem worthy in each category.

Please let us know if you encounter any problems with the nomination page.

Nominations will close at 23:59 GMT on Thursday 20 February 2020.


Remember, you don't have to play all games to nominate. If you have played a game and liked the puzzles, nominate it! Just make sure that you nominate the games you have played in the appropriate categories and not go fanboy all over for a single game.
If you are not sure which games to play and what categories to nominate, check out the For Your Consideration thread.

lorenzo

In the nomination page the category "Best Puzzles" is listed two times.

cat

#7
Oops - thanks for pointing that out!

Edit: Should be fixed now, thanks AGA!

Stupot

In the red banner there's a slight syntax error.

“ please take the time to nomination”

KyriakosCH

So, any estimate on when the voting will begin? (and for how long it will last) I have to travel between two cities for periods of time so it would be good to know.

Though now there is a massive font announcement about nomination lasting a month??? That may be a bit overkill  ;)
This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

Cassiebsg

It's not overkill, it's meant to give you time to play some games and refresh your memory about games you might have played during the year.
And nominating is a huge task, just looking at that huge endless page with lists of games you have barely heard of or remember can be scary. It does make me feel like I want to give up even before I started.  :-\ So being able to go thru the list at your own pace and being able to change your mind later on, makes the task seem more doable.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Stupot

I imagine the voting will begin almost as soon as the nomination phase ends on Feb 20.

cat

Quote from: KyriakosCH on Tue 21/01/2020 09:37:49
Though now there is a massive font announcement about nomination lasting a month??? That may be a bit overkill  ;)

Overkill? Considering that last year we had to extend nomination period because people needed more time, I don't think it's overkill. You also haven't nominated yet, but I hope you will find some time to do so within this long timespan.

KyriakosCH

Quote from: cat on Wed 22/01/2020 18:47:34
Quote from: KyriakosCH on Tue 21/01/2020 09:37:49
Though now there is a massive font announcement about nomination lasting a month??? That may be a bit overkill  ;)

Overkill? Considering that last year we had to extend nomination period because people needed more time, I don't think it's overkill. You also haven't nominated yet, but I hope you will find some time to do so within this long timespan.

Not sure if I nominate, but I did play a couple of awesome games this year, already nominated.
This is the Way - A dark allegory. My Twitter!  My Youtube!

Monsieur OUXX

There's so many options, I feel completely overwhelmed.
 

fernewelten

#15
Quote from: Monsieur OUXX on Fri 24/01/2020 16:05:48
There's so many options, I feel completely overwhelmed.

And you're dead right in this, too:

This year, we have a whooping 78 games to evaluate. If we try to play all of them and only use one hour on average for each and can dedicate on average four hours to the task each day in the evenings after work, then this will take around 20 evenings. And then we'll have to make up our minds about what to nominate in 15 categories. If there are only some games among them where the puzzles are any good, then “twenty evenings plus” will be a very conservative estimate.

Let's face it: This really is objectively overwhelming. We've bitten off much more than we can realistically chew. The more so if we want to do this conscientiously.

Perhaps we've staved off to much work to the end of the year? Perhaps we can learn something from the crowd over at the Maggies awards: They only need to make up their minds aboud 12 adventures. And the reason is that only the monthly winners are in the race.

So for the AGS Awards of next year, I'd like to suggest  something similar as the Maggies crowd does:

Let's do Quarterly Nominations in April, July, October, and January about the games of the preceding quarter. For each category, anybody can nominate any game(s) that has been entered in the Games database in that quarter. Everyone gets one ballot, and on that ballot, they may nominate as many games as they like per category. The nomination votes are counted, and the games with the highest three votes are nominated for the AGS Award of the respective category of the whole year.

So when February rolls around, the nominations are in and the field has been narrowed to just twelve games in each category.  Additionally there's bound to be some overlap, some games are bound to be nominated for several categories -- so in effect, the overall number of the games that we need to vote on will become manageable. We will then do our usual procedures, starting with the phase after the nomination phase and ending with the grand award ceremony.


  • Advantage: The "mountain of work" at the end of the year is decimated.
  • Disadvantage: If at least _four_ hot contenders for some category are released in the same quarter, then some of them will drop through the cracks.
  • Disadvantage: More work throughout the years, might feel like “eternal nomination time“.

What do you think?

Cassiebsg

Or we can just play them as they are released, and take notes for nominations in a text file.   (laugh)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Kastchey

You really don't have to play them all to nominate, and you don't have to wait until you have played all you can to start nominating. The way I do it is I start off nominating the games I have played throughout the year in whatever category I think they excel. Then I start going through the remaining titles and edit my nominee list if I play something I feel is worth nominating. I review my nominee list if I run out of space (I don't think that has ever happened) or if I'm done playing everything. You can treat your nominee list as a WiP and edit as many times as you want. I know it's still not ideal, but easier if done piece by piece.

In case it helps someone, here is a sheet with all the titles from this year and their links to the DB. I was also marking non-adventures, demos and commercial games as I was going through the list (might not be 100% accurate). I have my own non-public copy where I mark what I have already played.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WsHi_Q3EsHHMWjNP8ja19HBlOE_JSPQ0OVZzMVGsqok/edit#gid=0

cat

@fernewelten: I think ideas how to increase participation and making nomination easier are more than welcome. I'm happy to discuss organisation of future awards in a separate thread, to keep things organised. Feel free to create such a thread (or maybe there is already a similar old one with other ideas that you can dig up).

For now, we have the awards as they are. But how to tackle the large amount of games?

Here are a few options:

  • Play the games as soon as they come out and takes notes, as Cassiebsg suggested. This is IMHO the best option.
  • Play the games promoted in the For your consideration thread. Here the games are nicely presented and you can easily choose the ones that appeal to you.
  • Watch let's plays of the games on Youtube. This is also a valid option if you can't or don't want to buy a commercial game.
  • Play only a part of some games. You can probably judge the quality of sprites and background as well as voice acting within the first 10 minutes of playing.
  • Only play games you are interested in. No interest in demos or non-adventure games? Don't play them and focus on other things.
  • Absolutely no time to play games? Just think about the games you have played during last year and only nominate them in appropriate categories.

Remember, nominating does not mean that you have to play all games. Nominating a game for a certain category does not mean you think it is superior to all other games, it just means that the game is very good at a certain aspect.

Cassiebsg

I got inspired by Kastchey's list, and made my own... and learned in the process how to steal import images from the internet to Excel.  :-D
I like visual aids when I'm trying to remember "what was that game again?" while nominating. So hope this list can help somehow. Like Kastchey's list it doesn't include all info, but I tried to get all commercial, demos and non-adventure, MAGS and voice (that I knew off). Was going to add short but only some very few have been marked as short.

If your game is in here and you wish me to add some relevant info to the tables, just say so (please PM) and I'll add it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BIqn7wv8rR4SawrIqxPrHYN5GvsOeA9F44zUeGFEi3Y/edit?usp=sharing
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

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