AME Golden Dragon Award Finalist Announcements

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               The Academy for Modding Excellence is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 Community Contribution Award for Neverwinter Nights!

• The Neverwinter Nights Podcast -- The only podcast devoted to the Neverwinter Nights roleplaying games, it does absolutely invaluable work in creating a sense of a community that is still thriving, still producing things, and still worth getting excited about.
• NWNCQ by Chico400 -- This amazing piece of work completely revamps most of the default Bioware tilesets. An essentially "drop-in" update, it allows modders to quickly, easily, and radically update and improve the look of areas built using them the default game resources.
• The Custom Content Challenge -- This outstanding contribution has breathed new life into the NWN community, inspiring and encouraging both CC veterans and beginners alike to produce custom content on a regular, nearly monthly basis for themed compilations of brand new, high quality work.

Congratulations to all of the finalists! The finals review for this category should be complete and the winners announced at the end of September.

The Academy for Modding Excellence is actively recruiting for new members to help us in our mission to give recognition to the content creators who keep this great community alive. Thanks to those of you who have already answered our Call for Volunteers, four of our NWN1 2010 Awards categories have now been able to enter the finals: Community Contribution, Veteran Author (Modules), Veteran Author (Custom Content), and Best Tileset. In the coming days and weeks we'll be posting the rest of the finalists for those awards, new categories as they are identified, and, of course, the winners.

We do, however, need just a little more help. In particular, we could really use a few more active players of NWN1 modules to reach the "critical mass" of voters and nominators required to get those awards fully back on track again. So if you are an avid NWN1 player, modder or reviewer, and think you might be interested in helping with the AME's mission, then please feel free to contact me (andarian at ame-gda dot net) about joining or learning more about the AME panel.

Andarian
Chairman, the Academy for Modding Excellence (AME)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par AndarianTD, 03 août 2011 - 11:35 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_olivier leroux]

               The Academy for Modding Excellence is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 Veteran Author (Modules) Award for Neverwinter Nights!

• Baldecaran -- Author of the highly acclaimed Hall of Fame modules "The Cave of Songs" and "Honor Among Thieves", he's been providing the community with quality modules since 2003. His chef-d'oeuvre, the continueing "Prophet" series, features one of the most clever and intriguing plots ever seen in a NWN module, the equivalent of a perfect page-turner.
• Fabien Cerutti -- His genuinely original and extensive series about "The Bastard of Kosigan" (translated from French by Ginni Swanton) steeps in a real knowledge of and appreciation for European history, with lots of complex ideas, roleplaying opportunities and witty dialogue. He's seriously committed to the series and his enthusiasm and dedication shine through in all of his work.
• Andarian -- "Sanctum of the Archmage" is not "only" an ambitious story within a rich setting that's heavy on character interaction and believable romance - another of its prominent features is the ongoing support and high level of polish. Although further installments of the series are still in the works, Andarian constantly upgraded and also completely overhauled the available chapters over the years with the inclusion of some of the community's best custom content available.

Congratulations to all of the finalists! The finals review for this category should be complete and the winners announced at the end of September.

The choice isn't easy, of course, as all candidates deserve to win the award - and every vote counts. So if you're familiar with these module authors and have an opinion who should be the Veteran Author of 2010, you can help us give them their due by joining the AME now!

Olivier Leroux,
Team Leader NWN, the Academy for Modding Excellence (AME)
               
               

               

                     Modifié par olivier leroux, 05 août 2011 - 04:00 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_NWVaultQSW]

               The Academy for Modding Excellence is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 Veteran Author CC Award for Neverwinter Nights!

• Lord of Worms is widely recognized in the NWN community as one of the finest CC builders in its long and illustrious history. He's a three time GDA finalist for:Undersea Tiles in 2006Seasonal Forest in 2007,
  
  
  
  LOW's Creature Pack in 2008, and winner of the NWN 2007 Best Tileset GDA for his legendary Seasonal Forest tileset.
  
  
• Six_Six_Six –Gavin"Sixes Thrice" Jones is in the forefront of excellence of tileset building in NWN. He works tirelessly and diligently to produce the finest work in NWN and is the author of:
  
  
  
  Wildwoods, Wildlands & Wildlands Winter
  
  
  
  Undead Redux 2
  
  
  
  Colossal Arena / Spectral Woods / Rural Interior
  
  
  
  Dwarven Chasms / Catecombs / Dwarven Lands / Deep Dungeon /Undercity Sewers
  
  
  
  
• Helvene –Helvene has shared her work with the NWN community since 2006 - a lot of it tileset-related (original, reskins, merges and fixes) but also placeables (very nice texture work0. Her 2006 reskins of (and additions to) BioWare's Castle Interior tileset, namely White Marble Castle and Arcanum Castle. Her Maze(2006) is a limited set with few tiles but it's the best looking maze we've seen so far, with beautiful mosaic textured walls, and she also offers a version with a mini map of empty squares that prevents the players from cheating their way out.
  
  
  
  Among other things, she is the author of the famous Wood Elven Interiors tileset (2006/07) that's also part of CEP 2 now and you might have come across the Suspended City (2008/09) tileset, too.

Congratulations to all of our finalists! The finals review for this category should be complete and the winners announced at the end of September.

The Academy for Modding Excellence is actively recruiting for new members to help us in our mission to give recognition to the content creators who keep this great community alive. Thanks to those of you who have already answered our Call for Volunteers,four of our NWN1 2010 Awards categories have now been able to enter the finals: Community Contribution, Veteran Author (Modules), Veteran Author (Custom Content), and Best Tileset. In the coming days and weeks we'll be posting the rest of the finalists for those awards, new categories as they are identified, and, of course, the winners.

We do, however, need just a little more help. In particular, we could really use a few more active players of NWN1 modules to reach the "critical mass" of voters and nominators required to get those awards fully back on track again. So if you are an avid NWN1 player, modder or reviewer, and think you might be interested in helping
with the AME's mission, then please feel free to contact (andarian at ame-gda dot net) about joining or learning more about the AME panel. '>


QSW (Queenilverwing) AME Member.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par NWVaultQSW, 15 août 2011 - 08:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               Wow -- tough crowd. '>  No one has any thoughts or feedback? Suggestions for new nominees or thoughts on new categories, perhaps?

We've stried to come up with some new one-time "Special Recognition" categories that open up the field of nominations to works published in previous as well as recent years. After our finalists for Best Tileset are posted (coming soon), We'll share some of those categories with you. In the meantime we'd be interested in hearing suggestions for such categories from the rest of the community. What would YOU like to see as a new "Special Recognition" category for NWN1?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par AndarianTD, 23 août 2011 - 12:05 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Eradrain]

               

Suggestions for new nominees

I have no idea whether he's been recognized before or not, but Ben Harrison's contribution to the community, both in terms of content output and just general helpfulness that ended up giving rise to a huge batch of custom content authors, deserves nothing short of the finest honors.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Amethyst Dragon]

               

AndarianTD wrote...

Wow -- tough crowd. '>  No one has any thoughts or feedback? Suggestions for new nominees or thoughts on new categories, perhaps?

I didn't know you were looking for thoughts and feedback.  I thought this was more like an announcement thread.

Anyway, congrats to the nominees.  Theres a ton of great work these folks have done over the years, well worth getting into.  Lots of talent at work there.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               What Amethyst Dragon said.

BTW, can we expect a podcast or IRC chat with these folks?  I'd love to hear/read what they have to say and their experiences.  Those kinds of things always get me jazzed to do more CC work and can also inspire people to getting into CC.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par OldTimeRadio, 23 août 2011 - 07:38 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               OldTimeRadio, have you checked out the Neverwinter Nights Podcast? Of the nominees mentioned here they have interviewed Six, Lord of Worms, Baldecaran, Andarian and members of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast team.
They also interviewed a couple of people who won a Golden Dragon over the past years.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Yep...I just want more, heh heh!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               

Eradrain wrote...

Suggestions for new nominees

I have no idea whether he's been recognized before or not, but Ben Harrison's contribution to the community, both in terms of content output and just general helpfulness that ended up giving rise to a huge batch of custom content authors, deserves nothing short of the finest honors.

Thanks for the suggestion! I agree. Ben has in fact been recognized by the AME, having won the Best Custom Content award last year (see here). If you have any of his 2010 contributions in mind that you think are particularly deserving of recognition, please feel free to opine -- as I said, we'd welcome the feedback. '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               

Zwerkules wrote...

OldTimeRadio, have you checked out the Neverwinter Nights Podcast? Of the nominees mentioned here they have interviewed Six, Lord of Worms, Baldecaran, Andarian and members of the Neverwinter Nights Podcast team.
They also interviewed a couple of people who won a Golden Dragon over the past years.

We'd definitely like to try to arrange something, although it's rough right now for us to find the time since we're still trying to staff up and work on awards. If and when we can get a few more members (including a couple more with a CC focus in particular -- we're a bit short on those right now), that'll help us free up time for more such community outreach activities.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Eradrain]

               

AndarianTD wrote...

Eradrain wrote...

Suggestions for new nominees

I have no idea whether he's been recognized before or not, but Ben Harrison's contribution to the community, both in terms of content output and just general helpfulness that ended up giving rise to a huge batch of custom content authors, deserves nothing short of the finest honors.

Thanks for the suggestion! I agree. Ben has in fact been recognized by the AME, having won the Best Custom Content award last year (see here). If you have any of his 2010 contributions in mind that you think are particularly deserving of recognition, please feel free to opine -- as I said, we'd welcome the feedback. '>

I was thinking more of a "Lifetime Achievement Award", so to speak.  If the category doesn't exist, you could even create it and name it the "Ben Harrison Award for Excellence in Modding" or something!

The reason for this is that when I think of Ben, what stands out to me is no particular piece of content, but rather his incredible courtesy, helpfulness and generosity.  I think his influence on the community is most felt in the people he helped, notwithstanding the excellent content he contributed.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_TheSpiritedLass]

               If y'all do come up with a Lifetime Achievement Award, may I also recommend Lisa (aka Goddess of Clothing)?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_AndarianTD]

               

Eradrain wrote...

I was thinking more of a "Lifetime Achievement Award", so to speak.  If the category doesn't exist, you could even create it and name it the "Ben Harrison Award for Excellence in Modding" or something!

The reason for this is that when I think of Ben, what stands out to me is no particular piece of content, but rather his incredible courtesy, helpfulness and generosity.  I think his influence on the community is most felt in the people he helped, notwithstanding the excellent content he contributed.

Agreed, again. Although he didn't win, Ben was also a finalist last year (see here) for the Community Contribution Award, in recognition of precisely the virtues you just mentioned. Our Community Contribution and Veteran Author awards differ a little from the others in that we allow them to reach back into prior years -- so if you see someone nominated for one of these, it's likely in appreciation not only of what they've done recently, but historically as well.

The "Special Recognition Awards" that I mentioned earlier are in fact our first attempts at broadening our portfolio to include more historical awards of the kind you mentioned. We actually had some discussion over whether to call them "Special Recognition" or "Lifetime Achievement" Awards, and settled finally on the former. The first few categories (which I'll announce shortly '>) are all module awards, but we'll soon want to add some Special Recognition CC awards as well.

TheSpiritedLass wrote...

If y'all do come up with a Lifetime Achievement Award, may I also recommend Lisa (aka Goddess of Clothing)?

You may indeed. That's an excellent suggestion -- thanks!
               
               

               

                     Modifié par AndarianTD, 24 août 2011 - 03:35 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Quillmaster]

               The Academy for Modding Excellence is pleased to announce the finalists for the 2010 Best Tileset Award for Neverwinter Nights!

Wild Woods by Sixesthrice -- This is a truly extraordinary NWN tileset, both in terms of visual quality and creative use of effects. Wild Woods is gorgeous, effective, and has an efficient design that doesn't try to be everything -- allowing for greater depth to the design as a result.

Senemenelas' Underdark Tileset -- This tileset package brings Terror back to BioWare's tamed Underdark, along with both claustrophobia and agoraphobia. Vast halls and caverns or deep dungeons, large or narrow staircases, well of souls and irradiating mushrooms - Senemenelas' tileset finally offers us a convincing impression of what the Underdark really must feel like.

Roman City Tileset by Zwerkules -- Part of the November 2010 Custom Content Challenge, this tileset looks good and has a number of original features in it. Zwerkules tilesets excel not just in how they look, though, but how well they play. Form and Function are well linked in his work.

Congratulations to all of the finalists! The finals review for this category should be complete and the winners announced at the end of October.

The Academy for Modding Excellence is actively recruiting for new members to help us in our mission to give recognition to the content creators who keep this great community alive. Thanks to those of you who have already answered our Call for Volunteers, four of our NWN1 2010 Awards categories have now been able to enter the finals: Community Contribution, Veteran Author (Modules), Veteran Author (Custom Content), and Best Tileset. In the coming days and weeks we'll be posting new categories as they are identified, and, of course, the winners.

We do, however, need just a little more help. In particular, we could really use a few more active members to reach the "critical mass" of voters and nominators required to get our awards fully back on track again. So if you are an avid NWN1 player, modder or reviewer, and think you might be interested in helping with the AME's mission, then please feel free to contact Andarian (andarian at ame-gda dot net) about joining or learning more about the AME panel.

Quillmaster
Member, The Academy for Modding Excellence (AME)