Article by Alyx Jones
Edited by Sam Hughes
Alyx Jones recounts her epic night at the BAFTA Games Awards last week speaking with nominees and winners at Troxy on the 12th April 2018! Check out the full playlist below:
The venue of Troxy played this year’s host to the BAFTA Games Awards, with nominees, presenters and some lucky members of the public, all in black tie, arriving to celebrate the best video games of the last year.
First up for the audio awards was the category of Best Music. Rob Beckett and Professor Green presented and announced Cuphead as the winner of the category. Kris Maddigan, composer and percussionist is responsible for the BAFTA winning score behind Cuphead. With an incredible big band score, fitting the whole style that is reminiscent of the 1930’s style cartoons, it’s a wonderful achievement that shows any kind of score can win the music award!
Next up was Audio Achievement, with nominations including a selection of huge titles; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Call of Duty, Destiny, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Horizon Zero Dawn and Star Wars Battlefront. It was Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice that picked up the award on the night, accepted by David Garcia, the Lead Audio Designer at Ninja Theory. Hellblade: SS features the incredible use of binaural recordings and the game mechanic of tracking sounds to locate the bosses, for example Valravn.
Finally for Best Performer, there were some really incredible stand out nominations such as Abubakar Salim for his role as Bayek in Assassins Creed: Origins, and Valerie Rose Lohmanm, a newcomer to the games industry with her role as Edith Finch in What Remains of Edith Finch. It was ultimately Melina Juergens who emotionally accepted the award for her performance as Senua, in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice! Melina started out at Ninja Theory as a video editor, many members of the team pitched in with their DIY approach. Melina started testing out the mocap suit, and everyone decided that she remain in the role as Senua. It’s particularly incredible that she is now a BAFTA winning performer, who has still kept her role as video editor at Ninja Theory. It just goes to show what is possible to achieve for many who struggle with mental health issues and anxiety.
Congratulations to all of this years winners, what a year for audio, and what a year for Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, with 2 of the 3 audio awards and 5 BAFTA awards in total for Ninja Theory with their new titles tackling psychosis.
Applications are also open for BAFTA Games Crew for 2018.
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