IndieMonth: Final Phase

IndieMonth is indie-ing. I mean ending. Maybe both. Tomorrow is the last day, and it's a doozy!

Before you all scatter, here's your chance:

What did you think of this inaugural IndieMonth?
Love it? Hate it? Feel fierce ambivalence?
What was your favorite type of content - did you have a least favorite type of content?
Want more of something and less of something else?
Find games you never heard of, or games you wish you never heard of? ;)

Whew, okay, that was scary. This is scary. I'm still in the very raw "I made this thing and now you all are going to talk about it" phase of indie development of IndieMonth. ;) I CAN DO THIS! (be gentle)

Also think it's a good time to answer some of the natural "it's ending!" questions:
Q. Will there be another IndieMonth?
A. Yes, we're planning on it - also planning on it being bigger, better and even more spectacular!

Q. Can you cover _____?
A. We'll be setting up a way for devs to be suggested and devs to suggest themselves - but for everyone that submitted a request during this past month for *this* month, suffice it to say the participants were committed months in advance of July (all that content takes time!)

Q. Prizes.
A. That wasn't really a question, but I get you - there's a natural lag in prize awarding so to spare you undue pain and suffering I update the "Contest Blog" for each day with a note when those codes have been sent to the winners. All remaining prize tickets will be issued the end of the first week of August.

(I think that covers the biggies, but if you have more I'll answer in the comments or update this)

[grashopper]

Don't be scared :p
Gotta say...really liked indie month. Even without prizes there was a lot of interesting Q&A's, interviews, and a few great looking games I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Plus I finally got to see what a N4G ticket looks like! :)

Thank you and everyone else that took part writing all these blogs and putting this whole thing together.
Great job!

[BiggCMan]

I shall answer each question as if in an interview!!

What did you think of this inaugural IndieMonth?
It was spectacular! A really unique idea that gets the community talking!

Love it?
HELL YEA!!

Hate it?
HELL NAH!!

Feel fierce ambivalence?
Maybe on certain games, but not generally about the entire month.

What was your favorite type of content - did you have a least favorite type of content?
I would say my favorite type was reading about the devs and games I already knew about, but didn't really KNOW about.

Want more of something and less of something else?
More IndieMonth or ___Months in the future!! Less wait between them!

Find games you never heard of, or games you wish you never heard of?
I'd say I only know between 5 and 10 of the games, and they are mainly the more popular ones. I'm not generally an Indie guy but this month really opened my eyes to some amazing stuff! I'm happy to hear about all of them and all of the teams making them!

[rambi80]

I liked it I saw a lot of good stuff that would never have made it unto my radar.

It was good to have games at a stage where some gameplay could be shown - Some of it was very text heavy and because it was the Dev talking about their own game, it could not be seen as unbiased.

[DragonKnight]

I myself have received some opinions about indie month and have my own. Once indie month is over, I'll be writing a blog on it. The TL;DR of it is "Good idea with potential, but there are problems."

[Derekvinyard13]

I loved indie month, it was so much fun reading up on a game that looked awesome and then checking the ticket to see that you can actually experience it for yourself. I played a few great games such as a story about my uncle & ASM which I never would have been able to play. But my favorite was the Stanley parable thanks to indie month! It should be done again. I know there's monthly prizes and stuff but IMO, this was the best.

[FogLight]

This kind of comments can really make the days for everyone who worked on them, but the one whom we should really thank is Cat!

It is unfortunate that it came to an end for now though, but I am quite sure that the next indie month will be even bigger and better.

I hope all of you enjoyed the whole month of indie goodness, and thank you for the great reception for the games that appeared in each day :D

[coolbeans]

-I think the idea is awesome since it informs me of indie titles that flew under my radar. It also subtly supplemented something I've wanted to write on regarding the recent quality control debacle on steam.

The only problem I have is that it's all on user blogs and not its own separate channel. It makes me have to speed skim through user submitted blogs, for any guideline-infringing stuff, and push them through only to get guaranteed 1.5 days (max) on the front page. And in some cases, a lot of hours were lost if it was submitted when I was at work or elsewhere. Plus, it stifled the whole community voting aspect of it all.

-Probably the interviews when it felt like the interviewer and interviewee had great back-and-forth.

-More of ^that

-Find games I've never heard of

[DragonKnight]

I was wondering why you pushed 2 of my blogs through so quickly. Must not have been easy given their length, though I appreciate the time you took in order to come to the decision to pass it through.

[coolbeans]

You're welcome. Sorry if you, and other contributors, were annoyed at the wait times your blog submissions stayed in pending.

[DragonKnight]

Well, I got lucky for the most part. You approved 2 of my blogs, zerocrossing approved one, and the other one moved fairly quickly through with the community approvals.

The thing that annoyed me was how 1 game took up 5 blog space spots immediately and pushed community blogs into obscurity, which disincentivized the community from even bothering to write blogs save for those of us who, as one user put it to me, "crave attention." Lol.

[Christopher]

@DragonKnight: Chalk that up to the issues of this archaic system that won't be here by the next time N4G does another IndieMonth. Regardless of the lack of exposure for bloggers -- more than usual, that is -- I don't think it would have been something Cat should have scrapped solely because the system is not fully capable of handling it in a way that doesn't adversely affect anyone. N4G is one of the more notable gaming sites, for better or worse, and it's an opportunity the site has to bring attention to new content and smaller developers that really shouldn't be passed up.

[coolbeans]

"Chalk that up to the issues of this archaic system that won't be here by the next time N4G does another IndieMonth."

You sure about that? :P

[DragonKnight]

Never said anything about scrapping the idea. Implementation needs to be worked on. One game doesn't need 5 blog posts, especially when 3 of them are interviews about the same game. Or, if it's absolutely necessary to have all of those blog posts, then perhaps break them up so that there is a more even distribution instead of BOOM! 5 blogs on Double Fine's latest game appearing all at once. Don't know where you got "indie month should be scrapped" from my post, but I didn't say anything of the sort.

[Christopher]

***One game doesn't need 5 blog posts***

Actually, it does because of character limitations. As I said, limitations of the system.

***Or, if it's absolutely necessary to have all of those blog posts, then perhaps break them up so that there is a more even distribution instead of BOOM! 5 blogs on Double Fine's latest game appearing all at once.***

It's a daily thing and you want full 24 hour coverage each day on all there can be. If you meter it out like that, then some items are going to go overlooked. It's a lot that we were able to get that many people to submit their own writings and do interviews for a month.

***Don't know where you got "indie month should be scrapped" from my post, but I didn't say anything of the sort.***

I didn't say you said any such thing. I merely said that as the option was to do it the way she did it or scrap it all together.

Again, limitations of the system made it so that it was done in the manner it was.

---

Now, you said you're going to write a blog and already said "Good idea with potential, but there are problems."

The reason I bring this up is because when you write your blog, I think you may miss the most important element of this IndieMonth. That being that Cat got 31 Indie devs to provide their own writings, do interviews, and get us content to give away during that time in an effort to give back to the community here rather just doing our usual stuff that requires extremely little work in comparison.

You can complain all you want about your blog getting pushed off the front page and regale us with your ideas on how it could have been done better. Problem is, it couldn't have been done differently or better, because of the system we have right now. And, rather than do it without any issues whatsoever, I think most would agree that it is much better to have it done with the system issues in place than not at all.

I can say that when the new system is implemented, hopefully before next year, it will be a better system that doesn't segregate user content the way it does now. Whether it's a system you will like any better, I can't say.

Call me a bit of a white knight here, I just think it a bit ignorant for someone to take what was done and make a mountain hill out of the system's limitations that hold all of us back.

/end_slight_rant

[DragonKnight]

Since you have no idea what I'm going to say in the blog, I'm having a slight chuckle at your defensive behavior. You may not enjoy criticism, most people don't, but I'm not talking about your first born child here, I'm talking about a month long idea that has pros and cons. Some of the cons I'll bring up are not even cons I personally thought of but, in discussion with other members were brought up to me.

You need to let go of such personal attachment to something like this. Yes, I understand that this was the first attempt on a site with a now archaic system that's going to be overhauled and that that has its own issues which I'm definitely not denying, but to sit there with the attitude of "the community will just have to grin and bear it" is pretty dismissive of the community who, let's face it, are the reason N4G got to the point where it CAN have an indie month that is taken with any kind of serious consideration.

N4G was founded based on an idea that was meant to make itself unique and different to the hundreds of other gaming journalism sites. A site driven largely by community contribution, interaction, and even moderation. To be so dismissive of a member of the community, ANY member of a community, discussing pros and cons of such an event is really completely antithetical with the base idea of what N4G is. And don't get it twisted, I told coolbeans already that I got pretty lucky. I'm not "complaining about my blog being pushed off the front page." This isn't about ME because I actually had a decent time of it over the month.

Ignore my "regalement" if you want, I don't really care if you read the blog or don't since it's not about YOU either. You can be elated with indie month all you want to, you can profess that the way it was implemented was the ONLY way it could have been implemented with the current systems in place, that doesn't mean people will share your opinion and it doesn't mean people won't talk about it.

[Christopher]

***You may not enjoy criticism, most people don't, but I'm not talking about your first born child here, I'm talking about a month long idea that has pros and cons.***

I'm no more defensive of my opinion than you are.

***To be so dismissive of a member of the community, ANY member of a community, discussing pros and cons of such an event is really completely antithetical with the base idea of what N4G is.***

I am a person and have an opinion. You are a person and have an opinion. You are just as dismissive of me as I can be of you (see your remarks above). We are the pot and the kettle, I think I just accept that and you may not realize it.

And, I'm not here to tout the IndieMonth, I'm here touting the people who made it possible.

My remarks above are based on your remarks here. Nothing more. I'll read your blog post when it's posted. I read every blog post that is posted, after all. Whether we will agree or not is to be seen. Perhaps this conversation will continue then, perhaps it won't.

[DragonKnight]

"I am a person and have an opinion. You are a person and have an opinion. You are just as dismissive of me as I can be of you (see your remarks above). We are the pot and the kettle, I think I just accept that and you may not realize it."

True enough, we could easily engage in a back and forth of "well I wasn't dismissive until you were" and never get anywhere so I'm for ending that fruitless endeavor here.

"And, I'm not here to tout the IndieMonth, I'm here touting the people who made it possible."

That's essentially the same thing. You're becoming defensive against criticism about IndieMonth by equating it to criticism against the people behind IndieMonth. There are instances where a work is critiqued along with the people behind it, and instances where a work is critiqued independent of the people behind it. No one has said "the people behind IndieMonth suck and I hate everything they did" so cool your jets.

As an aside, and completely irrelevant to the topic discussion, I'm wondering if your status of Admin on the site renders you immune to people whining about when you quote specific passages in replies because I get nothing but grief for doing the same.

[Christopher]

***You're becoming defensive against criticism about IndieMonth by equating it to criticism against the people behind IndieMonth.***

I'm not defensive of criticism of IndieMonth. Yet. I am wary of overly critical elements, though. Which, IMHO, you have a tendency to do on this sort of things. I will admit that and I hope you realize that your past blog posts give a credence to you being overly critical.

***There are instances where a work is critiqued along with the people behind it, and instances where a work is critiqued independent of the people behind it.***

And there are instances where something like this doesn't need to be overly critiqued... Unless you just like being critical of things.

Sometimes you accept the bad with the good because the good greatly outweighs the bad.

I'm not saying to not have some criticism, I just find it weird that you seem to have this whole thing set up to discuss it as if it requires that big of a discussion as opposed to just making your opinion known here. And, seeing your past blogs, I can only imagine how critical you may be.

Call me defensive, that's fine. But, that makes you no less offensive in your past critiques...

*** I'm wondering if your status of Admin on the site renders you immune to people whining about when you quote specific passages in replies because I get nothing but grief for doing the same.***

I'm not sure what you mean. I quote like this, and have for ages since before I was a mod. I do it so people know exactly what I've responded to.

I've also never moderated someone for quoting someone to whom they are replying in this manner either.

Perhaps the difference is when someone just lists a long line of quotes from a person's history rather than actually replying to the parts they are specifically quoting? Otherwise I've never known of any N4G guideline that says you can't quote people in your own comments. Unless it contains offensive content, that is, but that's standard N4G policy.

[DragonKnight]

In reading your first mention of the blog post I intend to post, the first thought that entered my mind was "he's judging what I might say based on what I have said in other subjects before." I can't deny that I can be overly critical of things, so I'm not going to try. However, prejudice gets no one anywhere, so rather than preemptively pounce on me for what you think I'm going to say, why not just wait and see? And the reason for the blog is the same reason you've used for why IndieMonth had to be done the way it was, limitations.

Things I intend to discuss are not solely things I myself thought of or have an opinion on. Believe it or not, people talk to me about this site frequently, one user even mistook me for a moderator and was threatening the whole site with a 4Chan attack if I didn't take care of his problem for him. So there are times when opinions I express are the opinions of others in addition to my own. That can require more than a comment post allows for.

As to the aside I mentioned, I think you misunderstood me. I didn't mean to imply any regulations or moderation against the "quote a specific passage" technique. I was just saying that people get on my case for doing it when my reasons for doing so are identical to yours and the implementation is the same as well. Meh, I have people following me around, disagreeing with me for saying the sky is blue, all manner of stuff. I'll just chalk it up to not being liked too much. Lol.

[HammadTheBeast]

Now how many years before or after is that from the new comment system?

:)

In all seriousness though, it did work pretty well this month, despite the limitations, and did bring attention to smaller devs. A lot of the games shown have definitely gotten a spot on my radar.

[ichizon]

IndieMonth was very interesting. Some games I'd heard of, others not before this month. I enjoyed reading most of the articles regardless. The thoughts certain devs have as artists or behind making indie games are often unique, and it never seemed like I was being force fed PR like when a major publisher would talk about their game and how it's not the same as their previous game.

I feel that perhaps I forced a response to some of the less interesting games or devs where I felt I didn't really have any additional input, but I made a good effort on every comment in the spirit of the underlying contest. Not that the contest was necessary, but without that incentive I might've left one comment per day in stead, covering all the articles in stead of a comment on every article. Being on vacation this month also worked out in my favour.

My least favourite content was the cryptic language around the least finished games. And there were some games that just didn't look interesting in my mind. Although, a nice mix was good, I guess. I also did not see a reason to split interviews in two articles.

I'm glad to see there will be more of this in the future. I will look forward to it!

[Cat]

YOU WIN (at having the easiest Q to answer): some interviews had to be two-parters b/c our current blog submission has a character limit - and they exceeded them. By a lot. :)

[ichizon]

Ah! I thought that could be the case, but I also thought you could surpass these limits as moderators. I struggle at using formatting like text-links and images in my own blogs. ;;

It's not a big deal then, but I do agree with coolbeans and DragonKnight as well. They do feel a bit "spammy" over the user blogs, since only the five newest blogs are shown in the front page list. Perhaps you could make the five newest users that submitted blogs have their latest blog shown instead. So five consecutive blogs by IndieMonth would take one slot, only showing the latest.

[Cat]

Yep, things got a little "hacky" with the IndieMonth blog (no other account can actually use the bold, italic, so on tags or embed images in the same way). Same reasons for the "spammy" blog column, the dev team monkeyed up what they could while maintaining warp speed on development of the N4G update.

Coolbeans is super jealous of IndieMonth's blog formatting powerz. ;)

[coolbeans]

"Coolbeans is super jealous of IndieMonth's blog formatting powerz. ;)"

You never went out of your way to allow my blogs to format italics.

:'(

And I want to win in a random category!

>:(

[Emilio_Estevez]

IndieMonth was a great success imo.

Saw a lot of games I had heard of and a lot I hadn't. Won some games and added to my enormous backlog (is that a positive?).

I think the best part for me was seeing the characters that make these games. Some very interesting people out there making these games. Minds like the people interviewed this month is what keeps the indie scene strong and what also help keep the creativity in gaming. AAA games have to play it safe too often and I love how the smaller guys sometimes take giant leaps of faith to reach their vision. I commend all the devs who do their best to see their ideas come to fruition and hope they're awarded success along with it so they can continue to do what they do.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Loved it. Great games and developers that I never would have heard about if it weren't for Indie Month. And of course the prizes were awesome. Really excited to hear that it's coming back. Can't wait. Thanks Cat & N4G.

[cl1983]

I hated all the playstation give away :p, but that's still allot better then a poke in the eye, and kick in the behind.

[LukeFair]

I loved every day of it! It was really fantastic, I knew a lot of interesting and cool games that I never heard of before. Also it was amazing the daily chance to win something. As for the content it was very diversified and for all the tastes! Maybe a suggestion can be to feature more japanese developers. I'm looking forward to the next indie month!

[beepbopadoobop]

I really enjoyed this indie month and I cant wait for the next! Some games I never thought Id be interested in but after reading about them and giving them a chance I found I really enjoyed them, so thanks for that!!

The only one I wasnt too fussed about were the mobile games which have never done it for me personally, its more the device than the games themselves though.

Well done on putting this all together its been awesome!

[Nineball2112]

There was a lot of work that went into this and I wanted to say thank you for all the people involved in getting this off the ground, especially Cat. You rock!

http://www.hdiphonewallpape...

[SpeedDemon]

It's been great learning about the people that make these games and how their companies and games came to be, I've also seen a lot of great games that I haven't even heard of and I probably wouldn't of had they not been shown in these stories and interviews. I'm looking forward the next one and I like idea of you guys taking suggestion, I'd personally would like to see Ronimo Games, one of my favorite indie developers.

[Fullmetalevolust]

Just as Royksopp and Robyn sang it: Do it a...gain!
I really enjoyed reading all of the features and checking out their websites to find out more about the developer themselves and their games.
Some games were more of a mystery than others due to their early developing stages.
I was introduced to new ways of enjoying gaming and I learned a lot about game making. Although the developing lingo still goes over my head.
Let's do it again!

[MYDEATH21]

Indie month was awesome! Thanks you, I learned a lot about a bunch of devs I had never heard of :)

[LightDiego]

It was perfect, can't wait for the next Indie Month, the interviews are great and it's really interesting to know more about the game and the industry by the developers, also it was a great opportunity to discover new titles.
I got Resogun and A Story About my Uncle, great games, i can't stop playing the first. Thanks to Cat and N4G.

[Virtua_Awesome]

I thought that IndieMonth was wonderful! :D I found out about awesome games and developers that I had never heard of before, and even found out more about some of my favorite developers (like Double Fine) as well.

My favorite type of content had to be the kind of articles (not sure exactly what to call the feature) where the N4G team wrote about their gameplay experiences and stories with the game and talked in-depth about how the mechanics and gameplay worked. But I also really enjoyed the interviews, since I love hearing about all of the details of how games are made.

I didn't really have any least favorite type of article, I thought every one had a useful purpose. Can't really think of anything that I wanted more/less of either. Oh, except more videos of the Octodad/SpyParty crossover! xD

I'm really grateful to Cat, N4G and the indie developers for the extremely generous giveaways each day. A big thank you to the whole team at N4G for making IndieMonth a seriously fun, enlightening experience!

[ichizon]

Yeah, I thought the gameplay articles were the best as well. They were well written, funny and painted a good picture of what the games are like.

[Jeice]

Indie month ending is a heart breaker, I look forward to it in the future. So many interesting titles.

[FITgamer]

It was fun, i won 3 codes and was introduced to really cool looking games. I don't think there was a game cover that didn't spike my interest.

[MrxDeath]

This was the best month that i had in a while :3
thank you N4G for this awesome month and thank you cat :3
and i loved it and i hope we see the next indie month soon :))

[ldurham]

Bigger, better and even more spectacular than July 2014? Wow!

What did you think of this inaugural IndieMonth?
Awesome and can't wait for more!

Love it? Hate it?
Love it, of course

What was your favorite type of content
interviews

did you have a least favorite type of content?
I can't think of anything I did not like

Want more of something and less of something else?
everything is just right
Find games you never heard of, or games you wish you never heard of? ;)
Most games from Indie Month I never heard of

[Disagree]

I don't know why people are arguing for... but I enjoyed indie month, granted there are some games that I was less enthusiastic for than others. The articles were quality and offered insight on the developers perspective. I discovered new games as well. And of course winning prizes was amazing :)

there was this one dev that I really wanted to be on there called DoubleDutch Games. they have this game called Speedrunners that looks really fun,but anyways

Yeah loved it a lot. Thanks Cat and Herobyclicking for your time and work on all the articles. I for one greatly appreciated it. :)

[dedicatedtogamers]

I've been a contributing member of N4G for years, and a lurker for years prior.

This is, hands down, the most fantastic thing I've ever seen on the website. Not only did it keep me clicking back to the site to check for new prizes, but to be perfectly honest I was most thrilled to see a new game highlighted every day. Most "real" (i.e. IGN, Joystiq, etc) videogame sites don't highlight even HALF this number of indie games in a given month.

Keep up the good work, Cat and all others involved in putting it together. I mean it. This event was stellar.

[Cat]

Thanks so much, and above all I'm glad that you and others enjoyed it enough to keep coming back for more!! :D