Help with OMG Cup 2005

[Carlos Camacho]

I'd like to ask the community to lend a hand with some "chores" that must be done regarding the OMG Cup 2005 Contest.

* Report any game which is over the file size limit
* Report any game that does not run natively under Mac OS X 10.4.x
* Report any game that might include suspicious files (malware, virus, adware, etc)

* Report any typos (grammar, jardon, spelling) in the entrants detail pages (We want everyone to look good so that the entire contest looks good)
* Report any detailed info pages which are broken, or vastly affect the page (ie broken tags, outlandish font sizes, etc)
* Report any broken links

* The "name" of the link to iDevGames mirror should be "iDevGames"

* Report any game which breaks the contest rules. (a) You saw/played the title a month before the Official start of the contest. (b) Doesn't contain at least one playable level (i.e. All you get is a start screen, and not much else... that ISN'T a game.)

* Report any game that goes against the spirit of the contest during gameplay. (i.e. huge ads for larger busts, get rich scheme ads, racism, etc.)

With your help, we can be sure that the contest is a great success!!

p.s. Contact me through the forum, or email.

[PowerMacX]

OK, this isn't to report anything wrong, just a few observations:

* Neither the download page or the detailed info pages list the minimum system requirements. If the download system doesn't have a specific option to show that info, maybe it would be a good idea for the entrants to add it to the games' full description pages.
* Also, most of the games don't have screenshots, I think they are just as important as the game description itself.
* The website link listed for each entry is not a link, just plain text.

[Tesa]

Carlos, there seems to be a slight problem with the interface for updating entries.
It seems to clear the download counter every time we make a minor change in the game description/short description, which is fairly deterring towards fixing typos.

I guess the reviews are stored separately, so they won't be affected?

[Carlos Camacho]

Hi, thanks for the comments. I'm working on fixing that update == clearing of downloads problem. Changing the websites to URLs is also on my agenda.

Cheers,

[AGhost]

For some reason, the download counter on my game has been reset. I had over 30 downloads, but now its back to 6! Will this make a difference in the voting stage (do you compare votes to downloads?) or is it minor?

AGhost

[Najdorf]

I agree that screenshots are important, probably more important than the description to attract the average gamer.

Another thing that I think is important is more attention to the contest on the homepage of idevgames, say a big sticky announcement with many small screenshots that points to the download page.

Also, in the downloads page, a very small screenshot to the side of each entry would make the page look more sexy, but that's probably too much to ask.

[KittyMac]

Someone else noted that download counts are reset whenever an entries information is changed.

Unfortunately, I never modified my entry and yesterday my download count was also reset to zero. :mad:

As I mentioned to Carlos before, for the purposes of the contest the download counts should be removed for all entries. Since anyone can go there and click multiple times to "buff" their download count, the counts themselves are misrepresent the actual download count.

[AGhost]

BTW, is the voting supposed to be up? Because when I visit the voting page I either get an expired message or blank.

AGhost

P.S. According to IMG, voting has begun. Is this true?

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=12478

[Taxxodium]

P.S. According to IMG, voting has begun. Is this true?

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=12478

No, if you read closely you'll see that voting starts tomorrow (December 1st)

[AGhost]

No, if you read closely you'll see that voting starts tomorrow (December 1st)

:blush: Oops, I definetly messed up on that one...

[Carlos Camacho]

>Will this make a difference in the voting stage
No, the download stat is simply for your ego. Though some gamers may be apt to download games that have more downloads, but I think a screenshot & good pr text can go a long way.

[Carlos Camacho]

>As I mentioned to Carlos before, for the purposes of the contest the download >counts should be removed for all entries.
Downloads stat has been removed. I left the views stat on the page as I think it is harmless.

I have also taken the liberty of removing the iDevGame mirrors from all games to help conserve our server resources (however 1 or 2 games ONLY have an iDevGames' download link -- VERY BAD.)

Cheers,

[dfmoore]

Hey Carlos, the description is all taken care of. terribly sorry about keeping it in limbo like that!
-dylan

[Carlos Camacho]

>The website link listed for each entry is not a link, just plain text.
I finally got the information on how to fix it. All weblinks are not clickable. I advise anyone is simply has "www" to be sure to place a "http://" at the start of their URL.

I also changed "Developer Tools" to "This game was made with: "

>Someone else noted that download counts are reset whenever an entries >information is changed.
I think this is now resolved via a patch I ap;lied today, but since we are not displaying download stats, I can't confirm it. I'll do so once I pinpoint the reason for the server overloading. (Might be the voting script+extra traffic)

Cheers,

[Shunter]

Development Tools: BlitzMax, Appleworks 6
This game was made with:


Did I do somethig wrong? :???:

http://www.idevgames.com/contest/downloads/details.php?file=14

[Volte]

I didn't seem to get my password :/ Waited a good 2 days as well :lol:

[Carlos Camacho]

>Did I do somethig wrong?
Could you do me a favor? Could you enter a website? I noticed you don't have a website in that field, that may be why your "This game was made with:" is blank. If that is the case, I'll need to fix that bug.

>I didn't seem to get my password
What do you mean? You didn't get a password to tne entrant login system? An email was sent to everyone who entered the contest concerning how to login. Two emails were sent to everyone who didn't act on this. Perhaps the email you entered with is at fault.

[Shunter]

Could you enter a website?
:D And it works!
Now If only I had a wesite... :sneaky:

[Carlos Camacho]

>And it works!
As I expected. OK, since you don't have a website, you can put the link to your download page or to your entry's voting page. Now that I know the bug, I'll get working on a fix.

Thanks,

[AGhost]

>I didn't seem to get my password
What do you mean? You didn't get a password to tne entrant login system? An email was sent to everyone who entered the contest concerning how to login. Two emails were sent to everyone who didn't act on this. Perhaps the email you entered with is at fault.

I have talked to several people who have voted days ago and still have not recieved passwords.

AGhost

[Carlos Camacho]

Aghost, would you happen to know if these friends/people are

(a) using Hotmail or Yahoo
(b) on your same IP

Thanks,

[dfmoore]

I know the case of (b) has been a real pain in the butt- my mac weilding housemates can't vote for me because we're on a router and therefore our IPs got blocked after the first vote. They're trying to find a way to vote on campus.. but the same problem comes up for my mac using friends in the lab--again, it just says something like vote accepted, but I dont think that means its casting a new one.

I'm sure the IP thing is there to stem abuse, but at some point, its also costing us ligit votes. I guess its all part of a balancing act... oh well.

[Carlos Camacho]

Did I do somethig wrong? :???:

http://www.idevgames.com/contest/downloads/details.php?file=14

Whew, busy busy. I've applied a patch a few seconds ago to take care of this problem.
As you can see, http://www.idevgames.com/contest/downloads/details.php?file=14
is now fine. You can remove the "dummy URL" from your website (ie. leave it blank if you don't have a website)

Regards,

[unknown]

My games under the wrong name in the voting section.
It should be N0x35C49E not No Escape,

[Carlos Camacho]

Yes, there isn't much to do about that. There is a balance between making it super hard to vote, which provides the most accurate legit votes and making it super easy to vote, but opens yourself up for ballot stuffing so to speak. Since I'm not god, I have to play it down the middle. Surely being in college, there are heaps of computers around your campus, near your campus, in your city, etc etc.

[BeyondCloister]

Surely being in college, there are heaps of computers around your campus, .

It is very likely that all internet traffic on a campus goes through one single gateway. This means that a thousand computers could all appear as the same IP address to the outside world.

[dfmoore]

It is very likely that all internet traffic on a campus goes through one single gateway. This means that a thousand computers could all appear as the same IP address to the outside world.

*nod*

Anyway, no sweat. I mean, obviously you can't do this 100% the way you wanted it, you're only human. I guess I wasn't going to place well anyways.

[MattDiamond]

Anyway, no sweat. I mean, obviously you can't do this 100% the way you wanted it, you're only human. I guess I wasn't going to place well anyways.

This will cost you a few friendly votes, no question. But one would hope the contest is beyond the point where someone could be a finalist simply by having friends and family vote them up. Your game will still be evaluated on its own merits by a bunch of people who don't know any of the developers personally, and that's the way it should be.

As far as I'm concerned, the more "neutral" votes cast the better. My mom wanted to cast a vote for my game and I told her no- she's not a gamer and has seen the game but not played it herself. My dad on the other hand has played it extensively, and I've encouraged him to try other entries as well, so I figure that's as fair as I can be.

[dfmoore]

Absolutely- I don't think that a few friendly votes would have swung it very far at all- but the people who were going to vote were going to vote across the board for everyone's games-but with one voter per router, thats X number of voters for everyone that gets lost. I'm not just looking out for myself here ( ;

[AGhost]

Aghost, would you happen to know if these friends/people are

(a) using Hotmail or Yahoo
(b) on your same IP

Thanks,

Neither was using Hotmail or Yahoo, but one was on my same IP (I have 5 computers networked through 1 IP).

The other person just did not recieve a password. Does that mean their vote wasn't processed?

AGhost

[Volte]

Yea I went to vote it asked me to enter my email address, so I did, waited, didn't get my pass, without the pass I can't place a vote. Unless I am totally out of line and only developers can vote on the games ;)

[PowerMacX]

I voted for five or six games, and in every case it said "[Something] Completed", but yesterday I voted for another game and this time it asked me for an email. I entered it, and got my password immediately.

Does that mean that my previous votes weren't counted?

[Carlos Camacho]

>Does that mean their vote wasn't processed?
It was counted. The script for voting sometimes asks for passwords and sometimes doesn't. A weird thing IMHO, but all votes are indeed stored in the database.

Please note that I've turned off email verification about a week ago.