On Feb 18, 2008 9:49 PM, Ryan Hackel <
deeplogic@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
4) It sounds like what we really need is focused attention on the design and playtesting of one specific game. ***Here's an Idea... the annual Pyramid Project.*** Take one promising game, and have the community adopt it for 12 months. Each year, the community nominates unpublished games, and we choose, by voting or discussion, one game to focus our collective attention on. It's the game we playtest with friends, try out at cons, give feedback to the designer throughout the year, and try tireless for one year to improve while promoting.
This has many advantages over the IGDC. We don't splinter our time and attention among six or ten different games. We focus on one game with the most consensus, one that the whole Icehouse community can get behind. It doesn't hinge as much on large group participation. And it doesn't demand as much attention from one individual as the IGDC does. In the end, we have at least one more good game we can hold up to the greater gaming industry and say confidently, "this one's worth it".
What do y'all think of that?
That sounds like a good idea, but maybe a whole year would be too long for each game... Still, I think one of the advantages of creating games for a specific game system is that many people can potentially try your games. If everyone concentrates on just one game for a long period of time, then what about all the other new games that crop up during the year? Maybe what we need is a site like
gargageband.com applied to games. The more games you review, the more games you're allowed to upload :)
-Jorge