I'm considering making a website that's dedicated to reviewing indie game developer's projects. These reviews would appear as a full in-depth article that walks through my experience of the game and what I thought about it, as well as criticism on every aspect of game design present in the project. I plan on providing advice and present reviews with examples, screenshots, and possibly videos to enhance my review of the game. I feel that a real review should cover as much as possible and be truly useful to the developer. Almost like a website audit who reviews your code and tells you where changes need to be made, or a web designer whose trying to make your site visually pleasing and functional. But for game development projects. How valuable would a review from a person who actually sits and plays your game all the way through, picks at all the details, gives suggestions (based on design, functionality, performance, etc) and gives you resources and examples to help you improve the project? Would you pay for a professional review?
From my perspective, I really hate poorly written reviews. For example, the typical "It was fun 8/10" or "I don't like it". Almost every review received on the gamemaker communities usually consists of a basic " i like/dislike it. <Insert maybe one or two reasons why>" format. It can be slightly helpful, but wouldn't you appreciate more precise details? I love it when a person destroys my game to pieces and breaks it down to numerous parts and make it easy to see where work needs to be done. And if the game is optimized, it's a great feeling to see a long review praising everything about that game. Advertisement at it's greatest. Word of mouth. Looks professional. People like that.
If you really want to do it, go for it. That is, do you enjoy writing lengthy in depth reviews of all the indie games you can get your hands on, play ALL THE WAY THROUGH regardless of whether you like it or not so you can give a fair complete review.
Also, it's been done so much, good luck generating traffic on your site. :)I enjoy writing articles and it gives me a reason to play video games all the time. Not that I don't already. But I'm sure I'd draw a line when it came to making reviews public on my website. I would not place a disastrous review that would only hurt the developer and make my site look bad. Not sure on how I'd go about choosing who to review, but i'm more concerned as to what developers feel about decent reviews. Do you appreciate them? Are they worth your time?
Feedback is one of the most important and commonly overlooked portion of independent game development. Without a large fan base to test and give feedback on games, iteration slows down and the games stagnate, possibly ceasing work entirely. A site that headlines with independent game reviews is a great resource, but if those reviews are from only one person, that person had better know their stuff.
I would recommend going for it. You won't be the first, though.http://www.indiegames.com/blog/http://www.indiegamemag.com/PAYING for a review is probably the wrong way to go about it - you don't get popular as a reviewer by charging for it, particularly as an unknown. What you really want is to simply be a good reviewer. Don't even ask for it at first. Soon enough developers will want games reviewed on your site providing you tell them you're offering, and then after you've generated all that traffic and content they'll want to ADVERTISE on your site.
If you want to set out doing what's been done before, better than it's been done before, and can't think of a particularly interesting way of doing it, just go crazy on content. Content content content. Review the games nobody reviews, review the games everybody reviews better, video review everything, podcast everything, interview the legends, have a community, etc, etc.On another point you brought up, I think reviewing a bad game and reviewing a game by an inexperienced maker are too different things. I think critiquing bad games is important to give you credence as a balanced reviewer who doesn't just say "you're wonderful" for gratitude. It's also extremely entertaining to pan something completely arrogant once in a while. If you think a game is disastrous, say it's disastrous. However, if someone is clearly a young beginner full of enthusiasm, setting their work alight isn't helping anyone and isn't very funny. You should just politely, privately give them some significant suggestions - don't ignore them, don't condescend them and they'll keep coming back for more, as a game maker and as a reader. Remember nobody is ever trying to make a bad game. Unless they are.Of course everybody likes feedback - but what they really want is someone they can trust.By the way, I'd love to be a games reviewer, but can't make websites for crap, so if you're ever looking for help…I've seen a few reviews that seem to hit the nail on the head. If a game is generally really bad, most reviewers can agree upon this. Usually though, I don't take anything seriously until I see it, hear it, play it, etc. for myself. That's just me though. When it comes to indie games. I usually read up on the game, go to the games forums to see what the general pubic has to say, etc. Honestly, review sites are generally the last place I would look for information about a game.
With my redesign of Game Plague I'm going to attempting to make official reviews for both commercial and "indie" games. I don't think many people would pay for reviews unless you had a very popular site like IGN and very cheap prices, because then it would basically be advertising.
I wouldn't pay for a review. But I'd appreciate it. However, the review you're talking about is not really focused on a completed game that needs traffic. You're essentially talking about being a critic/beta tester. Not all reviewers suggest and give resources to improve. In fact, I can think of none that are generally very helpful. If you're planning to review, you're looking at analyzing the game, saying what makes it good and what makes it bad. You don't really have to say what will make it better unless you're specifically targeting WIPs.
If you're hiring reviewers/ for whatever reason, let me suggest SpectreNectar, Cesque, and (ego moment) myself. I haven't seen a whole lot of good reviews, but in my recent experience, there are only a handful of people who really know how to tear a game apart and get into detail about what makes it good and bad.Just remember. You don't want to treat the person extra nicely when you're reviewing. But at the same time, you need to give honest feedback. Find a balance in between. Not everyone knows how to do that. Let's see you review some games and WIPs on 64Digits, first.Hey Glen,
I like the idea. =D64D is going to have a review system in the near future. I understand if you want to make your own website, but I'd like to invite you to be a reviewer on 64D if you would like. It'll give you instant access to a large database of games and developers, along with readers to see your reviews. I couldn't pay you in real money, but the review system would be open to anyone to post a review (it would need to be approved first, as I want the reviews to be more than "cool game, everyone should try it"), and in exchange, people would get MP. I'm not trying to stop you from making a seperate site, but rather trying to save you a bit of work in creating your own site, just to see 64D copy you. =POf course, I'll be putting an RSS feed for everyone's reviews, so if you wanted to review on 64D, and then have your own site anyway that reads from the RSS feed, feel free to do that as well.Edit: wow this is active. Three comments got in while I was writing thisIf you or kabob are looking for reviewers as well, I think juju is also pretty good at going into depth about games. I don't read too many game comments though.Sounds good.
I don't think I'll be charging. I was just curious on the money idea. Some companies pay people to review their products. It was just an idea floating in my head at the moment. The 64D review idea sounds interesting. I'd love to be part of that. I'll probably need more reviewers for my site, but It's most likely not going to be paid positions. I perfectly understand all the comments regarding paid reviews above. As stated, just a random question. The site will mainly be a source for feedback and advice to dedicated game developers. Most likely won't be "GM Only" but a vast amount of the projects reviewed will probably come from GM communities.
@Toast, I 100% agree that no request should be turned down, but what i'm stating is for content on my site, not all reviews would probably appear public. What appears on the site would most likely be controlled by the reviewers. I don't want a system where people start uploading their projects and expect long reviews to appear under their submission. It would be selective on the public display, but private reviews can always be an option.