More withdrawals from the Slamdance festival.
I commend the developers of these games for standing behind their principles. And I encourage you all out there to go download demos of these games and / or buy copies (I think the only game actually being sold right now is Once Upon a Time… Everyday Shooter isn’t publicly released yet and Toblo is free).
Looking at the Slamdance game competition page now, there are just 8 games there. Which is still enough to have a competition, but one has to wonder about the legitimacy of the results when 40% of the entrants have dropped out, and the dropouts are such promising games.
Note that toward the top of the page Slamdance has made an official statement about the SCMRPG situation. Unfortunately, this statement doesn’t add anything new to the conversation.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:32 am
[...] The Braid blog has the scoop. Jon calculates this is now 40% of the jury-selected games. [...]
January 9th, 2007 at 9:40 am
Is it just me or there used to be a lot more logos to the right on the competition page …. ?
January 9th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hmm, according to the current Google cache, there was one more sponsor link, to http://www.jinx.com. That cache entry is dated January 7, though, so things could have changed before that too.
January 9th, 2007 at 9:56 am
This is wonderful news! It is remarkable how concerted a response the indie game community has put together in such a short period of time. It is truly a beautiful thing.
January 9th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Thanks for setting the right example Jonathan
January 9th, 2007 at 11:12 am
The problem is, where do you draw the line if people are pumping this kind of subject matter out?
I can’t blame them at all for refusing to be associated with it. As an indie developer, I think this stuff just makes us look like idiots and amateurs…it’s not ‘adult’ entertainment, it’s juvenile-minded offensive crap. Good on them for actually standing up and saying NO.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:28 am
Have you played the game? If so, what in particular did you find lacking? Its certianly not a polished or highly interactive game, but it was made by a filmakker with RPG Maker XP; the imporant thing is that it tried, and that attempt is whats being punished more than the game itself, which was already judged as sufficient to be a finalist.
January 9th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Congratulations! I think it’s awesome that indie developers are calling Slamdance on their hypocrisy.
Jay: Far from “refusing to be associated with it”, Slamdance approached the developer of SCMRPG, and asked them to submit the game. So at best this is the suits being too afraid of offending a sponsor. At worst it’s a vile and contemptible publicity stunt. Neither is acceptable in a festival that claims to honestly represent independent arts.
January 9th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
I want to thank you for standing by your principles and your fellow developer, and pulling out of the competition. That act has earned you my respect far more than any “I won at Slamdance!” blurb could at this point. To be honest I hadn’t heard of your game before this fiasco, but I’m happily checking it out now.
January 9th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
Updates on Slamdance Controversy…
I had originally begun to catalog updates to this story in my analysis of the situation last Friday. Since then, there have been so many updates that I decided to create a new place for them after the jump. As……
January 9th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I have played the game, and I think it’s pure crap. Kudos to the author for trying and for the lot of effort he put in it, but the results just don’t deliver. It’s basically a bad mishmash of movie-documentary-parody with terrible game elements thrown in. I’m frankly surprised at the amount of industry people that think the game had significant value.
Shame on the jury for confusing shock value with insight. Shame on Slamdance for hastily backing out, and effectively ruining what was to become a great platform for showcasing indie games and their relevance to modern culture. Shame on everyone involved for turning this unworthy game into the posterchild for meaningful games. Nobody wins except the idea that any publicity is good publicity. I hate that.
That’s what I think.
January 9th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
USC Withdraws Slamdance Sponsorship…
USC Interactive Media Division, whose students created last year’s Slamdance “design philosophy” winner Cloud and this year’s former finalist flOw, has just withdrawn their sponsorship of the festival. Says USC professor Tracy Fullerton: In some of…
January 9th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
As a former member of CMU’s Experimental Gameplay Project, I am glad to see that other experimental, independent, and/or student developers are taking a stance to Slamdance’s decision. Ironically, by removing SCMRPG from the contest, Slamdance has given it more press than probably the actual winner will receive. Also ironically, Slamdance has lost their sponsorship from USC for this competition for pulling the game out. I commend you, USC, and the other developers who removed themselves from this competition.
Perhaps we can have a little session/discussion about this at GDC Jonathan?
January 9th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
I have withdrawn Book and Volume from Slamdance.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
[...] leave First sponsor of Slamdance calls it quits Bookmark: « Free Dreamfall Demo trackback Leave aReply [...]