Marked

Yeah. I'll try to write something soon for it, just a bit busy right now. Make sure you remind me :) (when I'm free).

After Bob's status update, I realised that the qutoes section has gone a bit unmoderated. You wouldn't think you need to really moderate it, but unfortunately you guys have posted some stuff that really doesn't need to come through on our main pages. Here's some examples And these... Actually there's tons of these... things I really just don't get. Am I outta touch, or is there no real reference to these? For your quotes... please use the following guidelines Be mature... think about whether it'll be funny to other people Make sure most people will get the reference Quotes should be inspiring, or funny, and value ought to be obtained from almost everyone who reads. Keep it classy people. Here's a good example of an acceptable funny quote that requires a reference: If people spam the quotes... I'll find you, and tatoo them on your back. :ok: :thumbsup:

Yeah, it's pretty complex. Definitely the biggest thing I've written, and the last thing I wrote. I had planned it for a wee while, and I think I started development November 2013 and it went live Xmas eve. Although it needed a fair bit of work in the months afterwards. I spent a lot of time on it while I went overseas for 7 weeks. Which probably sounds odd, but I had a lot of time since I spent probably a month living at a friends place as opposed to being a tourist. The actual code that powers the system is about 5,000 lines of code, although relies heavily on a collection of other utility-type code that has built-up over time. Then there's all the front-end code stuff which doesn't require programming, which is probably quite long but basic. Actually, for this system I developed some really cool code. I actually used it to get a job once. It's made possible by the PHP framework which has a super cool database framework. I'd love to go into detail, but it's not a wise thing to do security wise. Even though I think this particular part of it is secure. But every time you change your settings in the admin control panel of your game, it whips through the request and uses the variables sent to jump on a routing system before it eventually gets to this peace of code: //MAKE IT RAIN $bean->$field = $value; $bean->update(); This'll basically send the request into the DB to the effect of UPDATE [mah table] SET [field] = [value] WHERE row_id = [row_id], without needing to write that out for every single piece of data we need stored. :love:

No lol I'm far too busy to do that again in my lifetime.

Yeah but you can disable characters. People have been doing that for decades, so there's a section for it. But you can disable it, so it's not an issue. Actually, the games section is currently flexible to achieve all of this already with the options. There is also no comments section anymore. There used to be - and a few unmaintained pages have the menu item still existing. But I'd say that's rare. If you create a game now, that doesn't come up. But you can actually disable any page (which are technically tabs, not actual pages). The comments system is something I want to change in the future anyway :) I want something far more interactive. There is a blog system :huh2: How do you not know that D:

Ok, good points on the demo requirement. I was actually thinking about this last night. The games pages are essentially marketing tools, so really the content is for users, it's not for the devs. I was thinking of abolishing the gallery "page" altogether and moving this content directly under the heading on the homepage. I got the idea from Steam, so: Put yourself in the shoes of the users who're browsing the games, looking for good games. You don't want the first thing you see to be a wall of text. You want to get straight to the media because that's how you're going to judge the quality of the game. A sort of first impression thing. For this idea, videos or images can be uploaded and reordered, and it would be a content slider as above (which I was planning to implement as an option for galleries anyway). My original concept of the games section really dragged things down. I wanted to make the game pages capable of being standalone websites and including all these options to change everything, turn things off, etc. and that really slowed development.

There's been some talk on the site recently about the lack of quality of some game pages. That's not to put anyone down and suggest their game isn't good, but actual content of the game page. So lets brainstorm. I've already got a fair idea of how I'd do it: Anyone can publish a game page, but it doesn't show up in the public listing or show up as a new content item (eg in the forum sidebar, the latest scolly thing, and homepage). Game pages only show up in these sections when dev's opt-in, ie they have to click a button to request to be listed - this mainly applies to the games sections' public listing. A moderator has to manually approve the opt-in request based on openly public criteria A demo is present - but this won't be screened. It's up to the dev but there should be at least downloadable content. A minimum of 4 screenshots No empty pages / tabs (eg when people have a credits or contact us page but there are no details filled out in this page) Properly set banner/header Sufficient details in the homepage, including good presentation and use of BBCode. What do you guys think? If I implemented this, we'd have to manually go through the games listing and opt-out the low-quality pages, and post feedback and where they need to improve to get approved. I think the main thing is the presentation - you must have enough there to serve as an advertisement for the games, and secondly the presence of the demo. There's a whole bunch of half-ideas in our games section, and this would filter those out, leaving more established games on display, and you know you're going to get more than an idea for each page.

Welcome to GDU :thumbsup: As mage said, feel free to ask questions about using RPG Maker of game development generally. Being a part of community generally helps with the motivation side, so feel free to show us your game when you're ready :)

Feel free to disagree with me, but simply by adding content isn't the answer. It's my increase traffic, which is already high from leechers. If you guys wanted to create tutorials, that is a very good thing of course. But I don't think it will do anything to the goals that we've established; growing the community, activity and contributors. What we're trying to do is not necessarily increase the number / quality of tutorials, but increase the number of people who will publish tutorials. I also don't think killing off the RMXP sections will be a positive step? Neutral maybe? If I were going to throw an idea out there, it would be something like extending the games section into a project management as well, so developers can use it as a platform for game dev collaboration. Another idea is for a simple way to interact, like they had on the website forrrst where people posted something very specific (such as a design) and people would offer comments. What made that site cool was how it was set up, it wasn't a forum and the content wasn't supposed to stay active for long, but the point was for people to share ideas and get feedback, quick and simple.

I've always wanted to do something like this. But I'm very cautious about attempting to create a marketplace with virtual currency. For a marketplace to succeed, there needs to be buyers and sellers. The points also need to be perceived as valuable. Therefore, keeping a balance is incredibly difficult. If I'm a scripter, I want to be able to trade a script for enough points to get a sprite made.The spriter is only going to do the sprite if the scripter has enough points to undertake hours and hours of work. So my biggest concern is balancing the points (that aren't traded between members because members will determine their own rates) and the amount of skilled people who will actually supply their skills. I think the basic concept is incredibly difficult to make successful. However, what if we simplified it a bit. Instead of creating resources only when asked, members can sell their pre-made resources to everyone. Imagine a script that every member can buy for 4 GDU points. If we can pull this off, this may springboard the original idea a marketplace that is balanced enough to be sustainable. That will always happen. Espicially with my modiciation of the idea. We need to create a desirability to be a part of the community as well. Those with game pages who are invested in the site won't spam. I wouldn't mind bringing those back :) Those were fun. But nearly everyone quit because of a lack of participation. The tutors wanted an audience, even though what they had created were available to everyone and (silently) helping people. The teachers wanted to actively tutor people one-on-one. Which is cool. I wouldn't mind doing this somehow. The resources thing is quite simple. We have a ton of them. And it attracts ton of people. Even if they're not unique. We've currently hit the jackpot and are around the top of Google for "RPG Maker VX Ace Resources", generating traffic close to our peak years. The following is the last 30 days: Those numbers should surprise you all, they're big numbers. But all of this traffic, which are people who are looking for Ace stuff and Ace websites, don't sign up and stick around. Uhuh... we certainly need to attract more developers, rather than only leeches :) That sounds like a great idea. But you know I can't make you a staff member, right? I mean like I get you, but I'm not sure newbies won't be immediately intimidated by you :) Agreed. Subtle in practice, but fundamental. True... I should definitely do that. It is all a bit... expanded. Lots of people post things in the wrong place, to me the structure is veeeery simple. I guess people just get too lazy to find because they just see so many forums. Agreed re advertising. I think it's not a matter of dropping an old engine like RMXP, but supporting new ones. Although this discussion has been going on for many, many years (the what engines conversation). I think we've done a decent job on growing Ace here, actually. We failed miserably with VX, but we've done ok introducing Ace. Which is fortunate, since XP is damn old and its now a minority in terms of usage. So we've already got Unity. What else should we add? I'm not sure this is our biggest issue, or something that'll change anything drastically. To isolate issues, we could say: 17,000 users are coming through here monthy, most of them are using Ace, why are they not staying? Ya.. I don't think we need to deceive people :) I also don't think it would work. It's not sustainable, newbies would catch on, and it would inevitably lead to spam posts.

You are :) Three are redirects to content sections. I can't delete the scripts forum, because it has scripts that the scripts section does not. I managed to move all of the Ace and VX scripts coz there weren't so many. Same with tutorials. These forums were red hot during our peak years :) So there's lots of stuff in 'em. If the redirects weren't there, users may think that's all the scripts we have. So that's why. Btw guys I am reading the posts :)

Not be a grammer nazi, but the d in your congratulations smacked me in the head.

Welllcoooommeeeee :thumbsup: Pie?

I don't think the RM community would do well with a 3D game maker. I mean, wouldn't they be forced to learn so much game development that they'd have to learn that there's better alternatives to making 3D games? I think RPG Maker's success is based around the simplicity of the game making process and the style of games. I can't see that changing, so my money is on more of the same. Which is fine. I guess it'd be interesting to see what they'll come out with next.

I'll sit back and let you guys talk. I'm happy with what GDU achieved, the people who've contributed to our site. Our previous staff team was full of developers, around 8 strong, but they slowly left and now there's just a few us. Around the end of 2012 and early 2013 we faced extinction, but we fought our way back. I have grown old (literally, I'm 24 now) developing the site for more than 9 years. My fatal error was learning too much web development stuff that I had an irresistible need to break things down and rewrite them myself, replacing something with something similar and therefore not really increasingly functionality but replacing it. It's pleasing that you guys made this topic and it's actually getting some posts. If you can come with a plan for the site together, I will build it for you. I can build anything. I'm comfortable with leaving its future in the community's hands. :)

Aww i wana see it,