Messages

Wonderful wonderful albums, I have those exact two

ah, that made my day

qptain nemo:
I quite like the idea, as it would probably generate lots of inspiration for those who tend to get stuck at certain points in their game-making.
So everyone starts from scratch, then they must regularly show up the required progress or lose? And the one with the most progress after - say - 6 months wins? Or will it go on until only one person updates, and he/she wins?

Since a lot of trophies went missing after the demise of Neole's web storage service, I thought we could collect all the trophies people have made - and won - so far.
Not only would it be swell to see all the trophies in one thread, it would also allow those eligible for long lost trophies to once again include them in their sigs.

If you've got a trophy picture you've made but lack hosting, email it to me (petterlj at yahoo dot se). If you're already hosting a trophy image, post it here along with the name and date of the competition, and preferably who's eligible for it, if that's not too much to ask for.


I will gather all the contributions into one big trophy compilation.

ok, thanks!

A simple language question, one that I could probably look up elsewhere, but anyways; what's the english word or phrase for adding words to a text, in order to make it appear richer and longer, even though you don't really add more useful information? As in "this presentation is good, but you could [] the text a bit."

Edit:
ah, it sprang to mind now; to pad. Or are there better ways to say it?

[What is the Rating Panel?]

The Rating Panel Information Thread

What is the Rating Panel?
The Rating Panel is essentially a board of forum members that works with cataloguing, maintaining and rating the games in the AGS database. The daily work includes sorting games into the proper categories (genre, length etc) fixing or flagging broken links, rating the games and commenting on them, time permitting.

Who are in the Panel?
I work as coordinator and supervisor of the rating panel project. Progzmax is the current head of the panel.
The rest of the individual Rating Panel members are currently anonymous. This is to prevent coercion and abuse from game authors.

How does the Panel work?
The Panel works on the following premises:
1. Every member records which game he/she has rated in a special thread, along with a motivation. There is no anonymity within the panel.
2. Any rating can be challenged and discussed by fellow panel members.
3. The panel works under the supervision of each other and moderators.
4. The panel members are instructed and trained to rate according to certain guidelines and criteria that have been worked out in beforehand.
5. The panel members do not rate their own games.

What are the rating guidelines?
This is the official Rating Panel document.

Technical Rating
--------------------

1.  Is the game fully playable (can you complete the game without crashing or other severe bugs)?
2.  Are the puzzles and other gameplay elements competently designed and logical?
3.  Are the controls obvious or explained either by a readme or in-game tutorial?
4.  Is the language comprehensible enough to complete the game without confusion and/or difficulty?

Art/Music Rating
--------------------

1.  Are the sprite assets and animations original and in a style consistent with the rest of the game?
2.  Are the backgrounds original and in a style consistent with the rest of the game?
3.  Is the music original and in a style consistent with the rest of the game?
4.  Are the sound effects original and in a style consistent with the rest of the game?

Story Rating
---------------
1.  Is the story engrossing or thought provoking?
2.  Are the characters (and particularly the protagonist) engaging, with unique personalities and motivations?
3.  Do the characters and story elements remain consistent throughout the game?
4.  Is the dialogue engaging and consistent with the characters?

Gameplay Rating
---------------------
1.  Are the controls easy to learn?
2.  Is the user interface easy to understand and use?
3.  Is the game challenging without being punishing?
4.  Overall, is the game an enjoyable experience?

There is no mathematical function to decide the number of cups, but basically a game with 5 cups have only one or two no's. To achieve 2 cups at least half of the criteria must be met.


Why is my game so poorly rated?
First of all, it probably isn't. These ratings do not follow a typical bell shape diagram; very few games are awarded 4 cups, and only a handful have thus far earned 5 cups. Most games that are considered worth playing get 2 and 3 cups.

It's hard to be objective when you assess your own creation. Instead of getting upset, try to turn the c&c into something productive. With the right mindset, the Panel rating should be considered a useful tool.

Can a particular rating be appealed?
Yes, you can PM me, Andail, and state your case. As with any jury, judge or similar instance, it's unlikely that the Panel will revise their rating, but you're welcome to voice your opinion.

You can also demand that the Panel give you a more specified motivation for a particular rating. The Panel will try to formulate a longer comment to justify the rating.

Can I discuss the guidelines or rules pertaining to the rating?
Yes. But bear in mind that this project is ultimately sanctioned by CJ. This is his board, and you are using his program to make games that you publish on his site. Not everyone can have their saying. Everyone is bound to have different opinions, but not every single one of the thousands of game authors can ever be pleased.

Please remember to take the rating with a pinch of salt. At the end of the day, this is a way to bring order to the vast database.

Can I be a member of the Panel?
You may apply via a PM to me or Progzmax, but mind that the rotation of panelists is very slow.
It is required of panelists that
* They have been part of the AGS community for 2 years or more
* They are trusted, and not prone to cause controversy or violate forum policies
* They can set aside enough time - each panelist needs to play through several games every week to keep up
* They can sit for at least 4-6 months, to ensure consistent and fair ratings

Thank you for your attention.

Many languages have up to twelve "original" names for numbers, and then start combining the name parts for 13 and upwards, which may indicate some sort of early idea of implementing a base 12 system.
If it wasn't for this fact, the "teens" would start at eleven...

Jon, please don't tell me that was an intentional pun...

Thanks! Still fresh in my twenties!

I've also heard they eat magpies alive.

So I should have a demo available in roughly 40~50 years.

For your information, statements like that are not perceived as ironic around here.

Nacho, please don't tell me that you think Berlosconi is better than Zapatero

I've had some unanswered questions floating in my mind lately, but now I can only come up with two of them.

The first one is:
In the Simpsons Episode Lisa the beauty queen, Bart (who is, for some reason, supposed to be an expert on beauty and make-overs) confidently offers his advice on how to turn Lisa into a potential winner of the beauty pageant. He finishes off with something like "and then I will teach her the ancient art of petting".
Is this a joke that doesn't translate well, or am I just hearing wrong, but to me it sounds really disturbing that Bart would teach his sister the art of petting. I guess this incestuous concept would be funny in a South Park kind of way, but in a Simpsons episode it doesn't really make any sense to me.

The other one is:
In Led Zeppelin's All of my love, Robert Plant sings "Proud Aryan one word, my will to sustain". What is this supposed to mean? To my knowledge, Plant isn't a racist, or a neo-nazi for that matter, and I doubt he had the original Indo-Iranian meaning in mind. A weird place to find the word "Aryan" either way.

Any thoughts?

Hey there. You'll be the second Darth among our ranks.
You seem to have plenty of experience within the graphics field, looking forward to seeing your stuff.

I understand that the white in your picture represents snow, but what is the red X? An emergency flare?

[As for the future sprite-jams]

This discussion has taken an unproportionate amount of thread-space, so I'd like to settle it for now.

Loominous, I have a very hard time understanding why this is such an issue for you.

When you went to art class, were you never instructed to take different - sometimes very demanding - paths to reach the end product? Sometimes you painted negative space, sometimes you were restricted to using only the palette knife, sometimes the reference image was turned upside down.

In the same sense (since you used the football allegory yourself, and said how it would suck if your goals suddenly didn't count for no apparent reason), a football coach might, during a training session, instruct the players as follows: To practice passing, they will advance towards the goal in pairs, make two square passes and then shoot at the goal. Imagine that one player persisted in shooting directly at the goal without passing first, claiming that "a goal is always a goal" and ignoring that there is a pedagogical aspect involved.

My best art classes weren't about everyone trying to achieve as impressive a painting as possible, using their favourite technique (and then compare the results); they were about being challenged, brought out of balance, and then grow from there.

As for the future sprite-jams
We have to try to be objective here, and see to the interest of this community and the setup of competitions. We can only implement so many activities, or the entire board will be dilluted. Just because you think a particular aspect of a competition appears to be missing, and deserves a competition of its own, doesn't mean there will be a healthy amount of participation in that off-shoot over time.

I definitely think that the open nature of the sprite jams is enough to cater for every possible technique and genre over time, but not each time.

As a moderator I would like to end this discussion for now, and simply encourage the future winners to bring variation to the jams, but not resort to some kind of compliant "just paint your favourite picture!" to appease as many as possible.

Now, give room for other debates in this thread. If you can't stand the rules in the next jam, please just refrain from posting and wait for the next one. Or better still, challenge yourself and enter anyway.

Even, that second picture reminded me of Rodekill.
Oh and is that a Blade Runner poster to the left?

Good job, Blazej!
A thousand norse gratulations from me and my people.
Signed,
The king of Sweden

Nice, Snake, this must your first ever picture here? After all these years

When a pic of ProgZmax?

+1

+1