1003 replies to this topic

[Rusty]

... I think we've gotten to a point with this where there are going to be more awards than entrants and casting a vote is going to take around an hour.

I disagree that we should publicly vote for "Best Graphics", "Best Sound" etc. All that's going to do is encourage developers to go straight to their strong suit and let everything else below bar. Everybody has their strong point, some of us are hardcore programmers, some of us are graphic artists, some of us are musicians, some of us are trolls. By encouraging them to stay in their comfort zone you're taking away one of the biggest aspects of the Jam and making it just another day in the Indie Dev office.

The moment this passes I'm making the world's sexiest graphics ever seen and programming a low rent break out game with no replayability. We had "Honourable Mentions" and I admit to giving out unofficial awards for such categories, but that's all it should stay as, for making anything more would be a mistake.

Edit:
For the record, it's a beautiful idea and community members should be encouraged to point out which games did what best. But making official categories for this is unrealistic for the GMC Jam.

Edited by Rusty, 09 November 2011 - 05:21 PM.

[chance]

... I think we've gotten to a point with this where there are going to be more awards than entrants and casting a vote is going to take around an hour.

Oh come now. Nobody is proposing dozens of award categories.

All that's going to do is encourage developers to go straight to their strong suit and let everything else below bar.

This could happen with some people, I suppose. But so what?

Besides, who says the Jam has to stay the same forever? For example, we could have an occasional Jam with 2-3 categories, then revert to the regular single-winner Jam the next time.

Change is fun.

[Nocturne]

The thing with the multiple categories is that I actually agree with Rusty... BUT getting best graphics will NOT win you a copy of GM:HTML5 or any other official prize. That will only go to the best game overall from the votes. So, making certain "genre" awards is just the same as the "honourable mention" scheme that I would have liked to officially include a few Jams back. It could also be made that community prizes can only be offered to the "genre" awards too and in this way the Yoyo prizes go to the top three, and the community prizes to the rest...

I also like the change idea that chance says... I personally would like the winner of the Jam to choose either a theme, a handicap (monochrome, one button only etc etc etc) or whatever seems appropriate just to spice things up (including combinations of things). This could also prevent those that pre-prepare things as it would be no-longer viable to create a platform engine before hand as the previous winner could make the rule of "no platform games"!

[Robert3DG+]

a handicap (monochrome, one button only etc etc etc)

Smaller than 1 mb (plus runner)

[makerofthegames]

a handicap (monochrome, one button only etc etc etc)

Smaller than 1 mb (plus runner)

I would be so screwed this Jam.

[Robert3DG+]

I don't know, I think hearing voiceovers crushed that small would be hilarious.

[masterofhisowndomain]

I haven't thought this through yet, but my initial reaction to the concerns raised by Rusty (that categories would encourage people to limit their game's scope to what they excel in, and that voting would take too long) would be to propose there be some sort of voting panel that can choose the winner in each category - but the overall winner remains in the hands of the GMC.

[Nocturne]

I haven't thought this through yet, but my initial reaction to the concerns raised by Rusty (that categories would encourage people to limit their game's scope to what they excel in, and that voting would take too long) would be to propose there be some sort of voting panel that can choose the winner in each category - but the overall winner remains in the hands of the GMC.

That could also work... The top 5 from each Jam PLUS (in subsequent Jams) the winners of each category... But, again, this is open to "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of crap.

[makerofthegames]

But, again, this is open to "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" type of crap.

And the way we have it set up right now isn't? I don't think that's happened in these nine months, but it could've.

[IceMetalPunk]

I don't know, I think hearing voiceovers crushed that small would be hilarious.

You mean like when the text says, "Save me, Mario!" and the audio sounds like "RAHARHARGAGRAHGRGAA"? And your first thought is, "MARIO IS AN OLD-SCHOOL POKEMON?!" That would be interesting...

-IMP

Edited by IceMetalPunk, 09 November 2011 - 07:43 PM.

[Robert3DG+]

A game about decrypting crushed 1bit voiceovers could be neat actually....

*opens Audacity*

In other news Robs votes are coming soon! I've played every game now to give everyone a fair platform. Honestly I had missed some gems so I'm glad I did!

[chance]

...my initial reaction to the concerns raised by Rusty (that categories would encourage people to limit their game's scope to what they excel in, and that voting would take too long)...

I don't think voting would take much longer. Casting votes for your favorite game in (say) 3-4 different categories wouldn't take any longer than casting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd votes do now.

As long as the categories are limited to a few main areas, this is a non-issue.

[Nocturne]

Beatson (Of CrySet Games) Has added a community prize :

A banner on the home page of CrySet for the 1st place game, whilst also getting his game partnered on CrySet (custom background/banner on the game page). 2nd/3rd Get their game partnered on CrySet (custom background/banner on the game page). Partnered games will get twice as much revenue per download/play.

Thanks a lot!

Edited by Nocturne, 11 November 2011 - 07:13 AM.

[NakedPaulToast]

Beatson (Of CrySet Games) Has added a community prize :

A banner on the home page of CrySet for the 1st place game, whilst also getting his game partnered on CrySet (custom background/banner on the game page). 2nd/3rd Get their game partnered on CrySet (custom background/banner on the game page). Partnered games will get twice as much revenue per download/play.


Thanks a lot!

The blue font color against the dark gray default GMC skin is hard enough to read for most people. It's impossible for color blind people.

Edited by Nocturne, 11 November 2011 - 07:11 AM.

[Robert3DG+]

He copy-pasted from the light theme. It's a pretty annoying glitch.

[makerofthegames]

Oh what seriously? That's why that's been happening?

[Robert3DG+]

Yeah. To fix it he has to edit his post, select all and then click 'remove formatting'.

[Joe H]

I cannot imagine creating a game with all original sprites, music, coding, ect. within 48 hours. There simply are not enough man hours to complete all that unless you have EVERYTHING planned to a T beforehand and only have to actually "create" that stuff during the 48 hours. I created all original art for Thermodynamics in addition to creating the concept within the 48 hours, and I hardly had time to put together something coherent (and barely at that). If I had to create custom music as well, custom sound effects... unless I'm recording my everything acapella, it's not happening.

I think the only way would be to have very careful planning beforehand to minimize wasted time and keep the entire game as "minimal" as possible. If that much planning goes into it, is it really a game that is created from start to finish within 48 hours? I'd argue that planning is the most important aspect to creating a game and it also happens to be the most time consuming. If all that is completed before the competition, isn't the competition less about "creating" a game in 48 hours and more about your ability to assemble the remaining parts within 48 hours?

[YellowAfterlife]

Added some mini-reviews of mine to voting topic.

As well I somewhat come to thought that community prizes per-place distribution ended up being relatively unproportional, as:

1 ============ (12 total)
2 ====== (6 total)
3 ==== (4 total)
4 == (2 total)
5 === (3 total)

[Nocturne]

Added some mini-reviews of mine to voting topic.

As well I somewhat come to thought that community prizes per-place distribution ended up being relatively unproportional, as:

1 ============ (12 total)
2 ====== (6 total)
3 ==== (4 total)
4 == (2 total)
5 === (3 total)

Yes, I have been thinking about this too, YAL... One of the reasons I support themed voting (best GFX, music etc...) is that we could then offer the community prizes to those winners rather than the usual top three overall winners.