Latest news with #NicolasDoucet
Sky News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
BAFTA Games Awards: Astro Bot tops leaderboard - with psychological horror close behind
Astro Bot was the big winner at this year's BAFTA Games Awards, taking home five prizes, including the coveted best game. The 3D platformer, which was launched to critical acclaim in September to mark PlayStation's 30th anniversary, was nominated for eight gongs, while Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, led with 11 nods. But in the end, the critics - some of whom had dubbed Astro Bot a "perfect game" - were right as it dominated the awards at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. BAFTAs for audio achievement, game design, animation, and best family game completed the set for developers Team Asobi, who designed multiple galaxies and dozens of levels for the titular Astro to journey through, retrieving spaceship parts and rescuing lost robots. "We're a team based in Japan, but we have over 12 nationalities. We really mix it up and get ideas from everyone," Nicolas Doucet, president of Team Asobi, told Sky News. "We do a lot of jokes in the game, but the joke has a different meaning depending on where you are in the world. So it's really, really nice to go around and ask everyone 'is that joke fine in your country?' And then together we come to a kind of universal playfulness." It's a very different atmosphere than that generated by British psychological horror Still Wakes the Deep, which won three awards for best new intellectual property and best supporting and leading roles. Compared to John Carpenter's 1980 sci-fi horror The Thing but on a Scottish oil rig, the game sees players take on the role of an electrician trapped on a damaged facility while being pursued by monsters. Developer The Chinese Room has been praised for using home-grown talent to voice the characters, including comedian and actress Karen Dunbar, who picked up best performer in a supporting role for voicing Finlay. "I've been nominated for quite a few BAFTAs in my time in Scotland, and I've never won one," said Dunbar. "It was such a great category, so many great performances. When they shouted my name, I think I started clapping for someone else!" Meanwhile, best multiplayer game went to Helldivers II - a satirical, sci-fi shooter that sees players fight bugs, aliens and robots with the gumption and gullibility of the characters in Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers. It has gained a cult following since launching in February 2024 with so much initial interest it created server problems. "Games for me are about connecting people and forging those bonds of friendship and the multiplayer award is exactly what it stands for," said Johan Pilestedt, chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios. From outer space to a fictional Yorkshire town called Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You're Here, a cartoonish, comedy platformer, won Best British Game. Like Still Wakes the Deep, it has won praise for the authenticity of its actors and setting. " I think it's been a real privilege to be able to represent Barnsley on the silver screen," said Will Todd, who is from the town and one of two game designers behind the project. Co-creator James Carbutt added: "Me and Will wrote everything in our tone of voice, quite literally. The further along development we got, the more we lent into it. I think the voices from different parts of the UK and different voices in gaming are super important, and hopefully we're one of them." By the time the BAFTAs wrapped up, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II was only handed one of the 11 BAFTAs it was nominated for, technical achievement. But developers Ninja Theory are already adding this year's win to a tally of five BAFTAs they were awarded for the first game in the series, which created a protagonist with psychosis by drawing on clinical neuroscience and the experiences of people living with the condition.
BBC News
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bafta Games Awards 2025: Astro Bot wins top prize
Astro Bot has been named best game at this year's Bafta Games 3D platformer, starring the PlayStation mascot character, won five awards in total at the prestigious ceremony in director Nicolas Doucet dedicated the biggest prize of the night to developers who "had "inspired others to join the industry"."They give us the energy, the passion and the will to become magicians," said the head of Sony-owned studio Team Asobi. It was a good night overall for Sony as its other big 2024 hit, Helldivers 2, picked up two awards for best multiplayer and squad-based shooter was a surprise hit when it was released, and its makers had to race to boost server capacity to meet early demand. Accepting the multiplayer award, Johan Pilestedt, chief creative officer at developer Arrowhead, said players had reached out to him to say Helldivers 2 had reconnected them with gamer friends from 10 to 15 years ago. "That's such an honour," he told the crowd at Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. Thank Goodness You're Here! - a comedy cartoon game made by two friends from Yorkshire - won the award for best British is set in the fictional northern town of Barnsworth, heavily inspired by developers Will Todd and James Carbutt's home town of Barnsley in South quirky title features voice performances from the pair, as well as actor Matt the prize, the two friends said: "We hope this inspires you to tell your own story in your own voice without compromise." The Bafta Games Awards, which launched 21 years ago, have earned a reputation as causing major 2023, Vampire Survivors, a game made by a tiny British team, beat Sony's big-budget blockbuster God of War: Ragnarok to bag the best game had tipped Balatro - the poker-inspired card game made by an anonymous, lone developer known as LocalThunk - to pip Astro Bot to the award this it was Astro Bot's night, with the game winning best animation, audio achievement, family game and game design - as well as best game. Balatro did, however, win best Ben Starr, accepting the award on the developer's behalf, approached the stage in make-up and a jester's hat - an outfit inspired by the game's character the speech, he joked that developer LocalThunk was "really rich now" and urged the audience to "play more independent games... they are the lifeblood of this industry". Legendary composer Yoko Shimomura accepted the Bafta fellowship in recognition of her contribution to best known for her work on the Kingdom Hearts series, from Japanese publisher Square Enix, she recalled how she had "felt like giving up" on her work many times."The fact I am standing here at all is no thanks to my own efforts, but to the people who have supported me," she said in her acceptance speech."I feel if the music I have made has resonated with one person and touched their hearts in one way, it was worth it." Meanwhile, Still Wakes the Deep - a horror game set on a Scottish oil rig in the 1970s - swept the lead and supporting performance categories, and was also named best new intellectual Abubakar Salim, known for performances in Assassin's Creed and HBO's House of the Dragon, gave an emotional speech as he collected the games beyond entertainment award.A keen gamer, he set up his own development company and its debut release, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, was inspired by the grief he felt at the loss of his Saga: Hellblade II, which went into the ceremony with 11 nominations, went home with just one award: technical achievement. Bafta Games Awards 2025 - the winners in full: Animation: Astro BotArtistic achievement: NevaAudio achievement: Astro BotBafta fellowship: Yoko Shimomura (composer)Best game: Astro BotBritish Game: Thank Goodness You're Here!Debut game: BalatroEvolving game: Vampire SurvivorsFamily game: Astro BotGame beyond entertainment: Tales of Kenzera: ZAUGame design: Astro BotMultiplayer: Helldivers 2Music: Helldivers 2Narrative: Metaphor: ReFantazioNew intellectual property: Still Wakes the DeepLeading performance: Alec Newman as Caz in Still Wakes the DeepBest supporting actor: Karen Dunbar as Finlay in Still Wakes the DeepTechnical achievement: Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Astro Bot director says precisely what the industry needs to hear: "It's OK to make a small game" because "players today have a backlog of games" they can't complete
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Following its Game of the Year win at last year's Game Awards, Astro Bot just took home another award, this time for having a director that's saying exactly what the video game industry needs to hear right now. Yes, I made up the award. Speaking during a Game Developers Conference panel that GamesRadar+ attended, Team Asobi studio head Nicolas Doucet said the goal at the outset of making Astro Bot was to make a game that could be finished in a reasonable amount of time. "From the start, we were in the mindset that it's OK to make a compact game ... it's OK to make a small game," said Doucet. "So for us, it means that we're making something of such scale that we can control it fully. That's from a development standpoint. But not only that. For the players, we all know that players today have a backlog of games and cannot complete their games, so the prospect of a game you can actually complete is a really persuasive argument." Persuasive, indeed. Doucet is so persuasive that I think I'll go ahead and do another Astro Bot run instead of playing Assassin's Creed Shadows. That's not true, but the point is, there are too many Assassin's Creed Shadows-sized games, and I'm at the point where I'm begging for mercy. My backlog can't take another massive RPG - it'll crumble under its own mighty weight. Anyway, yes, please make more small games, people. Even if my personal pleas are falling on unsympathetic ears, remember that Astro Bot is a small game, and it won Game of the Year. You can do it too. Team Asobi's gigantic 2024 proves it's time to free Astro Bot from PlayStation's past.
