Welcome to the Simple Developments Guild!

Take a moment to look around the site. That's right, it'll only take a moment. But no worries! Lige is hard at work to come up with a CSS for everyone's viewing pleasure. He even mentioned asking for a little help from someone that is quite accomplished. I won't mention any names as of yet, because I don't want to make anyone feel obligated. Things will begin to take shape over the next week or so as we get settled in.


Contest?

The contest I announced a couple of days ago is still in swing. I know of two entries that are currently being hastily developed to meet the cut-off on Friday. Good luck to everyone currently attempting to develop a game in a few days. It can be done!


Mission Statement

The past couple of weeks, since this project was in its inception, a lot of thinking has been involved. The current goals are as follows:

Simplicity: A project doesn't have to spend 3-6 months or even a year in development to be fun. All you need is a good idea, a few of your buddies, a weekend and the dream maker. That is what we're trying to prove with this little project that is The Simple Developments Guild.

Design: Games can stand alone with even simple graphics if the content is worth sticking around for. Also, just because the game isn't a huge project upon release doesn't mean you can't update it as you go. Giving your players something to look forward to is the best way to keep them.

Goals: The Simple Developments Guild isn't exactly for only simple games, but it's more of a way to advertise games that were developed using a more simple approach. Just because the game only took a month to create, doesn't mean all you get is some tiles you flip over trying to match shapes. Four weeks is plenty of time to create a playable game with plenty of room for expansion and growth.

Set yourself up for success!


EmpirezTeam has posted on the forum his criteria for listings to the guild. It is as follows:

(begin quote)
Our first submission to the guild was a maze/puzzle-type game. While the game was simple, the game also had a lot of issues. Though the guild is for easy games that don't take half a year to make, the guild is not for buggy games with copy and pasted programming and graphics from other sources.

1. Use Your Own Programming: If you're using a library in your game, that's fine. But I've played enough Dragon Ball games to know what a Zeta rip login system looks like. If you submit a game that has the usual series of alerts asking me how much green I want to put in my hair, or a game with an "Arena-Challenge" verb, I'm going to tell you to use your own programming. Save yourself the trouble and don't use code from a source your best friend gave you.

2. Fix Your Bugs: Nobody is going to want to play a game with several bugs. I'm sure nobody is going to be interested in a guild that is represented by games with tons of bugs either. Your game should be playable and work well. If I click a button to shoot, I shouldn't see a huge runtime error appear in the ouput. Test your games, and if you come across a problem you can't fix, there's always the Code Problems section in the Developer forums.

3. Have Decent Gameplay: This is a guild for simple games, but that's not an excuse for your game to be lacking what matters most: good gameplay. I'm not asking you to make an MORPG with boss fights, mounts, and stellar animations. However, your game should still be fun and people should still have a reason to play it. If your game is a platformer, for instance, don't just make one or two levels that I can complete in 30 seconds. Add some monsters or obstacles that challenge the player because after all, no one likes a game that's extremely easy to beat.

The point is that the guild is not looking for only simple games. We're looking for good simple games. I'll look into getting a "Work in Progress" section so the games that are still being worked on can be separated from the polished games that are ready to represent the guild.
(End Quote)

You can see the actual forum post here if you'd like.


Now, all i have left to say for now is submit your game or simply discuss your ideas. We have a classified ad section where you can place your ads to attract developers and artists to your projects that share the same interests as you! Those interests are, but not limited to, Enough talk. Let's get something done!

Thanks for reading.