I flopped facedown on my laptop for a few hours when I got the feedback from IndieCade. I went Rag Doll and just slumped there until the rage built up, and I attempted to throw Harry out the window. He took it in stride–not sure he noticed, also he’s good at not being thrown out of the window by me.
I have this thing: I don’t like instructions in games. I’d rather figure things out myself and explore the possibilities. Harry and I try to make games in this way.
I would have been totally happy with a response from IndieCade like, “Sorry you were not selected this time…” But it didn’t go down that way. Here is the feedback:
“This is a solid tech demo working well on an Ouya that shows the way to an eventually exciting project. At the moment, though there is no innovation in mechanic or presentation, no design at all to levels and challenges, and extensive issues with interface and controls. Playtesting and Level Design seem to be the next big steps to move this project forward.
—– I wanted to like this game so badly. A proper indie OUYA game that was ground-up intended for OUYA! – But this one just wasn’t ready for prime-time. It needs a lot of polish. The audio and visuals were baseline at best and starting the game with weird toilet humor didn’t inspire or impress. Mostly, though, I have issues with the controls, the implementation, and the design. The game doesn’t make it clear what the goal is. I figured form [sic] the rag-doll physics we were looking at a frog version of stunt games, but there was no speed or power to the jump. Things I felt I should interact with, like the cannon, got be [sic] stuck inside with no way to get out, forcing me to restart the game before even leaving the nebie player level. The jump is kind of lifeless and not sufficient to even clear the fences- in a game that’s supposed to be about the joy of flapping about and sailing through the air, it was difficult and un-fun to find ways to accomplish that. You have a promising tech demo here, but it needs a proper game to wrap around it.”
To be clear, I am not upset by the rejection.
I was, however, confused by the response. I am often confused, but this feedback has me walking into walls as I stare off into space wondering why the hell I should be making a game with a “goal,” or why I shouldn’t fart. There is no objective in the game other than what you create yourself , so if you don’t feel like using your imagination, then I guess you will probably only play for a few seconds. I suppose it made me doubt the way we make games, a way we have fought very hard to get into a position to do so.
We take the knocks, but then generally we press “A” and stand back up. So, avoiding any massive glitch outs, I guess we’ll try and submit next year to IndieCade and hopefully get a different judge 🙂
