I was wondering if we could get more detailed feedback at some point? Maybe even just a copy-paste of any notes you took. I assume you guys needed to take notes?

I don't think this will be possible.  The notes are too full of kokoromi-shorthand to be useful outside our discussion.  A better solution is to start a thread here if you haven't already and get feedback from fellow TIGers.

Just to be totally clear, when we select the games that we will showcase, then at that point everyone who entered will be notified whether they were selected or not.  Given how many games we have to play and debate and narrow down, and given the other things on our respective plates, my guess is it's going to take at least a week for us to get there.

So far we've seen some REALLY impressive work, and I applaud you all.

I just made a windows setup project and you can select an option to check for xna and if they dont have them it will pull the redist files off the Microsoft website and install them. pm me if you need more detailed steps.

    

I put it there, just in case.

You are smart.   

Remember when y'all were talking about how awesome it would be to have actual one-button game controllers?   Well then, time to get started making one.  Or making some other insane thing with wires and chips and solder and lazers.  Up to you.

http://www.kokoromi.org/announcements/call-for-one-button-objects/

I think I'll go to the GGJ anyway and never mind if this compo is unfinished... and if Kokoromi wants to extend their deadline by a few days for GGJ attendees well that'd be grand !

We won't be extending it. 

We gave y'all two months, after all. 

 

I have a bit of a problem. The game I'm making does not restart; players are supposed to build on what the previous player accomplished. This is why I have a hard time adhering to the five minutes rule.

So: which of these options is the most acceptable?

Again, we can't really speculatively approve rule exceptions, which all of these solutions seem to be.  I'd say you just have to do what's best for the game itself, for its creative integrity, and accept the risk that we may decide not to include it.

I would like it if, once you make your selections, you could put up a page with pics and descriptions of all the entries. Would that take an unreasonably long time?

I have no idea what time length you consider unreasonable!   We will find a way to make them available (for the creators that wish to), though the presentation may take a different form this year than in years past.  (You can go to the Projects page on our blog for pics/links to most of the games from earlier Gammas.)  Typically we don't do this til after the event.

Any clue when (and how) we hear about the results? If my game gets selected, I need to haggle for time off with the boss, book flights, etc. Just want to have an idea of how quickly I'll need to scramble to get all that done.

"As soon as we can" is the best I can give you.  The creators of the selected games that will be notified as soon as we've made all the selections, and everyone else will be notified very soon thereafter.  We're absolutely aware of the need for people to make travel plans and get time off, so we'll do our best!

Ok I'm getting close to finishing my submission but I have 2 questions.

1) On the submission form you state that you want "3 Screenshots of the game, in TGA format" I just have a really old version of Corel PhotoPaint which doesn't support that format so I was wondering what my options are?

2) Where's a good place to host the game?

We specified TGA primarily because it's lossless.  If you can't do TGAs but could do BMPs I suppose that could be ok too.

There are plenty of reliable free hosting sites, I'd say ask people here what they are using.  Mediafire comes to mind but I'm sure there are others.

Would it be okay to bind a button on the controller for skipping the intro/outro? They're both interactive, so I can't use the A button. I don't want someone to be forced to sit through the outro because the previous player walked away.

I'm going to assume that it's not an option, though, and just try and detect an 'idle' player (i.e. no input in over a minute); hopefully that will be enough.

Only the A button.  I'm sure you can find a creative solution!  My recommendation is get it done ASAP, then playtest and get feedback.  Give yourself enough time to implement a plan B or C.

As far as the five minute time limit goes, a minor question: Is it okay for the ending to go over by some tiny amount of time once the player has already "won"?

Or - to get really exotic - what if I treat the ending sequence as a title screen, so once they've reached the ending, they can walk away and a new player can walk up and press A to skip the remaining bits of the ending and begin a new game?

Your points are interesting (not minor) however it's not really possible for us to speculatively approve specific exceptions.  The spirit is to encourage players to pass the game controller to other players, if that helps.  Skippable intros/outros are a good idea in general.

To avoid passing the one-button limit, is it cool to provide one *.exe for windowed mode and one for fullscreen, or does display switching fall under the "debug" category so I can just leave it to the standard ALT-ENTER combo?

The one button limit applies only to what the player experiences in-game.  Any commands or hotkeys that are developer-only are fine.  Keep in mind the keyboard will be hidden - the game should always loop back to the start screen when a play session is done.  You should never let the player see the desktop.

Just a quick question, nothing turned up on search, but are you guys going to play these games with no sound on when you judge? Should we even bother adding sound effects at all? We have some in there but have been doing playtests with loud music in the room and no computer speaker sounds etc.

Answered that last week.

Will the "Brief description of your game" be shown to players? Or is it for your benefit only? That will really change what I write. What about the screenshots?

The description and screenshots should be what you would want to show the players, media, etc.

Is anybody else having trouble submitting? I keep getting "No Verification Code Generated", even when I copy it exactly, case-sensitive or not.

Cindy and I just tested it and it worked, and we've already successfully received some submissions.  So.... not sure what's up with that.  The webform app we are using is handling the verification codes, and it's always worked for me so far.

The selector for number of players is broken... It won't let me select 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4 players.

Hm, actually you have a point... we could make those checkboxes, eh?

Can we get the system specs that these games will be running on. My game happens to use a lot of memory... Like a lot.

Also want to know about whether these games will be tested with or without sound and also what the policy on updating a submission after the deadline is.

Can my game still be eligible for judging if I fail to meet these criteria. Can I at least submit my game and have you guys play it to see how awesome it is even if I know it'll be rejected on grounds of failing to meet the requirements (for personal satisfaction)

thanks.

The machines will be on the upper end of normal-powerful, but we don't usually rent the highest end ones so we can't guarantee your game will be supported. 

You should assume that what you submit is final.  On occasion, for the SELECTED games, we have accepted tweaks.  But for that to be the case, a game has to be awesome and complete enough to be selected in the first place.

Of course you can submit a game even if you don't think it will be showcased.  Builds character.

 

When the games are being selected, do the Gamma members play with their volume set to zero (to replicate Gamma conditions)?

To replicate Gamma conditions, we curate the games with accompaniment by an extremely powerful stereo playing DJ mixes of chip music, electro and dance rock.

When is the submission information going to appear? We are passed mid-January already.

(Not that my game is actually finished, I'm just curious.)

How's about..... TODAY.

http://www.kokoromi.org/gamma4submission/