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.
I talk about mine a lot, but nobody really gives a shit. =(
Nah, I got what feedback I needed. But even a good supply of it can deteriorate over time. Example, Depths.I think its a good idea(that's why I tried it out four months ago and made Fangasm=inactive and Reistation=Active).
You may have to look for games to review in the beginning, before developers just start asking you to play their game, but after that you may have to do a whole bunch of games at once(Yay.).So you may have to do like me an FX over there and solicit the help of others in whatever way possible, because thats what will keep your "Life" from taking a backseat to "Success".(I was quoting Takeshi Obata if anyone noticed.)If you were to get paid to review, it would be good to review some games first to show what you can do.
If you wanna give a few reviews on some inde or even full games, I'd be happy if you could on my site. Its not the main focus on my site, but it would be nice to have some things that people can look at when they are bored with everything else.Otherwise, I think its a decent idea. HOWEVER, since it is not the first, I would recommend to make it simple, yet content rich. Basically it would show that you are capable of writing good articles that can generate some interest, then go on from there.