A message for the young ones that develop games

[Jayenkai]

I absolutely despise the idea of a "pay to publish" mentality. Free to publish is important to something like OUYA.
Equally important is USING the rank feature when you're quitting a game. Rank up the good. Rank down the bad.
Don't just whinge about bad games on an unofficial forum.. Use your power to vote, and the bad stuff will vanish away into the depths of the discovery channel.

[flamepanther]

I don't really see too many ugly games getting posted in Discover nowadays anyway. Even the more amateur of the 2D games look like they'd fit in with Amiga and PC games from during the '90s shareware boom.

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[Foppy]

The whole idea behind OUYA is that every beginner can get their game on it.

It takes a while to become a veteran professional like I am, and receive praise and daily letters of admiration, and expensive gifts, from all over the world.

But let's give people that chance.

[jmminch]

I agree with you, I'm personally tired of people publishing their first game, which is ugly and shitty. And that's ok, we all started with a shitty project because at some point we all were noobs. So, it's your first project, but please just send it to your friends, no need to be published on (insert here market) to flood even more the store with low quality stuff.

I wish (to avoid this) that all markets had a paid model really expensive, to avoid this kind of "first projects", something like a yearly subscription for 1k$. Right now anyone can publish stuff for free here in ouya, which lowers the barrier to anyone who wants to try his first project.

This is effectively the model that many of the big-name consoles have or had -- either directly, or indirectly due to expensive development kits or licenses or whatever. It has its advantages, but there's drawbacks as well, and Ouya was specifically targeted to have a low bar of entry for developers. Yes, we end up with a ton of Bob's First Flappy Bird Clone-type games. But there's also a lot of gems, especially freely-available ones, that wouldn't be published on Ouya if the developers had to put up any substantial amount of money.

[RiotingSpectre]

This brings back memories. Anybody remember my "Quality Control" thread that nearly got unanimous support? Good times... Anyways:

I do agree with you that it's beyond annoying to have to sift through dozens of crap that these aspiring developers have made. However, this is kind of what the OUYA console is about which is to give these aspiring developers a chance to publish their content on a marketplace that doesn't have you jumping through hoops like a Mario Party mini-game. There's also the fact that times have greatly changed since the old days of punching in code on a computer and you have pointed this out on your own. Sure, all these fancy engines and guides make it easier for poor excuses of developers to make something and throw it at us, but it also enables the developers who have skill to do the exact same thing. I wouldn't say the market is any different than it was 20 years ago, but I do think good and bad have been exacerbated because there's an increasing divide between good developers and bad developers.

Continuing on, your suggestion that one-man developers should form a team with others is a great idea. However, not all of them if not 90% of them have what it takes to handle the responsibilities that come with being in a group. There's also the fact that a lot of people want money for their work and even the developers that just started out will get a complex about themselves when they hear the word "team". All of this aside, there is something we can do. We can search through Discover and pull the games that aren't even up to OUYA Incorporation's questionable standards.

A lot if not all of you know that I've gotten several games removed from Discover by giving feedback. Legend Dary is one of these and I had the grounds to get it removed because it didn't allow the player to progress throughout the game due to a bug amongst other serious issues that went against the publishing guidelines. It that wasn't bad enough, it was a premium game that was quite expensive to boot, but I thankfully obtained a free copy of the game for the sake of an OUYAForum review which meant that it wasn't any sort of financial loss for me and instead only psychological because of how bad Legend Dary was. Furthermore, I've uncovered yet another game that I aim to remove from Discover. I'm going to keep the name of it a secret because some people find offense in me having games removed, but it's something that can take someone's money which means that my regular disregard for those particular feelings from other people become completely nonexistent.

In the end, the OUYA console has a lopsided library of games and I spoke about this in my review of it. It will always be this way and OUYA Incorporate along with the majority of people who own the console are okay with this because they realize that's one of the things the console stands for. If you want to help out the other side such as where we're on then I suggest you look for games that go against the publishing guidelines. We can protect people from the worst experiences the console has to offer along with their bank accounts. This simple fact alone makes sifting through all that crap that these developers publish more of an inspection than just a regular annoyance, and I'm okay with that because it gives me the opportunity to help people which is (surprisingly) something I like to do.

[Trilby]

Equally important is USING the rank feature when you're quitting a game. Rank up the good. Rank down the bad.
Don't just whinge about bad games on an unofficial forum.. Use your power to vote, and the bad stuff will vanish away into the depths of the discovery channel.

+1 The way some of the posts were worded reeks of self-absorption to me. I believe there is no universal standard of quality and it might be more constructive to just talk about specific games.

[Eldon.McGuinness]

Equally important is USING the rank feature when you're quitting a game. Rank up the good. Rank down the bad.
Don't just whinge about bad games on an unofficial forum.. Use your power to vote, and the bad stuff will vanish away into the depths of the discovery channel.

Agreed, I just wish the discover store had a way to rank an game in itself, instead of requiring the user to rank a game when quitting it. I have forgotten or been in a hurry a number of times and wanted to rank something, but requiring me to launch a game just to rank it is too much effort for the games I will never play again; especially if I uninstalled it after quitting it the first time!

+1 The way some of the posts were worded reeks of self-absorption to me. I believe there is no universal standard of quality and it might be more constructive to just talk about specific games.

Indeed, if you have a legitimate gripe about a game then please do post it, but more than just a "I hate pixel art" or "This looks like a n00b game" is needed. If the latter comments are all you're bringing to the table then please don't bother sitting down and take the comment elsewhere.

[xAD]

I love pixel art and noobs are proven to have the most original ideas, so there.

However, I'd agree there is such a thing as a "Minimum Level of Competence" below which you shouldn't even attempt to charge people money. I think I'd probably set that bar lower than OP, though.

[Eldon.McGuinness]

I love pixel art and noobs are proven to have the most original ideas, so there.

However, I'd agree there is such a thing as a "Minimum Level of Competence" below which you shouldn't even attempt to charge people money. I think I'd probably set that bar lower than OP, though.

Who agrees with you 100%? ME that's who! By the way, LOVE the signature and oh so true.

[Sitting Fox]

I'd rather work alone, thanks. Introvert, always carrying the load in group projects anyway, all that.

Maybe I'll change my thoughts one day, who knows. But I'm clever, or at least terribly persistent, so I have a bit of all-around dabbling that's decent (or so I think). I can figure it out. Might take a long time (especially with me sucked into this other not-game-making town project), but you know, I'm OK with that. I do what I do because I enjoy it. I enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

I'm glad OUYA's removed a lot of the barriers of entry (in comparison to others). That's one of the main things I like about it.

Jayenkai, you're awesome.