The review of 2008 continues…

June

Big news! After 210 votes the 35 finalists were wittled down; the NWN2 Golden Dragon winners were announced! Highlights were a double win for Zach Holbrook and Adam Miller, whilst Alex Hugon completed his NWN 1/2 pair. Grinning Fool scooped the Community Contribution award, and Sorceress Ashura clinched the Custom Content award with a wonderful VFX pack.

July

We returned for our second public IRC chat, with community questions for the nominees of the NWN1 awards, including such weighty matters as how to model for ninjaweaselman’s animations. The chat generated a long free for all, including some attempts to get a winner modding group together…

Finally I manage to track down Fester Pot for our final 2006 Golden Dragon winner interview. He was late to the party, but forgiven, since he scooped two of the NWN1 2006 awards: Best Adventure and Debut Author. In 2008, his second module Shadewood also came out. The interview with Fester Pot was the 9th for the NWN1 Golden Dragon winners of 2006.

Even bigger news was the release of the NWN1 2007 Golden Dragon Winners!. After 258 votes, the 34 finalists had been culled to the final 11. The clutch of winners featured a second dragon for savant, a pair for the Citadel team, and second time lucky for Andarian and WoRm. On top axe_murderer took the coveted Community Contribution award, and Lance Botelle scooped the Debut Author award.

More to come…

In response to a question as to whether authors should be able to permanently withdraw their work from consideration, we recently polled the members. As a result of the poll, we have added the ability for authors to exclude themselves from consideration. The deadline for doing so is the end of February for the 2008 awards. Authors who wish to withdraw should message a current member and await confirmation, or post on the Golden Dragon Disucssion forums.

In probably the longest and closest debate that we have yet had in the Academy, we finally came to a conclusion on the Custom Content Awards for 2008.

For NWN1: the awards will stay as per previous years, namely, a Best Tileset Award, and a Best Custom Content Award.

For NWN2: All 3D content such as tilesets, placeables and creatures, are now encompassed in the new Best 3D Content Award. All other custom content remains in the Best Custom Content Award.

Happy New Year!

Every year we take a look at the awards that we are giving out to make sure they are up to date, and relevant to players and builders to help them find the very best. This year is no exception, and we already have some changes for this year’s cycle, and some more to come.

Best Adventure Module has been renamed Best Dramatic Module. It’s basically the same award, but the name better captures the intent of the award.

There will be no Best PnP conversion award this year.

As with last year, Best Sound/Music will be judged across both NWN1 and NWN2 together.

Further news to come: We are still debating what to do with the Best Tileset award for NWN2, the Best Multiplayer Module awards and the Best [insert language] Module Award. For both the Multiplayer award and the International module awards, it is a question of staffing, so if you are interested in making sure there is a Best Multiplayer award or a Best Fench or Spanish Module award (for example), please step forward to help out!

Well, apparently we have all had a break, but before you know it, it is that time of the year again: the Golden Dragon award cycle is beginning!

Once again, we make the normal call to all authors to ensure they have their work published on the Vault by the end of December if they wish to be considered. If you have work already on the Vault, but believe it is unfinished and should not be considered, you must notify AME by the end of January.

This year we welcome some new members to the AME team, and say farewell to some old ones who have moved on to other things. So it’s goodbye for now, and a big thank you to sixesthrice and Carlo One, who will definitely be missed for their incredible dedication and valuable inputs. On the other hand we welcome for this cycle ActorofVeil, Hellfire, liso, Dragonstar and Eat2surf (and maybe a couple more TBC). We look forward to working with you!

So if you can’t wait for the cycle to begin, why not catch up on the words of some of last year’s winners. Here are links to the last few interviews:

savant - Best Action (NWN1)
Robinson Workshop - Best Tileset (NWN2)
Andarian - Best Roleplaying Module (NWN1)
Marc Price - Veteran Author (NWN1)
Grinning Fool - Community Contribution (NWN2)
Zach Holbrook - Debut Author (NWN2)

…for those of you who celebrate it!

We’re looking forward to seeing you in the New Year as the new award cycle gets under way!

Good news! We have another great interview with savant, winner of the Best Action Module award for NWN1. It’s not the first time savant has picked up a Golden Dragon - we ask him how it feels, whether that’s it for the Aielund Saga, and what’s next…

Read on…

As we start to gear up for the 2008 awards, we are revisiting some of our structures and awards. As part of our efforts to ensure we support both games equally well, it gives me great pleasure to announce two team leaders, one for each game.

For Neverwinternights 1: Tybae
For Neverwinternights 2: Sirchet

Both Tybae and Sirchet have been dedicated members of the AME team for some time, and this recognises their passion and leaderhsip.

At the same time we are also recruiting for the new season. Are you interested?

Today we have an interview with Andarian, winner of the Best Roleplaying Golden Dragon award for NWN1 with Sanctum of the Archmage 2: The Miracle Worker - Act I. Andarian was pipped to the post in the previous year – we find out how it feels to grab the award this time around, and whether knowing what goes on behind the scenes makes it sweeter… or not.

Check it out!