SAUCE'S PROFILE

author=Max McGee
The title of a game should differentiate it from every other game and make me want to play it.

"Revelations of Gaia" doesn't do the former, and therefore doesn't do the latter. It's a meaningless title like "Secrets of Mana". "Tales of Falonia" does not tell me anything, because Falonia is a meaningless word to me.

"Revelations" on its own is a pretty alright name, I completely agree with removing the Gaia because it added nothing.

But it's still not a great title; it doesn't really tell you much about the game or how it's different from other games. Every work of fiction by its very nature contains secrets and the revelation of those secrets. It's endemic to the very concept of plot.

Hero's Realm is not a great name for a game, but at least it told me something about it: it hinted that it would be lite fantasy, cheesy, campy.

Titles don't need to tell you anything.

Max Payne tells you absolutely nothing. The name means nothing to anyone who doesn't know who Max Payne is. But there isn't a more appropriate title for that game. He's not just the main character; he's responsible for the entire game experience (particularly the film noir). A more descriptive title for that game, such as Sin City, or NYPD Black, or Genocide Detective, would not do it justice. As a matter of fact, having played the game, a more descriptive title would be much worse.

I can make similar arguments for many titles. However, I won't say a title can't be bad. They can be horrible and without justification. But you can't tell if a title is poor without knowledge of the game.

For example, you already know what Hero's Realm is like. Otherwise, if you heard someone use a similar title for another game, say for example Realm of the Heroes, you'd say that was an awful title. Tells you nothing. Doesn't differentiate itself from other titles. It's meaningless.

For all we know, Tales of Falonia could be the perfect title. Or Revelations of Gaia could be perfect. Probably not, but you don't know.

I don't really want to entertain the idea that the only purpose of a title is to attract consumers. Books, movies, etc need to sell to make more money. Let's not pretend that authors aren't forced to compromise their preferred title or other things in their work/writing for the sake of business. RM is a nonprofit hobby(I think, for most people anyway). Creative freedom all the way, or at least it should be that way.

If the purpose of art is to sell, then Michael Bay is the greatest director of all time.


But I'm talking to some people who start threads on how to gain more attention, questioning how many unethical methods are used to do so, cursing his poor luck at getting more noticed. So, nevermind what I just said. Hook. Attention grabber. Titles are important.



@Ashley
Max wasn't being hostile.

"I mean what kind of jerk is using "Gaia" in the name of their game at this point, how generic can you get?"

He's got a game called Iron Gaia. He was joking.

author=Taharka
Thanks for the compliments, Kentona. I'm glad that you found my original post to be clear and well-written. I'm also glad that you think I'm earnest. I try to be earnest, and I want to be perceived as being earnest. I'm curious and I'd like to ask why you think that me or my post might be naive. I think I'm optimistic. Thanks for wishing me good luck. It feels good to see someone from the community express their support.

Naive as in I'd think you're not likely to find the kind of teammates you've so neatly outlined. Not willing and able, anyway. But I hope you do.

author=supremewarrior
The only way to get exposure of your own games and to get people to play them is to make your games look nice and pretty and advertise them. We all know that ugly games don't get praise even if they happen to excel in other areas of game design.

I tried to sell this idea a few weeks ago. Of course, I have no prior work or demo to support it.

The general response was that people (from experience and for good reason), assume that gamemakers who can't make their game pretty won't excel at the other areas.

My angle was that being a quality gamemaker has nothing to do with 'other' things that are needed for making games.

Like writing. Or... directing. When the gamer isn't actively playing the game, they're watching it. Now, it's a movie, and the gamemaker needs to be a director. And if your directing blows, that emotional death scene you intended might end up winning a razzie instead of an oscar.




@Max
I might be able to give some insight as a newcomer/outsider. It did influence me that a particular person is an active and respected member of the community. This is just because I click on their profiles and see what games they made.

Would I miss hidden gems if I only looked at prominent gamemaker's games? Yeah, of course. But I really don't have the time and energies to do thorough searching. I'd rather mak gam or whatever y'all been saying. I wouldn't be particularly surprised if many lurkers do the same.

I found out three things pretty quickly.
A.) Total number of downloads is a really poor indicator of a game's quality.
B.) It's not the game design concept or whatever that makes a game good. It's the game maker. 100%.
C.) People have vastly different opinions than mine of what they look for in games. So I don't take any recommendations for games seriously.




You come to this site, and there are thousands and thousands of games. You're not gonna play them all. Hell, you're not gonna even look at all their game profiles. How can you expect a potential gamer to get hooked in if they don't even see your gamepage? Stuff like front page links, misaos, features is guaranteed to have an influence.

It's like anything with marketing. Your product may be totally awesome or may be the suck. Either way, no one's gonna try it unless they know it exists first. But that's for most games. As for the uber popular stuff featured on multiple sites, I dunno.

author=Ginseng_Tea
OFF_TOPIC:
Sauce, you are a ridiculous human being.
Might I suggest you step away from the PC and the RM2k for a few days so you can rejoin society by acting in a way that is bearable?
and count your blessings! The praise and comments on your video are good things! Stop biting the hand that helps, you menace!

ON TOPIC:
Visuals are just another piece of the puzzle. Games are a collaborative art form. Each area amplifies the other, resulting in deep immersion.

OFF_TOPIC:
The scene took me 3 days to make. I'm so graphically challenged, the weapon poses you see in the cutscene, all 6 of them, took me longer to make than the scene itself. If I attempted to go back and make my game's graphics match community standards, it'd take me 3 years minimum. Not how I wanna spend my hobby time. I make rpgs because it's fun. If nobody likes it, oh well.

As for biting the hand that helps, I haven't gotten too much help. I got active on rmn hoping to learn something from experienced gamemakers. Pick their brains a little. Hasn't worked out. At this point, I can't even ask someone where they got their music from without being accused of stealing their work (without even having my game on the internet). But that's WAY offtopic.

ON TOPIC:

I had a Philly cheesesteak. Belly filler. Provolone. Usually get American, but my choices were provolone or cheez whiz.

You think it'd make more sense to turn this into a single game? Something like those community puzzle games.

Each submission becomes a vignette of a holiday story that's strung together like one of those Garry Marshall ensemble cast holiday movies.

Or you could make a living room with an open fireplace. Every main character from the submissions is IN the room, minding their own business, drinking eggnog, etc. The player can walk around and talk to them to start that particular story/game.