LudumData

I came here to rate games and chew bubblegum

[raw] LD17LD #17 - Islands - 2010 28. Apr 2010 · 03:27 UTC · 5 days after compo start by TFernando · 0

And I’m all out of games. Anyone got bubblegum? :)

So, since the compo ended I played and rated 172 games. Basically I started with the web games, then went through people I recognized from one or another site… then I started in on my assigned games, and when I finished those I just kinda kept rating…

If I didn’t rate your game it was because:

  • Your game crashed before the title screen, or in the first few seconds after the title screen
  • Your game caused a Blue Screen of Death.
  • Your entry didn’t provide a web version or windows binary when I checked.
  • Your installer failed (XNA only, though most were fine)
  • You required hardware I don’t own. (eg, a gamepad)
  • Your download link was broken/shut down (I checked each of these more than once, sorry I missed you)

    • Some stuff I want to say:

  • Don’t play 172 games in 2.5 days. They start to blend together, and there are some which I probably did not give the time they needed in order to be assessed. (Not -YOURS- dear reader, yours was unique and captivated me ;))
  • XNA guys– I know XNA has dependencies, so it makes sense to use installers. Please stop having those installers put stuff on my desktop and in my start menu. It’s not -difficult- to remove them, it’s just annoying. And I know you don’t HAVE to, because not all the XNA entries did.
  • Flash– You need to have at least a basic preloader. I might think your page just isn’t loading.
  • Flash– Don’t link directly to your swf. Make a dummy html page, and use the embed tag. Or have the game hosted on swfcabin or similar. If you link direct to the swf, there are occasionally scaling issues.
  • Flash– Don’t distribute your swf and call it a windows binary. Or if you do, include an html page that embeds it. Not everybody has a debug/standalone player.
  • Everybody– It’s probably not a great idea to call your .zip archive LD17.zip…
  • Everybody– Please DO indicate on your title screen how to get to the main menu. And if you include a line that says ‘Press the Any-Key to continue’, please make sure the left arrow works. :)

    • (I pick on Flash, because I do Flash.)

    I thought the over all quality of the submissions was really high! I enjoyed making my game, I enjoyed playing all yours! I’m looking forward to doing this again in August!

    -TF

    Comments

    28. Apr 2010 · 03:46 UTC
    Wow, good job! I haven’t even started rating the games yet. Just played a few interesting looking ones.

    I guess you didn’t leave comments for many games. Comments are always nice!
    28. Apr 2010 · 04:16 UTC
    You’re right, of course. But generally, I don’t like to comment if someone else has already said what I was going to say. That goes for games, blog posts, etc..
    28. Apr 2010 · 04:36 UTC
    Awesome job, and thanks for the tips! I always intend to name my zip something sensible – ideally with my name and the game name in there, but this time I just did turtleferry.zip. You’re a credit to the community, thanks so much for supporting everyone!
    snowyowl
    28. Apr 2010 · 05:12 UTC
    I think I’m going to comment on this even though Dock just said everything I wanted to say 😉

    Somebody get this man a trophy!
    smn
    28. Apr 2010 · 12:15 UTC
    My game seems to have fallen into the no-preloader-problem category, then 😀
    28. Apr 2010 · 12:29 UTC
    Quote – “XNA guys- I know XNA has dependencies, so it makes sense to use installers. Please stop having those installers put stuff on my desktop and in my start menu. It’s not -difficult- to remove them, it’s just annoying. And I know you don’t HAVE to, because not all the XNA entries did.”
    28. Apr 2010 · 16:43 UTC
    I also refuse to install games. Time has nothing to do with it. The ease of use of your installer also has nothing to do with it. Installers have gotten a bad reputation in my eyes and that’s why I won’t use them. Would it be so difficult for you to include the game along with your installer? No it wouldn’t, so why not give us both options?
    28. Apr 2010 · 16:44 UTC
    Codexus has pretty much stated my position.
    Osgeld
    28. Apr 2010 · 21:15 UTC
    course if everyone has an installer thats only 3 and a half hours just for installing and uninstalling (for this compo)