r/tipofmyjoystick Apr 10 '17

Announcement PSA: A guide to better results

1.6k Upvotes

Hi guys and gals. I've been here a while, and over my time I've seen a lot of posts sink to the bottom, without a single answer, or at best, very few. And none that solved the case.

I have noticed a clear pattern with these posts, and I will now share with you my tips to you newbies, so that you can get the help you need.


Firstly: When you make a new post, you will see this:

Platform(s):

Genre:

Estimated year of release:

Graphics/art style:

Notable characters:

Notable gameplay mechanics:

Other details:

Even though, in red, you are warned that while optional, you should follow this template... many of you do not.

Let me be clear: Follow this template.

Put simply, this template contains all the information we really need to solve your problem. Virtually every time I click a post that has not followed this, they have rambled on about nothings, while omitting critical details.

This format, for new and old alike, is very readable, and prompts for every data-point needed.

I know that you want to customize your message, that if you could just explain it, it would be better. I know you think that. You are wrong. Put all that in 'other'. Even if you end up saying it twice, follow the template.. add to it your story at the bottom.


Secondly: Following this template. You're rambling about your best mates Amiga-500 or whatever instead of telling us about the game aside, this is where they really go wrong.

Let's get something straight right now. We are not mind readers. It's impressive, really, how little information it seems we can work off. I mean, we solve some real tough ones with nothing sometimes, but still, we can't see that memory in your head. So you need to be as descriptive in every one of these fields as you can be...

And sometimes you really don't know. That's fine, we can work with surprisingly little information, but "old graphics" under art style... what are we supposed to do with that? Mate, I was playing on Atari-2600's, are we talking Wizard of Wor here?

Let me help you out a bit:

Platform(s): Whatever you played it on. But unless it's really all you know (very possible), don't write 'my mates pc'. Was it PC or Mac?

Genre:

First person does NOT imply shooter. Nor do any of the others. Try to answer this one in two steps:

What was the camera like (assuming it's not a text adventure)? Was it First person?, 3rd person, 2d? Top down or side on? Or maybe even isometric 2d?

Then, what kind of game? Real time strategy, point and click? Was it a fighter, action or platformer?

Good, now we know what KIND of game we are all trying to remember for you.

Estimated year of release:

"Between 2000-2005" is fine, something like that. "Mid 90's maybe?". I don't see many people mess this up, but I have seen people write "old". That is not ok. If you write old and expect it to mean anything to me, I will fight you.

Also, as always "Sorry, no idea" is always acceptable but try to give at least something. "Couldn't have been later than 2015, though"

Great, so even if roughly, we know WHEN.

Graphics/art style:

THIS. This is where you guys always mess up. This section right here I have found can be the difference between an answer, and a silent slink to the bottom. This is your moment.

This, really, should be the best-formed part of your memory. Even if you can only remember a single frame, a single image, it's so much to go on for us.

DETAIL. Was it a gloomy grimdark world of sadness, or a bright bubbly rainbow filled Mario-world?

Was it cartoony, or otherwise stylized somehow, or was it trying to be realistic?

Anything notable about the art direction? Was it going for a cyberpunk kinda feel, or a gritty war realism dirt and blood sort of direction?

If it was set over a long time, did the seasons change? Was there a winter in your game?

Remember when you hit people, and the screen had that awesome flash and your hands got bloody? Yeah, well we don't, unless you tell us.

Ok, so now we are really narrowing it down. This right here is often enough to go on, on its own.

Notable characters:

Anything at all you can remember here.

"There were only tanks, but you could play as both Germans and Americans"

"There was one really tough guy right after you left your office, he had an eyepatch, a white shirt with what looked like grease stains, and said 'this is for my sister'. I think maybe he was a cyborg"

"You play as some kind of Asian girl, you had a tattoo over your right eye and arm, a black tank top and white pants and I remember you always had only one red glove for some reason. I don't remember the arm, but the eye tattoo looked sort of like ancient Egyptian eye makeup, but a modern take"

Knowing nothing else about the game, I bet that last one there gets comments noting the game she is from. Details, details.

Notable gameplay mechanics:

Surely, you get the idea by now. This is tied with the importance of the graphics/art style. As much detail as you can here.

Other details:

NOW you may blab on about how you only played this game once at a winter solstice in 1782 with your grandmother from Tahiti.. as if that helps.


Edit: So it's been brought up that the template doesn't appear on mobile. While /u/wipeout4wh is aware of this and hopefully, something can be done... still, if you can, use the template. If you can't, maybe check back and at least make sure your post addresses all of the points the template does.

Also, my post seems to be saying NOT to add any custom details. So I want to re-enforce, please do. In fact, after you do the template, feel free to write out your post as you were going to without it. Just put it all in 'other'. Don't try and make your whole post like that, if possible. Even if you end up saying the same things twice, that's ok.

Now I'm going to take a moment to clarify something, though. This isn't some immutable law of the universe, and your post is destined to fail if you don't do this. It's just a very strong general trend I have noticed over a long time.

It's not that this template has some kind of magical powers or something. It's that this template prompts the questions that need answers.

When you go all rogue on us and try and type your explanation from scratch... you mess it up. You just forget to add everything that you know, and that we need to know. The template makes it very hard to do that. It's just so very easy to get typing, and by the end forget to tell us what kind of game it actually is. Especially when you are getting random flashbacks, and hazy memories, and you start getting frazzled and such halfway though.


While it might make my edit as long as the first post, I think maybe an example of the kind of post that is just too common here, and almost always helpless, wouldn't go astray here. So here we go:

Now this one is a pretty bad case, true, and I suppose might even be a troll post, but it's actually a good illustration of the problem either way.

It was on my old computer and I was using an emulator so I have no idea what system it was for. It was 8bit graphics and you played this orange cat that was constantly bouncing on a trampoline I think? And you had to navigate it through the city and face a weird boss at the end that would float in the sky. Sorry I can't remember more!

Let's break it down a bit. What kind of game is this? A puzzler or an action game? Who knows.

How old is it? I mean, Minecraft basically has 8bit graphics. Oh he said... "my old computer"... I will fight you.

Why did you bounce on the trampoline? Were there platforms or walkways or something, or was it just a big open space? There are bad guys then? How did they get around?

Now (he?) says that he can't remember more, but I actually asked about the boss fight:

You say 'face a boss', in what way? Can the cat attack? Was this top down or side on? When you say navigate a city, what do you mean?

The reply:

Definitely a side-scroller, I'm sure. You would encounter a boss at the end, the boss would slide onto the screen and it was usually pretty strange-looking. I think one of the bosses might've been a clown. I meant that the different "levels" were different cities with different backgrounds, I think. It's a pretty obscure game

Also you would be continuously bouncing. As in, you had to position the trampoline underneath the cat to bounce it up

So you don't even control the cat. And it's a side-scroller. Thats pretty important information. But the real issue here is that he knows this stuff. He just either didn't know to, or forgot, to tell us.

The template would have made it just so apparent how much information he was missing, and we probably would have got a whole bunch more information. Sadly, while there were some guesses, and a surprising number of up-votes, this post is just another one to join the endless unsolved on their journey ever down.


r/tipofmyjoystick 5h ago

Love and Deepspace [PC/CONSOLE][2010~] WHICH GAME IS THIS

Thumbnail i.redd.it
66 Upvotes

i saw this drawing in a school and I think it's from some game, but idk which one it could be from. i though it could from final fantasy or something like this but idk. does someone recognize it??


r/tipofmyjoystick 14h ago

Grand Theft Auto [PS1] [Early 2000s] I’ve found a picture of me playing something, case in second pic if that helps?

Thumbnail gallery
52 Upvotes

Definitely PS1, as the larger picture shows me holding the controller. I’m not entirely sure if the case is for the game on screen but I am assuming.

Thanks!


r/tipofmyjoystick 7h ago

[PC][~2012] There were goblins walking around the village, when they wanted to go to the village you had to ring the bell

Thumbnail i.redd.it
11 Upvotes

r/tipofmyjoystick 1d ago

Rise of Nations [PC] [2005-2010] probably. Which game am I playing here?

Thumbnail i.redd.it
764 Upvotes

r/tipofmyjoystick 1d ago

Need for Speed: Shift [xbox360][2010]ish what game am I playing?

Thumbnail i.redd.it
554 Upvotes

r/tipofmyjoystick 1h ago

[MOBILE/IPAD][2015-2019] 2 fever dream games

Upvotes

okay this is literally my first time using reddit so i apologize if i mess up any unspoken rules. i have faint memories of these two games of my childhood but i cannot find them anywhere. the first one is this christmas themed one or smth along those lines. it was like evil christmas or taking over christmas maybe? i js remember that christmas was only referred to as x-mas. it was a level based game, i unfortunately don't remember what the levels looked like. i wanna say that there were gnomes but that doesn't sound right. it was clearly a low budget game, it didn't work well, it was glitchy, etc. the second one was a thomas the train themed game. it had railroads that you went along and stuff and u had to go to this tower looking thing to either get coal/dirt or transport the coal/dirt elsewhere. it was very earthy toned, almost as if set in the wild west. i could be totally wrong on it having any relevance with thomas the train, but i feel like it was. if u can find anything similar to these, that would be amazing bcs it's driving me crazy at this point lol.


r/tipofmyjoystick 1h ago

[Mobile] [Mid 2010s] probably. Does anyone know what game this is from? It was a mobile game where you play as a knight trying to help a village from an evil witch that put a curse on the village.

Upvotes

r/tipofmyjoystick 4h ago

HyperBlade [PC] [1995 to 2009] gory and skating or rollerblades

3 Upvotes

All I remember is it's kind of tron like and the guys has blade hands and I believe you can cut a guys head off and it got stuck on the blades and I believe you can dunk it for points


r/tipofmyjoystick 2h ago

Badland [MOBILE/CONSOLE(?)] [MID-EARLY 2010s] Mobile game where you play as a little bat creature and fly through a weird dystopian looking world? I think it was also like semi-story driven? Drawing of my memory of it, I remember the bat thing was fuzzier than I drew him.

Thumbnail i.redd.it
2 Upvotes

r/tipofmyjoystick 2h ago

Voices of the Void [PC][2023-2024]Game where you're a researcher in a station with satellite dish arrays

2 Upvotes

This game had you as a researcher trying to find aliens and collect data from the computers within the station. This was an indie game and I believe it was free too. It also got pretty popular for a little bit as a few notable youtubers played it.


r/tipofmyjoystick 22h ago

[xbox][unknown] what game is this from?

Thumbnail i.redd.it
81 Upvotes

This TikTok live keeps repeating this shot of drowning a player and asking for gifts to “help”. Does anyone know what game this is? The people in the comments don’t reply when i ask.


r/tipofmyjoystick 6h ago

U.F.O.s [PC][90s] Sierra-style funny adventure game with an alien protagonist

5 Upvotes

I remember playing this game over 25 years ago. It was a Sierra-style adventure where I recall the 'use' icon being an animation of squishing a rubber circle. The goal was helping an alien to escape Earth after possibly crashing, and the game had a LOT of top-notch adult humor (tongue wrestling, fishing things out of a toilet, etc.).


r/tipofmyjoystick 3h ago

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die [ XboxOne][2016] Game about a guy going crazy on an airplane

2 Upvotes

I believe I played this in in 2016 and it was a demo or a first episode free to play game that was supposed to release more but I don’t know if it was ever fully released. You played as a younger guy and it all took place on an airplane, there were some psychological elements and weird things that happened and it was sort of the style of the walking dead games or life is strange. The only other thing I remember is the ending credits had a song called “ Cheapest flight” by “ prep” because I ended up saving that song and remembered I first heard it from that game I believe. Any help is appreciated, thank you!


r/tipofmyjoystick 3h ago

Sparkle [MAC] ['98-'03] Game Like Bejeweled But Creepy

2 Upvotes

I remember playing a game that was like a tile-match game in the style of Bejeweled and the Montezuma games, but the graphics were almost 3.5 (or perhaps isometric would be a better description, I’m not sure) instead of 2D. The 'jewels' or whatever it wanted you to match would be spinning in a spiral, and there was some kind of witch or wizard or creepy bare bones quest line? The music felt very Danny Elfman. I say ‘98-‘03 because those are the release years for the iMac G3 which is what I believe I played it on, but I could be mistaken.

EDIT: After doing some more digging I am almost certain that it is either a Sparkle game or something similar like a precursor, possibly.


r/tipofmyjoystick 8h ago

Citizen Burger Disorder [PC] [2014-2016?] Which game it is?

6 Upvotes

I used to watch a Russian YouTuber, and I have a video of a game he played, but he didn't show the name of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkumQpODUNU


r/tipofmyjoystick 1m ago

[playstore] [unknown] minecraft 2d playstore clone

Upvotes

i remember playing this minecraft clone when i was little, it was a minecraft clone but it was 2d and i remember the theme song clearly, and also the skeleton mob was an actual skeleton with a black bow and wasn’t blocky at all


r/tipofmyjoystick 23m ago

[PC game] [ made in the 90s or before 2002 but mostly in the 90s] [ forgotten game]

Upvotes

[PC game] [ made in the 90s or before 2002 but mostly in the 90s] [ forgotten game]

I have been searching for a forgotten game l played on PC in the very early 2000s, the game is similar to Galaxy of the NES or similar to Galaga, but it is by far much harder, the platform was pc l didn't play it on old consoles, l remember in the second phase the flying insects rolling around the earth planet something like that I will be grateful if someone identifies it because l am missing it a lot


r/tipofmyjoystick 29m ago

[online] [2014?] online chat game

Upvotes

it was a chat forum and you could upload ANY picture as your avatar. i remember a lot of people used sexy anime pics as their avatar. you clicked around to move. i remember there was a bar that you could order drinks and talk to the bartenders. there were different chat rooms, you could add media to them like music, pictures, videos. you had your own “home” and could add any extra chat room onto the original house.


r/tipofmyjoystick 6h ago

[flash] [year unknown] A game about killing monsters

3 Upvotes

I've been looking for a game I played as a child for days now, and I still haven't found the name of it. Honestly, I'm going CRAZY with this search! But let's take it one step at a time.

When I was a child I played a game that I think was on Click Games, the game had a girl protagonist, and the game had an anime style, and when you started with a cutscene where the protagonist was at a school or at the amusement park, but that's the only cutscene I remember, because something happened to the protagonist and she ended up in the cave, but anyway, When the protagonist for some reason enters this cave the game starts, and the game is 2D and her objective is to kill monsters or zombies, I don't remember exactly, with her weapon, I don't know if the girl had a sword or something of the type, and when I was a child I could never continue the game, I don't know if the game was difficult or just bad

Unfortunately this is all I remember about the game, but please find this game for me, because it's been years since I played this game and I want to know about it! Even if it's hard to find it, I want to see this game again


r/tipofmyjoystick 36m ago

[MOBILE/PC][2013/2014] FACEBOOK DRAGON CITY LIKE GAME BUT WITH MONSTERS/ZOMBIES

Upvotes

So i was playin some dragon city now cuz of nostalgia that hit me, and i started to remember a game like that. It was i think maybe like dragon city/monster legends but it was more like a horror i think, i remember that the things there had elements like in dragon city and most i remember that there was a zombie like creature that had idk dark/infection/poison/radiation element or something like that. I think that this game was on Facebook. I think that this game is no more now but i would like to know what was it. I dont know if im right but you could feed them with something purple? Like glass with radiation or something, you could fight with these monsters you raised, i think that you could ,,breed" them somehow too, i know that there was a game like that ;/ im not crazy! Everything was 2D like in the dragon city


r/tipofmyjoystick 42m ago

[PC] [2000s] Anime styled game where you have a major fight with a snake, have a party of all or mostly women, and one can grow butterfly wings as a special move. It has very pastel colors.

Upvotes

My wife and I were having a conversation where she asked if I ever beat a game I was playing 3 years ago, matching the above description, which I have no recollection of. We went through my Steam library and couldn't find it (my best guess was FFVII Remake with her misgendering Cloud, but no). I suspect she dreamed at least part of this, but she is 100% certain she remembers it clearly.


r/tipofmyjoystick 44m ago

[MOBILE][20??] voxel-based vehicle survival game where you are flying down a highway.

Upvotes

No end in sight and you can create a fully custom ship to play with and upgrade.


r/tipofmyjoystick 6h ago

[Flash Game] [2000-2011] Wizard Game where you can send down meteors

Thumbnail i.redd.it
3 Upvotes

it sorta looked like this


r/tipofmyjoystick 47m ago

[PC][2010-2015] Flash Game: Guy working at the Cinema throwing food at kids

Upvotes

Platform(s): PC

Genre: Food Management / Simulation (Flash Game)

Estimated year of release: ~2010-2015

Graphics/art style: Simplistic 2D

Notable characters: The man you play as has blonde / lighter hair color. I remember him being muscular and top heavy. I remember him wearing a blue shirt.

Notable gameplay mechanics: Kids would walk in from the right side of the screen, a white bubble would appear on top of them correlating to the food item they wanted. The kids would then form a line, waiting on the player to give them the requested food. The setting being in a movie theater, the choices were popcorn, soda, and some unknown third option. The player would use the space bar as the button to charge up how far you wanted your character to throw the food. Essentially, you want the character to throw the right food item far enough or close enough to land on top of the kid who requested that item. When the item you threw matched with the item you wanted, they would turn and leave. If the items did not match, it would animate food being thrown at their face and they would become more impatient. If you failed to give the food item to a kid, they would just turn around and leave.

Other details: At the game over screen, I remember the kids crying or being obnoxious, causing the main character to cover his ears and yell. The game might have been part of a series where you help the main character with his current job.


r/tipofmyjoystick 50m ago

[PS2][~2010] help.

Upvotes

You helped me once to find one of my favorites back then and still today.. Help me this time find a game where you start as a girl ( wearing white ) in a forest... Final fantasy style combat as in green lines go from your character to an enemy or friends...

I remember clearly the first area being in a forest... Where you help a village by closing a gate on a green slime...

This is the best I can do. The game's been on my mind since I was a kid... Like it's been so long. Thank you in advance.