SAGE 2008 - Richard Jacques, Pro-Sonic, Emerald Ties

Shadix & MarkEchidna Presents

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Hey guys, I'm the promotionals director and corunner of SAGE 2008, along with my buddy MarkEchidna, and I wanted to share some of our plans for this year, as well as inform you guys of different ways you can participate.

Table of Contents (As this post is likely to get pretty long-winded)
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Section 1: General Expo Information
1.1 - What is SAGE
1.2 - When is it?
1.3 - Registration

Section 2: The Event
2.1 - The Games
2.2 - Special Guest Appearance from Ryan Drummond

Section 3: What YOU Can Do
3.1 - SAGEcasts
3.2 - Workshops
3.3 - Extras
3.4 - Competitions


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General SAGE Information
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1.1 - What is SAGE?

The Sonic Amateur Game Expo, or SAGE, is an online gaming expo held annually at http://www.sagexpo.org/ to showcase the latest in the fangaming community. Traditionally its main purpose has been to showcase fangames based on the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise, however it is open to any freelance developer that wishes to participate. 2008 marks the event's 13th itineration. In the past we've had many great games introduced, special guests, fun events, and this year will hopefully be the best yet. It's a huge opportunity for fangamers to show off their latest product.

We usually draw in about 5000 unique hits per day, going off 2004's statistics, and the participation continues to grow.

1.2 - When Is It?

August 17th - 24th

1.3 - Registration

When August 4th comes around, we'll be opening up our registration. It will be an automated form that will help you get your game registe quickly and efficiently.

Our game registration this year requires some sort of semblance of the game you will be showing at the event on your booth. It's going to be a direct link to your game, and we will be shifting through these to see what booths work.

The Event
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2.1 - THE GAMES

Featured Titles:

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2.2 - Special Guests!

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2.3 The Entertainment

We have more jam packed shows for you than you can shake a fist at!

Evening SAGEcast Entertainment
Concerts:

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What YOU Can Do​

3.1 - SAGEcasts

SAGEcasts are returning, and we need some timeslots cove! You can register for as many as you want, all you need to do is send me an email to [email protected] with "SAGEcast" as the subject and I will handle your time requests as needed.

Some of the events being held:
-Karaoke & Competition
-DJ Mixing Shows
-Possible Concert Performance from Taxman's Band, "The Polites"

Some ideas for what you guys can do in this area:

Concerts\Performances: If you have a band or you make teh awesome musics, contact me about possibly performing on the radio during the event.

Multicasts: We have this worked out so it works, if you guys want to, especially the folks here that run the podcast, want to have a live show with multiple hosts. I would just suggest in this instance that you guys get together more-or-less a flow for your show.

Skits: In the honor of Slingerlands SAGE finale show last year, writing a scripted show is also a really cool way to get some attention, possibly with voice acting and the likes.


3.2 - SAGE Workshops

We've actually been lacking these lately, the workshops give individuals opportunities to actually teach their fellow peers something they don't know, or expand on something they do know.

Some example Workshop subjects:
-Rom Hacking
-Level Design Theory
-Background Designing
-Spriting
-Modelling
-Programming

3.3 - SAGE Extras

I am also looking for extras for an extra section to the site which will be explained in greater detail if you chose to participate. Any extra stuff that doesn't fit into a casual catagory, like comics, videos, sekret software releases, contact me.

3.4 - Competitions

The Complete Game Contest: Complete your game by August 8th and get spotlighted on the site.

The Remix Competition: Remix a Tune from Sonic CD, results will be published on the Music Section of the site as well the remixes themselves. Tangible Prizes are still under consideration.

Remix Competition Rules:
-Composition must be at least 2:00 in length.

Judging:
Compositions will be judged on the following criteria

-Arrangement
-Production - This ones pretty self-explanatory, pay attention to your mixing\eqing and use of effects and panning.
-Relevance - While originality is good, it can easily go overboard and you lose what made your source song your source song. Overly-liberal mixes send a bad signal to someone trying to fulfill their craving for nostalgia.
-Originality - Midi Rips are bad. There are ways to keep the original song intact without having your song be the original song.

 

I've actually had the same fear, in fact I felt like we weren't going to have much for him before he came in last year. :\

 

Of course, if I did that then people would be complaining that SAGE doesn't have anything playable. :P In fact, I seem to remember alot of booths last year only having a trailer, and the reaction was less than stellar.

I've got some stuff in store to make SAGE more interesting for the lot of you who have grown sick with the tendency the fangame community has for not getting stuff done. Just wait and see. There always has been a lot to do that goes widely ignored beyond just going in and downloading the 3 booths that work.

 

Well, we typically allow everyone to go into the IRC, heck we even set up a simple flash app to do 99% of the work for them if they just want to go in and listen to the guest. We do have interactive content under wraps, including ways to rate booths and whatnot. I probably should be more descriptive, however we don't even know when he is showing up yet as he is as bad about checking email as just about everybody is, not to mention we aren't sure at this point whether it's going to be another IRC interview or possibly something more.

We were trying not to overkill it, but at the same we were concerned with the casual guest experience. I'll look into see what I can to cater to outside fans, because your absolutely right; we highlight the fangames that are going to appear but beyond that there doesn't seem like much. We do have more interesting features we are working with, it's just sortof difficult to decide on what is best left under wraps till the event.