2015 Indie Game Maker Contest - What would you do differently?

Looks like the results of the 2014 IGMC is finally coming, thus, putting this contest to a close (yay!)

Assuming there's a 2015 IGMC around the same time, that's only 8-9 months away! 

Seeing such amazing entries, what are you going to do differently to go above and beyond what you did this year?

Myself, I need to think more outside the box instead o "Fantasy RPG" when it comes to story/scenario.  I may have also over complexified (is that even a word?!?!) some aspects of battling, and should maybe have fallen back to some more familiar territory.  I'll be sure to bring some of these ideas to next year.

So what about you?

If I ever judge again I'll stock up a month's supply of sweets.

for my own concern I would like to test Psychological game more puzzle one for force me to work more on the events !

I spent half the time making my resources (music/art/writing) and half the time on everything else. I probably should have done the 'everything else' a little sooner. .-.

I would have spent more time planning out the story initially and polishing it.

Not...... Join.

My brain still hurts from all those all-nighters.  And for what? It's a giant popularity contest in the end anyway, IMHO.

See if I can get a hold of an artist and/or see if I can improve my own artistic ability.

Graphical presentation gets a hold of people by the shorthairs right away, since they're the first stuff they see in screenshots/videos/etc. Audio design and story writing won't do much, since they don't even get to experience any of that until they're in the game.

If there is one next year and if I enter, I think I'll try a non-RPG this time. I have a couple ideas floating around I'd love to take a crack at.

If there is one for next year, I would flesh out the characters a bit more before and do more prep work before I just jumped into making the RPG with just a cool idea to start with.  I'd also start with a tileset I was familiar with for a base, so I didn't have to learn how to use the tileset effectively at the same time as writing the entire game itself.

Basically, I'd want to have more ground work laid so I could focus on making the RPG itself.  As for custom resources?  If my graphic drawing abilities increase enough, I might try using some simple ones for next year.

If there was one next year, I would actually join, lol. Most likely RPG category, but something nice and simple.

Not sure, tbh. A simpler story?

I would lighten up on the difficulty. 

The RPG Maker community, in general, do not want a challenge. They want their hands to be held.

They don't want a game. They want a visual novel.

First I would like to see the results, see the kind of games that this particular contest is after and what the judges have to say about those games.

Right now we have no idea.

Then I'll know how to improve for the next time if I decide to join.

Playtest early and often. I want to make sure that I get a feel for how players respond to core mechanics as early as possible. Also, I'm going to make a point of trying to actually watch every person that playtests my work. Skype screen share is an outrageously useful tool that I sadly did not make nearly enough use of while having people play through my game .

I would actually try to make a good game.

I don't think I'd change a thing, to be honest. That's not to say I think there wasn't room for improvement, it's just that I feel that I did what I could as best as I could within the limitations there were. Next time around I'll look back on this and take it as the foundation of "how to get things done".

Not have a workflow that requires 8-12 hours to render each background, and then have to do it over again if there was a mistake.

Considering the game in question, Synonysis, that's not the case. It was mainl frustrating, not challenging.

the community voting did sort of devolve into a popularity contest because the voting process was poorly handled. The only games that got any consistent attention on the frontpage were games that had the most votes. This creates a "rich get richer" scenario where whoever happens to get a decent number of votes first is basically the winner almost immediately. Since that initial surge of votes usually comes from friends who want to support you, the winner of community judging is based very heavily on popularity.

The Ludum Dare game jam handles community judging very well, by giving frontpage status to submissions which don't already have a lot of votes (relative to other games) and belong to users who have been active in the community. This gives everybody a fair shot and encourages people to go out and find games that they actually enjoyed so they can cast votes and get credit for their own game.

I must beg your pardons. I wasn't quite myself that day... >_>

IF I ever joined again I'd make sure I knew what I was doing beforehand. I'd make whatever resources I could that still followed rules.

IF.... I ever joined, that is.  Oh, and I'd keep the weight bench nearby. :D