PowerPoint Creative: Now 100 Creators Strong & Featured Works Page

PowerPoint Creative has now reached 100 members in our creative community! 

To celebrate, PPC will host a Featured Works page which will showcase the best of the best within our community.

How do I get my work to become featured?

All you would need to do is make sure your work is shared on the forum! Too easy. PPC Staff will review and consider your work before featuring it on the page. If the PPC Staff wants to feature your work, will be contacted by Staff for your approval.

Can I submit my work to PPC Staff to be featured?

Please do not PM any Staff member or ask to feature your work, as this will disqualify your work from becoming featured. All works posted on the forum are eligible to become featured. Let your work speak for itself.

What type of works can be featured?

Artwork, Animations, Games, Templates, Other PPT. Anything posted within the PowerPoint Creative Forums that is PowerPoint has the potential of becoming featured.

How often will PPC feature works?

As often as we see fit. We will not be bound to any timed schedules as this may interfere with our decision quality standards. 

What about hosting Contests?

As of now, there are no plans for an official PPC Contest on the forum. When the forum gains enough activity, the forum will consider hosting official contests. This does not stop you from hosting your own unofficial contests for fun.

Why do I want my work featured?

If you want your work to be easily seen and not get lost in a sea of posts, then having your work become featured is the way to go! Your work will be posted in a clean easy-to-read format. If your work gets chosen to be featured, know that your work has impressed and inspired other creators, and caught the attention of the PPC Staff. You'll also get a cool "Featured" badge for the forum, instead of the generic post count badge.



Any questions or comments please reply in this thread. Stay tuned for the release of the Featured Page!

Question: If we're asked to get our work featured, do we send any descriptions for the page, or do you guys write that?

TimsSlideshowGames wrote:Question: If we're asked to get our work featured, do we send any descriptions for the page, or do you guys write that?

Good question, Tim. We will contact you requesting your permission first. When the creator accepts their work to be featured, we will make sure that it is featured to the creator's liking, as long as it follows the featured formatting and abides by all forum rules.

Question: Do you think it would be fair to feature at least one work by each contributer, so long as she or he has posted at least three titles to the forum?  

I think it would be unfair if only the administrators slash VBA-ers continued to be the only featured creators.  

We have over a hundred members, and I believe that each and every eligible one of us deserves her or his moment in the spotlight.  Eh?

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:Question: Do you think it would be fair to feature at least one work by each contributer, so long as she or he has posted at least three titles to the forum?  

I think it would be unfair if only the administrators slash VBA-ers continued to be the only featured creators.  

We have over a hundred members, and I believe that each and every eligible one of us deserves her or his moment in the spotlight.  Eh?

Answer: Everyone has the ability to share their works on the forum as they please, there is no exclusion as to who can or can't share their own works.

It may look unfair that only the admins are featured on the featured page. It's that way currently because the Featured Page is still new, and we hope that its existence will cause creators like yourself to stay active in creating works. We have already reached out to a couple creators whose works really stood out for us, and waiting to hear back from them. VBA is not a requirement to become featured, nor is it a guarantee that you will be featured. We look at your work in its entirety (visuals, functionality, originality, ease of use, wow factor, etc.)  If and when we see anything posted that have impressed us overall, then we will contact the creator and get the process started to get them featured.

Take this as an opportunity to polish your work and make them really stand out. You have some interesting concepts, but unfortunately haven't impressed us as a whole. For me, I find the overall look of your works way too loud and colorful, and hard to navigate. I will give you credit for keeping that look consistent throughout your works, however I believe your works would really stand more out if they weren't all flashy rainbows. Also, put in some thought on layout of navigation controls and buttons, following the KISS principal (Keep it Simple, Superman)

Work towards greatness, and your greatness in itself will be rewarded by becoming featured on the featured page. When you have shown us that you can have a stellar game or artwork that speaks for itself, then we will contact you about wanting to feature it. Until then, keep working on improving your skills!

1. The reason I make my titles's colours so bright is because I have glaucoma.  Under said condition, the more vivid the hues, the easier it is to distinguish between tones, as well as to locate the white cursor (I use the Magnified System Scheme).

2. Simplicity is not what I aim for; I use PowerPoint to its full advantage, and my games and services are designed to, DIRECTLY!  Rival the complexities of those offered for mainstream video game consoles, each of which vary significantly from one release to the next.  

3. I joined this forum specifically to share my work with other folks whom would love to see what PowerPoint is truly capable of, in both the simplest and most intricate of formats, and to grow a better knowledge and understanding of the different manners via which people have utilized our beloved common platform.  

Overall, I believe it would be fair enough to showcase a variety of different works, no matter how similar or unique, to enable others to find new types of content that they might enjoy as a whole.  Now that I've better explained my position, are you more able to understand where I'm coming from?

3. I joined this forum specifically to share my work with other folks whom would love to see what PowerPoint is truly capable of, in both the simplest and most intricate of formats, and to grow a better knowledge and understanding of the different manners via which people have utilized our beloved common platform

Just to add my views on this...

You have shared your work with other folks on this forum. Indeed, you are probably our most active member and we greatly appreciate this. (Oh to have ten members as active as you!) And yes, you do aim to see what PowerPoint is truly capable of, but on occasion this can work against the principles of the Featured games.

The Featured Games section is aimed at providing PowerPoint game-makers with examples of PowerPoint creativity that they can aspire to and emulate. I think it will be really difficult, if not impossible, for other game-makers to emulate game designs that incorporate, for example: "JayDee Invisible Rectangle Technology"   "JadeJohnson TALE console"   "MousePie"and other 'trade-marked' functions.

I would suggest that if you want to get something 'featured' on the forum, then you concentrate on producing something of a quality that inspires others to do something similar, and which they have the capacity to do. For example: Mibo's 'Toss' and follow-up tutorial inspired me to make a start on my bowling game, Mibo used no trade-marked consoles or technology, just a brilliant exploitation of a flaw in PowerPoint functionality which is available to everyone.

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:1. The reason I make my titles's colours so bright is because I have glaucoma.  Under said condition, the more vivid the hues, the easier it is to distinguish between tones, as well as to locate the white cursor (I use the Magnified System Scheme).

Jade, you have told me before with one of my games that you were able to play just well, and gave me a suggestion to help you play better with the high contrast. This shows me that you can enjoy and work outside of the rainbow color scheme you have created. I know you can make visually stunning layouts and color schemes despite your condition, because you have the potential to. I think you haven't had someone tell it to you and have you create outside of your comfort zone.

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:
2. Simplicity is not what I aim for; I use PowerPoint to its full advantage, and my games and services are designed to, DIRECTLY!  Rival the complexities of those offered for mainstream video game consoles, each of which vary significantly from one release to the next.  

I think you have misunderstood me. When I say keep it simple, I am talking about the design and the user functionality. You could have a sophisticated system, but you could have it designed so that anyone can use it without feeling lost or confused how to use. Think about how your smart phone is set up. As an operating system, it's very complex behind the scenes. Now, think about how easy it is to maneuver your way through the phone. Was that simple to pick up and use, or did you have to read through a 300 page manual before you started using your phone? You can still push the limits of PowerPoint and explore new ways of doing things. All I'm suggesting to you is to think of your user when you come up with the design and layout.

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:
3. I joined this forum specifically to share my work with other folks whom would love to see what PowerPoint is truly capable of, in both the simplest and most intricate of formats, and to grow a better knowledge and understanding of the different manners via which people have utilized our beloved common platform.  

And you have! You have shared the most works out of all of us!

JadeJohnsonGames wrote:
Overall, I believe it would be fair enough to showcase a variety of different works, no matter how similar or unique, to enable others to find new types of content that they might enjoy as a whole.  Now that I've better explained my position, are you more able to understand where I'm coming from?

The variety of everyone's works are posted in the forum. The most inspiring works become featured. What you are asking for is a participation trophy, which the featured page is not. We hope you do continue to work on creating games and animations, with our suggestions to help you become a better creator.

Thanks for the constructive criticism; I needed that.  I've been going through a hard time, emotionally, lately, and you saying that you see great potential in me and offering up ways to make my engines better, and opening my eyes (figuratively of course) as to the limitations presented to other developers because of my trademarks, and the likes; really helped lift me out of that rut a bit.


Thank you for your support and kindness, and I shall be working upon some core company changes, some of which may involve your suggestions, starting on January first.  Until then, my entire SlideShowGame conglomerate is taking the rest of this year off, barring any unforseen mishaps, in order to get into the mindfulness that our new policy shall require for everyone working here from Twenty Eighteen forward.

Thank you Jade. I was concerned that you might want to leave us after this - but fortunately it appears that this is not the case.

I offer you this suggestion in all humility....

Become a VEG for a while (Virtual English Gentleman). Or should I say, continue being a VEG for a while as your last post was definitely a step in that direction.

Rather than say "Look at this MASTERPIECE of mine" a VEG would say "I'm quite pleased with this".
Rather than say "Your game is very good, but it's NOTHING compared to mine" a VEG would say "Your game is very good".
Rather than say "ONLY I could have done this", a VEG would say "Somehow I managed to do this"
Rather than using BIG BLOCK CAPITALS for emphasis, a VEG might use some italics.

I would suggest that you aim to get other people to describe your games using the same vocabulary that you currently use to describe them, and that you change your vocabulary to that which a VEG might use.

Thinking back to your 'Welcome Wagon' introduction below, would you now (as a VEG) change anything?

"I mainly focus on games though, and such have been my main focus since I opened PowerPoint for the first time in Two Thousand And Seven, having completely taught myself every one of its ins and outs within a week!"


For me, I opened PowerPoint for the first time around 2003 and I'm still a long way from knowing all of its ins and outs. I'm quite happy to accept the reality of this and I think that in your reactions to some of the games posted on the forum, you are starting to accept this reality too.

Settle it down. tone it down, and let's grow together.

I'm sorry if I've offended you.  Those from my vicinity know me as someone whom is unconfident, fearful, and shy.  I've lately been trying, both on and off line, to become more proud, adventurous, and outgoing.  With my autism, I am very black and white, so it is difficult for me to draw a line between where I am and where I should (have) stop(ped).  Please let me know if you ever see my behaviour as any kind of an issue, and I shall do my best to reverse my course in said area.  

That being said, When it comes to the content released by JadeJohnson Games, my company and I try our absolute best to make our games accessible to all, as proven via our "JadeIalogue Text To Speech Engine", as well as digitized speech and voice acting, having been worked into nearly all of our most recent first party titles.

Even though the new year shall bring with it a whole different company policy and developmental approach, we promise that accessibility shall always remain first and foremost over all other aspects of our ProDucts, even if visual appeal must take even the most severe hit.  We don't strive for great graphics or ease of use, but rather giving our fans options and opportunities, as well as the availability to explore and experiment within our various services, in a very "pick up and play" manner.

Our very Nintendo like approach to development ensures that whether autistic, dyslexic, blind, deaf, numb, injured, amputated, sick, healthy, young, elderly, happy, sad, wealthy, impoverished, outgoing, shy, nice, mean, majority, minority, male, female, gay, lesbian, straight, bisexual, transgender, q u e e r (typing it without the spaces somehow turned it into the word "weird"), human, cybernetic, bionic, vampiric, free, enslaved, imprisoned, law abiding, convicted, guilty, innocent, Heavenly, Underworldly, divine, mortal, religious, atheist, or anywhere in between, anyone can be a Jader, and everyone can have fun enjoying our services, even if they don't feel deserving of our love.

We have changed our policy to better reflect this, by ensuring that all of our future titles encompass, encourage, are made via, and spread, the love of God, even to those whom don't believe in Him.

Thank you Jade. You haven't offended me and I appreciate your honesty.

You probably got the 'weird' response because the site automatically changes some words that others may find offensive (Imagine YOU of all people doing such a thing!! LOL!). I think the system sees q u e e r as a derogatory term for gay. With some other words you get a different response when, for example, you say something like ***WORD*REMOVED*DUE*TO*VIOLATION*OF*PPC*RULES***.

Hope we're cool.

You're very welcome, and I can't wait to find out what kinds of new experiences we'll all be able to enjoy come the new year!

Life alone is a journey, but life together is a party!

Jade, I have to say I'm impressed you were able to create so many PowerPoint projects of quality. Even though we share different design ethos, I still have fun and learn a good amount of what PowerPoint can do from what you make. I definitely hope you keep up with what you're doing next year and that your new policy works in your favor.

Also, if you want to help me and others give you feedback, I recommend you let us know what you want us to focus on for suggestions. I hope that whatever advice comes out will eventually lead to one of your projects on the featured works page.

When it comes to JadeJohnson Games titles, the most helpful reviews would encompass topics such as:

Accurately rendered and or proportioned graphics and animations, regardless of visual effects like colour modding, lighting, and transparency;

Clearness of synthesized speech for the blind and visually impaired;

Readability of fonts and graphical text elements (if any of the latter);

Amount of content discoverable in everyday gameplay versus found through data mining;

Whether there are any truly game breaking glitches that may seriously detract from the overall appeal of a title;

Quality of any in game voice acting, as in a review of the technique of the performance itself;

Accuracy of voice acted lines to the sounds of any real world voice sources, and if none, then the quality of their contribution and comparison to, and contrast from, the overall look and feel of the game as a whole;

Accuracy of localization of content for other regions, if any variations are offered whatsoever;

And for our future titles, the consistant availability of Jesus like behaviours via which players can complete all goals and clear all stages, rooms, or realms; and whether said choices might be seen as monotonous compared to their sinful counterparts, if any of the latter are offered at all.

Those are the kinds of things we recommend players focus on for their reviews.  

Please do always keep in mind that our main first party developer is over seventy five percent sightless, so rating content that he worked on for things that he physically cannot discern, or is unable to adapt due to his weak vision, would be incredibly harsh and unfair, and any ratings such as those shall be ignored completely, as worked into our new policy by another sympathetic developer, unless revised to thusly have become fair.

In the previous forum that Mike and I were members of, there was another member called Alsoni who we tried to get to join this forum. He hasn't yet.


He had reviewing and critical skills similar to Tim's, with an in-depth knowledge of how PowerPoint games should be - and a typical Aussie gift of straight talking. (I changed a couple of words below as the straight talking was a bit beyond the system's censorship rules!) As you'll see below, I personally get both good and bad comments, none of which I disagree with. He was/is  the 'Crocodile Dundee' of PowerPoint gaming.

I've copied and pasted Alsoni's post here. (If he has any objections he'll have to join and tell me). I'm posting it as another option to the review criteria that Jade lists above.

Here's what Alsoni says, there's a lot of it - but it's real quality stuff. Also not sure how the links might work, but I've left it all as it was posted apart from the couple of adjusted naughty words.

Not so much a tutorial, but I've got some general feedback I'd like to share. I've been flicking through a lot of the posts on this website and watching a bunch of YouTube videos of people's PowerPoint games recently and, honestly, I see a lot of room for improvement. So, if there are still people floating around this forum and working on any ppt projects at the moment, here are some points to take note of:

• Make sure your game is a game! I've seen too many glorified slideshows pretending to be games. First and most importantly, it ain't a game if you can't win or you can't lose (with few exceptions). If it's just a series of animations that the player has to watch in a predetermined order, then they're not really playing, are they? I want to illustrate this with an example. I don't know if 'Scott & Sean' are on this forum, so apologies if you're reading this. I'm not having a dig at you, but this is an example of what I'm talking about: Lemon World. This game offers 4 lemon themed "mini-games". When you complete these games you receive coins which you can use to buy items from a shop. The problem is that you can only play the mini games in the predetermined order, and the "games" themselves involve pressing space bar a bunch and nothing else. There's even a part where it pretends that you've "lost" at the mini game, but that was also predetermined. Literally the only part of Lemon World that offers any kind of choice to the player is which of the 3 accessories you'd like to buy at the end, immediately before the slideshow ends. You might be thinking that's just because Lemon World is a garbage game, but it's fairly representative of a huge number off ppt games I've seen.
  

• Give the player meaningful choices.  This point follows on from the previous. You need to offer the player meaningful choices to make. Don't have your game be linear like Lemon World. Even games like The Last Ninja are glorified slideshows. Sure, the animations are kinda cool and the artwork isn't the worst, but every action is a predetermined animation that the player simply has to trigger by clicking on a button. The game could have been so much more interesting if it offered multiple ways of taking down enemies and gave the choice to the player. Should they throw a ninja star at the enemy? Or sneak up behind them and stab them? What if you tried sneaking past them undetected without killing them? These are the kinds of choices that the player could be faced with. Keep in mind also, there doesn't have to be only one correct choice. Games are better if there are multiple ways of winning. Not only would it make the game more interesting, but it also provides replay value. People aren't going to play your game multiple times if they've already experienced it in the only way they can. So if you're making a game at the moment, ask yourself "how many different ways can the player play this game?" if the answer is "1", then you've got a problem.
  
  
  
• Make it skill based (...in the loosest sense) Again, I'm building on the previous point when I say that games need to offer a mechanic that is "skill-based". Now, you might be thinking "how can you make a ppt game skilled based? It's literally just clicking a mouse!". Well, you're not wrong, but stick with me. What I mean is give the player some control over the outcome of the game. They should be able influence the result by their actions in a way that isn't purely random chance. The most obvious way to do this is to simply make a moving target or a moving obstacle. If you've got to shoot a bad guy, make him move around or duck behind cover. Or set a time limit to complete the task, so the player has to act quickly. If you've given the player choices to make, they shouldn't be lucky dip choices. There should be some method to determine which choice to take based on the rules of the universe the game is set in. I'm not having a dig, because I really like some of his games, but to use John's Championship Putting as an example, the game is essentially a lucky dip as you have no real influence over the outcome of the game other than which ball you choose. It's simply a lottery whether you win or not, unless you've played it before, in which case I expect you to get a hole in 1 every time. A better golf game might give you choices of which club to use, or how hard to hit, or which direction to hit. Throw in a bit of wind and some obstacles like sand pits or ponds and you'd have a really cool game. (Note: I made Target Golf after reading this)
  

• Have the game do the heavy lifting. There are some cases in which PowerPoint can be used to provide a simple mechanic rather than a whole game. John's Link-4 is a good example as it provides the means for people to play Connect Four without the physical game. It works because everyone playing with it is familiar with how the real game works and, as a two-player game, each player keeps the other in check to make sure they're playing it according to the rules. For single player games however, you've got to make sure the game is doing that heavy lifting. If a player shouldn't be able to make a particular move, or perform an action, don't just tell them not to. Make it impossible for them. Don't rely on an honesty system. Likewise, if the goal of the game is to perform a task, make sure you track whether that task is being completed. For instance, if you're making a shooting game, don't just ask the player to remember how many targets they hit, keep track. If they don't hit all the targets, make them start again. Sometimes it's difficult to program this sort of thing in ppt, but if you put the effort in, it makes all the difference.
  

• Make it fun (or at least entertaining) This is an obvious one, but it's so easy to mess up. Here are a bunch of things you should avoid doing: Don't make the game too difficult (or too easy), it should be fun, not frustrating. If your mouse maze game is so long, and the paths are so narrow, and the moving obstacles are so fast, that it's going to take 101 attempts to complete, nobody will stick it out to the end. Don't make your game tedious. If you're making a platformer, probably don't bother with an onscreen directional pad, especially if it takes 101 clicks of "right" to move between obstacles. Adding a couple of tasteful sound effects can also really enhance game play if you don't over do it. (John's Zombie Graveyard is a great example of using sound to good effect). And always remember, that if you can't make the gameplay especially fun, at the very least you can offer an engaging story. Some of the best games I've played were rubbish in nearly every respect, except I really wanted to know how the story ended.
  

• Spend time on the artwork. This is a little lower on my list because it's not the most important. If your gameplay or story is strong enough, the graphics and artwork you use won't matter much. That being said, if you nail the artwork, it can really make a game shine. Keep in mind though that great artwork doesn't have to be realistic or fancy. Luthfialdihe's Project: Cursor (I'm looking forward to it's release, btw) is one of the best looking ppt games I've ever seen. It's even good by non-ppt game standards. The graphics aren't over the top or super detailed, but it's clear he's put the effort into making a particular style that's consistent across all the assets, and judging by the preview he's even added cool animations at the beginning of each level to really sell the theme of the game. On a personal note, I also prefer it when people make the graphics themselves, rather than pinching images from Google or wherever.
  

• Don't spend time on the menu. It's so unimportant it should be the last thing you make. And don't even bother with fake loading screens. Spend your time and energy on the actual game please.
  

• Finish the darn thing! I'm so uninterested in all the dozens of forum posts and YouTube videos of games that are "coming soon". No it isn't. You've barely scratched the first level. Way too many times I've seen people say "coming soon, coming soon, coming soon... actually I've cancelled this and now I'm working on my new even better project that's coming soon!" Just finish the darn thing! Some people seem to spend more time advertising their work in progress than they do actually progressing their work! I think the problem is that you've bitten off more than you can chew. You started a project with great ambition without really considering how long it's going to take. Pro tip: Before you get started on your ppt version of League of Legends or your open world sandbox game (I'm looking at you CraftMine), do a rough calculation and estimate how many slides long the finished product will be. If the answer is more than 1000, ask yourself if you're really going to bother finishing it. The answer is probably no.
  

That's it. Those are all the general suggestions I have for now. I offer these suggestions in good faith because I think it'll be hilarious if the ppt gaming community flourishes, but that can't happen unless we all start making quality games. So I'd like to see everyone here address these issues in your future games please.

Oh, those Aussies!  LOL.  

Thanks for censoring those posts of his, I could still tell that he tended to be more bold than I'd be comfortable experiencing, and I was never on that original forum!

Anyway, the review topics he mentions are good for generation three or four, or maybe even gen five titles, but JadeJohnson Games is all about supporting nothing earlier than the sixth generation of gaming as a whole, think PS2, GameCube (if bits were still relevant, nothing less than 128 bit).  

Mainly we focus upon games from the seventh generation forward, like the original Wii and greater, excluding The Ill Fated Wii U (RIP - Rest In Pieces, LOL).

Think of it this way: If the console is capable of connecting to the internet via Wi-Fi, instead of via a wireless adapter or an, dare I say, ethernet cable (shivers intensely), then it's worthy of JadeJohnson Games basis and emulation.

We love making games with motion, sound, music, voice acting, accessibility, hardware pushing technology, and lots and lots of vivid technicolour; especially the audio, bright colours, and most importantly, the accessibility to as many different kinds of folks as possible.

Although it wasn't so much in the beginning, accessibility has at least been our focus since our various predecessors began making titles for the equivalent of the 16 bit generation of gaming as a whole, starting with the original "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" game for PowerPoint 2002, which sadly no longer exists due to incompatibility with modern Windows operating systems.

But yes, that's why I mentioned those topics; because they better relate to the specific goals of seventh through eleventh and future generation game developers, whether they use PowerPoint or not.  Even though my company is headed by a guy whom can only see twenty five percent out of only one eye, we know very well what many of the bigwigs are looking for when it comes to new talent, and how that talent should affect the types of reviews we're given.  

That all being said, feel free to join us in our (somewhat ambitiously, but completely and honestly) determined attempts to modernize the PowerPoint video game!

I have to say, Alsoni's list of suggestions is harsh, yet mostly spot on at the same time. I'd have to partially disagree with the "Give the player meaningful choices" statement though. While I understand that variety makes a game more interesting, I wouldn't dismiss games that may not have much interaction, but are still worth playing due to their compelling stories.

I agree with you one hundred percent!

By the way, I'm curious as to which titles of mine you are most enthralled by.  My company shall attempt to automate this analytics ProCess sometime around the summer of this upcoming year, but in the meantime, since I can talk to you directly, I figured it wouldn't hurt to inquire.