What's wrong with my games...?

[Ishmael]

I was wondering that what's up with my games, as they don't seem to get much publicity...

Well, my theory is that as I spend time working on the interface, the art, puzzles and story suffered, as I didn't have time to work on the so much. Is anyone thinking the same?

And, as I have atlease one good interface ready, I'll be releaseing it someday, when I fix the few flaws... I'm talking of the EFL's VerbCoin.

Do I have the right to wonder this matter?

[Vel]

I think you got it right - the GUIs do not matter much if the other components lack much things. By the way, you don't expect to get much publicity from a MAGS game, do you? I think you should work on something bigger, since you appear to have the qualities.

[Ishmael]

I meant in the scale of MAGS games... well, I guess you're right about that, I was thinking a bit too big...

[Ginny]

Yes, when making MAGS games it is hard to get much publicity since they're usually short and there is very little time to make them. You also have too little time for story and puzzles etc when making a MAGS, because it seems like a waste of time to spend too much of the month on story. I am used to taking months to just sit about and develop stories, characters, etc, and thus the first MAGS I entered ended in me rushing to finish the game and it coming out buggy, not much good, and me being sick of it. The second time I didn't get to start the art at all, not to mention scripting. I'm thinking maybe next time I enter MAGS, I'll take more time for puzzles and dialogs cause they didn't come out well, and make sure the game is short*, yet good.
In general though, when making a non-mags game with no deadline, I think it's important to take as much time as needed for story, research if applicable, dialogs, characters, puzzles, and overall consistency and other design aspects. After that (and partially meanwhile too) you do the graphics and scripting, and take as much time as needed to make it as good as possible (this is my new work policy, so hopefully I'll manage to muster the patience to do this).
However, though it's not really a must, an original GUI really adds to the professionality of a game, and so it's also important.I too often spend too much time on GUI drawing and scripting. I think once one has the GUI finished, it should be easier to take care of it in next games. Even make a template for all games with intro screen ready for graphics etc. In my case I usually change the color scheme each game if needed, and I'm thinking of redoing my GUI to something better, but even redoing graphics isn't a hard thing and could be done in a day or two.

Wow, I sure had a lot to say. It's been in me for a long time now, thanks to this thread it's aaall out. I hope. If there's any more I'll just edit

*one problem with restricting myself to a short game is that I tend to make stories non-rectricted (and that, I believe, is a good approach, because it allows for all the creativity to flow), and because of that my story ideas usually become at least medium sized, and sometimes even humongeous. Games I'm not ready to make even if MAGS were a whole year, at times. So I gotta work on that.
Do you think it's wise to ntry and restrict myself to something that won't become long? It's usually difficult to shorten an idea, and if the puzzles are all on a basic level, not breaking up (which would shorten the game a bit) then the game becomes boring. I also thoguht of doing a demo for whatever idea I get, and then continuing the full game sometime (if possible).

Ok, ebough rambling, hope you'll have the enrgy to read all this mumbo-jumbo

edit:

* GinnyW looks back on size of post.

:o
Well anyway one last thing, I believe that yes, you should wonder about this, because it helps you and all of us improve

Oh btw, I had no idea the "/ me" thing works here!

[Totoro]

TK, you are credited at the final credits of my game. Mmmh... no real answer to your question though, but I thought this would make you happy