6 replies to this topic

[taikara]

First and foremost:

All content submitted to Abandonia Reloaded (reviews, screenshots, walkthroughs, game guides, interviews etc) becomes the property of Abandonia Reloaded to use as necessary.  Games themselves are not considered content, therefore, remain property of the respective developers\owners.  Once content has been submitted and published, it may not be used or published elsewhere without permission!

The game updating process for Abandonia: Reloaded is a bit different than on Abandonia, so please take a moment to read this information CAREFULLY.

The content on Abandonia: Reloaded will be exclusively controlled by the admins, updaters, and game producers. Because we work so closely with game producers, we must also closely monitor the content of the site.

We will still accept member-submitted content, but we cannot guarantee it will be used,


BASIC PROCESS:

The basic process is as follows:

• We scout out freeware games.
  
• The game producers are contacted and informed of our intent to add the game.
  
• Interviews are requested.
  
• Information is collected on the games, which includes:
  
  • Producer/company information
    
  • Game information (download location, etc)
    
  • Screenshots
    
  • Reviews
    
  • Interviews (optional)
• Finally, the game is added.

ACCEPTABLE MEMBER CONTRIBUTIONS:

Scouting:

The most helpful thing you can do for AR is alert us to freeware games that are not currently on the site. Please post in the Requests section of the forum if you know of a great freeware game that's not up yet.

Contacts:

If you personally know a freeware game producer, you may contact them if you think they might be interested in joining the AR community. Please do not contact game producers randomly to solicit interest. Doing so is discourteous, and counterproductive to the goals of the site.

Please let one of the admins know if you intend on contacting a game producer you personally know about participating in AR, so that we can do everything necessary to accomodate his/her participation.

CONTENT-SUBMISSION THAT REQUIRES PERMISSION FROM AN ADMIN:

Reviews:

You can submit reviews for games, but we may choose to use our own. Contact either Frodo or Doubler via PM if you are interested in submitting a review for a particular game. Please be sure to check whether the game is already on the site before asking whether you can submit a review.

After you have discussed a review submission with one of us, we will let you know when we start pulling the game update together.

Also, please note that unlike our sistersite Abandonia, we don't use HTML tags in our reviews, so please don't use them when writing a review.

*N.B.: Please submit reviews in .txt format whenever possible - this makes it easier for us to use them since they don't contain internal formatting (which can mess up when we copy into our admin system) and can be viewed on all OSs and by people without proprietary software (like MS Word). Reviews not submitted as .txt files may take longer to process.*

Screenshots:

The way screenshots are handled on AR is completely different from Abandonia. Since we need both originals and thumbnails, the process takes a bit longer, and we also have a very high standard. Please contact Frodo or Doubler via PM to arrange a screenshot submission. We can only accept screens of the best quality and variation.

The number of screenshots we would like, would ideally be between 5 - 15 shots.  We would appreciate if you could also include a screenshot of the games title screen, and a screeshot of the company logo, if possible.

Again, please be sure to check whether the game is already on AR before contacting us about a screenshot submission.

Extras

If a game featured on AR has available extras, such as walkthroughs, mod files, or patches, you may contact Frodo or Doubler in order to submit them to the site.

We are also highly interested in featuring producer extras such as design sketches, discarded screens or sections of games.

PLEASE NOTE:

These guidelines may change as the site grows. If we do decide to change them, we will let you know via this post, so it will be bumped to alert you if anything changes.

We most definitely appreciate your interest in helping the site grow. Just remember:

The most helpful thing you can do for AR is help us discover great freeware games and game makers!  

[taikara]

To those of you interested in submitting reviews, a few instructions on what should be included:

REVIEW SUBMISSIONS:

Must contain:

• Your member name
  
• Complete review (no less than three paragraphs, preferably more).
  
• Game genre (Adventure, Sim, Action, etc.)
  
• Up to 3 positive points
  
• Up to 3 negative points
  
• Rating, submitted as a decimal, e.g.: 3.7
  
• Complete system requirements, including programs needed & system info, if available
  
• Official game URL
  
• Download location URL
  
• Brief description of questionable content (violence, nudity, etc), for content rating purposes.
  
• If a multiplayer game, multiplayer methods (Hotseat, LAN, and/or Internet).

If you submit your review and cannot include any part of this information, please include a brief reason you were not able to obtain it.

We will be able to fill in some of this information ourselves, but it would be helpful, if you are interested in submitting, for you to include it yourself.

Whenever possible, please submit your reviews in .txt format rather than .doc or anything else; these are much easier for us to process and can be opened without proprietary software like MS Word. Reviews not submitted as .txt files may take longer to process.

Edited by BeefontheBone, 08 May 2006 - 04:50 PM.

[taikara]

Tips for Taking Screenshots:

There are a few ways to take good quality screenshots. Because of the editing processes we use for AR, screens must be of the highest quality possible.

Method #1:

You can always use the Shift+Printscreen method, carefully taking shots and then pasting them into a graphic editor of your choice, and then saving them in unoptimized PNG format.

You will get high quality screens this way, but it is very tedious and time-consuming.

Please note that screens captured using this method will have to be edited to take out the Windows box. Ugh.  

Method #2 (recommended):

Using a free image viewing program like Irfanview, you can take screens easily just by pressing a key.

Important Notes about using Irfanview:

After downloading and installing Irfanview, you must set up the program for taking high-quality screenshots. To do so, go to Options > Capture/Screenshot, and set up the following options:

Capture area: Foreground Window - Client Area
Capture method: Hotkey (use your key of choice)
Capture options: *Do not* check the box labelled "Include mouse cursor"
Saving method: Save as file (set up your destination directory so you can find the screens later)

Then, look at the "Save as" drop-down menu, and select the "PNG - Portable Network Graphics" option.

Next, click on the "Options" button next to that, and set the "Compression level" to ZERO.

Finally, hit the "Start" button, load up the game you want to screenshot, and start capturing.  

Method #3 (recommended where possible):

Some games have an in-game screen capturing function which can be used to take screenshots. Check out individual game FAQs for information on whether in-game screen capturing is an option, as well as how to use the function.

In addition, for games that can be played in DOSBox, screenshots can be taken by using the Ctrl+F5 screen capturing function included in the DOSBox program. Screens taken this way can be found in the "Capture" folder in your DOSBox folder.

Tips for Taking Great Quality Screens:

• No matter what method you use, do your best to make sure the cursor is not noticible, it detracts from the actual screens. Also, while dialogue can be interesting, if it covers up a beautiful screen, it detracts from the quality of the screenshot. Screenshots of menus are also generally undesirable, unless there is something unique about the game's menu style.
  
• Look for screens that have variety in color and content. A bunch of screens that all look the same basically amounts to fewer usable screens.
  
• Look for different opportunities to showcase the uniqueness of the game. If the game is humorous, it's okay to catch a few humorous dialogue shots, or if it has beautiful graphics, look for screens that show off the game's beauty. If it has both, look for both.
  
• All in all, variety is the key to producing the most usable shots. Take more screens than you think you'll need, and everyone will be better off for it. A good number to shoot for is twenty or so.

Note: If possible, remember to take a screenshot of the game title and company logo. This will help game prep immensely

[taikara]

Please Note:

Remember to include your member name in reviews you submit.

Also, if possible, if you are submitting screenshots, please try to take a shot of the game title and company logo screens.

[taikara]

How to Submit Extras:

AR has added a new feature to the site which will allow us to host extras along with games we feature on the site.

Examples of extras we accept:

• Walkthroughs
  
• Game Manuals/Guides
  
• Patches
  
• Mods
  
• Design sketches

If you know of any content along those lines that you feel should be hosted along with a game on AR, please contact myself or Tom Henrik so that we can confirm the validity of the extra in question, and subsequently give you upload instructions so we can add it to the site.

Thanks for your help

[Flop]

*bump*

Added a bit in the first post about submitting reviews. Some of you have been using HTML tags when writing reviews, and even though we know you mean well, we don't use them on this site, and it just takes extra time and effort for us to remove them (and extra time and effort for you to put them in).

[BeefontheBone]

Added a note about review submissions - please submit reviews as .txt files whenever possible, it makes them much easier for us to process.

Thanks!