RADNEN'S PROFILE

I like to make video games, especially action RPG's.

I make games slowly. Call me slow. But quality is always better than quantity!

Moo.

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Indie Games Getting attention

I remember seeing some games by an indie game company called Freebird games, I think one of their games, quintessence, is on this very website, perhaps all of them.

I frequent various game related websites and I noticed GameSpot ran a review of their latest game game presumably made in RPGMaker: To the Moon.

It got a MetaCritic score of 90, as of this post. Has anyone played it? It's very good, and emotional. The premise itself can cause you to shed a tear.

Anyways I think it's cool that a game made with RPGMaker is slugging it out better than other commercial games. And to note, this game really is far more story based than gameplay.

Bin Laden Defeated

Well, I just heard on the news that Bin Laden had been taken out by a shooter. This is a great day for Americans because he'd been a thorn in our side for a long time.

.. Power Rangers did it.

Adding visual upgrades.

So, I am making a space game called StarFront (interested go to my user page). Anyways, I'm on the fence with one issue:

There will be upgrades purchasable in the game.

1. Should upgrades be visible on the ship, but make less ships purchasable. (So, not many varieties of ships, but major upgrades can be seen on your ship graphically).

2. Major upgrades are equipped like normal, but your ship doesn't change appearance. Yet, there are more to choose from. (Many varieties, but no visuals).

The benefit of point 1 is that you can make your ship look however you want. In Sphere this is easier to manage, unlike RM I don't have to swap out spritesets/charsets or employ tricks to do this. You become a 'paper doll' of upgrades.

The benefit of point 2 is more and interesting looking ships.

So what do you guys think. I'd like to do both, but I'm ls trying to limit the art because I don't have a crack team of artists.

Playing Sphere Games With Browser

I don't want to sound rude or anything, and I know this is like advertising Sphere, but I think this is pretty neat.

While the game list is pretty short, a Spherical member was able to make an online repository of Sphere games (this is only a small amount of them) that can be played with your browser. Notice with not in. If you have a Windows computer, you can click on a Sphere game and the browser will download the game to a dedicated position on your computer. If its your first time it'll also download the Sphere engine as well. After that it;ll automatically unpack and play the game. An engine window will pop up and there you go. Have fun!

The link to this list can be found here: http://eggbertx.theoks.net/sphere.php

I was waiting until he polished the system until I told anyone outside of the community. Please be patient as some games may take minutes to download depending on your internet connection. He could not get a progress bar to appear, but a console window will walk through the steps.

Anyways, just thought I'd share a neat method of making indie games easier to play.

moderation notes on gamepages

Wikipedia comes to mind.

1. If a game doesn't have enough screenshots a mod/program could add a warning statement (an image/text, usually) stating that the page needs more screenshots (like at least 4).

2. If a game is of a certain genre but the tags don't specify that genre (like "jokegame") then it merits this warning.

3. If not enough is said on a game-page, it merits a warning.

4. If you share a game title with someone else it gets another warning.

5. If the messages get out of hand it may get a warning.

6. If nothing has been updated for 3 months.

7. If it's for a certain audience, but doesn't flag/tag that as its audience.

This is not a usual warning system. 3 strikes does not mean its out. It works like wikipedia - once the changes are made the warnings are gone. If they persist for a long period of time then its safe to beckon a removal of that game from the website. Say, a 1-3 month timer and if there are at least 2 or 3 long-standing issues. If your game does get removed, then you can feel free to resubmit it.

We CAN'T tell if a game is serious by one initial subjective view. Give a game time. If it lives for a year here without these demerits, then it is a serious game with a serious goal. Otherwise its garbage and should be tossed. This is the simplest method - and everybody wins. It will take a larger moderation team, but that would not hurt at all.

Also, like Wikipedia these don't necessarily need to be given out with expediency. (Wikipedia is only fast cause it has many members), but a casual perusal is good enough for a mod to flag these demerits.

cause of diminished interest in game creation

It's a syndrome called Burnout. It applies to many types of work, and hobbies. Game creation for many will include the necessary requirements for this syndrome to take place. Generally it's caused by long bouts of work and your mind building up this weird notion that the work you have been doing is either "mindless" or "pointless" and therefore you believe there should be no more motivation in it.

To quote the phases of burnout:
- A compulsion to prove oneself
- Working harder
- Neglecting one's own needs
- Displacement of conflicts (the person does not realize the root cause of the distress)
- Revision of values (friends or hobbies are completely dismissed)
- Denial of emerging problems (cynicism and aggression become apparent)
- Withdrawal (reducing social contacts to a minimum, becoming walled off; alcohol or other substance abuse may occur)
- Behavioral changes become obvious to others
- Depersonalization (life becomes a series of mechanical functions)
- Inner emptiness
- Depression
- Burnout syndrome


There is no easy way to relieve the syndrome but a good long break and reduction of your stress levels. A counselor would be a great help in getting back on track or group therapy.

I have personally try to prevent this by not working like a badger for long bouts of time and work at small bits here and there on my game.

You know what... All those great games with neat graphics and music that we all want finished someday fall victim to this. If those game creators stopped and slowed down rather than try to *prove themselves*, they would have had a better chance at succeeding in the long run.

This is like a warning to anyone who is currently creating their game like mad. Slow down and don't suffer from this syndrome! Thank you.

Bug Tracker

Hey, it would be neat to have a simple form on your game page that tracks issues. Say you have a team of play testers and they have limited access to your "game page". They could then upload a bug or issue by filling out a simple form and hitting submit. Then it gets cataloged in a sub-section where I can read them and make the appropriate changes.

I think this site could do with a little more hands on approach to game design, don't you think? I've been using SourceForge as a bug tracker, but it's really for more open source projects and I don't think it should be included with stuff from RMN... Because most projects are already hosted here. So why not add a Bug Tracker into the mix?

I have no clue how hard it would be, but getting screenshots, game uploads, lockers, and blogs running would seem like a harder task than a simple form + submission button.

Also I say "limited access" because I don't want people spamming randomly the issue button. It's ideally for play testers... But I guess it could be open to anyone besides playtesters. The submissions could have a "remove" button so that the game admin, like me, could just remove and filter out the weird requests, or the completed requests.

How long should a game take to make?

My heart tells me: As long as it takes, but my brain tells me: Whenever is feasible.

These two thoughts just tear at my consciousness whenever I lay down a freaking tile. See, I've been working at my Blockman project here for months, but there would be long, very long periods of time where I don't do anything at all. Do you guys have similar experiences?

The problem is that mapping and story become very monotonous, even if the mapping and story (I believe) are very good. I figure that if I go faster I make a crappier project. I have a lot done, but then I realize the more I work on it I have far less than I thought.

It's quite daunting, really. It's not that I'm adding too much unnecessary things. I mean, it's things like shops, player status screens, and a working inventory. I must program these from scratch and make them error free and smooth to use.

I can get this project done, but I hate seeing it gather dust here for long bouts of time. It's as if I'm not working on it or that its somehow on hiatus... But its not! What's the best coping strategy? Am I loosing focus too often?

Forum posts

When I am on campus at my university I use my laptop quite frequently. When I am bored I may come here. Whenever I do, the posts do not update with my login, as in, a topic I already read on one computer is marked unread on this laptop, making me believe I never read it since. When I do read it, I end up reading what I already read with nothing new added. Making it hard to discern what was already posted or not.

I think cookies are to blame, but other forum sites do not do this. Shouldn't your account save a timestamp of when you were last active, and then using that to compare recently added posts in topics?

(If it does store a timestamp, both computers have equal time, I just checked).

Radnen From Spherical

Hey, dudes I came here for the compo Game Chill '09, but never realized how active this community was. I already have a game page up for Blockman (I hope I'm not stealing another persons title), so some might recognize that.

Anyways, a little about myself:

I like to make my own tilesets. I like to make music ( I suck, but sometimes I make something decent), and I like to make games.

(I think many of you here are from GW, so you may know me as Feek. If you remember that I was a douchebag, then brownie points!) :)
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