Getting feedback on your finished game

[Baxil]

Hi, fellow chefs!

Most of us are still awaiting the official judgment on our games (my own "Egregore" is 48th in the review queue), and I know it's easy to get nervous wondering how your game will be received by others.  That's one of the points of the competition, yes?  To put something you created in front of the public.

First!  If you weren't already aware, Jonathan Lavallee ("Over The Wall") has already taken on the monumental task of reading, and unofficially reviewing and ranking, all 59 entries - he has posted them to his blog in unordered chunks:

Across The Universe - Contains an ordered list of his 32 "keepers," and reviews of: Deserting Paradise, The Book Of Sands, Pilgrim, Edge City, The City: On The Edge Of Humanity, Walkabout, and Maddenhafen
Are We There Yet? - Finders, Omphalos, Edge of Annihilation, Silver and White, Egregore, Action City!, and Man-of-Letters Man-of-War
Around The Last Bend - After The Fall, The Fall Of Granada, A City, A Sojourn In Alexandria, City In Darkness, Broken Dream, A Journey
The Reviews Keep On Coming - Burial at Crossroads, Symbolon, The Doldrums, Last Chance USA, What Happened Here, In Between, Red Land Black Land, and Under The Sun
My, There Are A Lot Of You - Walkers In The Witchery Way, Chronicles of Skin, Memoir, World Riddle, and The Hand of Gulliver The Man-Mountain
First Impressions Three - Longshot, Over The Wall, Burning Your Skin, My God's Bigger Than Your God, Brachininae, and Never To Die
First Impressions Part Deux - A Trick Of The Light, The Perfect Tool, If Wishes Were Horses, In Your Own Skin, Skin Men, Sparks From The Fire, Bridge Across Eternity, and Skin City Romance
First Impressions - Pub Crawl, nowhere ROAD, The Chaos Lords and the Desert of Death, Cosmic Journey, Going Home: An Urban Power Fantasy, In Skin City You Need An Edge, Danger Mountain, Paths Of The Resolute, and The 7 Symbols of San Rio
Just When I Thought I Was Done - Extended review of Sojourn: The City And The Desert

Second!  I would also like to offer my own read-through and review to anyone who asks me here (or via email).  The more different sources of feedback you get for your game, the easier it is to understand its strongest and weakest points.  Just let me know your game name.

I won't be able to review every single Game Chef finisher the same way the Jonathans are doing - my job and GMing duties always suck away more time than I expect - but I'll make a genuine effort to respond to all requests. Maybe this thread can also prompt other designers with time on their hands to make similar offers.

(Reviewing my own game in return, once I'm done with yours, would be appreciated but is not required.  I made it into Jonathan L.'s Top 10, so my anxiety about the judging isn't as bad as it could be.  )

- Bax

[devlin1]

I made it into Jonathan L.'s Top 10, so my anxiety about the judging isn't as bad as it could be.  )

That list is in some kind of order? I guess that makes sense. In that case, I guess I'm in his Top 10 too. Hooray!

[Jason Pitre]

I would love to take you up on that offer for my game "A Sojourn in Alexandria".  I will do my level best to review Egregore and provide you with feeedback in return, in a manner of your choosing.

[Baxil]

@Jason: Review for A Sojourn In Alexandria is up!

http://www.tomorrowlands.org/gaming/gc10reviews.html

[Jason Pitre]

Thank you _very_ much for your indepth and insightful review.  Would you mind if I gave my review here, or in your game thread?

I have been working on a much more traditional pseudo-gamist project for the past years so I used it as an excuse to bring out my inner narratavist and to play around.    I am glad that you found some portions of it interesting and I will certainly take your feedback into account.   If I send it through another round of revision, I will likely make it GM'less as you are quite right that the GM roles are pretty well distributed as is.   

Cheers!

[Baxil]

I figure it would be best to keep actual reviews out of this thread, to reduce clutter.  Either on my thread here or somewhere on your own website would be best.

And I know what you mean about making the jump over to more narrative games - I was pushing my own boundaries that way too, and from what I've seen of the competition this year, that's probably more common than I was expecting.  It'll be interesting going through all the Jonathans' reviews in aggregate; it will be awfully interesting getting a sense of what "common mistakes" we have made, jumping fresh into narrative game design.