Pixelation Blog [Opinions needed!]

[happymonster]

I'm a regular reader regarding Indie Games and a lot of those have a lot of good art and unique art styles which would be useful to feature in a blog. Both to act as a pointer for inspiration to others, and to add some comments about the art itself and any technical aspects of interest.

[ptoing]

We are not an indie gaming site. If there are some indiegames with styles worth discussing this can be done without some blogpost on the forum imo.

[happymonster]

I am not talking about the games themselves, but rather the approach to art used. I see this as no different to the infrequent commercial critique threads on the board.

[ptoing]

Yes that would work of course. If there are indie-games with enough merit in pixel art, there are imo not many.

And by that I don't mean that there are no interesting looking games with nice pixelart. Just nothing I can think of which would need a proper discussion dissection. If you have some suggestions of course you can go head and suggest. There already was a CC about Cave Story (which imo does not have enough merit artwise to be discussed other than, nice retro art, good work for one duder doing it all himself)

[Atnas]

non non non

do not want

too fluffy

[fortunato]

i like it; i think it is a fun idea. i really like the idea of adding noteworthy threads; would def increase activity because i know i would always secretly hope/try to get my thread up there (like in the news box with those featured threads... who WOULDNT want to be up there??? hehe) also great idea on the '_____ found this post helpful' thing.
now how about this: a site redesign? pardon me for being radical haha... i love the design now but maybe a new redesign (ooh, or banner contests) could spark some interest. i mean i dunno about a redesign it wouldnt help TOO much, but banner contests... hahaha i like that idea. and more festive things. secret santa is a great one, but... maybe things like a pixel wreath on the banner? or christmas lights pixel style? sorry these are stupid ideas but they could definitely just make things a bit more interesting once in a while, like 'ooh they changed the banner' or 'hey a banner contest... i could make something really cool!' haha i dunno just some thoughts.
im serious about the banner contests though; you could have them every few months (maybe like two or three) and the winner obviously would have their banner put up... could open the window for some (more) great pixel art here.

[Helm]

Yeah we had considered banner contests before, a la Puet.com perhaps even. It'll definately happen eventually. And the site is being reskinned behind the scenes as of late too.

[happymonster]

I still remember that competition where we had to draw a sprite based on a very thin and tall stylised drawing of a woman (primarily in white IIRC). I can't remember the name but that was very successful and interesting. Anything like that again would be great.

[EyeCraft]

Cool discussion!

Actually, maybe I'm a little delusional, but the forum seems to have pretty good activity from my point of view. It never feels 'dead' to me (PIXELATION WILL NEVER DIE!!!1!).

Decisions on the blog need a clearer definition of what the blog would contain. I think it's the kind of thing that would work better if we had a LOT more activities. For instance, having hidden collab entries as Zoggles suggest would give a steady stream of blog posts, since each collab "Reveal" would be a really cool thing to see on the front page. I also like Zoggles idea for 'easier' activities. The edit idea is really great, and could be a recurring thing.

But I absolutely love Helm's idea for focusing on adding participation re-enforcement mechanisms to the site. The thanking/karma system is elegant and should definitely be done. But I also get crazy ideas like having some kind of counters or records that show how many collaborations and activities a person has participated in. Kind of another aspect to the person's community participation besides karma.

I say shelf the blog idea and let's focus on participation reenforcement and activities. A blog is a pinboard for community spirit and activity, which appears to be something we could use a lot more of.

[Indigo]

I'm closing the poll - thanks to all who gave input.  It certainly did make things clear - even changed my own opinion of it

-Dan