{"author_name":"nilsf","cat":"LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009","comments":[{"author_name":"","time":"April 28, 2009 4:05 pm","epoch":1240952700,"text":"I think that the fact that mine is a Flash game was an incentive to rate it, definitely. Good tips overall.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"Radix","time":"April 28, 2009 9:11 pm","epoch":1240971060,"text":"I think I probably would’ve gotten more ratings if my screenshot wasn’t dark as hell, but I had trouble taking something fairly representative of the game that didn’t spoil the ending.
\n That and I was really, really tired.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"Endurion","time":"April 29, 2009 12:28 am","epoch":1240982880,"text":"Hear, hear!","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"Mike_W","time":"April 29, 2009 2:37 am","epoch":1240990620,"text":"I’ve rated quite a few . I had problems with the python ones that were not py to exe’d. I rated as many of those as I could, then found myself in the midst of a windows reinstall.","spam":"N"},{"author_name":"","time":"April 29, 2009 3:57 am","epoch":1240995420,"text":"I hear you. At the same time, as long as it’s technically possible for me to run something, I’ll install anything (short of malware) that’s needed. It doesn’t usually take long to download, and in the meantime I can go try other entries.","spam":"N"}],"epoch":1240941540,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"73294","p_author":"nilsf","p_authorkey":"338","p_urlkey":"109116","p_title":"Why I didn\u2019t rate your game","p_cat":"LD #14 - Advancing Wall of Doom - 2009","p_event":"LD14","p_time":"1240941540","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"5","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"338","us_name":"nilsf","us_username":"nilsf","event_start":"1239926400","event_key":"90","event_name":"LD14"},"text":"

It sucks to have very few ratings and comments on your game, so here are a few pointers for next time.<\/p>\n

Platform<\/b>
\n The most rated games are the ones you can play in your browser. Try making your entry in java or in flash and embedding it in a webpage for maximum exposure. If you don’t want to have to suffer the horror that is (Java|AS|Flash) at least make a binary release for Windows since most people seem to have access to that platform (I don’t so please also make an OS X version \ud83d\ude09 ). If you’re making your game in Python (or its pale imitator ruby \ud83d\ude1b , or any other interpreted language for that matter) you might think you don’t need binaries but you’re wrong, people aren’t going to install a different environment for every single game. Same for L\u00f6ve games.<\/p>\n

Dependencies<\/b>
\n If you do only release as source, or if you only release for one platform, or dynamically link libraries, keep dependencies to a minimum. If all I have to do to build the game is type “make” there’s a better chance I’ll try it than if I have to install 13 libraries which each in turn depend on half a dozen others.<\/p>\n

Screenshot<\/b>
\n I try to play all games regardless of the screenshot (in part because my own drawing skills are easily surpassed by those of a drunk monkey with a pen) but if the entry requires more than clicking on a shiny icon to run, I’ll definitely spend more time trying to get an entry with a cool screenshot working.<\/p>\n

Rate other games (and leave comments!)<\/b>
\n While I am determined to try as many games as I can, I prioritize rating the games from the people who left comments on my games first.<\/p>\n

Of course these “rules” aren’t set in stone. You can make a game for the Atari 2600<\/a> and still have plenty of ratings. You can also make a game with an uninspiring screenshot<\/a> and win best overall.
\n Of course you could also cheat by making a ton of games under different names to rate your own games \ud83d\ude1b .<\/p>","time":"April 28th, 2009 12:59 pm","title":"Why I didn\u2019t rate your game"}