I wont lie, It's been a little bit surreal over here at NiDcom towers the past few weeks. You go from feeling hopeless for years as a kid, wondering if all these famous people who created the thing you love even know how much you appreciate their efforts -  to years later being able to tell them everything you ever felt. It's not very often that fans get to reach out like this I guess, which is sad, but I guess it just makes it more special when it does eventually happen.

A short while after Summer of Sonic I ended up being befriended by my childhood hero. It was actually him who asked me about my artwork first. Which completely floored me. The guy who I look up to the most and who has been an inspiration for everything I've done in the past 15 years. I'd always hoped that I'd get the chance to say thank you to him one day but I never expected to be so warmly accepted in return. Naoto Ohshima the creator of NiGHTS and Sonic is downright amazing and I'm honored to be called his friend. I even inspired him to draw NiGHTS again after so many years ^_^

After 15 years I had a lot of thank you's to pass on from you guys directly, to say how much we all really cared. To explain WHY NiGHTS is so important to us for different reasons. The struggles of the fanbase. To say thank you for all those times NiGHTS gave us hope or saved us from bad dreams when we were just little kids. NiGHTS gave us all the courage to fly. I got to speak my heart without feeling small or like a stupid fangirl. I guess it was the peace of mind I'd been searching for after so many years of trying and trying to keep NiGHTS alive for other people.

So after 15 years the fan was finally able to properly say thank you to the creator

But that's not all. Ohshima san was very moved by it all and wanted to say thank you in return so he gave me a seriously epic mind-blowing gift. Some of which I have permission to share with you all today. You know all those tiny blurry concept images that were featured in Japanese magazines and walkthroughs that we all used to speculate over, well how would you guys like to see the images up close from the actual artworks themselves? ^-^

It gives me great pleasure to present to you some of the concept arts that we have come to love over the years. Thank you Ohshima and Iizuka san. Enjoy!

Things to note:
* Images 1 to 9 are drawn by Naoto Ohshima, images 10 to 17 are drawn by Kazuyuki Hoshino and images 18 to 31 are by Miyake (the artist responsible for the Japanese NiGHTS storybook).
* Reala's final design was the result of a collaboration of ideas taking elements from both Ohshima and Hoshino's designs.
* Ohshima is responsible for designing NiGHTS, Jackle, Claris and Elliot, Nightopians and the other main boss Maren. He also had a hand in level design concept ideas, such as Twinseeds Tower.
* Each of the characters had numerous design concepts before they arrived at the final designs.
* It would appear Wizeman has always had a face… lol.

(These images will all be added to our Concept Art gallery tommorow to replace the smaller images).

And then like life wasn't crazy enough he drew me this little picture of NiGHTS.
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Achievement Unlocked: Life complete 9999999G