Gamasutra Blog Guidelines - Updated and open for discussion

Note: This may not be the most updated version of the guidelines. For the current version of the guidelines, always check this link. 

In my role at Gamasutra I have taken over stewardship of the blog section -- working with developers to get the best posts, helping to answer questions about the system, etc. To that end I wrote and I posted a new version of the blog guidelines, but I wanted to share them on the blogs (logical!) and also open up the floor for discussion of this information. You'll find the new guidelines reproduced in full below. If you're a blog contributor or a blog reader, give them a read. If you have a comment or a question, leave it for me on this post, and I (or editor-in-chief Kris Graft, quite possibly) will answer it. 

Thanks!

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In 2009, Gamasutra introduced its blog section to give developers a more direct way to contribute to the site. While we've always welcomed external contributions -- and in fact they are the beating heart of the site, and what makes it a site both for and by game developers -- we wanted to give you a more direct route to getting your thoughts and your work onto Gamasutra.

Now, we're making blogs the centerpiece of the website.

If you want to get started blogging, it's easy! Just click here to begin. But please read these guidelines first.

Every day, Gamasutra's editorial team selects the best blogs and promotes them on the front page of the site. Now, you'll always find blogs at the top of our front page. In many cases, these developer-contributed blogs are the most popular content on the site, sparking deep discussion and being read just as widely as anything else we publish.

Gamasutra has ceased accepting feature submissions. This means that all developer-contributed content is now routed through our blogs.

What does this mean? It means that you have direct control over when and how you publish your content on Gamasutra. If you feel you'd like feedback on your ideas or your writing, great -- you can reach out to Christian Nutt, as you always have. If you don't need the assistance, however, you have the freedom to publish as soon as you're ready.

What are we looking for?

We want blogs that speak to your peers -- no matter what kind of game you're working on, and no matter your discipline: art, sound, design, programming, community management, QA, production, business, and beyond.

When writing, think about what information you would most like to read. Drawing on your experience, what would you most like to share? Something thought-provoking, practical, or inspirational -- if it meets any of those criteria, it's welcome on Gamasutra. We want to see the same depth of content we've always featured on Gamasutra: pieces that show and share expertise.

As we've already said, the best blogs are selected daily by our editorial staff and featured on the front page alongside Gamasutra other content, and promoted across our extremely popular social media feeds.

While any number of topics can be popular on Gamasutra, here are some surefire hits: postmortems, tutorials in specific techniques (any discipline), digital download sales data and other practical business writing, and deep design analyses or meaningful critique and technique.

Here are some examples of our best performing and best quality blogs:

Story-telling as Problem Solving: Defender's Quest by Lars Doucet

Dustforce sales figures by Terence Lee

Muddy Steam - Before and After Greenlight by Jools Watsham

Guild Wars 2 Economy Review by Ramin Shokrizade

Skyrim's Modular Approach to Level Design by Joel Burgess

The single most useful advice I can give for making any game better... feedback by Lee Perry

Pixelles Postmortem: How to Increase Game Creator Diversity NOW by Tanya Short

Guidelines

The original guidelines we introduced alongside the blogs section have served us well, and we'll reiterate them here with almost no revision:

1. Gamasutra Blogs are intended solely for articles about game development by and for game developers. That means everyone from members of triple-A studios to indie developers, garage creators, and students -- as long as all your posts are about the art and business of making games.

2. Feel free to repost content from your own personal blog, and note that Gamasutra makes no claim to ownership of user-submitted materials. We just want to highlight great writing about game-making. That said, you may not post material you did not write, or that you do not have full permission to reprint. Also, please no teaser-link posts -- reprint your blog post in its entirety. Feel free to link back to your site, however.

3. While the Gamasutra staff will be monitoring content posted to the blogs, please refrain from posting inappropriate content that will later be removed. Use your best judgment, and please steer clear of pornographic images or excessive profanity; the line should be pretty clear in most cases! In addition, we would ask that your blog does not wholly advertise products or services at the exclusivity of anything else. Our goal is absolutely not to modify or censor material, but illegal or highly objectionable content will be necessarily excised.

4. Feel free to format your posts, but don't make them too visually outrageous -- too many colors and font sizes will just make things harder to read! Also, please note that your images should be no more than 610 pixels wide.

Again, to get started on your Gamasutra blog, click here and start posting.