Finally submitted my first work to NG (The Factory), after more than 4 years of having an account and about 9 of visiting the site.
It's a quick project I did mostly in about 2-3 weeks to experiment with different libraries (Mochibots, MochiAds, Box2D) and to try some things on Flash. Then I let it rest for a few moths, polish a few things to try to get a sponsor and let it rest again. The game is going to be featured on BigFish Games soon, and I wasn't so sure to distribute it elsewhere (I don't think it's the type of games NG users normally play). I also wanted my first submission to be a more impressive project, but what the heck, let's see how it does.
The game takes a bit of inspiration from TwoThree by jmtb02 and from Who has the Biggest Brain? by playfish. And the name shouldn't have an exclamation mark, but it seems someone beat me to it.
Anyway, my predictions for this game are:
Score - 3.50+
Review - 7.00+
Views - 1000+
Daily - Among top 15
Weekly - Among top 100
Awards - None (yeah, not too optimistic; hope I'm proven wrong)
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Update 24/May/09
Well, after a day, it's been a bit of a bitter-sweet experience. The reviews, even if they're are on the medium range of score, have been great; and the current score is a bit higher that what I expected (right now, it's at 3.82 and 7.67, having peaked at 3.93). On the other hand, my timing for sending the game really sucked. I sent it about one hour before the daily awards were given, and my game was caught under judgment. And since it's my first game and the file size is small, I got really low scores at the start (came out of judgment somewhere around 3.37). If I had submitted it maybe 1.5 hours before or later, I almost certainly gotten an award; instead, I didn't even get runner-up :(. That's upsetting me a bit. Also, now that it's out of the 'Latest Submissions' list, it will disappear into oblivion (unless it gets featured on frontpage, which I wouldn't bet on).
Anyway, it has been a good experience overall, and since it was meant more as a learning exercise than anything else, I'm satisfied with the results but wanting to make something bigger and better for next time!
Thanks to everyone who played my game! Specially those who left some feedback! (and those who voted 5!)
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Update 25/May/09
I spoke to soon. It seems that it gets ranked after getting judged instead of after being submitted, so it got ranked for the 24 instead of the 23, which was better. I got a daily 2nd instead of a probable 3rd-4th! (if submitted earlier, not if scored while under judgment) Also, the views have gone way up, while the scores have also increased a bit (to 3.84 and 7.90).
I'm aware that on a good day here at NG, a 3.84 wouldn't even get me a 5th, but right now I'm really enjoying my 2nd! Thanks!
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Update 26/May/09
The unimaginable happened and The Factory got frontpage! I'm really happy with my 2nd daily, while frontpage is cool but a bit weird for this game. I'm guessing it'll stay there a few days until something that's actually good is released :).
It has also been a great boost for the view counter. It's over 30K already! (from about 1K on first day and 5K after daily 2nd) On the other hand, the score is steadily going down, as well as the quality of some reviews (most of them are still great, though). Pretty good trade-off if you ask me!
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Update 27/May/09
And it's off the frontpage (I knew it wouldn't last long, but I was hoping for a few more days). Anyway, this experience has exceeded my expectations in many ways. Thanks again to all who played, reviewed or voted my game!
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Results (as of 27/Jun/09)
Score - 3.69
Review - 7.50
Views - 59,522 (2,392 votes)
Daily - 2nd
Weekly - 54th
All time - 24,302th
Awards - Daily 2nd
Monthly top 20 games - Didn't rank
