Simple Developments Guild: Update

ID:116380
 
Jul 26 2011, 4:06 am
For those of you that are still tracking the post I made a few days ago announcing the development of a guild for the more simple projects throughout BYOND, I'd like to let ya in on the inner workings.

EmpirezTeam has volunteered to handle the review process. The review process will be basic. A new game is submitted to the guild (by either the author or a fan) and ET writes a review on the game, submitting it as a blog for all to see. He will discuss core functions, gameplay, presentation and whatever else he deems necessary to include in this review. Once he gives it the greenlight, the game will be listed on the guild's member page.

Once a game has been listed under the guild, we will be working with the authors to promote events and contests using the games featured in the guild. I also plan to have a spotlight game, presented at the top of the page, that may be rotated monthly or so to showcase the best of the basics!

Contests and events may include a scavenger hunt to receive certain medals from a list of games, author-held competitions supported and possibly (partially) funded by the guild. Or any number of other activities based on the types of games we promote and their individual gameplay.

Between the 1st and 2nd day of August, (dependent upon when my transfer to my paypal is complete and I purchase the guild's site the membership) will see the beginning of acceptance and the need for assistance. My forum (click it beside my fans) is now currently the place to volunteer to assist with:

Forum Moderation

Reviews

CSS maintenance

Anything else you can do to help!


I plan to fund the endeavor myself, at least for the first few months, however if you would like to assist or donate to the cause, any monetary amount is greatly appreciated and it will be used solely for the Guild's Objectives.







So, let's get some game submissions into my forum (until the 1st or 2nd) so we can get this ball rolling in the next few days. After I memberfy the Guild's site, all game submissions and volunteers will be handled there, under the supervision of ET, Lige (commented that he wanted to help. if so, let's do it!) and myself until we get on our feet.


Once the site is settled in and the voluntary staff are comfortable with what their objectives are, we'll be holding the first open contest and deciding on the month of Augusts' spolighted game!


Until next time!

P.S. Thx to ExPixel for the new CSS
Jul 26 2011, 5:52 am
When I read posts like this I usually think its a terrible idea, won't work, and will just devolve into a Special Olympics type of event where every developer is a winner and you never say a bad thing about a game.

But this one could work, mostly because EmpirezTeam isn't afraid to say when something is crappy.

I'm still not sure what the purpose is. We have a list of featured games, so why does this guild need to accept and review games? Couldn't you just plan events for featured games?
Jul 26 2011, 5:59 am
I can assist E.T in reviewing. I will offer my suppourt =P
Jul 26 2011, 6:27 am
Forum_account wrote:
When I read posts like this I usually think its a terrible idea, won't work, and will just devolve into a Special Olympics type of event where every developer is a winner and you never say a bad thing about a game.

But this one could work, mostly because EmpirezTeam isn't afraid to say when something is crappy.

I'm still not sure what the purpose is. We have a list of featured games, so why does this guild need to accept and review games? Couldn't you just plan events for featured games?

Great Question!

Featured games already get plenty of advertisement on the front page. My goal and hopefully the goal of the other helpers is to assist in shining a light on the more simplistic games that don't dwell on a ton of content but still retain the 'fun' factor.

It isn't about the size, it's about the content!

Take a look at "A Miner Adventure." When that game was first released, the core systems were beautiful. It was a single player game and not a 'whole lot' of people knew about it. Now look where you've taken it in a short amount of time.

I want to spotlight those kinds of games. My personal goal at the moment is to let everyone know you don't have to spend an eternity creating a game for it to be fun. 3 weeks! 3 weeks and an idea is ample time to turn out a fun, semi-polished creation, while allowing yourself plenty of wiggle room to get it to featured status.
Jul 26 2011, 7:04 am
Nice CSS =) Going to make the Banner match your CSS a little ;D. Just be on MSN so I can send ;O
Jul 26 2011, 7:33 am
The featured games standards don't set the bar very high. You don't need to have tons of content to be featured. It's more about being fun, original, and making sense. This all sounds very similar, so it'd make more sense to work with the featured games list than to work separately.

Maybe this could act as a way to generate interest in new games to give developers motivation to continue working on their games to get them featured. It seems like very few people who submit their game to be featured and get rejected initially bother to submit it again.
Jul 28 2011, 9:51 pm
Forum_account wrote:
The featured games standards don't set the bar very high. You don't need to have tons of content to be featured. It's more about being fun, original, and making sense. This all sounds very similar, so it'd make more sense to work with the featured games list than to work separately.

Maybe this could act as a way to generate interest in new games to give developers motivation to continue working on their games to get them featured. It seems like very few people who submit their game to be featured and get rejected initially bother to submit it again.

This is all apart of the idea. I'm not intending to work with the featured games. I'm a Feature Game reviewer, so this is a way for me to help breach the gap between a good game and a featured game.