Beauty & Hope in the 21th Century

Nikolas Sideris, who I remember as one of the first "original musicians" I met at the forums, has been asking for comments, help and critique on logo illustrations recently... And we may have thought he'd sit there somewhere, brewing up a small project maybe.

But, no. Now finally he has revealed what he's been up to right here. He's running a Kickstarter for a project called Beauty & Hope in the 21th Century, and I won't spoil his surprise here. You'd really check it out for yourself.

This is the Kickstarter video.

It's a beautiful concept. And it really MUST happen.

Vince sweeps the floor

No, he hasn't given up game making to become the AGS janitor, but instead he has won everything at the AGS Awards, including host bicilotti's hand in marriage (this may be made up)! Resonance swept pretty much every category it was in for, except best player character. You can see the full IRC Award log here. A few people got dressed up for the Awards too with special forum avatars.

Grundislav managed to grab both player and NPC awards, Ben304 got the short game gong and Lifetime Achievement, CaptainD won best demo (and thinks it means doom for his game), Ghost got best non-adventure, and JJS won the Innovation award for his awesome platform porting abilities. And of course, Resonance was helped by its awesome team including Nikolas Sideris, Shane Stevens, Dave and Janet and many others.

NB Winning 12 awards in one ceremony is a new record: well done Mr W!

Where have all the blog posts gone..

Well, yeah, this is more of a "please stick around" kind of post. Everyone's a bit busy around here, I've seen SSH run in marathons, and I'm trying to get a paper done. We're almost very much there, Ponch. In the meantime I've been trying to focus on the amazing Pixel Hunt, a band consisted entirely out of AGS members.

http://www.last.fm/music/Pixel+Hunt

I believe we also have a myspace lying around, but f#$^ myspace. On more news about AGS, Resonance is out, blowing everyone's mind. I hope the sales are reflecting that. So, Resonance, ladies and gentlemen.

Story:
A particle physicist's mysterious and spectacular death sparks a race to find his hidden vault and claim his terrifying new discovery. The player will take control of four characters whose lives become entangled in the search for the scientist's vault. They will have to learn to trust each other and work together to overcome the obstacles in their way and to keep this new and powerful technology out of the hands of a dangerous organization.

Screenshot goodness right below:

                 

Features:

• Four playable swappable characters
• A twisting, riveting storyline
• Full voice acting featuring Logan Cunningham (Bastion)
• Unique long-term and short-term memory systems
• Cheat death by rewinding time
• A unique and intuitive interface

Team members:

• Dave Gilbert - Voice Acting directing
• Janet Gilbert - Programming
• Nauris Krause - Backgrounds
• Nikolas Sideris - Music and Sound
• Shane Stevens - Characters and animation
• Vince Twelve - Design, programming, story

 

This blog is admittedly very Dave Gilbert-friendly. Have a wonderful day, reader, and we'll talk more.

Resonance Preview: Mind=Blown

Alright, I'm going to start right ahead on the important statements that need to be said. As a person I get overexcited over anything. That usually raises my expectations exponentially. Usually they are never met. Resonance is the exception to that rule. A game fueled till about a year with the sheer determination of its members, is now under the hands of Dave Gilbert.

I've personally played the demo handed to me via e-mail, so you're in luck. I can't tell if the game is fantastic or great or awesome, even though I probably should. But it has all the potentials to surpass the huge legacy Gemini Rue created, and put AGS and of course its team, in the mouths of simply everyone.

Graphically wise the game looks astonishing. The animation is very fluent and the character sprites are drawn by Shane Stevens in a way that they blend almost perfectly with the background art. As for the backgrounds themselves, they are undoubtedly amazing. A terrible amount of detail has been put into them, and they all glow a majestic feel, with their vibrant colors and shapes. The sound and music are composed by a fellow greek, Nikolas Sideris. The melodies have a bladerunneresque feel to them and fit every scene better than perhaps they were designed to be.

The story, that I'd prefer not to bother with any detail or at all for spoilers sake, and the dialogs have been co-written by the whole team, mostly by Vince Twelve, and are my favorite aspect about this game.

Every line feels natural and well delivered by the voice acting. After playing for about 30 minutes, I realized I haven't skipped a single dialog, which is totally unlike me. The game offers many choices that made me feel, as if I was living the story/character.

You have to be a fool to overlook Resonance. And a complete and total one at that.

Resonanced!

Screenshots goodness follows:

Video goodness follows (STILL NOT THRILLED?):

Resonance has been, what now, 5 years in production by the amazing and fantastic Vince XII. It's a game consisted of a story between four playable characters and an interface that's innovating and challenging. The team behind the game is fantastic and now that Wadjet Eye Games have picked the game up, we may finally get to be amazed beyond amazement.

Preorder & Support Resonance

BAFTA

Kind of old news, but well, busy bee. Nikolas Sideris has won a BAFTA award for his musical score, for PRIVATES a game created by two people familiar with AGS, Lemmy and Binky.

So congrats! !

Nikolas commented and I quote:

I would never have guessed a PW thread would end up in here... but I should have mentioned it here! After all all four of us are from AGS somehow... Lemmy (Chris), Binky (andy), Dan and Nikolas are all AGS members...

Thank you all!

And yes, we've been hired to do the next Nancy Drew game (Actually Thomas is in lead of that, while I'm keeping myself busy with Resonance and JOI (though I need to commit a tiny bit more to the latter.)...

I do hope to be in GDC this year, along with Dave, Thomas and Vince XII among other people and perhaps score some more games! ^_^