How to Become a Staff Pick

This was a post on the YoYoGames Glog (then Mark's own specific Glog, relating to Game Design), by Mark Overmars, outlining how the Staff (We) go about choosing Staff Picks on YoYo Games.

Staff picks
Staff picks are games that are selected by the YoYo Games staff and the site moderators as being very good. People obviously would like their game on YoYo Games to be selected as a staff pick. The number of staff picks is rather small. Of course the bottom line is that your game has to be good. But there is more you can do. Although it can of course never be a guarantee, here are some tips that might help you.

Be original
This does not mean that the game play has to be completely original. If you look at the current staff picks some of them are for example rather standard platform games. However, at least the characters and game name should be original. We will never make a game with e.g. Mario in the title a staff pick. And try to do some original level design.

The game must be finished
Only publish your game on the site when it is completely finished. This means that it should be bug-free, has all the levels in place, has built-in help, has a starting screen, etc. We normally look at a game for staff pick only once. If you update your game later we most likely won’t see the improvements. As long as the game is not ready, publish it in the Work in Progress part of the site to get comments.

We must find the game
This is a tricky one. We will not be able to make a game a staff pick if we do not spot it. And we do not play all games that are added to the site. Here are the usual tips: Good screen shots, good description, appropriate tags, and get many people to play it and rate it (market your game outside YoYo Games). And here is a final one that may sound odd: don’t publish your game on Saturday. Saturday is the day most games are published, which means your game easily disappears down the list. Also the YoYo Games staff do not work weekends. We're more likely to spot your game if you post during the week.

We must enjoy playing it
This is the most difficult. It requires some design talent to make a game enjoyable. The game does not have to be complicated or long for this. Look at a game like Sky Diver. It is a simple, short game, but it is simply fun because it is a bit weird. In the end a game is entertaining when things are in balance. Look at some of my other posts on game design for information about this, and I will continue providing such information here.

Other small things
Here are some other issues that are though not the most important. Make sure the game runs under Instant Play. Preferably make it run in a window. Make sure it is not too large and loads reasonably fast. 3D is not important. We don’t look at how clever you are, but at how nice the game is. I am amazed at the 3D games some people manage to make with Game Maker but in general the 2D games are more fun to play. And don’t ask us to make your game a staff pick. That is only going to do your game harm. We already get too many messages.