GANG Awards

Featured, Game Music

The 12th Annual G.A.N.G. Award Winners Have Been Announced

March 26, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on The 12th Annual G.A.N.G. Award Winners Have Been Announced Share this

During this past week’s Game Developer’s Conference the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) held the 12th annual G.A.N.G. Awards. These awards focus on the audio and music produced in games during the previous year. The guild also takes this time to honor and recognize important figures in the game audio industry. This year’s 12th annual awards were recorded and will be broadcast on the Video Games Live Twitch channel at a later date. For those of you who can’t wait, the winners have been announced. Read on to find out who this year’s winners were. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

Red Dead Redemption Plays Serious Target Practice with 9th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards

March 6, 2011 | Gideon Dabi | 1 Comment Share this

This week at the Game Developers’ Conference, the 9th Annual Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Awards was held and the new guys blasted the scene. Rockstar’s Western triumph, Red Dead Redemption snagged multiple awards including Audio of the Year as well as Music of the Year. Although I was pleased to see such a competent soundtrack win so many accolades, with a list that included both Dante’s Inferno and Bioshock 2 I can’t help but wonder if Garry Schyman became a victim of his own prolific success getting split votes. In any event, I suppose there could be worse things in life than pumping out two nominees in a single year.

Congratulations to Bill Elm and Woody Jackson on their win and on a fine soundtrack – particularly the care taken to create a seamless in-game experience.

For a full list of nominees and winners click the jump!
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Game Music

GDC 2010: A Much Smaller G.A.N.G. Awards, And Results!

March 14, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2010: A Much Smaller G.A.N.G. Awards, And Results! Share this

We mentioned the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Award Nominees a month or so ago, but at GDC, we final saw results. This year’s G.A.N.G. Awards were considerably smaller than last year, taking place in a much smaller room in south hall as opposed to the traditional north hall location. There were no musical acts, which facilitated a much faster ceremony (it was crammed into 90 minutes), but despite the simplicity of the event this year, there were still many and often humorous technical issues, which led to G.A.N.G. President Paul Lipson having to call out the nominees in his best announcer voice and Tommy providing live sound effects for the footage when the audio cut out.

They showed a number of YouTube videos throughout the evening, which took the place of the performances. Included were a Michael Jackson video where his sprite from Moonwalker was placed in a number of games, and that amazing Japanese Zelda commercial for A Link to the Past. They also interspersed some comedic bits in between with a top ten worst game titles (including Sticky Balls and Irritated Stick) and top ten worst voice acting moments, which came from Resident Evil and a number of early RPGs.

As far as the winners go, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the big winner, but there were a few surprises, including The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition for iPhone taking the best handheld audio award and Plants Vs. Zombies winning for best original vocal – pop. Flower also won in its category (best interactive music), which was good to see.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners, and let us know what you think! (more…)
Game Music

8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards Nominees

February 19, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards Nominees

It’s that time of year again! We had a good time at the G.A.N.G. Awards last year, where not only did we see strong wins from AFRIKA, Dead Space, and Wrath of the Lich King, but also saw some amazing performances by Norihiko Hibino and others. G.A.N.G. has just announced their nominees for the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards set to take place this year.

While I’m glad to see a number of titles that we’ve covered on the site on the list, including Assassin’s Creed II, AVATAR: The Game, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I am disappointed that the only Japanese offering to make an appearance is Resident Evil 5. In fact, between the 5 OSV editors who listed their top 5 soundtrack picks from 2009, none of the 25 or so entries (there were duplicates) are nominated in the G.A.N.G. Awards (save for Gideon’s pick of Flower), including the amazing soundtrack to Shatter. I’m still interested to see who will win.

What do you think of the nominees this year? Are you rooting for a particular game, or feel that an important title went overlooked?

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees. (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2009: G.A.N.G. Awards, the “wow, it’s bright up here.” drinking game.

March 31, 2009 | Tim Sheehy | 7 Comments Share this

Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) held it’s annual awards show this past week at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco, CA. This would mark the guild’s 7th award show since it’s inception, and as in previous years, featured a number of performances, speeches and a bar–albeit not an open bar as I had hoped. On the topic of alcohol though, the show could make for an interesting drinking game should anyone go back and try to watch recordings of it.

Find out what I mean and check out the winners after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2009: Interview With Capcom Sound Director Tetsuya Shibata

March 29, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 5 Comments Share this

[Left to right: Wataru Hokoyama, Jayson Napolitano, Norihiko Hibino, Tommy Kikuchi, Tetsuya Shibata]

Tim’s right when he says its been a long week at GDC. But it’s been a lot of fun too. We were fortunate enough to be able to catch up with Tetsuya Shibata, the Sound Director at Capcom Japan. He made his way to the San Francisco for the sole purpose of being present for the evening’s G.A.N.G. Awards where his vocal theme from Devil May Cry 4 had been nominated in the “Best Vocal – Pop” category.

We briefly discuss Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4, as well as his other 2008 projects. We also learn about Shibata’s progression through the audio department at Capcom, and discuss his role in putting the Breath of Fire Special Box together. An interesting discussion is head.

Read our interview with Tetsuya Shibata after the jump. (more…)