Ok, now ordinarily I'd email this complaints in to Polyhedron instead of airing it publicly, but I think by the end of this you'll understand why I chose not to. I know Erik Mona frequents these boards, so hopefully I can get an answer here.
I'm a huge fan of Polyhedron magazine, and of their mini-games. In fact, after the first Dungeon/Poly in which "Pulp Heroes" was featured I started thinking about designing a mini-game and submitting it. Noticing that David Noonan was one of the designers named, I emailed Mr. Mona asking if Poly accepted unsolicited submissions as did Dragon or Dungeon. He sent me back an email fairly quickly telling me that the first few games would be done by professionals, but that afterwards he'd likely be opening it up.
So I worked up a proposal, and emailled it to him. And waited. Having worked with Dragon before, I knew that responses take time, so i waited, and waited. That was almost a year ago.
I realize mail gets lost, so when I found the proposal while cleaning out my hard drive (I had forgotten about it) I decided, what the heck, I'll send it again. I figured that after nine months I didn't have to worry about "pestering" Polyhedron's staff. That was in October. Early October. I'm sure you can all see where this is heading.
Not a word has come since, and it's been over three months. Again, I've worked with Dragon, and I've had work rejected, that's the way it goes. But to be perfectly blunt, most people at least are kind enough to let you know they're not interested, thank you for your time, and ask you to contribute again (even if they don't want you to, they lie. It's called etiquette.)
So I hope it's understandable why I chose not to email this complaint in. Mr. Mona, if you hear this, I'd really just like an explanation. And if you don't accept unsolicited submissions, might I recommend saying that on your website. And if you do, might I recommend putting some guidelines on your website. Honestly, for such a great magazine Poly's web support leaves a lot to be desired.
Brian Murphy
I'm a huge fan of Polyhedron magazine, and of their mini-games. In fact, after the first Dungeon/Poly in which "Pulp Heroes" was featured I started thinking about designing a mini-game and submitting it. Noticing that David Noonan was one of the designers named, I emailed Mr. Mona asking if Poly accepted unsolicited submissions as did Dragon or Dungeon. He sent me back an email fairly quickly telling me that the first few games would be done by professionals, but that afterwards he'd likely be opening it up.
So I worked up a proposal, and emailled it to him. And waited. Having worked with Dragon before, I knew that responses take time, so i waited, and waited. That was almost a year ago.
I realize mail gets lost, so when I found the proposal while cleaning out my hard drive (I had forgotten about it) I decided, what the heck, I'll send it again. I figured that after nine months I didn't have to worry about "pestering" Polyhedron's staff. That was in October. Early October. I'm sure you can all see where this is heading.
Not a word has come since, and it's been over three months. Again, I've worked with Dragon, and I've had work rejected, that's the way it goes. But to be perfectly blunt, most people at least are kind enough to let you know they're not interested, thank you for your time, and ask you to contribute again (even if they don't want you to, they lie. It's called etiquette.)
So I hope it's understandable why I chose not to email this complaint in. Mr. Mona, if you hear this, I'd really just like an explanation. And if you don't accept unsolicited submissions, might I recommend saying that on your website. And if you do, might I recommend putting some guidelines on your website. Honestly, for such a great magazine Poly's web support leaves a lot to be desired.
Brian Murphy
Last edited:
