GameMaker Blog

YoYo Games have released a list of the 275 games which have been entered in their sixth competition and have created a portal where you can see how judging is progressing. The figure for entered games is higher than we reported earlier today as it appears games which were labelled using the old style tags have been included.

Round one of judging, which takes place this week, will remove from the contest games which do not comply with the contest rules or are unplayable.

You might find you need to install a Silverlight plugin in order to view the judging progress page though, at least at the moment, the page doesn’t do anything fancy.

• The deadline for entries into YoYo Games’ sixth competition has now passed. 239 games were uploaded and tagged with YoYoComp06.  As part of the more transparent judging process taking place for this contest we should soon see the list of games that have been accepted for judging.   The previous YoYo Games contest attracted almost 500 entries.

• Today is the final day to vote for the community favourite award in IndiePubGames’ (formerly 2BeeGames) latest competition. $5,000 is up for grabs for the game that receives the most votes and $100,000 will be awarded to the judge’s favourite.   The entries include several Game Maker games (Remaddening and The Oil Blue are in there) though I have not had the time to go through them all to see which or how many.

• A couple of days ago Game Maker Community member time4dan launched a narrowly themed Real Time Strategy competition where entries must focus on “human evolution from Ape to Stone-Age Man”.   There is a $250 (CAD) prize and the winning game will be sold with at least 60% of royalties being passed on to the game’s creator.  If you decide to enter make sure you read through both the contest and the game rules carefully as there is quite a lot in there.

GMIndie and GMVision have launched ‘Game Maker Survey 2010‘ a collection of 60 questions designed to ask about your usage of Game Maker and collect opinions on various aspects of Game Maker.

I waited a couple of days after I first saw (and started but did not finish) the survey to see if others shared my opinions on the survey.  I did not want to be accused of undermining a project produced by a site some may view as a competitor to Game Maker Blog by voicing my thoughts on the survey before criticism had arisen elsewhere.

I thought the survey was extremely poorly designed. Some questions don’t let me give the answer I would like to whilst at least one other, question 57 (see below), has two answers which mean exactly the same thing.

Read more…

Russell Kay has promised that the judging process for YoYo Games sixth competition, which closes Tuesday, will be more transparent than it has been in their previous contests.

The discovery themed competition has $1,750 of cash prizes up for grabs for the games YoYo Games deem to be the best.

Some Game Maker users had expressed their surprise at the runners-up listed in YoYo’s previous competition, won by 2DCube’s They Need to be Fed, which they felt were less worthy than some titles which did not receive a mention.

It appears the transparency will enable competition entrants (and everybody else who reads YoYo’s blog) to know if their game is still in the running as Russell said that a day after the deadline the titles accepted for judging will be announced. Presumably this stage will weed out all of the created-in-five-minutes, not-actually-playable and blatant rule-infringing entries.

YoYo Games also want you to spread the word about their sixth competition on Twitter.  In an attempt to widen the audience of YoYoGames.com and the Game Maker software it has been announced that entries must be tagged with #YoYoComp06 which will also be used by YYG and others  to discuss the competition on Twitter.  So far no-one has used the hash tag.

• Jonatan Söderström aka cactus had his website featured in Time.com’s 50 greatest websites of 2010. Whilst the list may be a bit premature being published being published with four more months to go it is an impressive achievement as it is listed alongside the well known Kongregate and Newgrounds and well known sites from other categories.

• Andrew McCluskey wrote his first glog post for YoYo Games discussing more efficient alternatives to the draw event in Game Maker.  The post is the first in a series which YoYo Games hope will eventually cover all aspects of Game Maker coding.

• Jacob Habgood’s Game Maker’s Companion [Amazon: $26.39 US|£23.62 UK] has had its release date pushed back again – to 30 September this year.

After being inactive for almost 2 weeks on the GMC, KC LC quietly backed down from her Administrative position on the board. No official announcement has been made which is leaving many people confused, but her own Profile reads “Retired Staff” under Group where it previously labeled her as Administrator. Currently, there hasn’t been any word on whether or not another Member will step up to the Administrator position.

If you run a website relating to Game Maker one of the ways you can promote it on other similar websites is through the Game Maker Affiliation programme.  Here are five tips to help you get the most out of the system which has now delivered over 26 million impressions.

Check the performance of your banners. You can see the click-through ratio of individual banners uploaded to your account. If the performance of one banner is significantly lower than others in your account consider why – how is it different from the banners which are getting more clicks? You can pause or delete poorly performing banners at any time and upload new banners if you have a new message or design.

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Dundee College, along with key project and other industry partners (including YoYo Games), are holding a 3 day International App Development Conference.  The event will run from the 8th to 10th November 2010 in Dundee, Scotland.

The Conference:
If you are already an app developer, or someone who is looking to get into app development, this conference is for you – with a program of essential information to get you developing that killer app and connect you with all the people to make it happen!

The AppJam:
Running parallel to the main conference will be a 48 hour ‘App Jam’ where selected participants will have the challenge of developing and presenting their app concept. Participants will be working together in small, international, multi-discipline teams to develop original ideas and IP with the aim of releasing any new titles developed, and exploiting routes to market immediately after the event. Supported by industry lead workshops and surgeries, the teams will be encouraged to help each other out with problem solving and production while sharing their skill set to achieve final publication.

If booked early conference tickets are £100 or £30 for students (excluding VAT). Entry to the AppJam is free.