Games for AMAZE and rAge 2014

Fengol

Who is wanting to demo their games at the various events (AMAZE, EGESA, rAge) this year, 2014?

Games submitted:

• Cadence
  
• Dead Run
  
• Vietnam '65
  
• College Of Pointy Hats
  
• Stasis
  
• Steel Echoes
  
• Re-Spawn
  
• Dear Bloody Diary
  
• Shark Attack Deathmatch
  
• Tom Sparks
  
• Monsters and Medicines
  
• Yojimbrawl
  
• Landshark Gear: Silent Missile Barrage Action
  

At least 2 of these are mobile games and I'm trying to find a solution to securing devices at events; however I might have to defer to a PC build.

I'm busy playing all the other prototypes mentioned on the forums. Comment here if you want to submit yours.

Tuism

Dead Run will be ready for sure, no matter mobile or a PC build. We can even do a two-instances-on-one-machine PC build :P (thx Danny for the idea) And if we get there we can even show a two-player build :)

duncanbellsa

If we can secure a mobile device I'd be more than happy to demo the finished version of Blazin' Aces.

quintond

I definitely want to try and get Re-Spawn to these events and I am trying to secure the necessary funding to make it happen. 8-}

Kobusvdwalt9

When is SA amaze ?

farsicon

If I can get the multiplayer for Steel Echoes done in time I would love to pitch in \0/

tbulford

@Fengol lets chat on skype about rAge. What mobile platforms do you need devices for? I have contacts at Samsung but not Apple.

Tuism

I'm guessing the biggest problem with mobile isn't the actual device, but securing them... I dunno how that'll work. There's those clampy things that you see at the retail outlets like Incredible and Dion Wired, dunno where to get them...

FanieG

There's those clampy things that you see at the retail outlets like Incredible and Dion Wired, dunno where to get them...

Those security pods are VERY expensive. Bought a couple for a store last year, and they retailed at about 2K each. Can't remember the suppliers name, but most alarm shops should be able to order them.

ProjectX

I'd like to submit "Dear Bloody Diary" for both: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21764486/DBD_Demo.zip

TheFuntastic

Very keen to demo Cadence. But my money might be very thin by then so I don't want to over commit myself...

hanli

Hi All,

Please remember that all games shown at A MAZE go through a curatorial process. We therefore would like people to submit games, but understand that some of them may not be chosen.

However, please all submit as many games as possible! We would like to have a strong showing.

quintond

@hanli: My apologies for my ignorance but what are the dates for "AMAZE" and "rAge"? How complete do the games need to be and what services need to be offered to show these games?

Thanks

Kobusvdwalt9

What he said ^^

hanli

No ignorance, we haven't posted this yet!

A MAZE. Johannesburg is scheduled for the 11th, 12th, and 13th of September.
Currently we are working frantically on fundraising for the event, and we hope to be able to give more information on it soon.

This is how it works:
A MAZE puts out a call for games (I'll post it on the forums)
People submit links to their completed games / prototypes / wip. You can also link us through to other great games from SA and Africa that you think we should be aware of, and we will contact their creators and ask if they would like to submit.
The A MAZE curatorial team (with MGSA guidance) decides on which games to invite.
Games would need to be relatively complete by the time of the festival (September). Not necessarily ready for release, but a good beta at least). They will be shown in the Games Arcade at A MAZE, and people will be able to sit and play them.
It is great (even though it's not strictly necessary) to have the developers their to speak to the public, other game devs, and the press about their works.


I am not sure about the rAge dates. @Fengol could you give us more information on this?

trobok

Yeah we would definitely be interested in showing our game at any upcoming events. World Of Rabbit - The Crossing. WOR - The Crossing is a game about Rabbits, Robots and stormy seas, with 3D Printable toys to unlock along the way! Set Sail!

Will be Mobile focused initially launching on Windows Phone 8.

Should have it live in early April. If I dont lose my mind before then.

dislekcia

Keen to demo Desktop Dungeons mobile for all of those :)

Tuism

We really need to see if we can do mobile platforms properly - ie with actual mobiles or some kind of simulated effort. Hmmmm.

duncanbellsa

Is there perhaps a way we could get a partnership with Incredible Connection or someone like that to supply the mobile devices and/or the security to secure them?

I'm sure there would be a big corporate willing to help out local devs?

dislekcia

We'll probably just buy some sort of locking system for our tablets. That seems to be how you show off mobile-based games at expos.

The best ones I've seen were perspex housings that not only had lock slots (Kensington, natch) but also covered the home/back buttons to prevent people exiting apps when they weren't supposed to.

Tuism

Ah, you mean for QCFDesign as a business, right? That makes sense.

If mgsa can't fund the locking things or get sponsors, it *is* perfectly valid for people to get their own to show their own games.

THOUGH THAT SAID. It would be nice if everyone's stand things looked the same so we don't end up with Frankenstein's lab.

Fengol

I just got the dates for rAge 2014, 3-5 October 2014

dislekcia

Tuism said:

THOUGH THAT SAID. It would be nice if everyone's stand things looked the same so we don't end up with Frankenstein's lab.

This is totally not something I care about in the slightest ;)

Everybody's games are different, why does different hardware matter?

mattbenic

duncanbellsa said:

Is there perhaps a way we could get a partnership with Incredible Connection or someone like that to supply the mobile devices and/or the security to secure them?

I'm sure there would be a big corporate willing to help out local devs?

Or one of the device manufacturers. They must be itching to have a decent showing there. Maybe approach someone like Samsung or ASUS and see if we can source load devices and protection directly from them?

AngryMoose

dislekcia said:

Everybody's games are different, why does different hardware matter?

Because providing and maintaining a professional outward facing view towards MGSA is important. The little things, like having all games running on the same hardware or every slot in the stand matching, all add up to how people (government types included) perceive this organisation and reflect on how responsibly it can manage itself, no matter how Indie you are.

quintond

[REDACTED]

tbulford

mattbenic said:

Or one of the device manufacturers. They must be itching to have a decent showing there. Maybe approach someone like Samsung or ASUS and see if we can source load devices and protection directly from them?

I have very good contacts into Samsung, assuming Android is going to work for people as apposed to iOS.

dislekcia

AngryMoose said:

Because providing and maintaining a professional outward facing view towards MGSA is important. The little things, like having all games running on the same hardware or every slot in the stand matching, all add up to how people (government types included) perceive this organisation and reflect on how responsibly it can manage itself, no matter how Indie you are.

In all honesty, we got super lucky with the standardised hardware from @hanli. I get that, all other things being equal, looking professional is useful. I'm just not convinced it's useful enough to not go ahead and get presentation cases if we're going to be showing DD on mobile devices regularly at different shows.

I kinda also have to wonder how many government officials look at something like rAge anyway... It just feels like yet another premature optimisation to ignore until we actually get something running, y'know?

That said, probably best to approach a retail chain if you're looking for device anti-theft stuff, they're the ones that have to deal with the filchy end of technology presentation.

Tuism

dislekcia said:

In all honesty, we got super lucky with the standardised hardware from @hanli. I get that, all other things being equal, looking professional is useful. I'm just not convinced it's useful enough to not go ahead and get presentation cases if we're going to be showing DD on mobile devices regularly at different shows.

I don't disagree with this, to me, the choice of not showing is the last option, above that is "showing with an unprofessional presentation" and above that is "showing with professional presentation" and above that is "give away free phones with our games pre-loaded on them and the whole thing is sponsored by some corporate"

<3

tbulford said:

I have very good contacts into Samsung, assuming Android is going to work for people as apposed to iOS.

If you have time, could you get the ball rolling and see if there's interest? I can ask someone at Asus and see if there's any interest there.
...
OK I gotta see if anyone I know still works there, not sure actually.

AngryMoose

dislekcia said:

I get that, all other things being equal, looking professional is useful. I'm just not convinced it's useful enough to not go ahead and get presentation cases if we're going to be showing DD on mobile devices regularly at different shows.

Sure! I never said not to. I just said that standardization should be the ultimate aim in order for a presentation of the games put forth by MGSA to look as professionally organized as possible. That should be 1st prize and talked about as such, not just dismissed out of hand as unnecessary. If it doesn't pan out, so be it, and alternative plans should then be used to make sure that the end goal of showing as many awesome games as possible from the community are shown.

dislekcia said:

I kinda also have to wonder how many government officials look at something like rAge anyway

From what i understand, government already *is* looking at MGSA due to the tireless efforts of @hanli and @LexAquillia amongst others, with the aim of receiving funding and what not. To me that means any and all public eye opportunities, be them rAge stands or whatever else, put forth under the name of MGSA should be as professional handled and presented as possible, without hindrances or fears of Becoming the Man!(tm).

dislekcia said:

It just feels like yet another premature optimisation to ignore until we actually get something running, y'know?

We have. It's called Make Games South Africa.

garethf

Sounds cool, I'd love to submit System Crash.

Hanli, when does the A MAZE team begin going through games? I'd prefer to send in the (significantly revamped) version of SC that I'm planning to have finished (or mostly so) in the next 2 months rather than the version that's out in public right now. When's the cutoff?

SUGBOERIE

I'd like to submit our game. Cave Escape.

Just want to know deadlines for these submissions and make sure we're ready.

dislekcia

AngryMoose said:

Sure! I never said not to. I just said that standardization should be the ultimate aim in order for a presentation of the games put forth by MGSA to look as professionally organized as possible. That should be 1st prize and talked about as such, not just dismissed out of hand as unnecessary. If it doesn't pan out, so be it, and alternative plans should then be used to make sure that the end goal of showing as many awesome games as possible from the community are shown.

Yeah, I get that. I just also know that the approach that seems to work the best is the "Let's make something awesome that works well enough" instead of aiming for perfectionism. I always worry about people being convinced that they couldn't also join in and get involved when the standards are too high. That can happen in two ways: Either people don't even submit stuff because they "know" it'll never be good enough; Or at an actual event, people can't see the intermediate steps to getting to a stand that looks that hardcore, so they don't realise they could make stuff too. I guess I feel that inspiring people to create is a bigger and more important goal to aim for than impressing unknown govt peoples, which is where that comment of mine came from. Again, I'm not arguing against high standards, I'm just saying let's be careful not to make standards super crazy important and end up discouraging things in the end.

AngryMoose said:

From what i understand, government already *is* looking at MGSA due to the tireless efforts of @hanli and @LexAquillia amongst others, with the aim of receiving funding and what not. To me that means any and all public eye opportunities, be them rAge stands or whatever else, put forth under the name of MGSA should be as professional handled and presented as possible, without hindrances or fears of Becoming the Man!(tm).

I don't know if it's looking professional or actual results that impress people like that more... I'm inclined to think that results are more important. Thus I'd prefer to spend sponsor search time (and maybe even eventually money) on allowing more people to show stuff off and securing more space. So if a bunch of sponsored mobile devices magically appeared, I'd be pushing super hard to get more local mobile games to show because now we had more devices available. I realise that would probably look less professional, but it would be a hell of a lot more inclusive :)

Ramperkash

We (Clockwork Acorn) would like to submit our game Monsters and Medicine (mgsa thread, website) but we're not entirely sure if it fits the bill. We're still actively working on it, but are planning to have it polished up a lot and released long before the events start.

Sorry for the late 'submission'.

Bonezmann

"The amazing adventures of Captain Knifecat" should be ready by then, so wouldn't mind putting that up for display. :)

Squidcor

I'd like to submit Tom Sparks if it's not too late.

Fengol

@Squidcor, already added to my list!

SUGBOERIE

@Fengol

What is the final date that we can submit a game to demo at Rage?

Fengol

There's no closing date yet, submit!

EvanGreenwood

I'd like to submit Yojimbrawl http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=view

We're going to spend a bit more time on it before then. It's a bit spare at the moment, I'd like some more content in it for players to be rewarded with for their time.

Fengol

@BlackShipsFillTheSky, not a problem. Will you have a fully unlocked demo for the event?

Tuism

Landshark Gear: Silent Missile Barrage Action. Can I submit it for rAge? I'll have music, sound, smooth bullet time, better interface, animation, lose condition, aerial dodge. And more weapons. Putting it down here to Hard Deadline™ myself! :D

DraughtVader

if at all possible we, @sugboerie and I, would like to submit Alien Lobotomy.
http://makegamessa.com/discussion/2071/wip-alien-lobotomy-new-build#Item_11

Kobusvdwalt9

uhm this is probably late but I would like to submit montez for anything other than rage 2014.

But were covered for rage.

Denzil

How much time is left? If there is at least a month left, Grave Days will be demo-able. All that stands in the way now is my lack of GUI. But I can hack together an acceptable GUI before then (temporary though, waiting for Unity 4.6 before I commit to a GUI). If it's way late, I'd rather wait I think.

Kobusvdwalt9

AMAZE is 10 sep and rage is 10 October or something.

Denzil

Cool thanks. How polished should the games be for submission? Following what @dislekcia says, having many awesome games might be slightly better than having just a couple of very polished games, right? I'm not sure though whether Grave Days is (a) good enough and (b) polished enough to submit though. I'd have it polished a little better, but it would still be considered a very early demo, but that still does not address the issue of "Is it good enough?"

Kobusvdwalt9

What's the worst that could happen by submitting.

Someone once said :
By doing nothing you know exactly what the outcome will be : nothing.

...but by taking every chance you get there is the possibility of failure (aka learning opportunity) but there is also the possibility for great things happening.

hanli

Thank you all for your submissions. We are keeping a list, and will inform people who are invited as soon as final decisions have been made.

You can still send me submissions if you have not yet done so. Email it to me at hanli.geyser @ wits.ac.za
Please title your email AMAZE Game Submission so that I don't loose it.

Best

Hanli

Riocide

If submission are still open, we'd like to submit both Caelum and Unseen for consideration for RAGE. They're still in the very early prototype stage, but we feel like the basic idea of what they're trying to do comes across and definitely would we would definitely be doing some work to improve them before the event.

Thanks for the opportunity.

ShadowBlade

Am I too late to consider submitting Rooks Keep? :)