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It's not very likely but I can imagine a scenario where a demo was good enough to win a bunch of other non-demo awards, like best animation, BG art, best story etc. only to then win all the same awards in the same categories for basically the same content the following year.

Then this game shouldn't be allowed either - it is the same game but with improvements for writing, graphics, voice acting etc.

Short games, non-adventure and freeware games are all allowed for Best Game and the art categories.
I find it difficult to set limitations here. If you don't want to nominate a game, then simply don't do it.

Since the game isn't released yet, I believe you're only eligible for best demo... but maybe I'm wrong?

No, it is eligible for the other awards as well. The The Journey of Iesir Demo was nominated for several awards last year, but only won best demo.

Only one more week! Don't forget to nominate

I'm looking forward to play all the historical space station dramas

This results in me keeping copious amounts of backups - could we have this with the undo list applying to the room editor, and not just the text script editor? And any other no-turning-back parts of the Editor?

I agree that undo would come in handy, but until then, please use a proper source control (e.g. Git). That way you don't need so many backups because you can undo stuff yourself.

OK, I noticed my midi wasn't working either anymore...
Somehow I couldn't get BASS Midi driver to work again correctly, so uninstalled that and went for VirtualMIDISynth.
So, after loading the soundfont (Arachno) in the VirtualMIDISynth's tab Soundfonts, MIDI was working again.
Also: MIDI runs fine again for AGS games.

I tried that, didn't work either.

HOWEVER, Windows installed a big update today and now the native Windows MIDI is working again

Seriously, though, I remember it had a lot of rough edges and I had concerns about usability

I was wondering, maybe a GUI like the Photoshop layer management would be better? "Object" or "Hotspots" etc. could act like folders.

A few people have already nominated!

However, one of the commercial adventure games got some votes for "Best Freeware Game", "Best Short Game" and "Best Non-Adventure Game". While I appreciate the enthusiasm regarding nomination, please only nominate games for the categories that apply

Just for your info: it is not necessary to nominate 10 games in each category. If you only want to nominate for example 3 games for best voice acting, that's okay as well

Question from a YouTuber I chatted to earlier - is it okay for him to stream / record the awards ceremony?  Any objections / any rules about doing this?  Can't remember if the question has come up before.

I don't see any objections. Last year's ceremony was recorded and uploaded by Gurok, and so were the previous years recorded by someone. I might also pastebin the chatlog this year. It would be best if he contacted Snarky before the event, because he is the one responsible for the client.

I wanted to ask if I can nominate my own game. Is it allowed?

Yes, it is allowed, if you think your game did well in that category. Please don't nominate your (or actually any game) in every category right away but for the categories where you think it is really good at.

[Nominations are open!]

Nominations are open!

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

There are a few innovations this year (thanks AGA!):

• Your nominations can be edited, no need to redo it all
• When you select a game, a screenshot and link to the database will appear
• When there is a draw, the time of the nominations will count (first nominated one wins).

Nominations will close on 10/02/2018 at 13:59.

Happy Birthday, Francisco!

[What is good in AGS:]

What is good in AGS:

• The community
  This is the friendliest forum on the internet I know and I have met lovely people here, online and also IRL. But related to game development, this is also important:
  
  
  
  • Tech support
    The technical boards are very active. Most stuff I can find already answered in old threads; but when a new question arises, it is immediately answered. Even n00bs are treated nicely when they ask the most basic questions and are met with astonishing patience.
  • Free modules
    There is a vast amount of freely available modules, plugins and templates. Many games use at least some of them.
  • Game promotion
    With the games database and the completed games announcement and the game in production boards, there is a place to promote one's games.
    Because of MAGS there is a constant output of newly created games.
• Ease of use
  AGS provides tailored features for creating adventure games. It handles characters, inventory, GUIs, rooms, animation, pathfinding, translations etc. In the room editor, you have a great GUI for walkable areas, walk-behinds, regions, placing objects and whatnot. It also supports other generic features like sound and video. Not much scripting knowledge is required to make a basic game...
  
• Scripting
  ...but it can be done, if needed. There is a huge bunch of non-adventure games of any genre that showcase AGS's capabilities in this regard. Sure, the scripting language is limited compared to other languages, but I always managed to code what I wanted to do (even if it was done in a clumsy way due to language limitations).
  Also the rawdraw functions a great addition for advanced coding.
  

What is not so good in AGS:

• Binary files
  The room files are binary and even without opening the room editor, whenever I compile the game, git shows the files as modified. It is not possible to merge or undo changes here. Also the hooks for events (e.g. lookat) are stored somewhere there and are missed when renaming a function.
  The same applies for the sprite file. I keep it in source control because the goal is being able to build the game from any given commit. However, the whole file is updated when a single sprite changes. When I update a file on the disk I have to go to the sprite editor as well and reload it there. This is also a hindrance for teamwork, as it is not possible to merge.
  
• Save games
  Save games easily break with newer game versions. There is no hook (e.g. onGameRestored) for fixing inconsistencies between versions in code to avoid crashes on load.
  
• Platform support
  There is some support but it does not work out of the box and versions for other platforms are lagging behind (e.g. Android)

[Game makers]

Nominations will start soon!

Game makers: Make sure you add your game to the For Your Consideration thread. You should add it before nominations start!

Players: Play the eligible games! A good starting point is the For Your Consideration thread or the AGS Database.

If there is only a limited number of 12 games, more people are likely to play them all and then vote. It feels like a more doable task.

Happy Birthday, Dualnames!

Well done, Creamy!

Thanks for the Let's Play, selmiak! As already noted, this is based on an older version. The released version has nicer graphics and an option to adjust difficulty when drawing.

Happy Birthday, Mark!

Boston sounds awesome, but with a baby, we will not be able to come. I don't think Mittens is for kids and I'd have been pretty pissed had people brought their kids to the Mittens I attended.
However, I was thinking about organising a Mittens with kids (Kiddens ) next year in Europe.

It's a bit weird for me to set my own game, but since it was suggested by three people and there was no other game mentioned, I've put it up as PotM. Thanks Ibispi!