Ceremony of Innocence

Ceremony of Innocence
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s) 1997
Distribution CD ROM

Ceremony of Innocence was a Windows CD ROM based game created in 1997. It used a mystery narrative based on the Griffin and Sabine novel by Nick Bantock. The title was taken from the poem, "The Second Coming," by Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

Ceremony of Innocence used an elaborate mystery game format with over 100 different artists, animators and musicians who were involved in its production. The core team of animators from Realworld Multimedia; Dan Blore, Brian Short and Karolyn Pike - all of whom had previously worked on Peter Gabriels 'EVE' CD-ROM, joined forces with Realworlds programmers Michael Dean, Darren Umney, Sam Deane, Matt Thurling, Peter Fierlinger, Joshua Portway, Chris Wright, Sam Clegg, Andy Lovelock, David Bateman and Robert Mettler.

The CD-ROM featured voice acting from Paul McGann, Isabella Rossellini and Ben Kingsley. It used animation to tell the story of Griffin, a young English artist, and Sabine, his South Sea Island muse. The game takes the form of a series of postcards sent between the two, which the player has to explore to continue. The work was produced by Peter Gabriel's Real World label by a team led by producer Gerrie Villon and creative director/chief designer Alex Mayhew.

Joining them was a team of internationally renowned artists specialising in 3D character models, clay-modelling, precision metalwork, pastel painting, and pencil drawings, plus computer-generated imagery; among them were Joan Ashworth, Ruth Lingford, Bedric Glaser, Jeff de Boer, and Jonathan Hodgson.

Ceremony of Innocence won over 17 international awards after its release, including the EUROPRIX 98 Overall Winner, and two BAFTA's [1998] for Best Moving Image and Best Sound.

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