Guidelines for Indie Games

[Neamara]

Welcome to Other Video Games.

First and foremost, this forum is not restricted to big company games and consoles. We permit members to post their own games and we welcome any and all indie games by other developers to help spread the word about them, so by all means, feel free to share anything you think might appeal to other members!

Before posting games here, we ask that you try to comply with the following guidelines when posting a new indie topic:

What you should consider posting:

• Games undergoing active development. (Alpha, beta and release stages are all equally welcome.) Demos are optional.
• External links leading to the project’s dedicated website, community forum, social media page(s), or any other valid and public means of showing and announcing any progress.
• Images or video footage to showcase your game and any ongoing progress. You are not obligated to keep your thread in this forum up-to-date as most members who are interested will likely contribute such information over time. This is only mandatory if your game does not have its own website.
• Whatever plans you might have in store for your game. This includes but is not limited to release dates or estimates.

What you should not post:

• Games that are a concept, idea, or future plan. It is better to post a topic only when you have something to show for it.
• Inactive or discontinued games.
• Games that are just starting out. (E.g., prep work or developers getting their staff/team together.)
• Games using copyrighted material or intellectual property — this is a gray zone.
• Anything inappropriate. Be sure to read the Forum Guidelines for more information!

Gray Zones
Anything specified as a “gray zone” means your topic will be permitted and does not warrant a lock from the get-go. We will update this over time as-needed.

• Copyrighted material or intellectual property: if your project receives a DMCA takedown request, your topic will be locked. It won’t be unlocked until the conflict has been resolved.
• Discord, Skype, and other IM services: There are no rules discouraging use of any instant messaging services. Please consider sharing content from your choice of client on-site if possible.
• Short-term games: Specifically, if you don’t plan on hosting and/or supporting it for long, it’s probably better not to post it at all.
• Inactive projects: It is fine for a project to cease activity for a while provided there are still signs of life. We consider a project inactive after 1-2 years of inactivity. In general, a topic won’t be locked even if the developer(s) drop out to allow for continued discussion for as long as the game in question remains available for people to download.
• Dead projects: We consider a project dead after around 3-5 years without any sign of the developer. As above, games which remain available to download are exempt from padlocks. If the download should disappear, the topic will be locked.
  • You may contact a moderator or report ( button) the appropriate topic using the “lock/unlock” reason with a mirror link. The topic will then be updated and unlocked.

Why the rules?
It’s always nice to see creative developers and an eager community excited for a new and upcoming game. Because indie games are often funded out-of-pocket by developers themselves, through crowd funding such as Kickstarter or through methods of donation such as Patreon or through sales on third party services such as Itch.io and Steam, there is always a chance of the project stopping or falling inactive for a variety of different reasons — disinterest over time, problems for the development team, lack of funding, time constraints, etc. This can result in disappointment to an excited fan-base.

It's also good to see members pitching their ideas for a game that they might want to see. We’d like to remind everyone that it's better not to raise hopes and expectations by posting something that you aspire to create or have someone else create but may not actually be able to publish. Barring What Other “Quest” Games Would You Like To Have?, this forum is not the place to pitch ideas in the hope that others may take on and develop your concept.

[alethe]

What about posting an idea to get feedback on who would play the game/even ask for volunteers for development/alpha/beta testing? I think it would help people to get an idea of if their game interests the community before jumping into development only to find that the game sparks little interest.

[Neamara]

An outreach thread (perhaps similar to "Advertise your <subject>"?) would be good if it helps developers get their project some attention even before development begins. As far as collecting feedback goes, that may be something best kept on its own dedicated website at least until it's sufficiently underway for the developer(s) to consider posting a topic.

[RoarOriole]

Beyond this mild suggestion to somewhat expand on an ideal 'stage in development' to be at before posting, this is pretty short, sweet and to the point.

It's pretty easy to get a bit inflated over a project in its early days, especially if one's just started. I'd suggest at least having something like a basic prototype or something with some gameplay to show it can go somewhere before posting is ideal (and - if you're looking for people to alpha/beta test it, actually have something to test, and give feedback on). It's a huge leap for a lot of people to get to, but it will help both the (new) developers and the viewers in the long-run, since many indie games fail either by being a) too big in scope (ex: a person attempting an MMO/RPG as their first game) or b) do not have good design (it's always best to just create the basic gameplay with say, blocks or cubes, or very basic visuals, and make sure it would be enjoyable before getting serious to save time if it winds up not being up to snuff).

For a visual on what I mean by prototype, the alpha footage of RiftCaller-Games Koh project is a good example (http://riftcaller-games.tumblr.com/post/105320316825/). It can pretty much be anything, though, (like 2 square sprites on a blank background) so long as it simply has some vital gameplay that will serve as the game's core.

I also suggest anyone starting out in games to check out this video series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o). It's a very nice eye opener to help ease people in and come to terms that a first game will likely not be a fancy one. And to give a good idea on what might be wrong when they start to work on something.

This is all stuff I've come to see in my experience over the last 5 or so years participating or watching games in the forums and game-dev communities I frequent. It's nothing set in stone, just things I've seen repeated a lot, appear to remain constant, and feel prudent to point out to anyone that might not know.