GamePress Greatest Game Competition

VPrime

Hi guys,

We just announced our "Greatest Game Competition".
The goal is to create the best game by November 1st using GamePress. First place wins a PS4.



Check out www.gamepressapp.com to download GamePress for free and start making (and playing) some great games!

ambershee

a) That's only five weeks away.
b) That's not really much of a prize for the theoretical work involved.
c) The product website is terrible; poor layout with absolutely no information whatsoever. The reasons for this are manifold; there's no navigation (there's nothing to navigate to), and whilst the 1 1/2 minute youtube video is reasonable, that's all there is to see. What are the random red buttons really about - why should I click on them to see a line of text each? I would not download this product from that website.

d) The blog on the website admits the app has a crippling bug that will delete your games dated one week ago!

and last of all

e) Polycount is a 3d artist community - I'm not sure this is all that relevant here (how many of us want to make simple 2d games on an iPad?).


As the app stands, it does genuinely look like a pretty reasonable gamemaker with a fairly large feature set; but you're presenting yourself really badly and it doesn't come across well to me at all. The app looks good enough to sell itself quite happily, but you need to work on how you're presenting it - there's not even a page on your site talking about it's features, there are no screenshots, and there's no documentation, which is something most people who would want to use it might want!

Obviously this sounds very negative, but hopefully you can take something useful away from it.

VPrime

ambershee wrote: »

a) That's only five weeks away.
b) That's not really much of a prize for the theoretical work involved.
c) The product website is terrible; poor layout with absolutely no information whatsoever. The reasons for this are manifold; there's no navigation (there's nothing to navigate to), and whilst the 1 1/2 minute youtube video is reasonable, that's all there is to see. What are the random red buttons really about - why should I click on them to see a line of text each? I would not download this product from that website.

d) The blog on the website admits the app has a crippling bug that will delete your games dated one week ago!

and last of all

e) Polycount is a 3d artist community - I'm not sure this is all that relevant here (how many of us want to make simple 2d games on an iPad?).


As the app stands, it does genuinely look like a pretty reasonable gamemaker with a fairly large feature set; but you're presenting yourself really badly and it doesn't come across well to me at all. The app looks good enough to sell itself quite happily, but you need to work on how you're presenting it - there's not even a page on your site talking about it's features, there are no screenshots, and there's no documentation, which is something most people who would want to use it might want!

Obviously this sounds very negative, but hopefully you can take something useful away from it.

Thanks for the feedback.. But we're a small team of 3 and there is only so much we can focus on. Our time and efforts went into the application.


That bug listed in the blog has already been fixed in the current version of the app store.

I understand that Polycount is a 3D community, but there are a lot of people who do 2D artwork as well (check out the pixel art thread in pimping and previews)

As for the prize, the contest is meant to be in good fun. Also, again for a team of 3 that has developed a completely free iPad app with zero funding or outside resources it really is all we can afford.

edit: Also, regarding the deadline only being 5 weeks away.. We held a 4 hour hackathon while in beta where we had people who never used the app, or any experience with game development make some great games to win an iPad. So I think 5 weeks is plenty of time to make something really cool.

ambershee

To be honest, any prize is better than no prize

But yeah, no matter how good your product is, half your product is still in the marketing. You've got a decent looking application, so don't let it down by being slack in other places that count!

Snader

ambershee wrote: »

a) That's only five weeks away.
b) That's not really much of a prize for the theoretical work involved.

It's not too bad for something that (what I think) amounts to as much work as building a level in LittleBigPlanet.

ambershee wrote: »

e) Polycount is a 3d artist community - I'm not sure this is all that relevant here (how many of us want to make simple 2d games on an iPad?).

Quite a few, I'd reckon, actually. Most of us here are interested in 3D via games, not interested in games via 3D. I think everyone of us at some point has had a dream of making their own game instead of something ordered from above. Small 2D games are a slight chance at starting to live that dream.



In regards to the website though, yes it is severely lacking in information. The amount of info on it is what's commonly called a microsite, which would be enough info for just a contest, but not enough for the app itself. It looks like you're using tumblr for the blog, not sure if that allows for several kinds of pages/categories, but I suggest you add some more things; tutorials and created games in particular.

Lastly, one thing is suspicious by omission: nowhere is said anything about exporting games?


edit: right after posting, I thought of this: the 5 week duration for the competition isn't the issue. But people don't know of it yet, which means that some people who aren't aware right now will have an unfair tough position if they read about it two weeks from now. I'd suggest you move the competition into the future (if possible) a bit, gives you some time to spread awareness through social media and such, and then when you've got some exposure, everyone has the same amount of time to work on it.

ambershee

Snader wrote: »

It's not too bad for something that (what I think) amounts to as much work as building a level in LittleBigPlanet.

The competition rules also require you to have unique assets, and encourages you to use as much custom content as possible - it will also require you to compete with people who may have already built games prior to the announcement of the competition. On top of you edit comment, this makes it quite a short time frame indeed.

VPrime

Our site is on the list to get re done. We know it sucks and is lacking info .
Same with documentation, we know its key. There are video tutorials and behaviour references you can access within the app, but they are only the beginning.

The only required part relating to graphics is the icon. The rules and guidelines state that your games *should* include custom graphics. Our intent was mainly that using the included artwork is probably not going to make a unique game.

At this point postponing is not possible since it has already alerted everyone who has installed the app (76,000 installs so far)..
Snader, wouldn't we have the same problem if we postpone the contest as well? Two months from now there will still be people who haven't heard about the app or the contest. Plus if you have the app installed you get a notification the same time as everyone else.


edit: Forgot to address your comment about exporting games. Right now GamePress games can only be shared to the GamePress arcade. This is a community within the app where you can play other users games. Our goal is to create a youtube like community but around games.

We are working on making a publishing service where you can have your games live in the app store. But this will not be an export option because of the closed iOS ecosystem and Apple's tight control of it.

VPrime

Contest deadline is coming up soon!
There is still lots of time to make a great game!
Some cool games so far include an 8bit survival horror side scroller, and a heavy metal endless runner style game.



Oh, and I started updating our site, should have some actual info on it by the end of next week

We also recently partnered with loftinnovation.org, they are offering a fellowship through the entertainment Software Association. This fellowship is open to minorities between the ages of 16-24 and the goal is to create a game to address social issues.

Fellows will receive a $1000 grant, all expenses paid trip to washington DC and more.
To apply you can go to http://www.LoftInnovation.org/Programs

VPrime

We have extended our contest to December 1st!

You can read about the extension on our blog:
http://blog.gamepressapp.com/post/65388776103/greatest-game-challenge-extension

There is still lots of time to take part!

VPrime

Hey everyone we chose the finalists for the challenge and voting is open! Check them out, some really cool games made by users as young as 13 years old! The winners get their games published to the App store and 1st place gets a PS4!

Check out our blog post to see the finalists and their games. Download GamePress from the Appstore to try out the games!

http://blog.gamepressapp.com/post/69868057123/polls-now-open-vote-for-the-winner