MADHOUSE

By: Derek Yu

On: November 1st, 2010

MADHOUSE by Paul Hubans

One of the many spontaneous acts of awesome that occurred at TIGJam 3 this past weekend was an impromptu tournament with Paul Hubans’ 2007 horror shooter MADHOUSE. In the wee hours of the third night, about a dozen or so hearty jammers signed up to sit next to each other in gory, one-on-one combat. Providing commentary was none other than Paul himself, who egged on the competitors and managed to crack up everyone who was watching (especially himself). It was definitely a memorable experience for us all, so I wanted to give the game a long-due mention on the front page.

In Versus Mode, the goal is to end the match with the most kills against your opponent. In the “vanilla” version of the game, you can select one of four characters, each with different attributes and special attacks. “Zero”, for example, has exceptional attack power but low health, and can turn invisible to sneak up on enemies. There are also six stages that have different themes, traps, and secrets.

MADHOUSE is rough around the edges and not particularly well-balanced, but has the kind of charm that I love to see in indie games… to the point where even the imbalances feel “right” at times (or at least really funny). There’s also quite a bit of unique detail in the characters, weapons, and environments, which keeps it feeling fresh match after match. I’ll be honest, though, the best way to play is the way we played it: with the Special Edition (unavailable for download as of writing), with Paul there giggling to himself, and on a projector with a bunch of other nerds watching and cheering. Still, even at home with just one other friend I think MADHOUSE has a lot of entertainment value in it. And the single-player Arcade Mode, which Paul admits having tacked-on, is not at all bad, either!

TIGdb: Entry for MADHOUSE

  • John Sandoval

    fuck yeah phubans

    i'm gonna download this and play the shit out of it

  • mrfredman

    I'm so disappointed I left the jam early that night and was unable to witness madhouse in all its glory

  • Phubans

    Thank you, Derek! As my way of saying thanks to everyone who played and sorry to those who missed out, I've decided to release the special edition of the game to the public for the first time as a TIGSource exclusive. Enjoy! :)

  • Cow

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v287/mccow28/madhouse.png

    never thought I would have another reason to post this

  • http://s.hryx.net/ hyrx

    Sweet pulsating urchin mother lord below us all, c'est MADHOUSE!

    Absolutely recommended, especially the vs. mode, which leads to all sorts of laughing and yelling. TIGJam made me a believer.

  • Phubans

    There used to be an online highscore table for that mode that JaJ helped me set up. Unfortunately, it went down when I discontinued my registry of madhousegame.com a few months ago :(

  • http://twitter.com/lachrob Robert

    GJ Phubans

  • allen

    Post doesn't mention that Paul is looking for a programmer to help him make an online version of MADHOUSE.

    http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=15309.0

    Someone help him :(

  • Barkley

    He may have found someone at the jam ; )

  • Snow

    I still remember how there were so many jealous GM users who would give this game poor ratings with phrases like “bland”, “poor design”. Haha too bad your mario clones will never be known beyond a single post on the GM forums. Madhouse is what you get when you work hard on a good quality game. GJ. :)

  • http://twitter.com/bengrue Ben McGraw (Grue)

    I can't wait to kill my friends over and over again in Madhouse. PVP makes this game.

  • cactus

    Way to go, Phube. Hope MHHD becomes a reality!

  • FourbitFriday

    Everyone be Bozo :D

  • Phubans

    Well, I did get a response from my post but I'm not sure what's going on with it, because I'm actually considering a few options. If nothing else, I plan to start re-doing the art in HD style like the remixed Spelunky. We'll see :)

  • http://twitter.com/progrium Jeff Lindsay

    Bozo 4 life

  • Tak

    Looks madly good game! Is there any hope of online co-op for this game?

  • Guest

    Cool, TIGSource isn't even hiding the fact that “if you hang out with us, we'll write about you/your game.” Games journalism at it's finest, surely.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    Here to play games, make games, and foster a fun community. Nothing more. Would love it if you joined us instead of sniping at us from the sidelines.

  • Phubans

    Wow, thanks for discrediting my game!

    You're right though; it's not like I sacrificed my social life for 3 years to pour my heart and soul into making this game or anything, even though I never made a penny for it or that it remained largely in obscurity for the past 6 years until people finally got to experience the game as it was meant to be played in versus mode. I mean, this game is a total piece of shit, obviously, and I merely had to suck the collective cock of the “indie elite” to get this feature, you know?

    Stay jealous, anonymous coward.

  • Guest

    hey, I'm happy for you phubans, and I'm not saying your game is shit or anything like that – I'm just reacting to the way the article is worded. But loads of people think TIGsource is some kind of a journalistic endeavor…. I mean, sometimes TIGsource pretends to be just that, and sometimes it's just “heeey look here this is what my buddy made”. Derek, you say you want to foster a fun community, but what it looks like from the outside is just … circle-jerking, nepotism, friends promoting friends. Why don't you try having a fun community on the forum part of the site and try and do good neutral coverage of the indie scene on the front page..?

  • Guest

    Sorry for complaining in a pissy way but it's still valid criticism…

  • Jesus Christ

    Do you know any field where nepotism isn't in play? Also, are people who write about indie games supposed to discriminate against people they know, since their opinions might be biased? Life isn't objective, if a friend asks you to play a game, and you end up liking it a lot then you should consider not writing about it? Where's the logic in that. Still I see why you complain, but it seems to be a bit of a waste.

    TIGSource has a strong tradition of being subjective in it's coverage. And there's a strong tradition of people complaining about everything for one reason or another. And there's a a strong tradition of those complaints being a complete waste of time, not because Derek or the other staff isn't listening, but because it all boils down to “Hey you covered that and not this”, and that's an issue that could only be resolved by god.

    All games won't be featured on this site (or any other site). All the games that you think are good won't be featured on this site. All games that are good, and that the staff on this site think are good won't be featured on this site. That's an undeniable truth, and there is no valid criticism that will change this.

    And even though your criticism is technically valid, I don't think there is any possible way to satisfy you and everyone else who are unhappy about what gets featured here. Which may not take away from the validity of your claim, but it loses all relevance.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    For an indie video game blog, I'd rather walk in and feel like I'm hanging out with a bunch of friends talking about what they're interested in than walk in and feel like I'm in a Wikipedia entry.

    If you're hung up on the “journalism” thing, keep in mind that most newspapers have rather large editorials/opinion sections. If we pretend to be journalists half the time and write opinion pieces the other half, we're probably on pace with your average paper.

  • Guest

    Haters gonna hate…

  • Phubans

    Well, it's easy to think that and perhaps this is my karma for thinking and saying similar things in the past, but my perspective really changed when I got to hang out with these guys and realize that it's really not like that. This community is really just a bunch of cool, friendly, and creative people that want to make and play fun games. I think to get recognized or appreciated by the group is the result of two things; having something good and getting yourself out there.

    The latter is something I never really bothered to do and in the past it would really frustrate me that my work remained in obscurity while seemingly less interesting stuff would get so much attention. It wasn't so much that my work wasn't good enough to be featured, but I think it had a lot more to do with the fact that nobody knew about it. Posting your work on the Internet is one thing, but actually getting yourself out there in person to promote it is an entirely different thing.

    Take JW's Super Crate Box for example; it's a fun and exciting game that's been getting mentioned all over the Internet. While I think JW is a great dude and his game is solid, I also know that he's done a lot of self-promotion that probably had a big part in getting the game to where it is today. Sadly, people have a propensity for jumping on bandwagons, and if someone perceives that something is “widely popular” then they themselves will adapt to it more quickly. Of course, there's always people like me who actually end up disliking things as they become more popular because they lose their unique appeal.

    Sure, it's irritating that one can't simply sell himself by being a modest badass with quiet confidence and the shit to back it up; that “this is what I have and it's good” has to be said in order for people to realize it. That is why many great people are single and many great artist are unknown; it's just not their style to shamelessly self-promote themselves. It's not mine, either, but at the same time it killing me to have so much to share with the world and no one to share it with, so I went to TIGJam to put myself out there. The result was one of the best experiences I've had in my life.

    I hope someday you'll join us, and the world can live as one.

  • PhasmaFelis

    TIGSOURCE HATER COMMENT TYPE I: “How Dare You Write About a Fun Community Event That I Didn't Attend”

    Type I here is pretty common–you'll generally see it on any post about a physical event with real people. This particular example stands out a bit for taking an “accusations of nepotism” approach rather than the more typical “I don't want to hear about these dirty hippies just because they actually make video games” angle.

    #1 in a series–stay tuned!

  • AshfordPride

    Man, I can really relate to how fun games like this can be when you play them when you're tired and when you're with friends. I guess my equivalent would probably be Battle Fantasia or Senko no Ronde. Please don't misconstrue anything I'm saying here as an insult, because I totally understand how awesome it can be to just giggle like a goof and play an imperfect game with a bud. We should judge games on shenanigans. There should definitely be a 1 to 10 scale for how many shenanigans a game is capable of creating in a social setting. Anything 8 or better is worth it just for the goof-ballery.

    Derek, you sort of sell this game short by saying it's rough around the edges and not balanced. I played it, and was never really struck by that at all. The general atmosphere, the music, and the mechanics all seem to be carefully constructed by someone who really had some gears turning when they were putting this game together, so great job Phubans! I'm really happy that I was able to play this. You score some major points for digging up some deeply cherished memories of Zombies Ate My Neighbors for me.

    I used to play the hell out of some game that this reminded me of. Some game with stick figures that had guns and bats and sledgehammers. Hackers and cheaters everywhere. Fucking shenanigans.

  • PhasmaFelis

    Dude, the TIGsource blog is a fucking blog. If you think it's “some kind of journalistic endeavor”, that's your own silly fault. It is a handful of dudes writing about stuff they think is cool, in support of “a community of independent game players and creators”, which BTW is the entire description of the site you'll see if you click that shiny “About Us” button at the top of the page.

    There are already a buttload of excellent sites built to “do good neutral coverage of the indie scene”, and most are listed immediately to your right under the words EXTERNAL LINKS in hot pink. If that's what you want, by all means go read Pixel Prospector or Jay Is Games or Play This Thing. TIGsource is built to do something different.

  • Ethandeleon94

    Just wondering is there any way to lower all the in-game volume in Madhouse? I know how to disable music but i can't hear my online friends with the loud music =/

  • Guest

    OK, again I'm sorry for starting this off on the wrong foot but I guess it's no surprise to anybody that it's easy to be rather pissy when you're anonymous. Instead of a short sneer I'll give you a long and well-thought out post. This is something that's been bothering me for ages but until now I couldn't be bothered getting involved in some kind of internet conflict thingy so I never bothered writing it down. Let's just be clear that it's something that built up over time and it isn't a reaction just to this particular post.

    Everybody understands that on some level, nepotism is wrong/bad. Surprisingly, few “get it” when it's applied to themselves or the things they like or do. I feel from the replies that people just don't get the basics of why I think the way TIGSource works is wrong (or “why I think the way I think TIGSource works is wrong”).

    What's the problem with promoting your buddies, and what's the point of neutrality? When we're talking of things like war or politics, sure, great, but when we're talking about indie game coverage, most people don't seem to get why anybody would strive for neutrality – the word even conjures up an image of an informative but soulless Wikipedia article in Derek's mind. But neutrality doesn't mean you can't express an opinion, neutrality means precisely that you don't give favors to your friends (or disfavors to your enemies)! (the semantics can of course be argued about but this is what I mean when I use the word. Replace it with 'unbiasedness' if you prefer)

    Why would I want TIGsource to be neutral/unbiased? Some say that TIGSource is just a “blog”. Derek et al took a small blog and made it extremely popular by creating a community around the site and regularly updating the frontpage. Derek (et al…) has the right to write about whatever he wants in whatever way he wants, because, lets' face it, this space wouldn't even exist without him. Why do I expect him to be neutral?

    The thing is, TIGSource isn't just a small personal blog, it's THE major source for video game journalists who don't have the time/energy to really dive in to the indie game scene by themselves (as well as for indie gaming enthusiasts/players, naturally). Get frontpaged, and if your game is interesting enough it's more than likely to get coverage on major gaming websites as well as in video game magazines worldwide. TIGSource is a platform, and a springboard from which independent devs everywhere hope to jump off, aiming towards greater heights and recognition. I've also seen several sites/people referring to TIGSource and Derek as a news site and a journalist respectively (for example the Guardian top 100 websites or some list like that that TIGSource was on?). If TIGSource is just a “blog”, it's poorly labeled as one. I mean, seriously, the site's old slogan (which thankfully disappeared with the re-design) was “Independent Gaming News – Unfiltered”. But irregardless, there's no doubt about TIG being an influential news source.

    “With great powers come great responsibilities” sounds like a stupid joke considering we're discussing something as mundane as games journalism (and I really wish I could come up with a better way of saying the same thing without resorting to a super hero quote), but why shouldn't we expect all of our news sources to be neutral? Newspapers started off as political pamphlets in many countries, but have in most parts of the world moved on to providing a (mostly) neutral coverage of news and events and only report favorably on their party of choice in the editorials. I don't necessarily think Derek gives games glowing reviews because him and the devs are all buddies, but it's clear as day that the editors give a lot more coverage to their already established indie buddies than the up-and-coming nobodies.

    What effects does circle-jerking and buddy-promoting have on the indie dev community? I believe Phubans when he says you guys are not a bunch of stuck-up snobs and I'm sure you're super-friendly to all the devs you meet, but what's already happened is that you've created this cozy snug little place for the high-status well-recognized indies that every dev wants to get into. No harm intended, but just look at Phubans posts on the forums here. I get that he's doing it partly as an internet persona thing but seriously, it's obvious he's been quite obsessed with hanging out with (and getting noticed by) the “right people” on the indie scene. The sad part is, he had it right! It actually paid off. His game is 3 years old and was obviously not destined to hit the frontpage anytime soon, until he was finally able to hang out with Derek. Neutral coverage would have meant MADHOUSE would have gotten covered long ago without Phubans having to sell all his earthly possessions and move to SF to get to hang out with Derek.

    The problem as I see it is basically that we have all these interesting games by the less celebre devs that get overlooked, and never get a chance to get picked up by the mainstream gaming press. There's also a lot of bitterness and jeaolusy among those who just don't seem to get allowed in (well, evidently). I mean, at this point, extending an invitation to “join us” isn't the way forward, it seems more like a bad joke. Besides, the solution to nepotism is… “join us”?

    I've made some generalisations in this post for brevity. Not all games by less celebre devs get overlooked. Not every game Derek et al cover was made by one of their buddies. TIGsource isn't the only mean for an indie dev to get noticed. Derek isn't the Devil incarnate etc etc.

  • Guest

    OK, to rephrase that wall of text more succinctly – I think TIGSource should choose games to feature based on one criteria – the criteria of quality (in as wide a meaning as possible, meaning stuff ranging from Q-Games to Increpare to stuff from Newgrounds). Nepotism/buddy or big name-favoritism shouldn't EVER enter into it but unfortunately I'd say it does.

  • another guest

    Obviously within any community there will be nepotism to an extent. Through association we superpose those we know over those we don't.
    The problem isn't nepotism, the problem is that TIGsource needs more active editors from other (presumably smaller) indie gaming communities (klik, newgrounds, gamemaker etc). Derek and his peers are obviously restricted to the games contained within their own community. Undoubtedly, it is very hard to infiltrate and extract quality games from entirely new communities, and therefore completely understandable.
    Also, TIGsource just needs more active editors period.

  • Mike Hunt

    Have any of these people complaining about nepotism submitted a game for review/coverage? Last I heard TIGS wasn't in the business of turning away “guest reviewers” because they weren't hipster enough.
    And for what it's worth, when many of these guest reviewers got RIPPED INTO for, well, nepotism as well as other sundry stuff, comments that would have been deleted from 1000 other blogs stayed here. That says a lot to me.

  • http://ortoslon.makgam.com ortoslon

    to choose based on quality only, you'd need easy access to all indie game releases and ~10000 man-hours per day. as tigsource is maintained by several people who are busy with other stuff, they have to use filters (blogs, forums, personal recommendations etc) to choose what games they try (they can't review games which they haven't tried). all filters make them influenced by other people's preferences and biases.

  • mrpodunkian

    that's not what brevity means!

  • Phubans

    Yes, I read all of it and you do raise some valid points, but the main problem with your argument is that it suggests that I merely had to get “in” with these guys to get my game featured. True, these guys are my heroes and I have made a lot of effort to get noticed by them. They're guys who have succeeded at doing what they love, which is making cool little games outside of the commercial industry. Making games has been my life's dream for the past 23 years, when I combined my creative desires as an artist with my exposure to the beloved Nintendo games I enjoyed as a kid. I didn't move out to SF to hang out with Derek, and that's a bit silly to suggest considering I didn't even know him at the time; I gave up everything to move out here because I was following my dream of making games and I knew that I'd have a better chance in California than in Pennsylvania. Being currently employed in the industry and collaborating with various people with the same passion, I can't say I regret my choice.

    Though, I think it's a little unfair to assume that Madhouse was featured simply because I hung out with these guys and pushed the right buttons. Madhouse was originally conceived as a two-player versus style deathmatch game. Unfortunately, most people do not have the luxury of having a like-minded friend to play an indie PC game with them on a split-screen and shared keyboard. TIGJam solved this problem by getting a bunch of people who were into indie games into the same space and willing to play something like this. The result was that the game was experienced how it was meant to be played and people enjoyed it.

    Madhouse was, ahem, madly popular on the GMC forums during its development cycle. It was a featured game on YoYo Games. On various freeware game sites where it's posted, it has been lauded by many players as a “masterpiece” or as “the best GM game they've ever played.” One fan in Finland went as far as to hand-craft me a plush doll of Butch, the mascot of Madhouse. At one time, it captured the attention of a local studio developer who wanted to put the game out on the DS. I even knew a fellow who wasn't particularly impressed with Madhouse until he saw the two people highly engaged in the versus mode and he had sort of an “A-ha” moment and remarked, “So THIS is Madhouse…”

    I'm not bragging, but I'm hoping to offer some perspective into why the game may have gotten featured. I don't think anyone really knew the extent of what Madhouse had to offer until they were able to experience it at the jam. I didn't ask to be featured and I didn't give Derek a blowjob or anything. In fact, a lot of people at TIGJam told me how much they liked my game and some considered it the highlight of the event. I think if you were there you wouldn't be so hard on me, and would have let me enjoy being happy that people got to play and enjoy a game I worked so hard on making.

    As for the whole “join us” thing, that was part-song reference and part invitation to come out to the next TIGJam. Then maybe you'd see that it really isn't “us” and “them”.

  • mrpodunkian

    i'm not going to jump into this INDIE GAMES CIRCLEJERK debate again, but i think the reason people find this post disagreeable is because of how narrow a cross-section of any population it has any sort of relevance to besides the people who were involved.

    you say yourself the game is pretty rough around the edges and that it was, more or less a “you had to be there” sort of thing, and to be fair, the “special edition” wasn't released at the time of writing (regardless of whatever happened in response), and there's no media, videos/photos besides a superficial text rundown that could basically describe any gathering of friends — i can see how it might come off like an arbitrary big-up behind the thin veneer of event coverage.

    but again, i don't really feel strongly either way, and i'm only commenting because ortoslon said he was arguing on tigsource and i came to see what he had done and he was clearly not taking part in a tigsource argument and i figured i'd just get the ball rolling a bit.

  • mrpodunkian

    you sure seem to know a lot about physical events with real people for a man who feels so strongly about a hot pink website, it's a shame your knowledge has to be filtered through your caveman mind.

    for a man who seems to espouse tigsource's opinionated writing style you are very bad at understanding, and dealing with a reasonable counter-opinions, instead resorting to the same sort of holier-than-thou attitude towards outsiders that the original guest commenter was accusing this site of.

    finally, when you say TYPE I, it implies TYPE II and TYPE III are to follow. if, as you have done, you don't have any ideas for TYPE II or TYPE III, it would behoove you to simply remove any references to TYPE I. the reason for this is because when you say TYPE I without following through with TYPE II, it seems like you started posting thinking you'd have many different, interesting thoughts, but then realized halfway through that you really only had one thought, and that it wasn't even a good enough one to lead to others.

    in summation, i think you are a bad poster.

  • mrpodunkian

    PICK A POST: pick a post from the below options that best suits you.

    OPTION A)
    ah, appealing to the crowd via the empathy card. very wise decision, phubans. “i'm not them. i'm YOU!” very nice. bonus points for being happy that people enjoyed your work. i defy anyone to respond negatively to this comment. it would be like saying “phubans. do you know your life's work? well, i spit on it.”

    go on, try it. i dare you. however, i can't help but feel it is all smoke and mirrors to distract and dazzle us from guest commenter's original point, which was “besides you, and the unnamed participants of said event, who cares?” (as a segue way, i imagine, to the question “and why are things we care about not being written about instead” [i will say, however, that i neither share nor condemn this concern]), and as touching, and extensively introspective as your autobiographical essay may be, can we please get back on topic?

    ortoslon, the next time you invite me to a TIGoff, i expect you to at least laid down the foundations of a debate as i have done for you today.

    OPTION B)
    “[…] give Derek a blowjob […]”

  • mrpodunkian

    hey man. people read this site to read this site. if people wanted to write reviews for this site they'd write reviews for this site. a wise man once said that if you catch a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. however, as a business model, this saying can be a treacherously attractive pitfall. consider, if you will, that a blog is a business of sorts, and that its readers are its customers — if your objective is to provide for the customers (the consumers, “readers,” if you will) a service in exchange for patronage, and the benefits such patronage imparts — social status, power, et cetera. however, if you teach, or otherwise expose the means by which you generate the service you provide, you damage your business in two ways. first, you cut into your consumer base — creating, essentially a self-absorbing business entity. secondly, you undermine your authority, diminishing the aforementioned benefits of patronage. as a result, it should be clear to anyone with any basic sense of understanding of how things operate, that to divert the consumer to the role of provider would create a provider/provider relationship, wherein no information is shared; no product is consumed.

    most importantly, having perused this site's comments section i don't think most of its commenters are capable of forming half a coherent thought let alone an extended piece. by which i'm saying: you are bad at posting.

    also, you (mike “my cunt” hunt) and david “scattle” “scatlife” scatliffe are in pole position for indie gaming's most unfortunate name.

  • Phubans

    My point is this: saying that the game is irrelevant material for indie press because I “hung out with them” is kinda bullshit. How could they know anything about the game if I hadn't introduced them to it? The Special Edition was previously unreleased to the public and that's the one we played. Now it's released to the public. Why are you people bitching??

    Podunkian, you're making me regret saying that I thought Streamerz looked amazing or that you might be cuter than Derek Yu- wa- I mean…

  • Dan

    Congrats mrpodunkian! You can use big words in creative ways to insult people! Your mom would be so proud. By which I am saying: you are good at posting, but you're still coming off as a piss-dick.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    Good – the more narrow a cross-section we reach, the more indie it is.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    Quality is the one criteria. That's why I posted MADHOUSE after Minecraft – I had a great time playing it at TIGJam. In fact, not posting MADHOUSE because I happen to know Paul or because Paul was there seems counter to the idea of posting based on quality only. It should be irrelevant whether I know the creator personally.

    The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that we don't have enough manpower to cover all the great games that come out – I'd love it if Paul kept his Weekly Report going, but it's hard work. IMO, he should not hold himself to X number of games but just post however many he can handle… he's a stubborn motherfucker, though.

    Also, I realize TIGSource is influential, but I think the fact that it's influential speaks volumes about how successful the front page has been. It seems like a strange idea to change how we do things over the success of how we do things, you know what I mean?

  • assman

    Your 'business model' is completely fucking stupid because events have clearly not unfolded in that way. Its pretty apparent that only the guest reviewers have be been undermined with the installation of guest reviewing; neither the authority of the website nor the collective approbation of the masses have diminished. TIGsource has responded to criticism in regards to their limited content by installing guest reviewing, and therefore effectively implementing a pseudo-adhocracy, making it harder for everyone to complain. In summation, the patronage do not view guest reviewers as an active or effective authority, therefore emphasising the authority of TIGsource; also the existence of guest reviewers renders TIGsource immune to many forms of content criticism.

  • assman

    btw do you like how I combatted your pretentious faux logic with my own WOAH IRONY BUT VERY OBLIQUE AND ALSO I HAVE REVEALED THAT I AM AN INSECURE AND WILL COMPENSATE WITH MORE IRONIC POSTS IN THE FUTURE…. (im podunkian btw)

  • another guest

    im assman

  • Mike Hunt

    You're making an unfortunate assumption here-that the majority of readers here share the particular complaint that I was addressing. There's no way to know for sure, of course, but I'm betting that it's really only the usual vocal few that keep going on and on about the matter. My post was directed at those people. Ultimately, like most unsolicited advice given on the internet by strangers, it is doomed to go in both eyes and out the butt, but why not.
    And, even supposing that, say, 100 people took the post to heart. How many of those will actually have the motivation to actually follow through on their convictions? I'd be surprised if any do. We're not going to get Derek's inbox overflowing with tips and guest reviews anytime soon.
    I don't think I deserve to be in pole position for anything in indie gaming, given that I've yet to produce anything other than “bad” posts in these comment sections. So congratulations to David Scatliffe, our new champion!

  • rinkuhero

    i do think there might be a problem with nepotism (or filters, as ortoslon describes) causing bad games to get covered just cause they're made by friends, but madhouse isn't really a case of this, since it's a pretty good game

    but i think that it is a problem, and that a lot of people are overly sensitive to it, and accuse this of it without playing it just cause it seemed similar to those other cases.

    i think what would help though is a 'disclaimer' warning, for fairness's sake. every time derek or i or anyone else post a game by a personal friend, we should probably mention that they *are* a personal friend. we don't do that enough.

  • rinkuhero

    i intend to keep it going and have the next one half-written (you can probably see its draft) but i may go over to once per month instead of once per week, and 20-30 games for that month rather than 10 for each week