Guide on Presenting your Project

Kitten's Game Post Enhancement Topic!

I'm  so sick of game topics being completely crap, (No offence) but you guys seem to want to rush into game making and be the best without any/much knowledge. This post will show you a suitable layout, and some tips on how to make people think higher of you when you post. Also kitten is in the "Let me teach you stuff" mood so here we go?

Sorry, if this belongs in tutorials?

Lesson One.

The Horizontal Rule

Fig One. The Horizontal Rule

This tool was meant to be used as a page dividing device, I hardly see anyone who uses them, and the people who do are legends like Modern and such. This device not only makes your game page easier to read, it shows you've actually put some effort into it. Not just thrown it together and used shoddy glue to paste it together.

For instance, if you wanted to layout a game with over 5 sections (Like all good game posts should) you would use the HR, oddly and coincidently, its code for the message is [hr-] (Without the -)
This will make your post easier to read and much cleaner.

Lesson Two.

The Spoiler

Spoiler for:

Fig Two. The Spoiler

This tool was used for many purposes, in this guide I will say it is for images and secrets, images are big and are hosted elsewhere other than rmrk most of the time, This means your images may be slowing down the page loading, which will deter those with dial-up (Yes they still exist) It is critical you don’t over do your page with images, but it is also critical you make it interesting enough for people to want to read it.

Using the spoiler will make your life easier, okay here’s what we do, and for one the spoiler is like a second post box, but smaller and can be contracted. This means information that can take up 50+ pages can be stored in one and be contracted to 1/4 of a page. This is the magic of this little device. This code can be accessed by clicking the [ X ] button that’s right above the bean emotions. I suggest you use him for the following;

1. Information that may give away something about the game, that will in-turn spoil the end or something.
2. Pictures that are huge or mass amounts of images.
3. Long parts of texts, or something you want people to read eg.

Spoiler for HOLY CRAP READ ME!:

If you read this you are the legend?

Lesson Three.

The Emotions

:'(

Fig Three. Emotions

Emotions are simple, used to show what you feel or what the mood is like, I don’t use the often, I prefer to write how I feel and such. But these can be used in your game post very effectively if you know how to.

Seeing as how I am not all that skilled with these little buggers, I will say that this, Don’t overdo it. That’s it for this one guys. Sorry.

Lesson Four.

The Colors

Fig Four. The Colors

There are many colors, most people use the main ones Red and standard Black. The colors can be used to do so much more, not only can they use them for character outlining (like Yami did) but they can also be used in (if you have one) your index at the start of the post.

I was using colors until I got a bit lazy, but in my upcoming game post you will see that I use not only these but all of this stuff I’m telling you. Alright again don't overdo the whole color gig, it will also deter those with poor eyes or those who are color blind.

Lesson Five.

The The Layout

Spoiler for Layout:

Main Title

Sub Title

Sub Chapter 1 (Story/Characters/etc)

Writing for the chapter.

Then Repeat

Fig Five. A (Very Basic) Layout.

Warning: This is the most important part of your post, you must not screw this one up otherwise your post will be cluttered and very un-clean. People with think your game post was written by a hobo.

Now, Making them want to read the post is hard enough let alone get this one right. Using all of the key features I have listed here you can make a truly spectacular post, Now the key with the layout is to not make things too big or too small, don’t use slang, use proper English, don't curse unless its necessary, and include the following sub headings/chapters to get the max out of it;

1. About the Game.
2. Game Rating, Like G/PG/M/R/etc.
3. Basic Story
4. About the good guys (Hero's)
5. About the bad guys (villains)
6. Team working on it. (if you have one.
7. Links (To a webpage/forum/your rmrk team recruitment post.
8. Scripts Used (don’t give credit just yet)
9. Thanks (Here’s where we credit (EVERYONE) don't leave inferior jobs out, even these people did something towards your games up rise, they must be credited, unless they say the don’t want to be.
10. (If you have some) Screenshots (These are required before your game will be moved.
11. (If you have one) A Demo (This is also required before it will be moved but, it is very lax, so you can have a demo ready after your post.
12. Thanks to me for you learning the secrets of the post.

Thats about it for now, I will be making a layout for people to use, it wont be the best but it will be a start. I hope you learnt somthing and I hope you prosper in your game making careers.

-Kitten

Very nice suggestions Kitten. I can only hope more people will follow them. I've seen complete games with the topic:

Woot! I'se FINISHED my gam! Download [-url=BROKEN LINK]here[/url-]

Anyway, enough of that. Nice work! 

EDIT:
Also +rep for legend comment. Somebody's looking for votes for Best Newbie when the Polls open
And I'll have to come back in three hours and +rep you again for the entire topic.

<3

~ sticky

yay for stickie. .ness!

IMMA POST RLY GOOD GAMEZ I PRMISE!!!

This post is here because I decided we needed to fix up the requirements. As of now any old rag-tag games are being posted not only is there a ludichrist ammount of games being abandoned, it's showing the more mature advanced makers the slow decline of good makers, we must help the choobies out!

Below, I have re-written the requirements for the game posts.

No, Im not doing this to be a Mini-Mod, I just like writing.

Alrighty, your thinking Imma not read this because I am so confident my post of illegible text will be seen and loved instantly, This doesn't happen my friend. If you want to make it big you need to have a legible post, with a few things, not hard things. Very basic things such as a (few) screenshot(S) This aids in seeing your mapping. (Quickly, I will tell you people suck at mapping, it's not your fault you don't notice till you are flamed about it. Now practise makes perfect, you could have the best mapping in the world but the worst post that none could read, and this would ruin it.) So lets get in the habbit it sticking to one game and perfecting it.

Okay, seccond thing you must not do the following things, they make you look very retarded/silly. Plus it isn't worth lieing anyway.

Screenshots. Some sites down so I can't post them. People who do this usualy end up posting a few things then forgetting they ever started this porject and then abandoning it, This is what we call the "Holy Shit Better Ideas" disease.

Demos: Don't post a link to file with a password it makes you look like you haven't done anything but encrypt some stuff that no-one cares bout. Also dont put a broken link on your page, this will deter people as no-one likes to be told they screwed up, when its really your fault for not hosting better.

What does my post need to be good, all mighty Kitten!

-Screenshots
Okay, we've said it once, and now again screenshots are important you must allways keep your focus on making these good, these are the first impression people gety of your game. It's like when a man is daxed, and you see his wang. If its gross you turn and yell somthing along the lines of "OFC THAT MAKES YOUR GIRLFRIEND THE WORM" if its nice you come back for more. So make these good, and for gods sake make sure they are hosted properly.

-Character info
Tell us about the characters, dont give us their life story, just give us enough info to see what they are like, don't use the word "Nice" this doesn't specify why they are nice. Only use the word nice in food. Please stop making charatcers that are 15-19 over skilled, it's never going to happen. At the age of 15 you aren't allowed to do full sword fighting, nor would you have the willpower to cast spells like "Megatone Blast" Please jut give us characters that we can relate too, and don't make them all perfect.

-Story Basics
Alright, give somthing we can read. No one likes a game with no story it defeats the purpose of playing, many games fail due to the story's flaws, whilst not everyone sucks at writing, like myself alot of people do, its easy to think your good, its hard to know your good. So when your writing you could follow someone elses ways, like for instance I once wrote a book whilse looking at anothers work to see what I had to make it work, this isn't a bad idea for newbies to do while your in training. Also don't say you thought the idea up on the bus back from town. All games fail when thought up on a bus.

-Demo (over 15 mins)Whilst not enforced this is necisary, Im so sick of people's demos' being 30 secconds of game play, this is a major set back for makers as they think their demo needs to be a rush rush finish exercise. Perfect this aswell so your whole project is liked not just the end.

Sry for possible Necroposting.. but I thought it would be okay since this is a sticky?
You are talking about the spoiler function and that Its [X] button, but I srsly cant find it anywhere..
Whats the BBCode for using the spoiler function?

Once again Im sorry for posting in such an old thread..

Code: [Select]

[spoiler][/spoiler]