Fengol
05-11-2009, 07:40 AM
http://devmag.org.za/articles/307-COMPETITION-23-RESULTS/
Competition 23 (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11655) ruffled a few feathers when it was announced: Apparently marketing an existing game is not something that many developers really want to think about, preferring instead to keep writing new and interesting prototypes and games for themselves. It's not hard to see why this would be the case though, that fascinating process of "finding the fun" is the thing that most of us enjoy about game design, after all. But it's equally not hard to see the unfortunate ramifications of this reluctance to think about your games' exposure?€?
It's as simple as this: Games that don't get seen don't get played. How are you supposed to create a better game with limited feedback? How are you supposed to test your game's compatibilities with limited systems available to test on? And finally, how are you supposed to keep doing this if no new people see your games? (We all know that the real joy of creation lies in witnessing other people's discovery of your work)
With this in mind, I asked the three Competition 23 winners to each write up what they learned on their venture into this strange and confusing new world of telling people what they did!
Third * Andre "Fengol" Odendaal's already much touted Left 4 Dead: The Card Game (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11663) not only won Comp 22 (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11642), but claimed third in Comp 23 as well by dint of some last minute ninja marketing and extreme play sessions at the rAge show floor!
Second * Megan "Dammit" Hughes took second place by getting TF2 ?€“ Goldrush Puzzle Game (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11662) visible on various forums (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11237075#post11237075), starting a blog, poking people on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Fortress-2-Goldrush-Puzzler/149885407118) and seriously rocking Twitter.
First * Rodain "Nandrew" Joubert's intricate and addictive Onslaught of the Electric Zombies (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11460) (or OOTEZ, as we started calling it over the rAge weekend) stole first place by really generating audible pings in quite a few places around the web, not least of which Indiegames.com (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/09/update_onslaught_of_the_electr.html) and Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25207).
Competition 23 (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11655) ruffled a few feathers when it was announced: Apparently marketing an existing game is not something that many developers really want to think about, preferring instead to keep writing new and interesting prototypes and games for themselves. It's not hard to see why this would be the case though, that fascinating process of "finding the fun" is the thing that most of us enjoy about game design, after all. But it's equally not hard to see the unfortunate ramifications of this reluctance to think about your games' exposure?€?
It's as simple as this: Games that don't get seen don't get played. How are you supposed to create a better game with limited feedback? How are you supposed to test your game's compatibilities with limited systems available to test on? And finally, how are you supposed to keep doing this if no new people see your games? (We all know that the real joy of creation lies in witnessing other people's discovery of your work)
With this in mind, I asked the three Competition 23 winners to each write up what they learned on their venture into this strange and confusing new world of telling people what they did!
Third * Andre "Fengol" Odendaal's already much touted Left 4 Dead: The Card Game (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11663) not only won Comp 22 (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11642), but claimed third in Comp 23 as well by dint of some last minute ninja marketing and extreme play sessions at the rAge show floor!
Second * Megan "Dammit" Hughes took second place by getting TF2 ?€“ Goldrush Puzzle Game (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11662) visible on various forums (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11237075#post11237075), starting a blog, poking people on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Fortress-2-Goldrush-Puzzler/149885407118) and seriously rocking Twitter.
First * Rodain "Nandrew" Joubert's intricate and addictive Onslaught of the Electric Zombies (http://forums.tidemedia.co.za/nag/showthread.php?t=11460) (or OOTEZ, as we started calling it over the rAge weekend) stole first place by really generating audible pings in quite a few places around the web, not least of which Indiegames.com (http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/09/update_onslaught_of_the_electr.html) and Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25207).