Reviewer's Opinions

With those rules in mind, there are a lot of other factors that are far more subjective. The personal tastes of the reviewer, in this case me, play a large role in what gets into a portal. Here are some major factors that I find influence my opinion.

1. Cute vs Gory - Make it cute and cuddly. It isn’t actually the cuteness that I look for, it’s a lack of aggressive imagery. A lot of our (and most other portals) fans are female. Not to stereotype, but aliens with dripping fangs don’t do so well with my mom, wife, or daughter. A cute game always seems to win out over an invasion of greasy aliens in sales and downloads.
2. Will it Sell? Is it a Good Game? – Funny that I thought the game should be cute before I thought it should be good. This is a complicated issue, though. We accept any game that we feel is good. However, we let our users decide what sells, and often times being good just isn’t enough. What makes the game sell are the little features, referred to as polish, which make a good game great. These would be great graphics and sounds, smooth play, unlockable bonuses, little animations that do nothing but make you smile, good music, etc. The list goes on for ages, but if you take a look at the top games on every portal you’ll begin to see a sharp contrast between them and most other me-too games that don’t have the right amount of polish, appropriate basic concept, or appropriate originality. You should also be on the lookout for similarities between all 10, they’re typically pretty obvious. Again, being good will usually get you a contract, but just because we believe the game is good doesn’t mean the game will sell by the boatload.
3. Which Genre? - ArcadeTown is less picky when it comes to genre. You have a FPS? We’ll look at it. Still, we know for a fact certain genres outsell others on our site. Whereas other portals may concentrate on other categories that aren’t as strong on our site. Action Puzzles (the Mystery Case Files series for example), Shooting Games, Adventure Games, RPGs, and Strategy Games are all pretty hot categories for us, but all of them need to be “casual” in nature. A hardcore turn based strategy game may not do so well here. Games like Aveyond, Cute Knight, Westward, or Age of Castles are what we’re looking for. The farther you get from a casual design the less likely we are to accept it. Also we aren’t too big on genric me-too clones of other games, unless you can surpass their level of polish or provide a twist that is truly unique that will appeal to users (see above).
4. Professional Developers - We like working with people who are reasonable and easy to work with. Developers need not acquiesce to our every whim and desire, but returning calls, e-mails, and builds on time, as well as considering any suggestions we make is key. The stark reality is most of the games out there are average (that is the definition of average), so in a sea of mediocrity we’ll work with the people who appear professional to us in their response and willingness to work with us over the classic closet developer who believes social graces have no place in business. My advice to any of you out there who hate social/business e-mailing, just pretend it’s an RPG and you’re playing a business executive who has a penchant for profit-based world domination. Oh, should I have used my “Not to stereotype line again?” Oh well!
5. The Name - I hate to name names, but I have seen some awful game names. A horrible name can seriously turn a submission into an instant reject; though these are few enough I didn’t feel it fell into the first list. A bad name can hurt sales though, and we may ask you to change it. If we do ask, it isn’t because we’re egomaniacs, it’s because we think your name is actually going to decrease sales! Don’t take it as an insult, take it as advice from someone who knows their audience. It may just be that our audience will react negatively while your own direct audience couldn’t care less. What’s in a name? A whole lot! Just ask a guy named Joseph Lieberman…and no, I am not related.
6. Online Web Versions - Having a solid online playable web version of your game definitely helps a lot on our site. Users will keep coming back to play your game over and over, helping to drive eyeball exposure, downloads, and sales. Web versions also help nicely on some other portals. Many developers also report that web versions help to re-invigorate sales of their older good selling titles. Unfortunately some large portals don’t provide web versions to their users, even when available, so some developers don’t see the value. Trust me, web versions are good!

Conclusion