Allegro is a suitable API for amateurs. Amateur programmers make amateurish games. That's all there is to it.

I've seen really bad games made by groups of people.

If you are talking about the games in the depot then the answer is simple: there is no requisits, and no rules for games to be accepted, so every new crappy and unfinished prototype is hosted.

The real problem is that only ~99% of the depot is crap, so is fantastically hard to find the few good ones, for example the great Saucelifter

I've played some good allegro games and some bad allegro games. I've also played some good commercial games and some bad commercial games. The question is if the proportionality between these sets is any different.

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If you ask me, for most, the greatest chance of having a good allegro game is when the developer thinks small and simple. That's why this community thrives on hack competitions. And for the love of Alex, when is the next Speedhack happening? Yes, I've seen the threads asking the same, but my patience evades me!

Is it thursday already? I could have sworn we've had this discussion a few times before..

I wonder how many good ideas and games (intended upon the use of allegro) sit on unnoticed shelves. I remember Sirocco posting a teaser about something a while back and never heard anything again. Maybe Wii need some Allegro Cheerleaders to go with our mascot.

&^{subliminal message}

What about your games?

To make money with games it must be decent enough for publishers to accept it. That means most crappy games will never be accepted for publishing. Depot accepts anything that runs and looks like a game.

Theory One: Well that's just a fun side activity, isn't it?

Theory Two: I think that this theory is 100% true. If people want to get decent graphics and music, I think they should spend at least as much time on each as they spend on writing the code that drives the game. (Or at least try to team up with artists but the truth probably is that most of us are horrible team players.)

Theory Three: Yes, that or we just lack the freetime necessary to create a slightly-above-crappy game or we are just very lazy.

Aye, getting paid to do something can boost motivation.

So why are most allegro games bad?
Let's list all kinds of possible reasons(list doesn't claim to be complete):

• lack of time on the developers side

• lack of experience on the developers side

• lack of dedication and motivation on the developers side

• lack of clearly defined game concepts before starting development

• lack of teamplaying capabilities on the developers side

• lack of the will to spend a lot of time on creating amenable graphics and music on the developers side

• lack of time to create amenable graphics and music on the developers side

• your lack here

Conclusion: As can be seen by the points listed, it seems that the only problem is really the developers. So we should just get rid of the developers and suddenly lots of great games will come pouring in.:P

Dennis's list made me depressed. I think every point in the list fits me.
I'm gonna quit coding now, kthnx

Seriously, that list is quite accurate IMHO and should only strive developers to overcome as much of the issues as possible. Of course, if you don't have time, you don't. But training makes perfect, or at least you get better.

As for the OP, I have to agree the posts above. Most of us who use allegro are unexperienced, alone and motivation is low.

I came to allegro.cc about a year and a half ago with a dream of redoing my space shooter game I did 1995 in QBasic, yes QBasic . I'm still working on it whenever I feel like it. During this time I've actually learned quite a bit about game coding, did a few smaller games and I believe I've become better. Thats for others to judge though

99% of all indie games (regardless of platform) are trash. You have a few gems that shine every year, and the rest are not worth mentioning.

All the great ones