It's time to give each other's games a try! If you haven't already, find your most awesome game in progress, your work that you'd like to see be a famous game someday, but perhaps it's still a diamond in the rough, and brace yourself for all the, um, nicest possibly said things people will say about it!

Then, go play everyone else's game! Tell them what you thought about it!

Sometimes it's hard to give useful feedback. Sometimes, all you can come up with is, "this isn't fun". But try to tell more. Is it the graphics? Is it the controls? Does the purpose of the game feel futile, or not important enough?

Sometimes, it feels hard to give useful feedback without inadverdantly hurting the person recieving the feedback. We are all going on a limb posting our games here, saying "try this and tell me what you think". Please refrain from simple comments like "this sucks". There isn't much there to be able to improve our game from.

Sometimes game authors take the feedback and immediately implement it, before Feedback Fortnight is finished! Watch the comments of games you've already played, perhaps the author has already implemented your feedback!

Although those small thoughts aren't the entirety of things I could say about giving feedback, in the interest of keeping the post small, I'll stop here. If I haven't said something you think is important, please leave a comment here! In the meantime, go here and try out all the games!

We know you are working on some game! And we know you need some feedback on it! Is it fun, where are the hidden bugs, did I make the sprites the right color, so many questions, how do we get answers? By playing each others games, and giving feedback!

Due to hectic schedules at the AKJ staff, things are off to a slow start, but the event is about to begin! Submit your game here by August 20 (no penalty if you are late, except less time for others give you feedback), then play everyone else's game, and tell us your opinions!

Hello all!

Are you working on your game, hoping some day that it will be finished, trying to get it done? Join our secret game club, where you will find others who are working on their games as a sort of motivational club! Once a week, we have a meeting, in which we tell our stories, whether good or bad, and we support each other and listen to each others problems and show off our successes.

You can find more details hidden in the secret text document at http://laaph.com/tmp/gameclub.txt. If this sounds like a thing you would like to join, go to that link, follow the sekrit instructions found within, and ask me to add you to the server.

I hope to see you there!

It has been an excellent event, we have seen some wonderful games, but unfortunately it is time for us to move on. If you have a game in the works, don't worry, we will do this again, it is a regular event!

In the meantime, however, we are looking forward to the next Kajam, which will be focused on raycasting! The 9th Kajam starts on the 4th of January, so it's time to get prepared for that! Read about it here!

There are four days left for Feedback Fortnight! If you haven't played all the games and left some commentary, now is the time to do so! Of course we won't get angry if you do this five days from now, but then you'll have missed the event, your comments won't comment for karma on the game you've submitted yourself, and you'll miss some (but not all) of the fun!

I've turned off submissions to the event. If you really really really want your game submitted and were just waiting until that bug was fixed and I closed submissions just a little too early, feel free to contact me to get your game submitted. However, in this situation, you've missed two and a half weeks when you could have been getting feedback!

So far things have been going well with lots of commentary on all the games (that I've been looking at)! I said I would play all games that can run on my computer, I haven't yet, I did play a bunch, but I will play them soon!

Time to find those works in progress that you would like put before others eyes! Yes, it's time for the Feedback Fortnight. Dust off your project, make it as nice as you can, and submit it to the ferocious critics of Alakajam!

We are entering the preparation phase. During this phase you should submit the projects you want feedback on. If you are excited to play other games and give feedback, although that phase has not yet started, every one will be happy if you start doing so.

How does this work? Submit a game. It can be pretty much any game, whether a game jam done in 24 hours, or something you are working on commercially. It does not need to be complete. It can be as rough or as polished as it happens to be. Tell us about it. If you tell us what you specifically want feedback on, you might get more focused feedback.

Meanwhile, for the following two weeks, you should play all the other games submitted. Write up some commentary on what you see in the games, what works well and what doesn't. Play the games and tell everyone else how their games make you feel.

The following is copied from our previous post to clarify a few points!

What can I submit?

This is a very open event, where you can enter for instance:

• A personal hobby project you have been working on this year
• A game jam entry that didn't get enough feedback or that you expanded upon since
• A work-in-progress commercial game project (as long as you keep your build free and publicly available)

Of course this can be either a solo project or a team-based one.

Event schedule

• Preparation phase: on November 22, the event will open submissions. That's now! It's started! Let's see your games!
• Feedback phase: on November 29, all entrants will be formally invited to start playing and reviewing each other's entries. In the meantime, submissions will remain open until the last few days for late entrants.
• End: on December 17 the event will be officially closed. The games won't get any rankings or ratings, just feedback. No bragging about being first, but who cares, you will get good commentary! Comments will continue be open on individual games, in case you think of something to tell after the deadline.

Tips

• To improve the quality of your feedback, give indications on what aspects of your game you are most looking for feedback on. This is especially true of bigger projects like commercial games.
• If possible, make your game build available on multiple platforms or the web
• Don't neglect commenting on other games: longer, more constructive comments get rewarded more "karma", and this karma score helps you get displayed higher in the game list.

Thanks to our six submitters, and thank you to those who played the games and told the developers what you think about their games!

If you missed out, we will have another Feedback Fortnight, usually once a year. Get your game ready so you can submit it and get feedback before you release your game!

Coming up next will be the 8th Kajam! The Kajam is an event which focuses on a single topic. Unlike the Alakajams, the format for the Kajam is more relaxed, and you will have the entire month of January to work on your game. The theme for the 8th Kajam will be music! More information will come soon!

Today is the last day of Feedback Fortnight! It is your last chance to play the games and tell the creators what you think!

I also recommend everyone give the games another spin. Maybe on your second or third play you might find more thoughts you may want to share with the authors.

Don't forget to submit to Feedback Fortnight before the submissions window closes! We will give an extra few days before closing submissions. However, if you submit earlier, this gives your associates more time to give you feedback! Don't be someone who tries to submit in the last few days hoping for lots of feedback!

For those who aren't sure how it works, here is a bit of explanation. Take any game that you (or your team) have made, and submit it. It can be made for a game jam, for a personal project, from anywhere for anywhere, and submit it. We only ask that you don't charge money to play it. During the next two weeks, we play each other's games and give critical feedback on everything and everything we imagine. So, if you submit, be prepared to play other games and give them feedback too.

So what are you waiting for! Find that game you want to have player feedback on! Submit it, and start reviewing the other games!

Feedback Fortnight will be from December 6 to December 31! This is an event where you submit any game, and ask for feedback! If you do so, you should also give feedback to everyone else who submitted! We all need feedback on our games, right? We need to know what people think of our games!

During the weekend of the 6th-7th, submit your game to Alakajam. Then, for the next two weeks, play other games and wrote comments about your experiences, what is or isn't fun, what you think about the details, menus, controls, graphics, sound, and anything and everything else!

Your game need not be made this weekend, or for a game jam, but you can use any game you have made! We only ask that it can be made available to play for free.

The games won't get any rankings or ratings, just feedback. No bragging about being first, but who cares, you will get good commentary!