I uploaded my game, Sequitur, two weeks ago, and it was placed in the Sandpit because it wouldn't run properly. I re-uploaded it last week, and as far as I can tell it works now, but it is still in the Sandpit. I know the game works because it was entered in a competition earlier this year, and it has been beta-tested. Has it not been recategorized because it takes a while for a moderator to look at it or am I supposed to do something to get it reconsidered for categorization?
Neil
Silver
08 Sep 2014 13:51
A moderator wouldn't be notified about any changes made. I've moved it to your suggested category.
Neil
09 Sep 2014 11:35
Thank you, Silver.
Just out of curiousity, how are writers supposed to know how to move their games out of the Sandpit? Is it stated somewhere, and I missed it? I think it just says something like it can be recategorized when the game is complete. Is there a way to notify a moderator? Should there be?
Also, thank you to Alex and any others involved in the decision to allow hosting of games on the Quest site that were not made using Quest. I, like many others, put a lot of work into my game, and I appreciate being able to expand my potential audience.
Neil
Silver
16 Oct 2014 09:00
Sorry, missed this. The only way would be to mention it here like you have done or email Alex. The reason why the sandpit exists is to stop players from having to wade knee deep through unfinished or broken games to get to the ones that work. I wouldn't really recommend using the sandpit as a testing ground when you can publish your games privately for testing purposes prior to publishing publicly. The best way to get your game out of the sandpit is to avoid it going there to begin with by only publicly publishing fully functioning games with no (or few) bugs, not littered with grammatical errors and it to last at least ten minutes to play.
TextStories
16 Oct 2014 17:02
But what if the game will never be finished? I look at it from a MUDs stand point. There is always going to be extra content I can add to keep players coming back. I can always add new rooms and environments, (Not just to tout I have more rooms, but that actually add depth and game play to my adventure.) find and change the ways NPCs interact with the player, add more puzzles or rework the old ones for new challenges or for my instance, actually give back to the community as a whole and will always be updating my game when I have new content to add. I would hate to be stuck in the sand pit just for that.
Of course, when the time is right I will submit it. And it will be 100% complete in my original idea, as in not broken, but I of course can not guarantee there will not be any bugs. But as I previously stated, I will always be updating it when I can or the mood arises. Sorry to derail the thread a bit, but figured it better to ask here, since the subject was already started. Thanks.
Silver
17 Oct 2014 09:29
By "incomplete" it means there isn't a victory condition / ending or there's areas that have been missed (that the author has included but forgot to finish programming).
Silver
17 Oct 2014 09:33
To add to that though there just isn't the time in the world to play every submitted game from start to finish and a judgment is made based on five or ten mins of play. So some that are incomplete might get through if they have a very well made intro. I tend to think those who have made polished intros tend to have perservered to a finished work.