Games salty game blog discussion and planning thraed (Read 787 times) blog game blog

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Ok, yeah, a revolting cast of reviewers. I think a lot of people just want the games and a screenshot, so I sympathize with someone's (denzquix's?) comment about freeindiegam.es's just-the-games format. I also wouldn't want a contributor to feel pressured to write good copy in order to contribute. On the other hand, I like good games writing, especially, like, termite art games writing. By that I mean games writing that doesn't necessarily try to go for any highfalutin style or themes. Comment section criticism, but without the hoipolloi. Or comment section criticism written by and for the abject. Also keep in mind that some games posted will have practically nothing written about them, so this could be an opportunity to more publicly rectify that.
 
So, a tentative checklist:
 
- express the salt aesthetic, however suspect and nebulous that might be
- salt and friends-of-salt contributors
- games presented with contributor copy or presented relatively wordlessly (a title or a quote or a one sentence description)
- generally with at least one photo taken by the contributor, including for text-based games (I always want to see photos of text-based games)
- old and new games
 
Question mark:
 
- tumblr or generic blog or register an actual domain through someone cheap?
- name?
- logistics of different logins?
- editors with master logins?
- how laissez-faire?
- what is the look? how standardized is the format (i.e., sizing of picture, style of text, etc.)
- other ideas? amendments? objections?
 
  • Avatar of Neuropath
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I bet we could convince dada to let us use the saltworld.net domain to do our thing, like saltworld.net/gameblog or whatever.  he might have insights on how we could manage the logistics of setting up logins for people here to curate and build their stuff.
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Oh, wow, that would be thrilling. Wotta url! I wonder what free blogging software would be relatively easy to set up. Wordpress? Textpattern? Drupal? Slash? Other ____________?
Last Edit: May 03, 2014, 06:59:14 pm by bamcquern
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There's a ton of easy to use blogging software that doesn't rely on thick server side stuff, 
 
I can list 5 right now, case in point:
https://github.com/karmi/marley
https://github.com/codigorama/postview
https://github.com/adamwiggins/scanty
https://github.com/jtulloch/scanty/tree/master
https://github.com/madx/haze
https://github.com/wagnerandrade/wind
 
The're all based on sinatra, which is what django and express.js are based on, I have a preference for postview and marley but that's because it uses Markdown which I love.
Last Edit: May 31, 2014, 09:32:23 am by Swordfish
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this would be awesome. just a f.y.i. but I actually started working on something similar to this for the salt world main site, but because it's so busy and because I'm studying abroad right now it's been hard to get it anywhere near finished.
 
if you guys wanna go ahead and make something ahead of me then that'd be cool too, like I'm still gonna finish what I'm working on but when I do we can see what to do from there. also if you want it to be on the saltworld.net domain then that's fine too.
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Ok, if I started this, I would have to start after I move, because otherwise I'm just too stressed out. But this summer is a good time to start. Not opposed to someone else starting first, either.
 
Brainstorm:
 
Following dev forums is a no-brainer. What twitters to follow to cull games? I would have to start a twitter :-Y
 
But just for the sake of thoroughness, what dev forums/blogs would you follow to harvest games?
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I dunno if you're just writing about saltworld games or not but apart tigsource and stuff i think makega.me, the adventure game studio forums, rpg maker dot net, especially glorious trainwrecks, all have a lot of good stuff that i dont see mentioned a lot. also just straight distribution sites like gamejolt and itch.io.
http://harmonyzone.org
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Nah we totally meant like things from wherever, I'm pretty sure, least that's what I meant
 
I got more time now.  who else is still interested in the salt gamebog
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me am
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me hi
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if there's any way itch.io can provide it's data/service I'll be glad to help
http://itch.io - sell your indie games
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okay, so that makes at least 3 reviewers, and the use of itch.io or saltw.net itself as a choice of host for all this.
 
 
so what we need is
 
1. some way to make a blog we all can access/log into or whatever
2. a list of reliable sources for interesting games products (in addition to what any of us scavenge individually)
3. maybe some kind of a twitter or something linked to the above?  I dunno man, social media, go figure
 
thoughts:
maybe it'd be good if we tried to put reviews out out on some kind of a regular basis a weekly roundup or something? in addition to sporadic "content production"
might not be bad for us to have some kind of a place to share our finds and maybe decide who reviews what. not that people can't review the same thing, but maybe people could coordinate or something.  speaking for myself, I'd probably not want to step on anyone's toes
Last Edit: July 04, 2014, 09:56:20 pm by Neuropath
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All you need is a Tumblr that a few people post in whenever they feel like it. Anything else is too ambitious and will ultimately fail. 
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I'm really pumped to do this, but tbh I don't run into games that wow me in a way I can write about very often, so any attempt of mine to keep up with a deadline would fail.
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yeah i would love to have a spot to put game reviews of things of things i don't actually like that people don't actually care about.

i made a neocities page for this reason but ... i didn't do it. chances are i still won't do it but i would love to write something idk... twice or thrice maybe?
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oh hi. I moved. My room is a mess.
 
A tumblr is a good idea. I agree that simple is best, and most likely to survive.
 
Maybe use one of the saltw "private" boards to discuss what we're reviewing, etc.?
 
What about saltygam1ngbl0g.com (no numbers) "running" tumblr? And with the annoying follow button turned off! Each author can get their own account if we're running a "secondary" tumblr blog.

I agree that a twitter will also be valuable to connecting to devs.
 
I still check various gaming blogs and I've been pretty disappointed lately. I like oddities and Merritt Kopas's blog, but they update pretty irregularly. Indiegames.com doesn't cover the stupid shit I like.
 
Replying to cattymites et neuropath: def from anywhere, but yeah, I love glorious trainwrecks and all the hobby gamers pumpin out demos. I think it oughta be anything goes, including longer essays (for anyone up to it) and stuff for legacy OSes, as well as no-line/one-picture mentions with a link. I love pictures of everything, including IF, twine, and various textmode games. Pictures are so important!
 
I'm gonna put my shortlist together and try to clean up this room! I need to stop making excuses and start gettin stuff DONE!
 
Btw have you guys played Scott Cawthon's Chipper & Sons for ios? It's hecka salt.
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ok I did this.
 
saltygaming.club
 
I'm fiddling with wordpress. Trying to figure out what theme I want, etc. If anyone wants to help, email me (my email is in my profile).
 
cleaned my room btw. Started building some janky extra shelves for my bookcases.
Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 04:50:08 am by bamcquern
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Hmm. Mobile theme looks kind of dope on my phone, but I don't like the scrolling header. It also maybe lacks pizzazz. I got rid of the categories because that section seems useless to me, but I like the date posted, the line that says how many people have commented, and the tags, which can be useful if there are a lot of posts.

The mobile theme also looks kind of like ass on my desktop. I'd like to strike a balance between dope and ass. The title isn't big enough, the pic is huuuge, and the lines of text are too wide.
 
I took a screenshot for that pic, but the apes came out blurry and I don't know why. Need to master taking screenshots.
 
My neighbor is blasting "Sister Christian."
Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 03:49:42 am by bamcquern
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Got fed up and installed zbench. Hecka lame. Has features (or lack of features) I want, but I don't want a copycat site. I imagine y'all don't either. I think I need some help.
Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 04:51:08 am by bamcquern
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P3 is a pretty cool theme but its mobile version is kinda broken and I'd definitely wanna tweak it and create a child theme. I don't know how to do that as yet.