Game Critique Circle?
Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Game Critique Circle?
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| I've been thinking about gathering some feedback recently and I'm struggling a little bit. It's easy enough to find people who will put their hand up to play your game but not necessarily people who will give useful feedback. Often you'll get players who just don't understand development and expect to play a fully finished and fun game rather than something that's broken or just a tech test. So, I was wondering if any devs here would be interested in being part of a mutual test/feedback group where we could help each other out with shared test resources/knowledge. I'm not entirely sure of the best way to run it. This forum probably isn't well suited due to its accessibility. Can Google+ do private circles? Email list, perhaps? I'm open to ideas. Even if you're not up for some sort of ongoing group if you'd be willing to help me out with some testing soonish then let me know. I'm looking for some basic Android compatibility/performance checks first and then gameplay stuff over the next few weeks. Badly shot video of the game in progress below so you can see if it's of interest. |
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| Interesting observation, and I think a test group will be very handy! I have an Android 2.2 LG OptimusOne and a tablet A4.1 to test if you want. I dont use G+ (or other social network); I still think a simple forum with Post & Reply is the better solution (ie: different problems, different platforms and so on...) |
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| I'd be up for being involved in this, and would be happy to host a private forum on my server if there was enough interest. I only have access to iOS devices though. |
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| I am interested in this, I'm in a number of indie groups on facebook and google+, one of the facebook groups I'm in have been posting stuff like this asking for feedback so people are doing this already and in my experience the whole thing works quite well. I think using facebook, or google+ would be the best bet, as it allows for some really simple and nice features, it will also allow you to reach out to a lot more indie developers who might not use monkey or even know of it. You might consider simply folding into an existing group as well which would instantly increase your access to skilled people. Having it on a Private forum some where, might be cool as well, but I would personally not visit it very often, I already have way to many pages bookmarked and open when my browser boots. |
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| Sounds like something id be interested in, FYI I have the following Devices Nexus 7 (4.2) and Samsung S3 mini (4.1) |
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| Taiphoz, that doesn't make sense mate - Google+ or Facebook will use the same space (a tab) in your browser as a forum page, so I don't understand why you would use one but not the other? |
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| G+ and others are alot more um.. well there are apps that will update us when there is something going on which is nice. |
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| Well, I can make a section in the Monkey G+ community for testing/critiqueing in development games! Just let me know. |
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| There's a "Monkey G+ community"? |
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| rIKmAN it makes perfect sense when I already have tabs for facebook and G+ meaning that I wouldnt need to open another for this group/forum. G+ monkey community. https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114431471645431140083 small but fairly active. |
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| I've got no problem joining with an existing group rather than creating one. I'm just looking for a group of active devs rather than having to trawl for random people on Reddit where most responders just want to have a play of a new game and don't even give basic "It works" feedback. I'll check out the G+ group. Maybe that plus a simple request for testers here would do for now. |
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| I have pretty good array of devices and I would be willing to help. As for Android, see sig plus I recently bought a Galaxy S4. |
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| That is quite a collection. Trying to think of an easy way to collate data on who has what. Google Doc spreadsheet, maybe? |
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| That would be good. Especially if something is out in the wild and a user is reporting problems with a certain device, we could figure out who here has it too and have them test it. |
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| Muddy I will help but I am not interested in a critique group, my critique group will be the public. From that video your game looks pretty good and is certainly innovative but with that engine I think you are missing an opportunity to make a very fast run and jump platformer. I question whether that game mechanic is fun. You could have a physics based Sonic. Is your mechanic more fun than that would be? I also question interrupting the motion and having the motion be momentumless, if it is. The Sonic mechanic is also low hanging fruit because a lot of the fun finding work has been done for you. You on the other hand have an engine but your game design is at a very early stage. Think of what ten year olds want on Saturday morning when they are jacked up on Froot Loops. I have all kinds of innovative, crazy ideas but at the end of the day I think kids want to see a cartoon animal run around. Of course I am being sort of a wet blanket here. I am more interested in selling product to make a living than I am in breaking new ground, and that's kind of sad. |
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| I'd go for a Facebook private group. It would be easier to post stuff there just for us blitzers (monkeyrs?), and wouldn't even need a "device list" on my opinion... |
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| Thanks for the feedback. The motion isn't momentum-less and the interruption on touch mechanic is important as some elements of the level keep moving. The idea is to get more interaction value from that single touch/drag control. I'm honestly not sure how much fun it will be for anyone in particular. It's certainly not for twitch junkies. |
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| Anywhere for me to join ? Sign upto yet ? |
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| I posted something up on the G+ group and got a bit of feedback so I'll probably just keep trying to use that. I figure if the G+ group doesn't work as a venue then there's probably not enough interest anyway. |
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| Yeah I like G+.. You know what would be cool tho, a system where a dev uploads a build, then users can download it, the system would register the users download, and if they do not post a feedback within say 24 hours they gain a -1 point, users with a bad rating would then get locked out from downloading anything new, it would encourage people to actually post feedback if they wanted to keep getting new builds to test. Could even reward those users with a high rating with their name in the credits or something. /me wanders off pondering the php involved. |
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