Project Discussion Forum Rules
Completed Games and Demos
As of 09/22/2008

To view the General Rules of Hbgames.org, please click here.
Please remember that this board's rules are in conjunction with the General Forum Rules.

When posting in this forum, members are expected to understand and follow the rules and guidelines presented in this topic. This topic will be locked for the sake of cleanliness. If any member has any specific questions regarding any of these rules, feel free to send a private message to myself or any other moderator or administrator.

Thread Ownership

1.) Do not Complain about Criticism
The primary purpose of this board is not just to get your game out there for others to see, but also for others to comment on your progress.   If you can't take criticism, no matter how harsh or friendly it may be, then it's not a good idea for you to post here.

Also, just because someone gives you negative feedback, that doesn't give you a right to flame them for their opinion.   If you feel that the poster is giving you a negative response as a personal attack then report their post instead.

Lastly, do not request your topic to be deleted because you don't like the responses you get.   We won't do it unless it turns into a blatant spam and flame fest, and even then we will only lock it.

2.) Minimum Posting Requirements for a Project Topic
When you start a project topic in this forum, it's under the assumption that you have a finished game, or are close to completing your game.   In your topic, you must have at least five screenshots, a detailed plot summary (but don't give away the ending!), character bios for the main protagonist and main antagonist at the very least (if your game doesn't have one or either, like games emulating Pong, you can substitute this with an explanation of the controls), and of course, a link to the game or demo.   Please specify if you have a game or demo in the title of your project.

Example: [Demo]Skyla's Super Crazy Fun House
            [Game]Final Fantasy Part 5000

3.) Requirements for a Demo
In order for a demo to be accepted into this area of the forum, it must have at least 30 minutes of play time.   A good way to determine this, is if it takes you 20 to 25 minutes to play through your demo, it's a good chance that it will take 30 to 35 minutes for someone who doesn't know where everything is to play through.   Also, the game must have all the graphics included, and cannot have any crippling errors that will prevent a person from playing all the way through.

Tech demos are not allowed in consideration for a topic to be put in this forum.

4.) You Must Credit the Work of Others
If you happen to use a sprite, script, or other resource from another community member, or anyone else outside of rmxp.org, you must give full credit.   You don't have to run down an entire list, but mentioning them would certainly be appreciated, in the field that their work is used (For example, "Scripts by SephirothSpawn and Charlie.Lee, extra sprites by Venetia").

5.) Do Not Plagiarize
Plagiarism will not be tolerated, and is an automatic ban.   In addition, do not steal work of another's and pass it off as your own.   If you did not sprite, script, or code a particular piece in your project, do not name yourself the author.   If you are posting someone else's project, or posting that of a team's, do not treat it as your sole work.

Also of note, using the same name of a project, character, item, spell, or any other source is not by default stealing, unless it carries much more similarities than just the common name.

6.) Non-English Games...
Due to the recent string of non-English speakers posting their games in the forums, we ask that if you cannot speak English or if you cannot at least run what you have to say through a translator, please do not post it.   This is a primary English-speaking forum, and there are very few people that speak and understand other languages.

If you want to translate your posts (or heck, even better, your games) Google Language Tools is a very good web translator.

7.) Commercial Games
Commercial games are now posted in this forum.   All the same rules apply, but please specify if your game is [Commercial] or not.

Posting Constructively

1.) Do not Spam "Empty" Feedback
Saying something to the effect of, "That looks wrong, but I can't help you," is a waste of forum space.   Please tell a person why something looks wrong, even if you're not entirely sure what it is.   A response like, "That doesn't look right; I'm not sure why, but I think maybe the cliffs are off somehow," is much more helpful.

Other posts that are considered empty feedback would be, "good game", "this is bad", "I don't like it", ect.

2.) Do not Beat a Dead Horse
If you see several posts informing a topic creator of how horrible their grammar is, or if their mapping needs work, or anything else that's been mentioned several times, there's no need for you to make yet another post stating as much.   The topic owner can read; there's no need to pelt them with spam.

3.) Read the Thread!
If you have questions about a project thread, try reading at least the first post, if not the whole first page.   Chances are, your question has already been answered there.

2.) Don't Post, "Oh God, ______ is Gonna Flip!"
We've been seeing a lot of posts lately where people only say something to the effect of, "Such-and-such person is going to flame you to hell when he sees this thread!" or making an effort to "call" an individual to a thread.   Stop it.   Not only is it spammy and encourages flaming, but makes a topic owner feel like they did something so horrible that the dogs need to be called to chew on their ankles.   You're not sheep, stop acting like it.

3.) No circle jerking Updated 05-26-08
Do not attempt to discredit the legitimate criticisms, and opinions of others on the grounds that your opinion of the work in question is that it is perfect. Please keep shameless fanboyism to a minimum, and just don't do it when someone comes in with an opinion other than "LOL DIS IS GR8!!1". A single instance of this alone will not net you an infraction, but continued breaking of this rule will.