@dgackey said:
BBEnk it's something new we're working on with them. A channel on any Android devices that can access the Amazon store. We'll be promoting top Arcade games and developers there.
GameSalad and Amazon seem to be getting along quite well.
Looks cool, quick question: Are there any geographical restrictions for the prizes? I'm from the UK. I had a quick read of the rules and couldn't see if this had been mentioned there. However it's late and I'm tired so I may have missed it.
Just curious.... In the image is says "Every submission gets one free month of Pro" but if you keep reading it says "all approved game entries get a free month".
Which one is it?
@dgackey said:
All games submitted need to be designed for and tested on touch devices as well as desktop browsers.
What about controls? If nature of the game demands it's controls to be designed for computer OR touch, which control scheme should I choose? Or the game like this simply do not qualify?
@imGua said:
What about controls? If nature of the game demands it's controls to be designed for computer OR touch, which control scheme should I choose?
I think it needs to work for both, looking at the rules. Is there now way to implement a secondary control scheme?
@dgackey said: the theme will be factored in to the judging of the Game Jam winners, but that has no bearing on the overall sweepstakes chances. So if your game had no connection to the theme at all, you'd potentially miss out on some bragging rights, a forum badge and a year of pro. But you could still win the sweepstakes with that game and get a year of Pro and $1000, so there's plenty of ways to win
I see this as quite problematic, to be frank.
Based on that, it is much better to spit out 10 unrelated shovel-ware games and submit them, since it is a sweepstake, only number counts, not quality. And you also get the better prize for this. The best game (one winner per category), being best meaning that the person probably put some proper work into it, gets one year of GS PRO free and some exposure. That's a great prize, not complaining. BUT...and it's a big BUT: if you make ten uninspired games (say, quickly re-skinning a template ten times), you get ten chances to win one year of GS PRO free PLUS a thousand bucks. It's quite easy to see which of those is a better time investment -- and that's what I find problematic.
Personally, I would think that all the games eligible to win should be at least clearly related to one of the themes. Hey, yes, it's a sweepstake, so it might be a worse game than some of the others submitted, and that's fine, that's the nature of sweepstakes. But at least make the people go to the effort of thinking how to incorporate the theme into their games, if they won't design the games with the theme in mind from the ground up.
@Gamelover456 said:
submitted Minigame Survival, Crush The Button, and Christmas Trivia 2 for the contest. Will submit the rest of my game collection tomorrow.
That is not to say anything about the quality of those games. But the fact that you can submit your entire portfolio of unrelated games and have a better chance of winning, it just feels contrary to the spirit of what a Game Jam is supposed to be about.
Now, I understand the point of this incentive is also to get a lot of new games up on Arcade...but still.
In the end, it is your competition of course, and the rules will be what you set them to be. Nonetheless, here are two suggestions how this would make more sense to me:
A ) -- more radical approach
Require all games to be related to the theme in order to be eligible for the sweepstake prizes. People who upload and submit games with unrelated themes will still get the one month of PRO per submission, so there is plenty of incentive for everyone to take part. If the game selected by the sweepstake algorithm came up with a game clearly not related to the themes, you would simply discard it and draw again.
B ) -- less radical approach
Switch the prizes around and leave all games eligible to win in the sweepstakes. Select the top three games for each category. It would work like this:
Competition (two rounds):
1st place: Year of PRO + $1000
2nd place: Year of PRO + $500
3rd place: Kindle Fire 8.9” HDX
Sweepstakes:
6x Year of PRO
This way, you still give away 8x Year of PRO, so that stays the same. You do give away an extra $1000, since you will have two first place winners, but you could possibly reduce the cash prizes if that is a problem. You save on one HDX. If you are getting a set amount of 3 HDX tablets from Amazon, then you could make a poll, where people could vote between the top four games (all 1st and 2nd places) for their favorite game and that person would get the last HDX.
This way, you actually reward the people who put effort into the games related to the theme, and THAT is really one of the main purposes of a Game Jam.
I concur with the concern about the theme. What's the point of having a timed, themed contest if you're accepting all entries, regardless of quality or relevancy? The person with the biggest game collection will be the one most likely to win, and unfortunately, that'll most likely result in your arcade being flooded with clones and low quality fare.
@LiquidGameworks said:
I concur with the concern about the theme. What's the point of having a timed, themed contest if you're accepting all entries, regardless of quality or relevancy? The person with the biggest game collection will be the one most likely to win, and unfortunately, that'll most likely result in your arcade being flooded with clones and low quality fare.
I'm all for @phGhost's second suggestion. Only theme-meeting games are eligible for prizes and sweepstake entry, but all submitted games get a month of Pro.
Either that, or your entry into the sweepstakes is one entry per user, no matter how many games you submit.
@dgackey said:
[quote]The agreement also seems to give GS/Amazon complete and unlimited rights to use and distribute the winning games as they see fit, forever. It doesn't seem to preclude the maker of the game from also distributing the winning game as they themselves see fit[/quote]
Again, it's just boilerplate stuff designed to protect us which is why we explicitly call out the fact in the blog entry that we're requiring the ability to promote the games in Amazon's channels but developers retain all rights to their products.
And yes, a person could enter, win, and do whatever they want with the template, short of removing it prior to the end of the promotion. Our only interest here is in promoting GS on Amazon's platform.
pHghost the theme will be factored in to the judging of the Game Jam winners, but that has no bearing on the overall sweepstakes chances. So if your game had no connection to the theme at all, you'd potentially miss out on some bragging rights, a forum badge and a year of pro. But you could still win the sweepstakes with that game and get a year of Pro and $1000, so there's plenty of ways to win
Im slow with all these legal stuff... But contributing to this otherwise really cool Jam by uploading a game, does it make the game itself public? Meaning any one here on GS can get access to my template, my pics, my music etc? So by uploading an awesome game, that I plan on releasing later on App Store but optimising it for Arcade, any one can then take my project and upload it themselves to which ever App Store they wish? I mean, please tell me Im very, very wrong here. Please. But if it means that ONLY the staff of GS has access to my project, and that I can do whatever I wish with it, then I can live with that. Otherwise... Im not so sure.
@pHghost Its all about numbers. Amazon wants more apps in the App Store regardless of it being half assed games and thats something GS can provide. Amazon won't worry too much on quality until it reaches a million or so apps and do what apple did becoming more picky.
Well, even if you are giving only one month of PRO for every submission, still people are going to submit most of their portfolio and make games for the incentive. They did so with Tizen and Amazon.
The extra prizes would be great for people who put in a bit more into it.
And at the end of the day, as I wrote, it's GameSalad's show. They can do whatever they want. If they decide to stick to the way it's set up, I won't complain about the same thing repeatedly, I just wanted to get the thought out there, because I think it's a shame, the way it is.
I'm taking a break from my current game to play with this.I came up with a concept for 'soaring to new heights" yesterday and last night I put together a prototype of the gameplay. I'm deciding on an art style so monday I can start designing the levels, menus and extras.
I'm planning on publishing this to iOS at the same time.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have been searching the forums for an answer to this. What is the screen size we should be building art for the Game Salad Arcade? Is it 480x320? That just seems so small that I am unsure about it. Thanks in advance!
@wanegroup said:
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have been searching the forums for an answer to this. What is the screen size we should be building art for the Game Salad Arcade? Is it 480x320? That just seems so small that I am unsure about it. Thanks in advance!
Im no expert. Just uploaded a game to Arcade last night. But it seems like you can upload a game to Arcade with another screen size than 480x320. Just go through the Arcade Library, and try out one games, and you´ll see this is the case. I´d recommend you to try uploading with a "mobile device" size rather than the "Arcade size". I noticed that it pretty much zooms in the games 480x320 pixels extremely, to fill your whole browser, and it just looks bad... Really bad. Hmmm...
Comments
@dgackey
GameSalad and Amazon seem to be getting along quite well.
Looks cool, quick question: Are there any geographical restrictions for the prizes? I'm from the UK. I had a quick read of the rules and couldn't see if this had been mentioned there. However it's late and I'm tired so I may have missed it.
I think Basil and I may toss our hats in the ring on this one
Just curious.... In the image is says "Every submission gets one free month of Pro" but if you keep reading it says "all approved game entries get a free month".
Which one is it?
OK.I like Gamesalad,and I agree the rules .now I ues the free version.I want to join the Game jam.SO,HOW my game can be "approved game entries "?
Got it working and enter contest but I can't find on the search Teddy Popins.
I am a GS n00b but this sounds fun so i'll give it a try.
Question:
Does it have to be made for the Kindle platform? or can I make it for any?
What about controls? If nature of the game demands it's controls to be designed for computer OR touch, which control scheme should I choose? Or the game like this simply do not qualify?
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
I think it needs to work for both, looking at the rules. Is there now way to implement a secondary control scheme?
Help, I am not able to submit to Jam. It keeps on asking me to publish to Arcade first. What could be the problem?
Well, you need to publish it to arcade first.
Have you done so?
@dgackey
I'm testing a game of mine on Arcade for submission, but my sounds are not playing! They play fine on the iPhone and when testing in GS Preview...
Hmm...
I see this as quite problematic, to be frank.
Based on that, it is much better to spit out 10 unrelated shovel-ware games and submit them, since it is a sweepstake, only number counts, not quality. And you also get the better prize for this. The best game (one winner per category), being best meaning that the person probably put some proper work into it, gets one year of GS PRO free and some exposure. That's a great prize, not complaining. BUT...and it's a big BUT: if you make ten uninspired games (say, quickly re-skinning a template ten times), you get ten chances to win one year of GS PRO free PLUS a thousand bucks. It's quite easy to see which of those is a better time investment -- and that's what I find problematic.
Personally, I would think that all the games eligible to win should be at least clearly related to one of the themes. Hey, yes, it's a sweepstake, so it might be a worse game than some of the others submitted, and that's fine, that's the nature of sweepstakes. But at least make the people go to the effort of thinking how to incorporate the theme into their games, if they won't design the games with the theme in mind from the ground up.
I got a Q: If I enter a game into the Jam can I use the same game in a Game of the Month?
@dgackey -- Case in point.
That is not to say anything about the quality of those games. But the fact that you can submit your entire portfolio of unrelated games and have a better chance of winning, it just feels contrary to the spirit of what a Game Jam is supposed to be about.
Now, I understand the point of this incentive is also to get a lot of new games up on Arcade...but still.
In the end, it is your competition of course, and the rules will be what you set them to be. Nonetheless, here are two suggestions how this would make more sense to me:
A ) -- more radical approach
Require all games to be related to the theme in order to be eligible for the sweepstake prizes. People who upload and submit games with unrelated themes will still get the one month of PRO per submission, so there is plenty of incentive for everyone to take part. If the game selected by the sweepstake algorithm came up with a game clearly not related to the themes, you would simply discard it and draw again.
B ) -- less radical approach
Switch the prizes around and leave all games eligible to win in the sweepstakes. Select the top three games for each category. It would work like this:
Competition (two rounds):
1st place: Year of PRO + $1000
2nd place: Year of PRO + $500
3rd place: Kindle Fire 8.9” HDX
Sweepstakes:
6x Year of PRO
This way, you still give away 8x Year of PRO, so that stays the same. You do give away an extra $1000, since you will have two first place winners, but you could possibly reduce the cash prizes if that is a problem. You save on one HDX. If you are getting a set amount of 3 HDX tablets from Amazon, then you could make a poll, where people could vote between the top four games (all 1st and 2nd places) for their favorite game and that person would get the last HDX.
This way, you actually reward the people who put effort into the games related to the theme, and THAT is really one of the main purposes of a Game Jam.
I had published. But still had the error message. Anyway, I has submitted a ticket to gamesalad for help.
Yes, I am having the issue now as well.
Maybe it has to do with the percentages you had to fulfill in order to be Arcade eligible? They recently disappeared.
Also, have you tried it again now? I can see your game on the Arcade now (the one with the baloon?).
i am having the same issue. i think we need the "JAM" to glue game"salad" Arcade together. hehehe
I concur with the concern about the theme. What's the point of having a timed, themed contest if you're accepting all entries, regardless of quality or relevancy? The person with the biggest game collection will be the one most likely to win, and unfortunately, that'll most likely result in your arcade being flooded with clones and low quality fare.
I'm all for @phGhost's second suggestion. Only theme-meeting games are eligible for prizes and sweepstake entry, but all submitted games get a month of Pro.
Either that, or your entry into the sweepstakes is one entry per user, no matter how many games you submit.
Contact me for custom work - Expert GS developer with 15 years of GS experience - Skype: armelline.support
Im slow with all these legal stuff... But contributing to this otherwise really cool Jam by uploading a game, does it make the game itself public? Meaning any one here on GS can get access to my template, my pics, my music etc? So by uploading an awesome game, that I plan on releasing later on App Store but optimising it for Arcade, any one can then take my project and upload it themselves to which ever App Store they wish? I mean, please tell me Im very, very wrong here. Please. But if it means that ONLY the staff of GS has access to my project, and that I can do whatever I wish with it, then I can live with that. Otherwise... Im not so sure.
/Seb
@pHghost Its all about numbers. Amazon wants more apps in the App Store regardless of it being half assed games and thats something GS can provide. Amazon won't worry too much on quality until it reaches a million or so apps and do what apple did becoming more picky.
Fortuna Infortuna Forti Una
Hello, I will not let me post it as Public Game, in Arcade platform. Automatically switches to private...
Once its published click on public. Dont publish it again afterwards
✮ FREE templates at GSinvention ✮
✮ Available for hire! support@gsinvention.com ✮
Thanks for this!
Well, even if you are giving only one month of PRO for every submission, still people are going to submit most of their portfolio and make games for the incentive. They did so with Tizen and Amazon.
The extra prizes would be great for people who put in a bit more into it.
And at the end of the day, as I wrote, it's GameSalad's show. They can do whatever they want. If they decide to stick to the way it's set up, I won't complain about the same thing repeatedly, I just wanted to get the thought out there, because I think it's a shame, the way it is.
i hope i can enter in this promo ...
I'm taking a break from my current game to play with this.I came up with a concept for 'soaring to new heights" yesterday and last night I put together a prototype of the gameplay. I'm deciding on an art style so monday I can start designing the levels, menus and extras.
I'm planning on publishing this to iOS at the same time.
Send and Receive Data using your own Server Tutorial! | Vote for A Long Way Home on Steam Greenlight! | Ten Years Left
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I have been searching the forums for an answer to this. What is the screen size we should be building art for the Game Salad Arcade? Is it 480x320? That just seems so small that I am unsure about it. Thanks in advance!
iOS Apps/Games: Factoids | SkyGunner | TriSideX
Im no expert. Just uploaded a game to Arcade last night. But it seems like you can upload a game to Arcade with another screen size than 480x320. Just go through the Arcade Library, and try out one games, and you´ll see this is the case. I´d recommend you to try uploading with a "mobile device" size rather than the "Arcade size". I noticed that it pretty much zooms in the games 480x320 pixels extremely, to fill your whole browser, and it just looks bad... Really bad. Hmmm...