You got traffic? Become a Grey Alien affiliate!

Hiya, yep if your site has got traffic and you are interested in selling Holiday Bonus (and maybe my other games) as an affiliate then please contact me. Even if you know a lot of people and can email them, then you could consider becoming an affiliate.

I'll pay 40% of the Net sale price so after BMT Micro takes their 10% cut that's $7.98 for you!

Please act quickly as Christmas is nearly here!

Sorry dude maybe it's just me but in my opinion your're spamming the forum with your selling stuff like Indiepath did in earlier times. Everytime i open the general forum there is a new Grey Alien topic which is talking about Grey Alien. You seem to be pretty extrovert but wouldn't it be better keeping it in the Blitz Showcase?!

Just an example of what's in there the last time i've opened it.

How I made the art and music for my games
Please check out Grey Alien Games' new site layout
You got traffic? Become a Grey Alien affiliate!
Press Release - worth doing?
Holiday Bonus is Live on my site! Please test.

And please remove me from your mail distribution list!

Well, spamming stuff about is quite often the way to do it for the little guy. Let's face it - even the big boys like to spam and hype games years before they release them.

If I had a finished game, I'd be spamming it everywhere - dog lover's forums, fly fishing forums, lonely, 1-legged dwarf, forums - not just this place.

Yes, i can imagine you would...

Taumel: sorry you feel that way. I thought showcase was for finished games/demos and General was more for news/testing and questions and things of interest - perhaps I'm wrong. As Puki says, I've just finished my game and I've got lots of questions come up and things of interest that I thought people might like to know. For example:

- How I made the art ... I thought I was genuinely being helpful posting this (and people commented that they liked it), it's not an advert for anything.
- Please check out new site layout ... people often do this, I just revamped mine and though it would be great if people could offer feedback.
- You got traffic ... yeah OK this is an advert but one where people can make money not loose it.
- Press release ... This is genuine question from me that others might also be interested in the answer.
- Holiday Bonus is Live on my site ... this is the first of my recent posts (except for the one in the Showcase thead about the beta), and if you'd just made a game go live on your site, you'd want to tell people about it and get feedback.

Would you call my other posts about predictions and top 10 games spam as well?

Do people in this forum want to know about selling games or not really? Some do and maybe you don't. Sorry I can't please everyone, and I really don't mean to offend, that's the last thing I want to do. There may be a few more posts over the next few weeks but I'm always concious to keep any actual selling ones to a minimum. I have been a member of the forum for 2 years now and made lots of friends who like to know what's going on and have lots of framework customers (and incidentally helped to improve BMax with my bug finding and BRL hassling), so hopefully I have just as much right as anyone else to post topics related to game programming.

I've removed your from my email list.

Someone's "spam" isn't stopping anyone else from posting their own.
Don't like it? Go ahead and create your own relevant topics about your services.
The fact is, there are only a few people here who offer so many things that they can justify creating so many threads. Grey and Indiepath are two of them...
The more the merrier, in my opinion!

Cool offer, Grey :)

Grey, had my website been up and ready i'd definately help you out, but looks like its gonna be a little while longer.... :(

@Grey
I understand the showcase forum as a forum where you put in stuff which you are working on (unfinished projects), things you want to share or finished projects which are Blitz related. This way one wouldn't have to surf around all these entries in the general forum. I wouldn't mind if there was a filtering option.

It also would be easier for all the people who are interested in these threads as they would be bundeled topic related and so easier to look up as well as they wouldn't go through the usual pages xxx in the general forum once some time has passed.

Thanks for removing me from the list.

Grey, I've added a link on my homepage at syntaxbomb.com to your game.

I'll skip on the affiliate thing as I feel you should get as much money as possible for your hard work. Good luck with your game :)

I've added you to my list.

EDIT:
"Qube" pushed in.

less = more

@puki
I will spray your new computer in wild colours whilst i'm stoned - outside and inside! ;O)

Taumel, I understand what you're saying - somebody joked about a Grey Alien Spam Blocker a while back. And sometimes I think back off the hard sell Grey.

But the fact is, I think Grey is a credit to this communtity. With his game framework (to help BlitzMax users to create professional games) and also bug hunting - he's hassled BRL into fixing major bugs that have held back BlitzMax in the early days.

The unfortunate problem is more the fact that the rest of us aren't as prolific in games production so it appears Grey is hogging every other thread.

Mr. Picklesworth: Thanks for your support. I'm working pretty hard to "make-it" in this industry and so is Indiepath, hopefully we can sorta act as proof to others that it is possible to succeed in some small way.

Neuro: well maybe in the future then :-)

Qube and Puki: Nice one guys! Thanks a lot.

Taumel: So posting unfinished stuff or websites to be checked is OK in the showcase? OK as long as people there don't feel it's being spammed ;-) So maybe there needs to be another forum called Business or something where people post about serious Indie business topics instead of in General which is more about "fun" stuff, is that what you mean?

Steve Elliott: Steve sorry to be a hog, I'm not normally this prolific, I've just released a game about a month ago (Oz) then a framework update then Holiday Bonus, so I've got a lot to post about. It *might* go quieter for a while now...

@All: Hey I even shrunk my sig recently!

Next week I was gonna post a breakdown of the time spent on my game (coding, graphics, sound, marketing etc) for those who are interested (to help give a realistic picture), but now I'm not so sure if I should, and if I do, where I should post it...

Also I can post certain sales figures as I'd have thought people would be interested in knowing how well Blitz games can do. I certainly love that sort of info...

Of course you should post it!

Forget the complainers, you can't keep everyone happy no matter what you do, so just do what you want until the people in charge of this forum say otherwise.

@Grey
In my opinion this would be the better place due to a) it's more topic related, b) the showcase forum isn't growing as fast as the general forum (simply because not this many people have something to show off) and c) it's also better for looking up stuff. What if someone is interested in how some of this stuff works in a few months? Searching the general forum is kind of a drag.

Don't misunderstand me i'm in no need to tell people what and where to post but i just found it kind of annoying surfing around the threads for more than once.

Maybe also a more user related structure could be nice. So if i'm interested in what's going on with Grey i go just there... By the way is it possible that others also write to worklogs or is this restricted to the thread opener?

Hmm... perhaps a log of your work should be in a worklog ;)

I never use/look at the work logs.

Yeah but this is no good for getting answers to questions like about PR. Also people would miss interesting topics that I might post that could possibly be useful to others. Plus people like Puki would have to post about his PC in his own thread for example and so on. In fact there wouldn't be hardly anything in General discussion except for a few U-tube videos and links to news reports...

Grey I think you misunderstood me - I wasn't complaining.

I was just saying that it appears you're creating more than most here, and if we all produced as much, you probably wouldn't have been singled out - we'd all have something to sell!

As far as I'm concerned, the more people producing commercial BlitzMax games the better. Sadly I don't have much time for programming these days.

@Grey
There is a space between saying nothing and flooding...

Less does equal more BUT sometimes when you are excited about something you have created it does become difficult to self-manage your excitement. A way, on this forum, to post your stuff would make it better for all.

FFS.

At least he's actually doing stuff and not nagging people to look at a site hosted on Geocities that looks like its been designed by a colourblind chimpanzee with its content written by a two year old.

Seeing completed projects in Blitz should be motivating you - not giving you something to whine about. Grey Alien has a family to think about so yeah, he wants to do what he can to generate sales. So what?

If you've got a problem with that, then there's plenty of other worthy candidates in General Discussion. Go and attack some of the "<language> vs Blitz", "Nintendo Wii", or "Microsoft sux0rs" threads. At the end of the day nobody is forcing you to read this.

Isn't this part of the forum called "General Discussion"? If it's general then I see no reason why Grey can't start as many topics as needed. And looking at the number he actually started I can't see a reason why Taumel is so upset. If I see a topic I don't care for I just skip it and go to next one. Life is too short to loose sleep over one topic more or less than it should be. And who is to say how many topics are enough?

Anyways... keep up the good work Grey. You have actually managed to produce something that's good and that sells. That is quite enough in my book to let you "spam" the forums especially when your "spam" is quite useful to all of us.

And to the rest of the guys... why don't you just do the most useful thing. Go to Grey's site and purchase the Holiday Bonus game. That is the best way you can show appreciation for what he has done for the community. I did it and I feel quite happy about it. Not to mention that I have a game that I enjoy a lot...

Barney

I agree with Gfk.

Grey doesn't annoy me in the least.

He never comes off as anything less than humble or professional, and I've watched silently here as he's went from a complete nobody in the casual game business to someone that's actually sought after for work.

I say, "spam" all you want, Grey. Those that don't want to read it will know who started the topic, and can simply skip by it.

I also agree with Gfk.

Grey is a fantastic asset to the BMax forums. His recent releases are a testament to what can be produced in BMax.

I have less time for 'hobby' coding myself these days, but with the asset that is Grey's game framework my product creeps ever closer to fruition. In fact it works reliably enough for my own use, but the polish it needs is the final stumbling block.

Keep on posting Grey.....

Grey: perhaps we should list all the "CS" abbreviations from all our emails into a new thread! :-)

Well I must say that it's really nice to come back from the pub and read all this positive stuff, make's me feel great. So thanks very much to each and every one of you, even Taumel as if you hadn't started this discussion I wouldn't have read these nice comments.

It is true that 2 years ago in Nov, I bought BPlus and kept asking all these questions (complete Noob) and people kept helping me out. Then when I knew more I was able to help back. Then I released Xmas Bonus and Easter Bonus (with lots of help from Indiepath - credit due, and other forum menbers!) and moved onto BMax, and actually posted my whole BlitzPlus framework in showcase (but not many people noticed). Then when learning BMax so many people helped out to solve my problems and I found out stuff too. I felt like I was testing BMax out for making a Pro game and found lots of issues that were either known about (but I hassled to get them fixed) or not known about and helped to get them fixed - of course I'm not the only one, lots of people have done this. It's nice to have reached a stage where I can make good games that people like, and have got a solid framework behind me. And it's nicest of all to have good friends like you all, thanks :-)

If more people, or the mods tell me to shut up, then maybe I will, but for now I'll potter along.

CS: Yeah one new thread for each abbreviation.

Typical, someone does well with BlitzBasic, and people on the forum end up attacking him!

Grey is one of the most monumental coders this forum has to offer, he's taken an age old concept and turned it into profit!

And why wouldnt he post here... we are a community, we should support our community!

Grey, take no notice, I love your work, and so does the self respecting coders of Blitz Basic...

I said I wouldnt post here no more over the DarkBasic thread, since a few of our members are typically babies...

And this has proved me right!

So long...

Dabz

P.S. Keep up the good work Grey

@Dabz
Well, the reason why i said this isn't that i'm jealous or anything like that, i'm just not interested in xyz Bonus and i just would prefer avoiding moving around these threads everytime i enter the general forum or even in my mail.

In my opinion most of these threads belong to the showcase area (that's the way i'm also used to it from other forums) and i suspect Grey places them in the general forum as more people read this one so it's more a matter of style. Either Grey is the only developer of Blitzgames or the others just manage to get it done in a different way.

Personaly I would be very interested in hearing about yer development experience Grey.

As for spaming the forums... well IMHO its not really spam as it has nothing to do with Viagra or Man bit extentions and everything to do with Blitz Programming.

If I see thread I am not interested in I just don't read it, that way my non-intertest remains passive and does not add to any percieved clutter.

It is good to see and hear about someone actualy using Blitz and I for one think that the general forum is the best place to post as it seems to be the most viewed area.

IMHO we need MORE posts like Grey's it fair cheers me up to see Blitz being used activly.

Just my own personal opinion and I post it here in a general sense, I might even be talking a load of old bollocks :)

CHeers

Garion

Well I'll try to post news type stuff in the Showcase and questions and info in the General. I also just ignore topics I'm not interested in and there's quite a few these days.

Thanks Dabz and Garion: I'll probably add my development breakdown to my blog and then post a link to it here soonish, so keep an eye out.

Anyway good news, yesterday I doubled my previous record for the number of sales made in one day (at a single portal). Can't give out figures, but it was 2 digits :-) Holiday Bonus is getting nice reviews and poeple are buying it. Also the relaunch of Xmas Bonus is going quite well too.