Hey all! Tell me here what you wish you'd put in README!

scav on 2012/09/19 18:48

We all do it, miss out the one piece of information that makes our game playable or at least something that we thought was obvious to ourselves, but to everyone else is completely inexplicable.

I hope it's OK for me to ask this, but I want to give anyone a chance to broadcast this sort of info before voting gets fully under way. It seems likely that some games will get a bad score because their best features are hidden behind an unlikely key combination or something.

I'll start:

•  In Blastosaurus Rex (AllAboutMonstrs) you get a different build menu depending on whether you click on the edge of a grid cell (thin rectangle) or near the middle of one (fat rectangle with circular handles). Edge for fences and walls, middle for buildings and units.

Please no comments in this thread relating to judgements about individual games. Just any last minute documentation if anyone wants to put some out there.

Or if that's not in the spirit of the rules, a stony silence is OK too.

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Comments

Ermahgerd on 2012/09/19 19:01:

I did exactly this. 

It wasn't the README however, it was actually in the Help menu of my game. I didn't necessarily forget to give the controls to the player, but I didn't mention something that was obvious to me. 

In the "Help" section of my game, I put "Press Space to Jump". I didn't mention that holding Space makes you jump higher however.

This didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time, I thought it was obvious. However, watching over the shoulders of many people playing my game, I always watch them fall short on that very first jump. 

I think that in future games, I will try to be as specific as possible. 

Cosmologicon on 2012/09/19 19:03:

I think this sort of stuff goes great in the game description. I generally read that before I try a game, and always before I rate a game, so if it looks like I missed something, I can go back and try again.

reidrac on 2012/09/19 19:10:

You forgot to mention the game requirements (PyGame) :)