Posts

Time to play games! 0

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 #2 

It's time to play games! If you haven't submitted your game yet, do not despair! We will leave the submission window open until the end of the event.

Go! Play the games! Give the authors of these games your ideas, your constructive criticism, and your feedback! Try to answer specific questions they may have, and try to give them new ideas so that they can come up with new questions!

If you didn't submit a game, that's okay! Anyone can play these games and give their feedback!

Remember, there are no ratings. Please, remember that there is a person who is showing their craft who will be reading your comments, so please do not be mean with no other value. Instead of saying "this game sucks!", try "I am not enjoying this game because …. , but maybe it could be improved by making changes like ……". There is a lot written on the topic of giving criticism, and I can not rewrite it all here. But please try to be considerate while still giving good feedback!

Feedback Fortnight now begins! 1

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 #2 

After some short delays (we love you Kajam!), we now begin the second edition of Feedback Fortnight! We know that you have been working on something, perfecting it, but it just needs, it just needs someone else to play it! And tell you if it is fun or not! And tell you if you succeeded in doing the awesome things that you have been prepping for!

All you need to do is take your project - any project - and submit it. It can be your Sekrit Prodject Made In Your Basement with glowing lights, it can be something from a previous game jam, or it can be a future commercial game - and submit it to our ruthless, but very kind, game players. Then, you also become a game player, and play everyone else's game. Leave constructive and kind feedback, there are no ratings or scores of any kind.

If you do submit a commercial game, we require that you make it freely available to the other game players during the time of Feedback Fortnight. After all, if I am playing a game for you for the purpose of constructive criticism, would you really ask people money for that?

Games can be submitted in any state of development - anything from "buggy mess I can't play this to" to "almost done" or even "I just have screenshots and some ideas!" We can't guarantee everyone will look at everything, but the easier you make it for us, the more likely we will!

With all that introduction, let the Feedback begin!

There will be a slight delay.... 0

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 #2 

Due to the Kajam running a bit late, the Feedback Fortnight will be delayed by about a day and a half. We will start Saturday 27. We apologize for making you wait. The individuals who have made these decisions will not be sacked. :)

I hope you all have your projects in working order to show everyone! If they aren't in working order, that's okay, get your non-working projects ready to go and get set for Feedback Fortnight 2021 #2! Yes this is the second one in this year, and we hope to keep doing them twice a year! Don't you need feedback on your projects more than once a year?

So with further ado, we can't wait until we open up the website for your submissions tomorrow!

End of Feedback Fortnight 0

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 

It is with great sadness that I announce that Feedback Fortnight has come to a close. If you haven't played the submitted games yet, even though it's over you can still play the games and give feedback on them.

However, even though FF is closing, the next Alakajam will be starting soon! I even hear rumors that the theme submissions have already started! Make some impressive games for us to rate! And if you aren't finished in a weekend, finish by the next Feedback Fortnight so we can tell you how awesome your game is!

If your game wasn't ready for this Feedback Fortnight, do not despair, Feedback Fortnight will come back soon! Develop and improve your game so that when it does, we will have something to play and tell you what we think about it! See you next time!

Feedback Fortnight has now begun! 0

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 

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!

Feedback Fortnight 2021 is about to begin! 0

laaph • 2 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2021 

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!

The Secret Game Dev Club is still not that much of a secret 0

laaph • 2 years ago on 12th Alakajam! 

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!

The end of Feedback Fortnight 2020 is here 0

laaph • 3 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2020 

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!

Four days left! 0

laaph • 3 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2020 

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!

Feedback Fortnight 2020 starts now! 0

laaph • 3 years ago on Feedback Fortnight 2020 

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.