Crafter Points
Crafter Points are one of the ways we keep track of how engaged you are in the community. However, they aren't just a status symbol, they have real cash value.
How To Earn Crafter Points
You can earn crafter points in lots of different ways, and the list will grow as time goes on. Here are the current ways of earning crafter points:
| Description | Points Earned |
|---|---|
| Buy stuff in our shop. (Awarded when order is shipped) | 1 point for every $.01* |
| Record a video tutorial and publish it to YouTube, Vimeo, etc. The tutorial must be related to TGC and not about a specific game (for example, showing how to use the TGC site, or how to create files for uploading to TGC, or how to automate game design in Photoshop, etc.) Be sure to include detailed steps about how to complete the process, as the tutorial should be able to walk a viewer through from beginning to end and explain everything thoroughly. We especially encourage tutorial videos that don't already exist in the TGC Help section! | 10,000** |
| Build something using our API | 10,000+** |
| Take us up on our Designer Table Sponsorship offer. | 5,000** |
| Get a professional review of your game. | 1,000** |
| Get a professional review of your game that also mentions us. | 2,000** |
| Get a professional review of your game that also links to us. | 5,000** |
| Put up a TGC poster in your local game shop and send us a photo. | 10,000** |
| Cross publish our news feed on your web site. | 5,000** |
| Build a web site to promote your games, and then provide links to purchase your games in our shop. | 5,000** |
| Buy them. | Unlimited |
| Art Test voting. | 100/vote |
| Community Verified Test voting. | 100/vote |
* Taxes, shipping costs, and other fees not included in the calculation of Crafter Points.
** Pending our approval. If you have done something you think worthy of earning you some crafter points, tell us about it
How To Spend Crafter Points
Now that you have some crafter points, what can you do with them? There are currently two things you can do with crafter points: use them for discounts, and use them to promote your games.
- Discounts: In your account, you can convert crafter points to shop credit. This will allow you to get discounts on merchandise in the TGC Shop. 10,000 crafter points is worth $1.00 in shop credit.
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Featured Status: You can spend 1,000 crafter points to feature your game in the shop for one day. Featured games stand out in the shop. They're placed on the front page of the shop, and have a special searchable designation. They also get a special border in the search listings anywhere they are displayed. This special designation will help you stand out from the crowd, and sell more games.
Note: When you feature a game, a timer starts. If you unpublish the game while it's featured, the timer continues to run. Thus, you lose the time that the game is unpublished as the time that the game would be featured.
- Showcase Status: You can also do a variant of Featured Status called Showcasing your game. That's the large graphic that appears on the front page of our site. This costs 2,000 crafter points per day.
- Contest Voting: Our game design contests have a voting period that requires you to spend crafter points to vote for games you like. The games with the most points move on to the semi-finals.
- Idea Voting: If there is something you want The Game Crafter to do, you can submit an idea and then the community at large can vote on that idea using crafter points. The best ideas get pushed to the top of our to-do list.
- Posting Announcements: We have a community blog where you can post any story you like. Some people post announcements of game releases, some post tutorials, some post about crowd funding campaigns. It costs 200 crafter points for each post.
- Bidding in Community Auctions: You can bid crafter points in community auctions to win special items, perks, and services that The Game Crafter doesn't normally make available.
- Art Tests: For 15,000 crafter points, you can get 100 opinions on the artwork in your game via our art testing service.
- Community Verified Tests: For 6,000 crafter points, you can get 120 opinions on the content in your game via our community verified testing service, which then gets you access to all kinds of promotion and sales tools if you pass..
- Bypass Publishing Waiting Period: For 10,000 crafter points, you can bypass the 10-day waiting period (from the time you first purchase your game) and publish your game immediately.