Hello everyone,
Thanks for reading/Thanks for watching! We started League of Gamemaker in 2014 and are now in 4 years with a variety of topics: Design, Development, Publishing, Games, Mechanics, Playtesting, Prototyping, Kickstarter, Reviews, Interviews and more!
2017 at a glance
As you know, 2017 was a different year for League of Legends. After hundreds of posts, we left the solidarity of three posts a week and adopted a more lax strategy to balance life change. Eduardo Baraf was holding the torch on our behalf with video content, others in the league contributed as much as possible. Some of us felt that what we had learned turned into a full-time gaming job, while others had changed the industry or said what we had to say on our blog. I’ve been wanting to write more myself (and I still hope!), but developing the game, nurturing a protospil/unpub group in Los Angeles, helping Breaking Games grow, and bringing another Kickstarter to life is a must. I knew it was all I could do. handle.
I think much of the reason Ed was able to find time was because of the medium he used. Not to save you trouble, but in some ways turning the camera on is different and there are reasons that dominate content creation these days. It’s less editable (at least in streaming format) and more organic and realistic. We found that, on the one hand, we couldn’t request all hooks and links to past posts. But on the other hand, I got a year full of valuable content from Ed. A heartfelt thanks to Eduardo for all the great posts and also to all the league players who took the time to post in 2017. (Teale, Christian, Scott, Brad and several guests).
So, isn’t it a blog?
The biggest lesson I think this year is that this is no longer a blog. League of Gamemaker is something completely different. community. The spirit involved, the collaboration of several indie game creators working together and bringing together a shared experience in the industry – it’s still here. At the same time as the blog was created, a Facebook private group was also created. That backstage group was great. I’ve also publicly published all my blog posts on the Designers and Publishers forums (thanks Luke for continuing this work throughout 2017). Both of these places are more of a “league” spirit away from blog walls. In private chat, we made the team dynamic, digging deeper into topics, lively discussions in both private and public forums, and found that forcing people to visit this website doesn’t work for us, our readers, and our viewers. . Ed, who posts a lot of videos to YouTube, said he plans to continue to cover great league topics as of 2018, but will leave his content in place and not host it on the league site itself. I understand this decision and want a “blog” to be here for all legacy content, but next time we need to see what the league concept will take.
League 2.0
So, a rig is more than just a composition of written posts or video links. What we have created is something special, but what is it and how do we carry it on in a new way? Well, some ideas for that:
1) The Game Makers Federation is all of us.
All game creators are welcome to participate in the discussion. yes you! Please join us! I still need a ‘manage’ agent with moderator-level access to blogs, forums, etc, but I’d like to be able to invite others by removing restrictions on “post x per month” or even blogs. Game makers (specialists in their field) become part of the Game Makers Federation. We’ll keep the not-so-secret handshakes and fancy badges to the downside (wink!)
2) League of Gamemaker agents contribute in their own way.
Every contributor has a unique perspective and skill set. Someone may be an expert in social media and would like to do this on our behalf, or they may want Ed or others to host videos such as reviews, industry interviews, or other content. Someone might want to make a killer protospil or public kit, run a design contest, or be active on a Facebook forum every day. Whatever our personal passions, this is how we engage the design community and it will open up new ways for our agents to become who they want to be.
3) The league continues
The best game hasn’t been made yet, and the best gamemaker league version hasn’t been made yet. Will you be with us in 2018?
Peter eats games for breakfast! Founder of First Play LA, Squirmy Beast and League of Gamemakers, and Director of Breaking Games Development. The first published designs included What!? and Nightmare Cove and development credits include Letter Tycoon, Boomtown Bandits, Sparkle*Kitty and Rise of Tribes.