43 replies to this topic

[Tuncer (IMG)]

Hi All,

The bastard child is about to be given a spanking!

Work will soon begin on Inside Mac Games 3.0 that will include the complete dismantling of the current system and design and will be replaced with a fresh new look, new tools, and such.

What I'd like is some opinions on what you'd like to see in IMG 3.0. I have some ideas on what I want to do, but I'd like to get as much input as possible before we move forward. Let me know your thoughts.

We are in need of a very talented web design person. The person who did new Macgamestore.com is completely booked. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Tuncer

[Naman]

I'd love to see a tag/category system that allows users to filter out unwanted categories of stuff and search for desired categories.

[Sneaky Snake]

Pegasus, on 19 October 2010 - 10:32 PM, said:

More coverage of the indie scene and less casual game reviews. Typically the average 'casual' gamer doesn't read reviews as it is. Just a thought.

I'd try to model the home page somewhat like the tech sites do (such as Tom's hardware and Anandtech) - a constantly changing homepage that would make people bookmark it and visit it everyday. I just have the forums bookmarked and look at the homepage like once a month cuz stuff seems to never change on it.

Obviously this will take some man power in the form of people writing articles. I expect we'd want to cover everything mac gaming related, but possibly also mac in general related (such as apple events, iPhone/iPad top app lists etc.) I'd be willing to write articles for free as long as it wasn't a massive time commitment (1 hour or less/day).

In a nutshell: make it THE place for gaming and entertainment on the mac

I'm know that's extremely difficult, but dare to dream I suppose, oh and I want flying cars!

[Janichsan]

If I might say this: about time.

The main page left the impression of being nearly dead or at least deeply comatose in the last months, so it's good to see something's happening.

To add something to the discussion, I'd say the blog-like approach Sneaky Snake suggests definitely would make the page seem more lively, but possibly also on the other hand somewhat difficult to distinguish IMG from all the other websites with the same concept. I would definitely leave out iDevice games, though. As other Apple related sites show, they would simply overwhelm the Mac related news, which somewhat goes against the "Mac" part in "Inside Mac Games".

[Hansi]

How about getting more staff is that possible? News is sometimes late or missing.

[the Battle Cat]

Janichsan, on 20 October 2010 - 12:49 AM, said:

I would definitely leave out iDevice games, though. As other Apple related sites show, they would simply overwhelm the Mac related news, which somewhat goes against the "Mac" part in "Inside Mac Games".

I let my subscription to MacAddict run out and have never renewed it when they lost focus on the Mac and started being the Apple Device Addicts.  I didn't care about any of that.  I was there for the Mac.  I'm sort of mixed though on the games aspect here, although I can't see me ever getting a hand held gaming device, it is about games after all and that is my focus here.  The information wouldn't be helpful to me, but a lot of gamers game on iPods and iPhones.  

Now that the Mac gaming industry has a shot in the arm, I think the hand held games should get a back burner.  Low and on simmer.

[Sneaky Snake]

the Battle Cat, on 20 October 2010 - 08:55 AM, said:

I let my subscription to MacAddict run out and have never renewed it when they lost focus on the Mac and started being the Apple Device Addicts.  I didn't care about any of that.  I was there for the Mac.  I'm sort of mixed though on the games aspect here, although I can't see me ever getting a hand held gaming device, it is about games after all and that is my focus here.  The information wouldn't be helpful to me, but a lot of gamers game on iPods and iPhones.  

Now that the Mac gaming industry has a shot in the arm, I think the hand held games should get a back burner.  Low and on simmer.

I agree that the iDevices are a little over covered most places. We could just have a once a month "apps of the month" article, where whoever writes the article just writes a minuscule review on like 5 apps that stood out. Definitely make Mac the number one focus though. Mostly games but also news regarding the Mac, such as the "back to Mac" event that's happening today.

Basically just post everything that we get on the news feed on the homepage, and maybe get some feature articles with interviews with Feral or Aspyr or other notable Mac devs

[Frigidman]

On the iDevices, I would rather not see that mixed into the main MAC news and information as well. I would rather suggest it be some small side-bar widget that merely sums up 'new game apps for your idevice'. Maybe then clicking on it goes to a sub section with a little more detail (if thats even needed).

But seeing all that unrelated garbage mixing in with the good cold MAC game postings... would further confuse people. So many still think they can buy MAC games and run them on their IPAD   .

Also, please, lets try to keep the demands realistic Flying cars is a SMIDGE out of my coding expertise.

[Sneaky Snake]

Frigidman, on 20 October 2010 - 09:24 AM, said:

.
Also, please, lets try to keep the demands realistic Flying cars is a SMIDGE out of my coding expertise.

Oh c'mon! It's 2010, were like 10 years behind schedule on the flying cars! Imagine the press we'd get if you did it!

[Tacohead]

I would also like to see the focus shift more towards Mac gaming over IOS gaming. I think doing some video reviews of games would be kind of cool as well if possible.

-PN

[Sneaky Snake]

Tacohead, on 20 October 2010 - 10:12 AM, said:

I would also like to see the focus shift more towards Mac gaming over IOS gaming. I think doing some video reviews of games would be kind of cool as well if possible.

-PN

just to rephrase my previous want of some iDevices stuff. In no way do want that to be the focus! I just think that an occasional apps of the month article would go a long way as the only iDevices stuff I read is top app articles cuz I'm trying to find the hidden gems in the app store. And I'm not talking about games, right now I'm looking for a good remote desktop app to access my computer while on the road

[Frigidman]

Well, recent news may have made this a moot discussion.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

First I'd like to say thank you. Taking IMG to the next level would make sure that it survives. We are quite a few die hards that couldn't live without our IMG fix..

Second, keep iOS stuff out of there. Plenty of sites that deals with that stuff, and that would remove focus. Back to Mac?

Then what I personally would like to see is:
• Some sort of Wiki/database of all Mac games, that is more linked to the news. In each article I'd like reviews to take focus like they do now, but make the user ratings and screenshots more prominent. Also, I'd like some way for the userbase to fill out the holes, with external links for instance. I'd also be nice if you could do something like [[Chronicles of Riddick]] in the forums, and it would automagically link to the wiki/database page, for easy lookup. Then each thread that had a [[CoR]] in it, should be shown in a list in the article about the game, and you could easily find the information/discussions you need.
• I'd like a way to tag games so I know that I should keep and eye out for them, and have the website somehow give me a popup telling me if there's news or new threads about the game in question.
• Some forms of rewards for writing reviews/news, to encourage users.
• Keep the smileys and the theme of the frontpage. Change the layout a bit though..
• More boobs and Marathon.
• User suggested polls. The current ones are 4 years old!
• More forum content on the front page. 10 newest active thread or something.
• ???
• Profit!

[Tuncer (IMG)]

Hi folks,

Today's news of the Mac App Store has definitely put a monkey wrench into my plans. The bottom line is that IMG makes no money, Macgamestore is keeping us alive. Could the Mac App Store kill Macgamestore.com? We'll have to wait and see. This is a devastating development for us and our futures lie in the balance. We'll see what comes of it but I'm not optimistic at this point. At least we'll find out soon enough...90 days and the flood of 99 cent apps will begin on the Mac.

[Mister Mumbles]

Flood of 99cent apps? I kinda doubt that'll happen. I would imagine the iDevice market to be way bigger than the actual Mac market. Also there's a big difference between making a game for a handheld device and for a desktop computer. There are certainly different expectations when it comes to gaming on either. Economically, devs would just be shooting themselves in the foot thinking that they could create the same success here...

But what do I know? I'm not a businessman.

[Tacohead]

Tuncer (IMG), on 20 October 2010 - 03:09 PM, said:

Hi folks,

Today's news of the Mac App Store has definitely put a monkey wrench into my plans. The bottom line is that IMG makes no money, Macgamestore is keeping us alive. Could the Mac App Store kill Macgamestore.com? We'll have to wait and see. This is a devastating development for us and our futures lie in the balance. We'll see what comes of it but I'm not optimistic at this point. At least we'll find out soon enough...90 days and the flood of 99 cent apps will begin on the Mac.

You may not have as much to worry about as you think:

http://www.tuaw.com/...ave-highlights/

That's absolutely absurd.

-PN

[Hansi]

Frak me:

- # It has metadata that mentions the name of any other computer platform
- # Your user interface is "complex or less than very good"
- # Your game portrays realistic images of people or animals being killed or maimed, shot, stabbed, tortured or injured. (Such as Counter Strike, Halo, and pretty much every other good video game ever produced.)
- # "Enemies" within the context of your game solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity. (I wonder if this applies to zombies...)

[Eric5h5]

The iPad market seems to have resisted the 99¢ bottom-line to some extent, going by the impressions I've gotten.

Tacohead, on 20 October 2010 - 05:06 PM, said:

http://www.tuaw.com/...ave-highlights/

Yeah, no demos or trials is problematic at best.  Considering the casual game market consists entirely of the "play for an hour, then pay to unlock" model, I don't see how that's going to work for games.  Most of the guidelines, however, are directly taken from the iOS guidelines, and that hasn't stopped any of the Halo clones, Modern Combat clones, etc.  By "realistic" I expect they mean photographically so, not computer-game-toon so.

--Eric

[Smoke_Tetsu]

Yeah that's interesting if they have that same rule on the iOS app store yet they still have games like Resident Evil and a bunch of other games where you run around killing things. I wonder where they draw the line though like how photo-realistic does it have to be before they reject it? In my opinion games like Left 4 Dead 2 are getting there at least with the colors.  It almost seems like a game may become too next gen in its graphics quality for them sooner or later. I wonder if they would reject the upcoming HD remakes of Mortal Kombat since they use high resolution digitized footage of live actors in it.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Smoke_Tetsu, on 20 October 2010 - 07:03 PM, said:

Yeah that's interesting if they have that same rule on the iOS app store yet they still have games like Resident Evil and a bunch of other games where you run around killing things. I wonder where they draw the line though like how photo-realistic does it have to be before they reject it? In my opinion games like Left 4 Dead 2 are getting there at least with the colors.  It almost seems like a game may become too next gen in its graphics quality for them sooner or later. I wonder if they would reject the upcoming HD remakes of Mortal Kombat since they use high resolution digitized footage of live actors in it.

I think the whole 'realism' bit is likely just so they can reject anything seriously problematic like representation of violence against real-world figures, or using actual real-world footage. I don't think the level of fidelity of an obviously generated game world matters much.