Underground Awards

[titlesml]Best Graphics[/titlesml]

Out of Order

We accept, when we’re playing underground adventures, that the graphics are never going to be comparable to those of the newest commercial games. Most amateur developers are writers and story creators first and foremost. After all, if they had that kind of graphical skill, they’d probably be putting it to use on a project that would pay!

Which makes it all the more special when a game comes along that really looks exceptional. Last year King’s Quest II VGA was that game, and this year the mantle of Best Graphics goes to Hungry Software Out of Order. Tim Furnish’s epic sci-fi/humor adventure is filled with vibrant and lively environments, detailed characters and backgrounds, and great use of colors and shading. Even though we don’t demand graphical excellence, it’s great to see a game that both looks and plays great, and Out of Order was that game in 2003.

Dave:

One only needs to glance at the beautiful, colorful, eye-popping backgrounds and characters to see why Out of Order is the clear winner. Hungry Software spent a lot of time, love and devotion into creating their world, and it shows. But one shouldn’t discount the other entries merely because they didn’t win. The Phantom Inheritance, a venture into the “Reality on the Norm” universe, is a highly-polished work of loveliness in its own right. One could easily discount TPI’s graphics as being “pretty good for a RON game,” but that would be doing it a major injustice. Gabriel Fortuna recreated the entire RON-iverse from the ground up, transforming the familiar blocky, low-res town into a gorgeous, hi-res wonderland that just oozes quality. In a series often criticized for the laziness of its artwork, this is a mammoth feat. Well worth experiencing, even if you’re not a fan of the RON series.

AGA:

Out of Order is very deserving of its Best Graphics award, with clear, good-looking backgrounds and characters, lots of animations, and an overall air of professionalism that is hard to beat. The only other game that came close to me was Apprentice, which could quite possibly have won were it not such a short game, with so few locations and characters to see.

[titlesml]Best Sound/Music[/titlesml]

Apprentice

Apprentice, by Herculean Effort Productions, impressed all of us in many different areas when it was released this year. With clever puzzles, colorful and vibrant graphics, and well-written dialogue, it was one of the best surprises of the year. But the area of the game that we were most impressed by was the excellent music. Greg “Gregor Samsa” Schlaepfer of the Herculean Effort team composed the music, and it is a marvelous soundtrack.

The tunes have a bit of a catchy medieval theme to them, harkening back to games like Conquests of the Longbow or the Interplay strategy game Castles II. They are complex compositions, impressive to any who fancy themselves musicians, but at the same time they are pleasant and provide a wonderful backdrop for the light-hearted adventure. Apprentice also boasts good sound effects, and is without a doubt the winner for Best Sound & Music.

Dave:

After finishing Apprentice, I had the tunes stuck in my head for hours. This is a rarity in adventure games, and almost unheard of in underground games. Any composer capable of such a feat deserves to be rewarded, and thus the award for Best Music is given. A special mention, however, must go to Keptosh: The Search for Junc, whose short 3-5 second sound loops manage to delightfully warp even the most jaded of minds.

AGA:

While I’m definitely of the ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like’ school of thinking regarding music, I definitely did like Apprentice‘s music. There may not be much of it (there are only two tracks in the game), but it’s very fitting to the style of the game, and never becomes annoying, despite being repeated frequently. Another game with great use of sound was The Uncertainty Machine, which had very good sound effects, with sounds for things like doors opening and cars passing in the background. In the end though, music is probably more important than sound (you have to listen to music constantly throughout the game, after all), so Apprentice is my choice.