Hey guys..

I've been talking with some of the other staff and came to the conclusion that our IOTD isn't really cutting it. The submission rate is ultra low.. and that may be for a number of reasons including us not promoting it more throughout the site. But I'm just blown away by the response that #screenshotsaturday gets and I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel on this one.

I was thinking maybe it would be better to provide an interface for this twitter feed and have a little fun with it. Let me know what you guys think.. I was thinking about fleshing the game out more into something utterly ridiculous.. like you get points for votes, then you unlock cool armor and weapons that do absolutely nothing but show up in the sidebar looking all stylish. Perhaps randomly you can unlock "quests" as well.. non-serious quests of course that use the honor system. "The town bully has stolen my favorite sheep, go out and search the far off cavern at the base of mount worthlessjunk and fetch me a rock to make me feel better. Did you do it yet? Press yes or no" You get points for pressing yes! Who knows, just stuff to be fun.

Here's the link so far:

http://www.gamedev.net/page/showdown/index.html

Just gave it a whirl. Kinda interesting. I personally don't like a lot of these X vs Y minigames, and instead just like to look at eye candy. Anyway, here's my thoughts:

Understood. I think for this to work I'd have to actually make a game out of the X vs Y minigame since it does need a pretty constant feedback loop to work.

I'm wondering if IOTD could be less "formal" kind of like #screenshotsaturday, where users post screenshots of what they're working on with a very minimal explanation. Then GameDev.net cycles through this posting "feed" on the front page. With today's IOTD, all I really want is to look at the screenshots, and if they interest me enough (along with maybe a very small explanation), provide me with a link to a blog post/video/whatever where I can read more about what the images are about.

Do you think it's a bad idea to get behind that twitter feed? It does serve the same purpose and is pretty established. One of the other things I'm doing is that if you link your twitter account here with your profile it will automatically associate each image you post with your Gamedev.net account.

Then bump up the "formal"-ness of Your Announcements, so it's kinda like IOTD is now (but not really based around screenshots). That is, make it so Your Announcements isn't just a forum where you make a normal thread (that typically ends up being dry, a wall of text, or just overlooked), but where things are kind of a bigger deal.

I'm not sure I'm following you on this one.

On a side note I have modified the showdown so that you get +1 participation points for every 5 Showdown matches you complete.

Just gave it a whirl. Kinda interesting. I personally don't like a lot of these X vs Y minigames, and instead just like to look at eye candy. Anyway, here's my thoughts:

Understood. I think for this to work I'd have to actually make a game out of the X vs Y minigame since it does need a pretty constant feedback loop to work.

Cool beans.

I'm wondering if IOTD could be less "formal" kind of like #screenshotsaturday, where users post screenshots of what they're working on with a very minimal explanation. Then GameDev.net cycles through this posting "feed" on the front page. With today's IOTD, all I really want is to look at the screenshots, and if they interest me enough (along with maybe a very small explanation), provide me with a link to a blog post/video/whatever where I can read more about what the images are about.

Do you think it's a bad idea to get behind that twitter feed? It does serve the same purpose and is pretty established. One of the other things I'm doing is that if you link your twitter account here with your profile it will automatically associate each image you post with your Gamedev.net account.

I don't know much about that Twitter feed, as this thread is my only introduction to it. I don't think it's a bad idea, but I don't have a Twitter account (and I really don't want to make one). Would there still be a way for me to add to the GameDev.net feed?

Then bump up the "formal"-ness of Your Announcements, so it's kinda like IOTD is now (but not really based around screenshots). That is, make it so Your Announcements isn't just a forum where you make a normal thread (that typically ends up being dry, a wall of text, or just overlooked), but where things are kind of a bigger deal.

I'm not sure I'm following you on this one.

What I mean is you get lots of posts like this one and this one. It's kinda like "I want to show this off and announce it, but it's kinda awkward to do that in a thread post (unless you're a ninja with formatting and everything) and it isn't layed out or formatted nicely." Look at how most of the people are using Your Announcements. They're using it kinda like the IOTD. Why not give some kind of posting-template to Your Announcements that makes it prettier, a bit more formal, and easier to read/follow. I don't think the current IOTD template can be copied and applied to Your Announcements, but some ideas can be taken from it. But also, people come back and post updates in Your Announcements, and I think there should be some way to differentiate project updates and regular posts/replies in the thread (so the OP can respond to a few replies, and then later post an update that actually looks like an update and not just another reply by the OP).

On a side note I have modified the showdown so that you get +1 participation points for every 5 Showdown matches you complete.

Personal request: make floorcaek something you can "unlock" (and integrate some old GameDev.net memes in the rewards/quests).

floorcaek, mountain climbing and horses, rhino, the "magical black theme" badge that gives you productivity x 2.. what other memes can you think of?

I'm wondering too if I could let people gamble their points away.. if a screenshot gets a minimum number of votes then allow members to have a set "wager" of points and they can see if they choose the one the community thinks is better. If they win they get points, if they lose they lose their points. I dunno, some definite weird possibilities with this.

I think there needs to be a way to skip voting on either image. [Delete] key, maybe (and a button).

I get that you are choosing the better of two images, but sometimes they are both equally not interesting.

Can IOTD just feed SaturdayShowdown? If you post an image on IOTD, you get a +1 Participation point because it'll be used in SaturdayShowdown.

And one other thing. Saturday Showdown ....... Samurai Showdown. You know what to do

I think there needs to be a way to skip voting on either image. [Delete] key, maybe (and a button).

I get that you are choosing the better of two images, but sometimes they are both equally not interesting.