Firstly, Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday season and ate terrifying amounts of food.
I just wanted to take the time to write a little post about 2011 since it was a year of a lot of personal triumphs for our fanbase. As usual things were pretty quiet on the official front this year but as always it didn't stop us from making a noise. This year marked the 15th anniversary of NiGHTS into Dreams. For a good few of us that meant a bit more than others because it was around the age of 14/15 we first discovered the game ourselves. That would make the game half our lifetime old. Appreciating anything for that amount of time is pretty special, I know it was for me. It marked a milestone for this fanbase and I was able to look back at where we started from.
I started this website years ago on my Dreamcast browser before I ever owned a PC. The only way I could upload images was to go to a internet cafe in the city to use their scanner. I'd input html code with a control pad. Hotlink peoples seizure inducing images as backgrounds. Plaster rainbow colored text everywhere like it was the greatest discovery ever and oh BOY when I found the code to embed midi's I was an unstoppable force of INTERNETS. I created my site to be able to share my artwork and love for NiGHTS. Words can't express the happiness I felt when the first person NOT trying to sell me Viagra posted a comment in my guestbook. It was a fan, an actual person on the other side of the world who shared the same interests as me. Then over the weeks more and more people came to visit the site. The community grew and grew, the Guestbook was replaced by a forum. Over time the little personal webpage evolved into the hulking global beast of the site you see today… minus the midi's.
2011 started off with the sad news regarding Mr Kevin Eva stepping down from his position as Community Manager at SEGA. He had worked his butt off to help strengthen this community in an official capacity and in the capacity of actually giving a real damn for the franchise and the people who love it. His departure left me feeling a little worried as a fan but over time it just served to make me work harder and be more determined to represent you all in the respectful, polite and creative way from within SEGA that I know you all so well for. You'd be surprised at how many people love and remember NiGHTS. Proud even, because many of them remember or came from this website. As a fanbase we are stronger than ever.
Then came the long anticipated Summer of Sonic 2011. It was an event that really gave me a lot to think about on my journey home. Not only did we get to finaly meet creators Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Naka along with a whole host of Sonic related A-listers…. but I got to meet the next generation of NiGHTS fans. DiGi was supposed to have done a podcast about this but never did, so just let me say, when really young fans approached me because of being huge fans of Journey of Dreams, I was really overwhelmed with proudness. I spotted a lot of NiGHTS cosplayers who I'd never met before. Had kids come up to me and ask me who Jackle was! haha. It's like the whole Modern Vs Classic Sonic thing that happens with Sonic fans, except there was no animosity here at all. Both classic NiGHTS and Modern NiGHTS fans were just happy to be there talking to eachother. I remembered what it was like to be a new fan to NiGHTS into Dreams. I felt really happy to sit there at our NiGHTS booth and realise that this was living proof of keeping the love for NiGHTS alive. I hope that these guys reach their 30's and have fansites and fond memories too.
Meeting Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka was more than a huge honor for me. It felt like we were there to say 'Hey we're the NiGHTS fanbase, so many people still care about NiGHTS, here we are, look at the things we've achieved because of NiGHTS.' So it was pretty special. Handing them over a copy of Lucid Dreaming and seeing their faces light up was priceless. I wish every one of you could have been there. It was very surreal. What really shone through was how passionate they both still were for NiGHTS despite how many years had passed.
On the subject of NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming, I still listen to the album on repeat on my way to work in the mornings. I still can't believe fans created something so perfect. OCR are genius and I feel downright blessed to have been involved with the project. It traveled all across the internet from Kotaku to even MTV! When the teaser trailer aired on the big screen on the stage at Summer of Sonic you could genuinely feel the buzz from the crowd. Hearing people clap and cheer for NiGHTS was the greatest feeling ever! Well done guys!
2011 was also a year of campaigns. Our NiD15 campaign garnered the attention of SEGA and several large online news sites. On the day of NiGHTS' birthday SEGA turned to Facebook to ask if fans would be interested in seeing a port of the original – to a scarily overpowering YES. That one post of theirs got more responses than many of the other announcements put together. In fact the post is STILL getting responses MONTHS later. I think it's fair to say SEGA know NiGHTS is wanted now. Thank you to all 6956 of you who have stood with us through our campaign site so far. Thanks also to the fans who may not be in any active NiGHTS community but who can still say positive things about the old game through various message boards, magazines and news portals. You've all helped us a lot, but we wont give up on a NiGHTS port until it becomes a reality! So lets keep supporting the cause: http://www.nid15.com
The other big event of the year was after SoS I was gifted a huge stack of NiGHTS into Dreams concept art from the original 90's game. Some of the images hadn't been seen before outside of Japan or in a high quality. So I was blissed out to be able to share those with everyone. It's one of those strange things were a franchise over a decade old still keeps giving. I was given a lot of positive feedback on my own artwork from the creators of the game which in turn inspired me to kickstart a new personal NiGHTS fan-comic project of my own:
This will be updated regularly this year in 2012 as a way of grabbing more fans back into the fandom. I'm really excited and motivated to work on this project of mine and I really hope you enjoy reading it in the future 
Things have been incredibly busy at work for me this year but I've always been thinking of NiGHTS or how to involve the fanbase in some way or another. I miss doing lots of fanart, it's how I got started afterall, so my new years resolution this year is to work really hard on giving you all something new to enjoy reading! Through this our website will have much more regular updates from now onwards. I'm also interested in featuring your own fan comics as updates. More on that later.
The end of the year was marked by an absolutely beautiful complete christmas duet by Cameron Strother, the original singer of DREAMS DREAMS back in 1996. Two dreamers reunited again. I can't think of a better more symbolic way to end the year.
It's 2012 now. I want to echo a sentiment from my fellow webmaster Dreadknux across at Sonic Stadium. As long as there are fans I will never give up on NiGHTS or this community. Even if there were NO fans I still wouldn't give up on NiGHTS. I'd sift through pages of spambots to just find that one single real fan from across the other side of the planet who loves NiGHTS too. Real life gets crazy, busy and very demanding… but I wouldn't be were I am today if it wasn't for NiGHTS, so for that I'm incredibly grateful and will always be here.
I hope you will too.
Happy New Year guys. I appreciate you sticking with us.
xx
TRiPPY
A beautiful Christmas gift – Sweet Snow the way it should have been! ;)
Those of us who bought Journey of Dreams a couple of years ago pretty much can all agree that the Sweet Snow version of DREAMS DREAMS is incredibly beautiful and like eating the best kind of icecream while drowning in 90ft of deep nostalgia and not caring. What made that song so special (other than just sounding ultimately pretty!) was the fact that the original girl who sang the song as a child – Jasmine Ann Allen, returned to sing the song once more as an adult. We all thought of her as the Claris of the song and tried to sing along as best we could as kids ourselves, lol.
But there was another equally important part to DREAMS DREAMS that Sweet Snow unfortunately missed out on. That was … Cameron Strother.
Cameron Strother was the Elliot Edwards to Jasmine's Claris and thanks to the wonderful Joshua Goring and Cameron himself we have a truely magical gift for you all.
Merry Christmas, happy 15th and a brilliant new year everyone!
Dreamers reunited!
I was very young when I first heard and sang this song. I'm not sure how many years ago it was now but it seems like I recorded it a year or two before NiGHTS was released. It was my first paid singing job. I was paid a handsome sum (didn't mean much to a kid) and was given an armful of Sega Saturn games (meant the world). More than the money or even the games though, I remember the special feeling I got when visited the Sega HQ building. Video games were my chocolate so I felt like I was walking around Willy Wonka's factory, witnessing a magical process.
I remember seeing the early plans for a game that was supposed to replace Sonic the Hedgehog as Sega's new flagship series. I was supposed to keep quiet about it but I told all my Japanese school friends about this amazing new game that was coming out and how I had seen the secret last boss. Suffice to say, It was an awesome experience and it holds a very special place in my childhood memories and I was glad to revisit that happy time by singing Dreams Dreams again. I myself am a big NiGHTS fan and I'm still holding out for a proper sequel or at least a good re-release for the current generation of consoles.
Thanks for keeping NiGHTS alive!
-Cameron Strother*This is a fan made song/edit/tribute not created for profit and is not endorsed by SEGA in any way*
NiGHTS’ Festive Freestuff Competition! – ‘In a dream I could see…’
*COMPETiTiON NOW CLOSED! – Winners will be announced this week*
*EDiT* The closing time for ALL entries is 12 midnight GMT (London) on Christmas day.
It's coming up to that time of the year. The one that involves digging out Saturns and playing that certain Xmas edition of that one game. Therefore in the (preemptive) spirit of the season I would like to festively launch sparkly gifts at your heads in the shape of our newest competition 'NiGHTS' Festive Freestuff'.
I've been hoarding a few things away in case of emergency NiGHTS fan gift givage and I figured it'd make a nice little activity for us on the run up to Christmas.
SO, what can you win?
. : THE PRiZES : .
. : Original Artwork : .
. : Giant A1 Reala Poster : .
. : A2 NiGHTS Poster : .
. : NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming music album : .
. : Sonic Colors wrapping paper and SEGA Lanyard : .
1. Grand Prize winner: 1 Giant A1 Reala poster. 1 A2 NiGHTS poster. The original Inked, signed artwork for the cover of my upcoming NiGHTS fan-comic 'NiGHTS: Descent into Dreams.' And a physical copy of the amazing OCR NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming album.
2nd Place: 1 A2 NiGHTS poster. A copy of NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming. Sonic Colors wrapping paper promotional item. SEGA ribbon Lanyard.
3rd Place: 1 A2 NiGHTS poster and a copy of NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming.
Runners up: We have 7 more copies of NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming to give away
. : HOW DO I ENTER? : .
What do you have to do in order to be in with a chance of winning one of these prize packs? Simple!
We want you to finish off the following line-
"In a dream I could see…"
See what? What did you see and how insane and creative can you get with this? You can answer by writing, drawing a picture, making a video, ANYTHING. If it makes us laugh it's a major bonus. People who put effort into their entries will be in with a better chance of winning – so make sure you get really imaginative with this. Make sure it's somewhat NiGHTS related though!
SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO: [email protected]
. : RULES : .
The competition closes on the 25th of December. Prizes will be sent out after this date to avoid the xmas post. Winners will be notified via email and this website when the winning entries are publicly posted. Only one entry per person. Any fan created material used must belong to you – don't go stealing things from other fans without permission – be considerate. Prizes cannot be exchanged for other items or money. Contest not affiliated or endorsed by SEGA. Have fun!
It's time for a heart to heart with mother TRiPPY guys,
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!
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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.
ಥ‿ಥ
Achievement Unlocked: Life complete 9999999G
Taken from the original SEGA Facebook message:
"To our wonderful NiGHTS fans – we haven't forgotten that today is the 15th anniversary of NiGHTS, so happy 15th anniversary to NiGHTS and huge thank you! to everyone for supporting the character and game for all these years! How would you feel about seeing the original "NiGHTS into dreams…" being re-released? Also, if you think this is a good idea… which platform do you think NiGHTS should be released in? We'd love to hear your thoughts!"
Like I said. Nothing is impossible. SEGA themselves are now asking. And look at those numbers *lol* we hit over 6000 port votes today and Facebook is currently going crazy over NiGHTS.
Today is a good day to be a fan…
Get to it people : FACEBOOK. GO THERE. NOW
Happy birthday NiGHTS.
Hey guys. Guess what's now online?
Fly faster to that download that you've ever flown before.
A new era of dreaming is about to begin~
I've reopened the forums again. Welcome back guys!
–
EDiT: Let it be publicly known that Mr DexLaCabra is MAAAAD. MAD MAD MAD. But so very massively loved. He just paid for the entire forums to be upgraded so treat him like the royalty he is! *whipwhip*
Thank you so much ^_^ I'll do my best to get this all fixed!
*Ponders giving users on the forums who have largely helped the community special icons or something* There are quite a few of you lovely folk out there.
Just found out a new license will cost $149 for the forums. I'd pay for this myself but I don't get paid until later this month and I want the forums up and running properly for NiGHTS' anniversary on Tuesday. If we all chip in I can get us properly functioning fourms again, minus the spambots! All old topics and profiles will be moved over so we won't be losing anything.
If you'd like to help me out (and the community as a whole) then please send some moneygolds via Paypal to /// and mark it as being for the forum fund.
Any help massively appreciated.
The trailer for the OverClocked Remix album 'NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming' went live today.
If you have not seen the trailer yet then press that play button and prepare yourself for lucid levels of awesomeness. Once again, Jose 'The Bronx' Rican knows exactly how to hype a project as this trailer is flawless.
Not long now until July 5th. Hang in there, we're almost with ya ~
Level 99 sure looks happy about his physical distribution copies of NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming finally arriving, doesn't he? That can only mean one thing. We are getting ever closer to the release date for the remix album.
In light of Lucid Dreaming's forth coming release, Level 99 has been invitied on to Radio Free Gamer to talk about the album. The interview is set to take place on Wednesday June 22nd, from 7 – 9pm EST. The show will be live so you can tune in during those hours to drop a comment for the man or check out the downloadable MP3 after the show has aired. Radio Free Gamer has also landed a little bit of an exclusive in that they'll be playing a tune from NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming that has not been heard anywhere else yet. I think you'll be wanting to check that out, most definitely.
NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming is set for release on July 5th. I know. You can't wait. Neither can I.
Words fail me right now so I'll leave it to the MAN!LEGEND AAUK (forever our Owl!) to explain things in this open letter posted on his website:
Dear Visitors (NiGHTS fans),
Yes you. I’d like to talk to you for a minute so stop pulling funny faces at images of Will’s dad (hoot, terrible) and touching NiGHTS (if you like that sort of thing) and listen, as I want to tell you a quick little personal tale.
One of my best experiences when at SEGA was working on NiGHTS Journey Of Dreams because I got to interact with you guys. You’re perhaps one of the most loyal group of video game fans I’ve come across. I’ve always had a very good relationship with you lot and I’ve always been keen to try and help out NiGHTS where possible and keep NiGHTS alive. Be it a reference here, a nod there.
Which is why Summer Of Sonic will be paying tribute to NiGHTS’ own anniversary in a few very special ways. The merchandise cabinet will include NiGHTS stuff this year for a start, we will have a special community related reveal amongst other little flourishes here and there. SEGA may not be celebrating it (I’ve no idea why Puyo Puyo gets the anniversary treatment but NiGHTS does not) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t.
What’s that? Have I heard about the NiD15 campaign? Why… yes, yes I have.
Of course that brings me neatly onto my next subject and the main point of this letter. No one, but NO ONE has helped keep NiGHTS going more and fought harder than TRiPPY and DiGi over at NiGHTSintoDreams.com have. In recent years they have become known perhaps for more campaigns such as “Don’t Forget NiGHTS” for Sonic & SEGA All-Star Racing and the aforementioned NiD15 campaign, but people forget because of this just how long they’ve been in the community and how long they (and perhaps TRiPPY more specifically on this point) have been leading it. Celebrating a video game series that hasn’t had a game for a decade is HARD but they still kept things going.
They live NiGHTS, he is part of them. It has shaped them as people, inspiring both through art, music and their philosophy on life and they celebrate the fact it has done so. To dream, be free and be true to yourself. If you cut them they’d bleed purple – except on April 1st when it’d be Reala red of course.
Over the years they have become good friends of mine, but I’ve always wanted to do something a bit more for them then I was able to. I filed in for them in 2007 for an interview with Iizuka-san and hand-delivered a gift to him from them in 2010 which was great but they’ve never been able to meet him. Something they wanted to do so badly.
In fact I have made it something of a personal mission down the years to try and arrange it, the one thing I really wanted to do before I left SEGA, but met with failure every time. I may have left SEGA now, but we had in fact set the wheels in motion before I did. This year WILL be different.
You see, we may not have announced Iizuka-san and indeed Naka-san until quite recently but we had in fact had them lined up for some time. The first thing that was put down for them when they are here? NiGHTSintoDreams.com will be having a private sit down with Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka at Summer Of Sonic to discuss 15 years of NiGHTS history, NiGHTS going forward and more. Best get to thinking up what to say you guys.
Lynne, Niyazi, thank you for all your hard work over the years for the NiGHTS fans. I’m sorry your ultimate reward is a little late, but I do hope you enjoy it.
“A tree that reaches all the way up to the heavens must be a sign of your heart’s resolve.” – Owl, NiGHTS Journey Of Dreams
- ArchangelUK -
http://www.sonicwrecks.com/news/community/sos2011intodreams
*runs around in circles* If you guys have any sensible -questions- for the pair (read as questions and not suggestions) then drop them here and we'll see if we can ask them. Can't promise anything but I'll do my best. We'll also hopefully have a full written transcript of the meeting, audio and photographs!
This Saturday is going to be… surreal.
*Achievement Unlocked ~ Life Complete*