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[Barefists]

Hi all,

If you are looking to write about Indie games, this might be interesting for you. 

I'm looking for talented writers to join the IndieReview team.  Its a new site, barely 3 months old, with a forum that just popped into existence a week ago.  I work on the site alone currently, writing reviews and maintaining/upgrading the site, but I need some help in generating content at a quicker pace.

About IndieReview
The site concentrates on independent game reviews - in particular we deal with free games available online from hobbyist game development communities, and try to spot gems amongst all the noise.  We do short reviews of about 400-500 words each, cutting through the fluff and delivering only the important bits to the reader.  Although we have news and articles sections, they are not the main focus of the site, and will be worked on later when we have more readership.

Who should apply?
We are looking for 1-3 people who...

• Have an insatiable love for indie games.
• Can write well.  At the same level or better than reviews found on the site currently.
• Can contribute 3 reviews a month, of 400-500 words each.
• Understand game dev well enough to break down the pros and cons of a game, and justify their rating.
• Are friendly and can work well with other people.

You're not paying me?
Unfortunately, I'm paying out of my own pocket for the hosting, and have little left to pay writers with.  I'm intending to eventually put ads on the site to support the maintenance - if I have any cash left over, I'll look into monetary rewards for staff writers.  Promise.

How else can I contribute?
If you are a kind person and want to help out, there are a few things you can do:

• Contribute guest reviews.  There is a section on the forums that allows the submission of guest reviews, if your submission meets the standards of the site, it will find its way onto the front page.  Feel free to put a link to your own site at the end of your review.
• Tell us about a great game.  If you know about an awesome game (including your own) that should be in the spotlight, let us know via the forums.
• Leave comments.  Tell us what you think of our reviews.  Do you agree/disagree? Why?  We like to know, so do our readers.

Thank you for your kind attention, I know its a long post.

[AuthenticKaizen]

nice to see a new little indiegame review site. 

usability tip:
make it as easy as possible to suggest a game or contact you.
(its an obstacle to register on a forum and one might not want to register at any forum at all only when he wants to suggest a game...
jayenkai for example has a very simple yet userfriendly way to submit stuff. (only name and idea is needed...no additional things required)
therefore i recommend to provide a contact section or suggest a game page somewhere on your site...or such a simple suggestions thing in the sidebar.

moreover:
i also see on some blogs / websites (fortunately not many) the requirement to actually register before one can write a comment... not good.

well considering that only about 10% are willing to make comments and normally only 1% actually make comments its almost certain that with such register actions there will be no activity in the comments section.

[Barefists]

No registration is necessary for comments on the site.

I get what you mean about the suggestion being too much of a hassle.  Although I like jayenkai's suggestion box, I'm worried it might invite a lot of spam.  Hmm.. I'll see what I can do there.

EDIT: Ah! I'll just make a suggestion page and then block it from google using robots.txt

[JoGribbs]

I would totally be interested in writing some reviews. Looks like a cool site.

[Barefists]

make it as easy as possible to suggest a game or contact you.

Okie, suggestions page added.  Thanks a lot Kaizen! :D
A guest review page is in the works, should work in about the same way.

I would totally be interested in writing some reviews. Looks like a cool site.

That's great, and thanks for the encouragement!  Hmmm.. if you'll just hold on for about a day, I'll get the guest review page up so you can write a trial review and I can test the page at the same time.
You have freedom to review whichever game you want, as long as its interesting, free for download and indie.

[AuthenticKaizen]

make it as easy as possible to suggest a game or contact you.

Okie, suggestions page added.  Thanks a lot Kaizen! :D
A guest review page is in the works, should work in about the same way.

allright, nice

if you should get much spam consider to add a simple question/answer thing like i did.
i think its way better than having strange captcha codes that are not very friendly to the eye (hardly readable)...
and it works pretty good against spam bots.

[Barefists]

Okie, we'll see how the spam problem goes - I blocked Google from it, so hopefully that is sufficient.  Gratz on being the first person to use the suggest feature Kaizen As a prize I'll write the review today.

[Barefists]

Suggested review is up, and the site has a couple of additions:
There is now a form for submitting guest reviews, and I have added genre tags to the site ( can't believe I left genre out).

@JoGribbs:  Can you please write a review for the site through the guest review system?  I hope to "playtest" it with someone other than myself to see if its good enough.   Thanks!

@TIGSource: Sorry this has unknowingly become a devlog for my site.  Let's get back to point - still looking for more staff writers and hollering for guest reviews!

[JoGribbs]

I will get on that right away. I don't know when it'll be done for though because I live in the UK and time be crazy like that.

EDIT: Done and submitted. Tell me if it didn't work or it sucked.

[Barefists]

It's perfect, and its posted.
I really like the lighthearted tone you take with your review, makes the review more enjoyable to read.  Some notes for future reviews:

• Genres need to be comma separated.  Like "Action, Platformer" instead of "Action Platformer"
• The main review is html enabled, so you can use <a href="(insert url here)">link name</a> to insert a link to the download site.

Other than that I've got nothing more to add.  I might go play Action Fist myself after I get home from work tonight.
Can you send me a private message with your email?  It'll be easier to communicate from there.

EDIT: btw, if you have a better screenshot send me, I'm using something I screen captured from Youtube because I need to rush off for work.

XM

[JoGribbs]

Ah okay, thanks. It wasn't clear if the genres had to be comma separated. I saw all the genres on the right in the cloud thing and just assumed they were all one statement, and I thought Action Fist! was more of an 'Action Platformer' than an 'Action' or a 'Platformer'.

I'll add the download link in future as well (assuming I'm allowed to do more).

[Barefists]

Ah okay, thanks. It wasn't clear if the genres had to be comma separated. I saw all the genres on the right in the cloud thing and just assumed they were all one statement, and I thought Action Fist! was more of an 'Action Platformer' than an 'Action' or a 'Platformer'.

Hmm okay, good point.  I'll make a note next to the dialog box.  Thanks for the suggestion!

I agree that Action Fist is an action platformer, just that by separating the two, a reader will find it listed when he or she clicks on either "Action" or "Platformer" tags.  It also helps to reduce a lot of one-off tags like "Action Puzzle Shooter" (which might be the case if I didn't separate tags for 10 Second War), which will then lead to a lot of tags with only 1-2 games listed under them.  Hope this explains my rationale.

I'll add the download link in future as well (assuming I'm allowed to do more).

You are definitely allowed. In fact, it might also be useful to link to sites explaining other games you mention in your review, just in case the reader hasn't heard of them before and wants to know more (e.g. Megaman and Gunstar Heroes).

[Barefists]

Okie, I think we're about done with recruitment!  Thanks to everyone for replying and advising my site.  We'll keep the good reviews coming, so stay tuned.

Web 2.0 functionality (read: Facebook and Twitter) has been added to the site, so if that's your thing, follow us on those services.

Later,
XM