Messages

The idea is to give any consumer a truthful idea of game content,

But game content is there to flesh out concepts, ideas, story and aesthetics. What use is it to anyone to know 'this game contains images of knives, drawings of people having sex'. Take anything worthwhile you've ever experienced in art and break it down to the signifiers contained therein, regardless of the conceptual element they serve, what do you have?


I don't see any point to this, besides possibly it being fun to do for your game, to go through all of it and find the signifiers and put warnings for everything for them as some sort of post-modern statement.

WARNING, THIS GAME CONTAINS:

PEOPLE
DISCUSSIONS
COMBINATORIAL ITEMRY
COLORS
MOUSE POINTERS (6)

Maybe I shoud reword it "Possibly objectionable content"

Taken into consideration, the simplist way would to put a game rating the way the ESRB does with an age category, however since this is the internet putting age categories is pointless.

Howver even PEGI uses multiple icons for the content within.

While it may seem complicated, I am trying to be as complete with it as possible so with a quick glance a consumer will know the approximate amount of content held within the game.

Well wait for the full document to be finished, they generally will be monochrome, the color will be more of just an outline.

Look at the example icon I made, the outer white ring that surrounds the entire Icon will be color coded, the icon itself will be monochrome. At least this is the plan for now. Someone sees a knife with a red outline, they are going to know that it's an extremely violent game.

I'm working on getting a SMF board setup on the new site. Most likely I won't worry about doing a theme for it at least not at first. This way we can start using those forums instead of hijacking others .

Thanks

http://www.eagma.org is up and running (if you cannot reach the site please give your DNS time to update). It is still being built, and later today I will add a simple forum to it for discussion.

Thanks

First, the "Appearance" of the GUI is most likely because you have GUIS set to turn off

When Interface Disabled [Turn GUI's Off]

For the fade, try using an object, you can turn the object on before fadein and then change it's transparency after fadein.

Code: ags

while (oBlack.Transparency < 100) {
    oBlack.Transparency++;
    Wait(15);
  }

All of you quit being emo!

Actually something like that would be great...

However I'm still working out how I would label them, which I have a decent idea. But I'm doing some cross referencing and research and what not...

I'm thinking of going with a color/symbol system Green:Mild, Yellow:Moderate, Orange: Severe, Red: Extreme. Which would be easier than coming up with a seperate icon for say mild violence, to Extreme Violence. I've also been thinking about things like sexual conduct in text as compared to visual acts... So I was thinking of a primary category, like Text, Cartoonish, or Realistic, then Violence, Sex, Drugs, Scary, Suggestive Themes, Sex, Crime, etc.

I'm also developing a rating guideline such as:
If the game uses mild swear words (hell, damn, ass) that can normally be heard on Broadcast television, minimum rating for language is mild.

And so on.

What I think I will do is by this weekend go ahead and create a subsite of yelloweyedstudio and create a forum in there so we can discuss this without bothering the rest of the community that aren't as interested.

In the end Dan, you are rating your own games, you are just using icons that are standardized for use by all amateur game makers.

The document was updated to 1.01a... I decided to make it a standardized set of icons since I kinda thought the whole make your own was silly, but at the same time I wanted flexibility.

Anyway thanks all that participated so far... I'm working on getting a domain registered, and a few other things...

EDIT: Actually I'm going to wait on the domain, if there doesn't seem to be any interest, then most likely I'll just subsite it off my current web domain.

Dan: if that is how you choose to rate your games then that is fine, but this is a self rating system. I'm still working out the "severity" of the "bad" categlories. However there will be NO age categories. The idea is to give any consumer a truthful idea of game content, NOT to tell them they aren't old enough to play it. That is for them to decide for themselves. I write about why this is in the documentation.

Speaking of which, I have completed an alpha draft version of the EAGMA documentation... The following link points to another message board where I would like discussion of the document to take place, as I can moderate the topic and keep the spam down, and it gives everyone a central place to put ideas to cut down on multiple suggestions of the same thing.

I also ask that if you belong to other amateur game making communities to point them to the post on Skytower Games, I want as wide of discimination as possible among amateur game making communities so I can get as much feedback as possible. This includes IRC channels, or even word of mouth.

EAGMA Documentation 1.0a thread

Thanks again for your comments.

Well, we do have , and already.

And besides, no offense, this sounds just so damn american again...

Yes but those are just for this site. What I am suggesting is an association of game makers that choose to place these on the game they produce. They do not even have to use the icons that I plan on making, they can make their own, as long as they are readable and easy to understand.

This will be used (if the producer chooses) throughout the internet as a means for individuals to have an idea of content before downloading and playing.

This system does NOT mandate appropriate playing age, it is only informational, the EAGMA (Ethical Amateur Game Makers Association) can not judge on what appropriate gaming age is, only as to the content of the product.

As I type I have word open and I'm typing up a draft of my vision in this regard. I'm not trying to make a stright jacket, I'm only thinking of a system that is comparable to the PEGI or ESRB that can be used for amateur game makers without them having to pay or just be completely ignored by those two orginizations.

Also, the PEGI is not an american orginization, it's actually European. While you may thing "this sounds so American" it is in fact just an idea for those that choose to accurately represent their games content to those that may wish to use that game.

As SSH said, his daughter gets upset at Cinderella, my daughter loves watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but any movie that has tons of gore and violence gives her nightmares for weeks. Every person is different which is why my idea is that this system does not mandate what is appropriate for those that use it, it only displays what they will find in the game once they play it.

Once I feel I'm at a good place with the document for my vision I will post it at a few amateur game making communities to hopefully get some constructive feedback.

Thanks for everyone's input thus far.

You forgot the part where after the altercation you went home to cut yourself to ease the pain.

I've never actually had anyone consider me goth because I listen to much of the same thing you do. Then again I don't constantly wear black, dye my hair, wear 3000 chains all over my clothes, and eyeliner. To me this is more the goth lifestyle than the music you listen to.

It isn't to rate the site, it's for those that choose to do so, to inform anyone that may download or play their game the content within...

I start with 3 categories Textual, Cartoonish, and Realistic which tells them the graphical type of the game. You then add the subcategories such as Violence, Blood and Gore, Sex, Language, whatever. So anyone thinking of downloading or playing your game will know when they see R:VBL that this game will have realistic violence blood and language.

I'm not even going to attach an age to any of these ratings. If anything they are for informational puposes only, because I know that people will download what they want, since there isn't a real way to regulate it.

Oh and I actually had the idea for S for scary, younger children may be frightened by content.

So in the end, it really is just an informational rating system.

Believe it or not, this has nothing to do with if I agree or disagree with them, and in many cases, I do agree with the intent of these rating systems.

But there is a problem with them.

A few weeks ago, I emailed PEGI and the ESRB on how one goes about getting a rating for an amateur game.

PEGI returned an email saying it's a service for professional developers only, it costs money, and they don't deal with amateur games.

ESRB hasn't returned my emails, and it's been over a month. I assume that it is probably the same.

So I thought to myself, why hasn't anyone developed any sort of system like this for the internet. There isn't an ethical amateur gamemaking committee anywhere. So I thought, why don't I just make my own and see if it catches on.

It's still in very early stages, and once I get all my thoughts and ideas down on paper I'll post them to my website, but the basic idea is this.

1) COMPLETELY voluntary, you only put ratings on your games if you choose to (which is kind of a given seeing that I'm not an authority).

2) If you do decide to use the rating system on your game, it does not have to be in the game (the exe or the jar or what have you). However due to the nature of games being hosted on different websites, it is highly encouraged to put the ratings on the splash screen, loading screen, title screen, or similar.

3) The rating must be clearly posted by the download link or on the page the flash/java file is embedded in.

Just ideas so far, but I like the idea of an Ethical Amateur Gaming group, and those that take the responsibility to inform internet users what content their game may have to anyone that may download it.

As far as icons, I've only worked on one as a rough draft, simple grayscale png at 48X64 pixels.
1X:

2X:


So I guess if I were to fully develop a system like this, would any of you use it? If anything I will probably use it for my own games, but just as a slice of the internet, I'd like to see what others thought.

Thanks...

Id do this...

Start with characters make them move, make them talk, make 2 characters talk while one moves.

Just take the default game, import a room into the editor with a big walkable area and go into the editor for after fade in.

just type in "cEgo." (include the period) and a big list of everything you can do is there, just see what all the stuff does.

Also you can make them walk while talking but you have to use character.SayBackground("").

I find that typing it out... and seeing it work, hits it home quicker.

The editor has never displayed AA sprites with their AA. So in the editor itself you will always see the AA lines. All of my cursors look like large green blobs, but in the game they look fine.

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=27409.0 <--- GUI buttons cant be transparent

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=26847.0
Look for ashens post about 8 posts down, inventory items and buttons don't show AA correctly unless they are on a transparent part of the GUI.

If you follow what he says about using 2 guis, this should work for you.

These are what I have to choose from

400-415
500-505

Well technically I could edit it directly, but meh easier to use the tool.

Ok so I'm working on my .htaccess file... I already have my own error messages for 403 and 404... I know I probably need a 500 error, but I know I don't need to make error messages for all 21 types that I can put in my .htaccess file..

So most likely I need 401/403*/404*/500... is there any other types that you have seen that I may need to add to this?

*done already

Yes I know....

Actually vault doors are made similar with tapered edges, however it won't fit in the doorframe as currently drawn. so either add a taper to the doorframe, or remove the taper from the door.

Who the hell is Renal Shutdown?