Monday, April 10, 2017

Casey and Hyper Light Drifter


It’s hard keeping up with my creative children… can’t keep everything straight. I recently blogged about Jessica and her sculpture on campus and linked to her website which showed all the other awards, etc., she’s been grateful to receive. I didn't even know about a few until I went to her website!

And now I’m going to brag about my son, Casey and his creative adventures. For two years, he had been part of a team working on a video game, Hyper Light Drifter. (Heart Machine is the company name of which Hyper Light Drifter is under – I think – like I said, I get confused with all the facts.)

My two daughters, Jessica and Rita and I went out to surprise Casey on his 30th birthday, which was in the first or second week of the kickstarter for Hyper Light Drifter. At the time Alex who was Casey’s roommate was away getting some medical attention. But I recall being blown away by the number of backers and the amount of money Alex raised based on a video game. Every day that number kept creeping up and I found out there’s another whole world out there—those who love video games.

I asked Casey if he’d give me all the info so that I could blog about it and here is what he had to say and the links to such. This first link takes you to the Kickstarter page that I just mentioned.



The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the yearly equivalent of the ECK Worldwide for games. (Note by Lynn: Some who read this will understand the ECK Worldwide meaning, but another comparison, although I might be incorrect is this conference and awards are like the Emmy’s or Grammy’s but for video games.) There are two award shows hosted every year, one for GDC proper, and another called the IGF (Independent Games Festival) which has its eye on the "Indie Games" scene. Think blockbuster vs art house films. 

We were nominated for Best Debut, and had an honorable mention for Best Audio. 
We were nominated for Excellence in Audio, Excellence in Visual Art, and the Grand Prize. We took home the award for Visual Art, as well as the Audience Choice Award, which is like a kind of special recognition category. 

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Another high honor from a little while back, IndieCade is an organization and play festival all about indie games that takes place primarily in Culver City every year. We took home the Jury Choice Award, which from what I've heard was like, kind of a special category they created because our game wasn't eclectic enough for their general leanings, but was so crucial that it was unanimously decided it needed to be recognized.

Kind of a big corporate sponsored thing, but also an independantly organized awards festival from a long time gamer guy. We were nominated for Best Indie Game, and Best Action / Adventure Game. The latter is pretty crazy to see, as the other 4 titles are all sequels in huge long standing AAA 3D franchises, and we're just this tiny 2d pixel game.

Others on Wikipedia
Just found out there's a more complete compendium of awards we've been nominated for on the wiki.

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And that's what Casey had given me. So in addition to Casey being a part of the HyperLightDrifter team, he creates his own art... which I wanted to share as well. He was accepted in an artists residency in Iceland hosted by Light Grey Art Lab:  http://lightgreyartlab.com/iceland-residency-2016-team-basalt and those who attended will be displaying their art based on that residency in May. At the moment, I can’t locate it on the website. Maybe it’s a private thing for those who attended the Iceland residency. He’ll also be part of The Lost Isle of Kismet and is now part of the To Be You which you can find on Light Grey Art Lab’s page: https://shop.lightgreyartlab.com
Or you can check out the home page and go from there: http://lightgreyartlab.com/about-us/

Casey has a website: caseyhunt.com, but it doesn't look like he's posted much lately. I think he does a lot on Tumbler? (I could be wrong on that one too!) By the way, I usually have to pull teeth to get any of my kids to tell me about what's going on with their art, awards and such. They are rather humble about what they do. Guess I'll do the bragging for them...

4 comments:

  1. Contrasts to Casey! I'm not a gamer, but I know it is popular and a busy area of business!

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  2. Lynn--I went on one of those sites, trying to see some of Casey's art, but was unable to find anything of his. Probably my ineptitude. ;)

    Tell Casey that some of his mother's friends are interested in his art. Perhaps I can see some without any teeth-pulling?

    You are so fortunate. You have three wonderful children who are all artistic.

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  3. My fifteen year old grandson, Nick admires Casey because I tell him all about his adventures. Congratulations to your son for all of his achievements in the gaming world. Your children are very creative. Such a rewarding life to be able to be creative for a living.

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  4. Wow! Now THAT is what you call fundraising! And Iceland? How inspirational that must have been!

    Congrats to Casey on these achievements, and extra congrats in advance, because I'm sure he's got more coming in the future.

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