Apologies if this is in the wrong place as it's not in itself a competition thread. I envisage it being stickied at the top of the board but if mods think it belongs in gen-gen, that's fine.
Basically. MAGS needs more participants. I know everyone's busy, myself included but I'm getting increasingly disheartened by the lack of entries.
However, instead of blaming people for having lives outside AGS I want to think of ways we can increase levels of participation, in the form of suggestions and advice.
Here are a few ideas. Feel free to discuss these and add some ideas of your own:
More teams - If you have an idea but think you'll be busy, make a team. Team games are always welcome and the games borne from teams and parnerships are always really good. The thread itself is a great place to offer and ask for help. Also try IRC, Discord, Twitter. Some folks who don't often check the thread might be willing to partner up if you approach them outside the forum.
More general themes - I used to say this in the PMs I sent to winners about choosing a topic. More simple themes/topics almost always produce more participation and more finished games. Clever concepts with extra rules always look great on paper and always garner a lot of early interest, but these are also the ones which ultimately produce fewer entries.
Go small. No. Smaller than that. No no. Like you've only got 30 days. The number of MAGS games which don't see the light of day because they were too ambitious is quite shocking. I try to be lenient with extensions but I can't always honor them and to be frank, if you're still making the first draft of your game on the last day, you're doing it wrong. Give yourself a pre-deadline, like a week before the main one. Spend the last few days making sure the game is bug free and pretty.
Let's MMAGSGA (make MAGS great again)
Basically. MAGS needs more participants. I know everyone's busy, myself included but I'm getting increasingly disheartened by the lack of entries.
However, instead of blaming people for having lives outside AGS I want to think of ways we can increase levels of participation, in the form of suggestions and advice.
Here are a few ideas. Feel free to discuss these and add some ideas of your own:
More teams - If you have an idea but think you'll be busy, make a team. Team games are always welcome and the games borne from teams and parnerships are always really good. The thread itself is a great place to offer and ask for help. Also try IRC, Discord, Twitter. Some folks who don't often check the thread might be willing to partner up if you approach them outside the forum.
More general themes - I used to say this in the PMs I sent to winners about choosing a topic. More simple themes/topics almost always produce more participation and more finished games. Clever concepts with extra rules always look great on paper and always garner a lot of early interest, but these are also the ones which ultimately produce fewer entries.
Go small. No. Smaller than that. No no. Like you've only got 30 days. The number of MAGS games which don't see the light of day because they were too ambitious is quite shocking. I try to be lenient with extensions but I can't always honor them and to be frank, if you're still making the first draft of your game on the last day, you're doing it wrong. Give yourself a pre-deadline, like a week before the main one. Spend the last few days making sure the game is bug free and pretty.
Let's MMAGSGA (make MAGS great again)