Comments on: GameMaker Blog Game Reviews

By: Anka

Anka — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:50:17 +0000

Hi,
All the sites have reviews for the top games. What about the new omers, challangers, different games?
Thankx,
Anke

By: Richard O'Grady

Richard O'Grady — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:20:36 +0000

Great idea! Keep up the good work!

By: Simon Donkers

Simon Donkers — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:29:02 +0000

@Josh, what I really like about Game Maker Games is how they prominently promote an awesome game which I’ve never heard about.
So an important thing is to promote high quality complete games which are not yet popular, at least in the Game Maker world.
Also make sure you appear objective, don’t review games because the author asks you or your friends with the author.
You are as reliable as your reputation is and a reputation is far easier to loose then to gain.
Don’t limit yourself to just your preferred genre but try to vary which kind of games you review.

As this is a Game Maker site it’s also interesting to note interesting methods people use. For instance if a user has a simple but effective menu or an original way to present the controls, that might be noteworthy.

Further I would personally prefer if you do not directly redirect people to the download but redirect them to the GMC topic / game website / promotional page of the author for the game. That way the author gets some extra visitors to his site and also gains the ability to tempt users into playing more games by him. That way the author can also inform users of useful information such as filesize, GM version (6 doesn’t work with Vista), newer versions, does it change the resolution, known issues, redirect to mirrors, …

Anyway, a very good initialive and I’m looking forward to more reviews. I’ve always found this blog spend more time making fun at people then at actually promoting the wonderful things Game Maker can do.

By: NAL

NAL — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:07:59 +0000

I like it too. A mixture of game reviews and news is the reason I enjoy reading indie blogs such as TIGSource and IndieGames so much, I’ve always thought it’s an underused concept in the Game Maker world. I hope to see this idea continue.

By: Josh Coffey

Josh Coffey — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:59:23 +0000

@Simon Donkers:
Thanks for your feedback. I only really reviewed Doodle Balls as a complete game because, well, it really has the polish of one. Do you have any suggestions on how I can make the reviews better?

@Elmernite:

Thanks! Glad to know my hard work is appreciated

By: Elmernite

Elmernite — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:31:37 +0000

I like the game reviews! Keep them coming!
-Elmernite

By: Simon Donkers

Simon Donkers — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:22:45 +0000

Beta games and wips tend to be (or should be) intended for testers looking through them and giving valuable feedback. The review seems to pomote this as a game interesting to play, rather then to test.
As a designer, I would not want such promotion for a WIP. I just want a few dedcated testers who don’t mind some rough edges. Now users will play the game looking for a omplete game and get disappointed with things like missing difficulty levels or lack of a fully implemented level editor.
Either choose to promote games as fun to play and talk about complete games or rewrite the story to make it a simple heads up about what’s coming rather then a full list of what is and isn’t implemented yet.

I like the concept though of game reviews. I feel it’s a good move to have this blog less about making fun at people who make mistakes and more about promoting interesting things that are happening.

By: Review: Doodle Balls - artistic fun? » GameMaker Blog

Review: Doodle Balls - artistic fun? » GameMaker Blog — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:01:13 +0000

[...] All in all it’s a great game, and it’s still in the 0.08 beta stage! If this is only a fraction of what the finished game will look like, i’m sold! I give this game an eight out of ten. What do you think of the inclusion of game reviews on GameMaker Blog? Please let us know. [...]