Hi people,
This time I want to talk with you about a more personal matter, something that is in the interest of all of us, which is JayIsGames. It has been a while since the farewell of JIG was published. I was a regular visitor at JIG for a couple of years by then, first for the hints, and then as a regular source of awesome games. Needless to say, I felt very sad when I saw that no more reviews will be posted. I still went around, looking if it is a joke, if this site will just spring back to life, but it didn't. But I did see a couple of months later that people are invited to send reviews. After a couple of months of social anxiety, I decided that I want to do it.
I looked for games worthy for a review, and found two cute ones. I sent them and got a green light from Jeff. It took me a while, I reviewed them, and they were published. It felt great for me to see that people liked them, and it encouraged me to look for more games, and write more reviews. It has been a couple of months now, after almost a dozen of reviews I can say that I got better at writing, but more than that, I felt that I contributed, in some way, to JIG.
Now, the reason I decided to write this entry is that way of contribution. I noticed that JIG lacks one important thing, that might prevent it from ever getting back into what it was before, and that is the reviews. A site with pulse so low will have problem gaining more interest, and might get into a dead end. But I did notice that there are still people that want their games to be reviewed here, on JIG. More importantly, I noticed that there is still a community that likes JIG, and wants it to get back to what it was. So some contributed through Patreon, but I want to offer a different way of contribution, which is to write reviews.
For example, I usually have time to find, review and post a game about once or twice a month. That means a huge amount of good games that got no review, and no thread of people talking about it, looking for hints and such. Even if just a couple of people will be able to do the same as I decided to do, JIG will have more than one review every week. That means more games, and more interest, that JIG will attract. It also means more people who could contribute through Patreon, and more people who can help to rekindle JIG and bring it back to what it was. It might create that magical circle.
So this is my call for help: please, if any of you want, and I believe some of you do, to contribute to JIG, this is what you have to do. Send us games, with reviews. They can be long, full reviews, and they can be short playthis entries. All that matters is that they feature a good game, and written in proper English.
Games can be sent to this mailbox: [email protected]
I know it sounds big, maybe even too big, but remember that those who dream big and follow they dream, can achieve great things. I count on you.
And for the developers who still want their games reviewed here: you might get some reviews. Just use the mailbox [email protected] to send information about your games and someone will test them to see if they meet our standards. And, if we start to get momentum, then I have a favor to ask from you too - spread the word, because JIG might get back..
Sincerely,
Noam Ottolenghi
Hi, I just wanted to leave a comment to support your enthusiasm. My current situation is such that I don't have time to write reviews for JiG. Until recently, I also wasn't in a situation that would allow me to donate to the Patreon drive, although that has changed and I'll be doing so soon.
But I love this site and it's meant a lot to me over the past ten years. Thanks so much to you and others who've worked so hard to keep it going! The fact that I can pop over here on a gloomy Sunday and play a new Tesshi-e game makes me immensely happy (not to mention new Skutnik!). So please keep up the good work! I'll try to support the site as I can and I will definitely keep sharing the great games I find here to help keep up the site's profile.
Thank you for writing this!! I don't know if anyone else would be amenable to this, but I was thinking about starting a googledoc to make a list of possible games to be reviewed. People could add new games they like but don't have the time to review, or post games from developers even. That way if some people like finding new games vs. writing reviews, they can do either/or. Obviously it wouldn't be required to review the things posted and people could still find their own games if they wanted, but maybe it would help get more things posted to JiG.? Thoughts?
I'm not sure I'd be any good at this, but I'll give it a whirl. I'd love to see JiG rise again. Also, I really like kailinda's proposal for a googledoc of games. It would be a good starting point for this.
Where have all the games gone now? I see Rusty Lake has moved to Steam. Mateusz Skutnik has his own games site. I don't know about any of the other good designers.
Hi,
I'm glad to see you all here, talking about this idea, and trying to find a way to make it happen.
@kailinda I think it is a good idea, as a starting point. It can be a platform to put all games that passed testing (to make sure the meet the standard) for people to review. The games should be sent to the email in the post, and once they pass the test, they can be on that googledoc.
@kingjulien86 I can tell you only one thing: the hardest thing I've encountered about writing reviews is deciding to give it a shot. I think you just said you got over it.
@Jillian I think the answer is simple - they evolved. But remember that the fact that Rusty Lake is on Steam and Mateusz Skutnik has his own site doesn't prevent anyone from reviewing their games. Also, don't forget that there are many more developers around. The games are not gone, you just need to look for them.
WHAT?? Are you telling me the average browser to this site can contribute games BY MERELY EMAILING THEM?? What the heck how did I miss this detail! Of course I'd love to contribute!! I have a real knack for finding the exceptional games (thats one of the things that brought me to JiG in the first place). I've often found new, amazing games on other popular sites since JiG kind of went under, and have occasionally found them posted back here a couple months later since the site sort of revived again.
I can't say I can contribute a lot during a small period of time (Diamond's in the rough are few and far between), but even if its a game or two a month, it's something, right?
What a nice post :)
I am interested, but just wondering if you have any tips on how to find these games?
And how do I know if they have already been reviewed?
Thanks :)
How exactly do I go about this? Sorry I'm just new to this and I'm not sure I understand.
I actually am glad that this was brought up. Even though I have just been reading comments here for a few months when I was looking back at the reviews and guides I saw how much people really put into it and it is a bit sad to see that such a great effort has slowed down.
I would love to review games from time to time, maybe once a week or so? I am sure if a few people did so once or twice a month it would add up, and I am sure the people here would really be happy to see the site prosper again.
Over the years, I've sent in quite a few games using the form, and some of the games made the cut and were posted, some didn't. There were no cases, though, of any of my couple of paragraphs of review being posted with the game. I guess I always viewed the site as a community submitted, staff reviewed collection of games.
Is that changing? Is the site moving more toward community submitted, community reviewed, staff curated site?
Part of the issue that I've always had with contributing is that some of the games I find might not be 'up to snuff' for the discerning readers/players at JiG (not an insult by any means... I have LOW standards when it comes to games, and I'm okay with that).
If there's a list of games that's already been 'curated' as needing reviews, and the community can submit reviews for them - would that be helpful?
Okay. I did review a game once a few months ago for JiG, and then was too awkward to do it again. This post, however, is inspiring, and I will try to review any more good games I find. So, thanks!
Well, I'm more of a "walkthrough submitter", but if we organize it (e.g. using kailindas idea with Google Docs) I could maybe submit a few reviews. We already have a lot of reviews to learn from, after all.
Hello everyone. Some words to congratulate Noam on his great motivation. He loves JiG and prooves it sending good reviews and doing this post. I have received reviews and offers from new persons. Please let me just some time to answer to everyone and to create the google doc.
You can continue to send reviews or offers to review sending an email to [email protected]
Questioner, for sure you can be an incredible help and support, send me your email too please ;)
This is an update:
I've created a google doc to share between all the persons who are interested in seeking/reviewing games. In other words if you feel yourself better to search good games or better to write (or both of course), you can send a request to have an access to the google doc sending an email to: [email protected]
About the persons who have already mentioned an interest like Kailinda, Yoshi, KoroZuno, CrankYanker, GoudaKitty, Questioner, please send an email too.
Thanks in advance.
Perhaps not the most correct place to write it but so far I am glad to see reviews are being made again.
I just sent the email now, and noticed the embarrassing misspelling in the title and just the title xD.
Wow! Even though I signed up to donate on Patreon, I haven't been checking JiG much since it's been (depressingly) low-activity recently.
I came back today to so many new games, though -- this is fantastic! Anything that gets the site more active and gives people a reason to come here is a positive in my book.
Even though I like to write, I've never been a reviewer. But seeing all the new posts here is pretty inspiring. I might just try submitting something one of these days.
Thanks everybody, and especially Nomyle, for making this happen!
I would love to try my hand at reviewing games. Please do point me to the google doc when you get a chance. Thanks!
Hello Imzadi, send an email to: [email protected]
I've emailed in asking for the doc link.
Update