Agreeing that no changes should be made to the ongoing compo.
Maybe a way to distinguish gameplay from polish clearer would be to subtitle them a bit more verbosely:
gameplay design and game rules
execution, completedness and polish
the first examines the creative design of the game rules
the second looks at how well things function and how complete they feel
anyway, i'm in favour of balancing art and sound. Not sure why graphics and sound/music would not count as much as design and programming?
on voting
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Re: on voting
I include gameplay in my overall rating, IIRC. For polish, I look for screen transitions, flourishes, etc—anything that's not essential that enhances he experience. Something like Wolfling's camera scrolling system, Miedow's cutscenes, or nonessential sound effects (such as G2's falling sound effect) are what I think of when I think of polish.
- NESHomebrew
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Re: on voting
How about we do this:
Art and Style 10
Sound 10
Polish and Completeness 10
Originality 10
Overall 20
And then reconsider the categories for 2019.
Art and Style 10
Sound 10
Polish and Completeness 10
Originality 10
Overall 20
And then reconsider the categories for 2019.
Re: on voting
I've been thinking about this quite a lot, lately. I usually try to create a full fledged game within 32 or 64K. And I mean a feature-lenght game, or whatever you call it, and that usually means I have to simplify stuff. I wonder if that is taken in account when judges rate the entries. If I spent such 64K on a single, uberpolished level, with lots of eye candy and complex mechanics, would the game get higher ranks? How do you balance this?
My entries often don't have cool transitions of nice game over screens simply because I'm using every single byte in level data. Would you rather have shorter but prettier games?
I've been thinking about this because also I'm quite aware that very nice things I've worked on and added to my games won't ever get noticed as they are in the later levels.
I won't change this, I mean, I like the challenge of cramming a full fledged game in just 32K/64K the best I can, but I'm just curious about what you guys think about the matter.
My entries often don't have cool transitions of nice game over screens simply because I'm using every single byte in level data. Would you rather have shorter but prettier games?
I've been thinking about this because also I'm quite aware that very nice things I've worked on and added to my games won't ever get noticed as they are in the later levels.
I won't change this, I mean, I like the challenge of cramming a full fledged game in just 32K/64K the best I can, but I'm just curious about what you guys think about the matter.
Re: on voting
I don't vote, but I'd rather have shorter and prettier games.
Imagine two entries. One with 40 levels, one with 4. Same amount of development time.
The one with 40 levels is likely going to take more of my time to beat. But I'm actually less likely to enjoy the extra time it will take to beat. While the 40 level game's team was building 36 levels, the 4 level game's team was polishing everything else.
Even outside the context of NES, if a game takes 60 hours, I'm likely to beat it only once. I've played many hour long games 60 times, and greatly prefer it. For every set of game mechanics, there is a cutoff point where new levels stop adding meaningful content.
If I play 60 hour long games, I get 60 sets of game mechanics that don't overstay their welcome. The longer a single game is, the more likely it is to overstay its welcome. Most games released today outlast the new experiences their mechanics provide. At least for me. Less content to consume means that's less likely to happen, and it also means less of my time will be spent finding out if it gets boring.
In short: I'm less likely to think about whether the time playing the game was worth spending if it wasn't a lot of time.
Edit: Simplifying something to get more space is something I'd personally try very hard not to do, because the player is more likely to notice the simplification than they are to notice the absence of content the simplification made room for. Especially in a free game.
Imagine two entries. One with 40 levels, one with 4. Same amount of development time.
The one with 40 levels is likely going to take more of my time to beat. But I'm actually less likely to enjoy the extra time it will take to beat. While the 40 level game's team was building 36 levels, the 4 level game's team was polishing everything else.
Even outside the context of NES, if a game takes 60 hours, I'm likely to beat it only once. I've played many hour long games 60 times, and greatly prefer it. For every set of game mechanics, there is a cutoff point where new levels stop adding meaningful content.
If I play 60 hour long games, I get 60 sets of game mechanics that don't overstay their welcome. The longer a single game is, the more likely it is to overstay its welcome. Most games released today outlast the new experiences their mechanics provide. At least for me. Less content to consume means that's less likely to happen, and it also means less of my time will be spent finding out if it gets boring.
In short: I'm less likely to think about whether the time playing the game was worth spending if it wasn't a lot of time.
Edit: Simplifying something to get more space is something I'd personally try very hard not to do, because the player is more likely to notice the simplification than they are to notice the absence of content the simplification made room for. Especially in a free game.
Re: on voting
I will generally rank a "full-length" game higher than a short demo of similar quality. A full game just takes a lot more time and effort, and thus is more impressive.
I'm always impressed that you (Mojon Twins) submit full-length games.
I'm always impressed that you (Mojon Twins) submit full-length games.
Last edited by gauauu on Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My games: http://www.bitethechili.com
Re: on voting
Full-length gets more points from me too, though your games are usually so difficult I can't finish them, and so don't see any surprises in the later parts, like you said.
Re: on voting
I'm a terrible gamer, so I usually don't get very far in most games. I guess I prefer presentation over length for this reason.
Re: on voting
Sounds good.NESHomebrew wrote:How about we do this:
Art and Style 10
Sound 10
Polish and Completeness 10
Originality 10
Overall 20
And then reconsider the categories for 2019.