Release Something! (AGS Showcase!) The Party is Over :(

[ThreeOhFour]

Icey/Studio3 recently mentioned his idea of "AGS E3", and whilst it may appear foolish to try and copy this aspect of the AAA game design scene, I think it would be cute and positive if we *did* have an event where we could showcase our stuff - unfinished projects, demos, screenshots, trailers... or even knuckle down and tie up those last few loose ends we've been putting off doing for months and actually finishing that game we've all had sitting around forever waiting to be done.

We used to have these under the guise of a "Release Something", and while I never participated, they were great fun, it's amazing to see all the different members of the community showcase little parts of their projects. I think having a date, an event in which you know people will be interested in this sort of thing and all your buddies will be doing it, really motivates one to tidy something up for people to look at it. And, if nothing else, it gives you somewhere to finally show off those couple of screenshots that you know aren't going to be in a game anymore, but you spent hours working on and might as well do *something* with, even if it does just mean posting them for people to go "oooh, I wish that was a game!" over.

As far as I can tell, the last Release Something was February 2009. We had something a little in the vein of this last year in May when ProgZmax set the mags topic to "Release Your Game" and the comp was clearly a great success - 6 entries in a MAGS comp is a great showing by anybody's standard, so the interest is clearly there.

That was over a year ago - perhaps it's time for another release something?

(sorry if this is in the wrong board)

Update:

With no objections having arisen, I'm going to go and set the deadline for this activity as the 10th of July. You have one month to polish up your games/tech demos/demos/prototypes/vertical slices for release! Keep the sweet stuff rolling in guys, it's awesome to see!

[veryweirdguy]

I approve of this, and am using my authority to make this the "Release Something" thread:

[ThreeOhFour]

Ben304 releases veryweirdguy

Run free, my pretty!

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I think historically we're supposed to set a date for the event to occur and say "Have your things polished up for this time!".

Still, thank you for releasing something. I hope it is a weight off your soul 

[gameboy]

I very much like the idea of a new release something. I too have missed this comp.

I hope it will motivate me to release a demo of my game.

[veryweirdguy]

BENJAMIN. Did you not SEE the part about my AUTHORITY.

[Eggie]

Because I respect veryweirdguy's authority, I defy Ben's attempt at making this organized and am releasing this:

ANARCHY!!!


It was made over a million years ago in March 2009 and features characters created by Kralex and Bluke4x4. And the project is STILL ALIVE (and still a lot of hard graft away from completion, sorry)!

Here's another thing from it

[Anian]

Can we just put trailers like they do in E3? Or as Nintendo has done, use another system to show what your system will be able to do.  

Well I don't have one, everything is worked out but it's all still in my notebook and unfinished Sketchup's backgrounds. All that's done is half finished image that'll be part of the intro screen for a sort of steampunky/fantasy thief story about a crime gone wrong and an escape from a city. It's going to be first part of trilogy, although I kind of only know what would happen at the begining of the second part...critics say it's a brilliant display of stoytelling and inventive gameplay.
BE READY FOR WINTER OF ...let's say 2012. (if the world ends in the meantime, then there probably won't be more than a demo out)

But it's going to be a new gameplay experience, fun fully interactive with a deep storyline (it gets deeper every day and especially with every episode of Game of thrones I watch).  

[ThreeOhFour]

The hell with it, I ain't a mod, and unlike Cooper I have NO authority  :'(

How can I be cross when your anarchies are so delicious and sweet, you cheeky scamps!

Still, it would be nice to set some dates (if we're going to get excited and ignore a start date, then at least a finish date).

Ben304 now bows to veryweirdguy's *AUTHORITY*

[veryweirdguy]

(I lied about the authority thing.)

But yeah, a finish date would be good. Gives people time to prepare, but eliminates the whole "planning" thing that creative types have so much bother with.

[ThreeOhFour]

Yeah, I think a deadline is important to keep motivation up. Some people are bound to miss it, but that will always happen sadly.

I also think Release Something type affairs are much lovelier if done once a year or so, making them exciting, rather than a thread where people post tons of crap really quickly and then it dies out after a while.

(I lied about the authority thing.)

You filthy pagan!  :o

[abstauber]

Isn't the AGS E3 called Mittens?? You attend, you show your stuff around - you don't... well then you do not do it


In terms of authority...
Wanted to do a game with the NES palette:


Stopped it because it took too much precious time from ShattenReyze.

@Eggie: Please finish either a game or a cartoon, your style is awesome!

[Icey]

Thanks ben for getting the topic going. I sorta got the idea a little bit to late but it's still good to see people taking an intrest.

[Ponch]

So is there a date we're all working towards or what? I can't strive towards a nebulous future point. That's abstract and far too much like real life. 

[mode7]

In contributing to further deteriorate I'll also release "something"

As my last concept art of Dacey II basically became Concurrence, I was trying to get back to the old style and consequently improving it.
I did some research and really fell in love with German expressionist movies from the 20s. This screen is somewhere between Metropolis and Lotte Reinigers shillouette movies. As it doesn't really fit Daceys story I probably wont develop this any further. I still found it a fasciniating style. I really like to see that with a lot of animation inside.



Having a certain date to finish something and kind of posting the progress is a great idea I think. Could be a good chance to revisist the dreaded code of Concurrence so I can finally go on with the develeopment.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I might have something for this....

teaser:

[Icey]

The whole point of AGS E3 was for members to show a preview of any game(s) they are making in anyway like a video or a demo, etc..

However Ben is in charge so it's up to him.

[ThreeOhFour]

Man, we have some beautiful stuff coming out! I think we should definitely agree on a deadline, though, before we all get carried away.

As for someone being in charge, the concept of such a thing is a little flawed. The whole thing is up for discussion by anyone.

Also, Release Something isn't just about releasing games, it is about releasing screenshots, tech demos, animations, prototypes, trailers and of course full games, and as far as I know always has been! You're quite welcome to post a preview, you're also very encouraged to think "Hey, I might see if I can get that old game and maybe polish it up into something that I can release".

For a deadline, a month seems like a reasonable amount of time for me. Any comments on this period of time, or preferred deadline dates?

[Matti]

Mode7, that would make a great background style for a jump'n'run game!

[Icey]

A month sounds good. Also can we use the logo I made?

[ThreeOhFour]

To be honest, I am against the notion of calling it the "AGS E3". This has been something of a tradition in AGS, let's own it and keep it as our own. I understand where you are coming from, but let's keep this our own.