Marked

:) All but a couple are taken. Two character domains cost $1k+ / year.

Wow, that's a lot :D Sadly most of those are taken... I did try the obvious ones. Those common one-world domains have been snapped up :

Yo There's a sale on .games domain names for the next 1.5hours. Now, I'm thinking about giving members the option of using a different domain for their games pages, i.e. my-game-title.newdomain.games I'm planning to register gamedevu.games Do you guys have any other suggestions? I could register a couple actually.

It is pretty lonely now that you mention it :( Thanks :D I haven't designed anything so far though :P All design is outsourced. Even the GDU logo (made by Chief). I'm more about the code, even if that means constructing designs into websites using HTML and CSS, which is so basic that I've never told anyone that I can do it. Btw I think fireworks has been discontinued by Adobe. Also, all software is free if you have the internet D:

Hey guys So there I was, taking 3 weeks leave from work and expecting to make some inroads into the GDU4 update. Somehow I managed to take a step backwards, trying to set up a dev server on a hidden URL on the live server, which I failed at. In the end it would have taken too much time and I'm back home now with a super speedy local server. So progress is currently slow. GDU4 will include the following: an update to the forum software. re-written front-end for the website (minus the forums) using YooTheme's UIKit 3.0. We had previously used twitter bootstrap which was really great, but by now is a bit dated and falling behind since it hasn't had a stable release in years. tweaked design, based on this template. This design will be modern, minimalistic and full-width. GDU Refinery will be integrated back into GDU's overall design and named back to the GDU Refinery (currently called the Game Dev Refinery). Updates a future focus on the games section and GDU Refinery. As for the timing, it really depends. Most likely 1.5 months from now. This is actually a very ambitious project, because I've essentially ripped out the entire front-end of the website and replacing it. But I'm sure it'll be worth it! UIKit is a powerful framework with no signs of slowing down in development. It is hard to give screenies because you really need to be on the site live, but here's a couple:

You didn't tell me? :( That is correct, it was an error with everything outside of the forums except for the first level of the domain. I accidentally left code on the live site for when I was setting up our dev server :( Oops........ Thanks for reporting black mage!

Correct Thomas, I am using XAMPP. Although it is difficult at times to manage. I'm considering just using dev.gdunlimited.net for development, that way your sever environment is identical to the live one. It's a bit slower with waiting for uploads to happen though. There's also one called WAMPP. Tom just made me realize, now that I'm looking at this off my normal computer, that the banner image on my GDU sample isn't actually coming up. It looks significantly worse, and you guys didn't even notice :P

Thanks for the update Dolar, always nice to hear what old members are getting up to after all of these years. I'm in a similar but not-so-similar position as you, with life things taking over and really scavenging to find free time with work and family commitments. Although I don't have kids so I can't imagine how busy you are :P I moved cities about 9 months ago to take up an opportunity in one of the smaller cities here. I was at a crossroads back then, because all through uni I had been working towards two very district career paths, IT stuff and law (I have degrees on both) but right now I'm practicing law as a commercial solicitor. The city I moved to is famous for outdoors and we've been doing a lot of trekking, mountain biking, adventure stuff, etc. It's been a great change for us. I'm still not sure where I'll end up - Software calls for me, and people in my country usually spend time working overseas. I've also somehow found motivation to work on GDU. I have no idea where it comes from and why it peaks and falls. The new design and software upgrade is gona reaaaally impress you guys :)

You're late to the party, shin :P This is already a feature. Welcome back by the way, long time no c.

Oh I forgot to add you guys as mods in the refinery. You can now remove posts, like that spam one (but I got to it first :)).

Hi all A while back last year I attempted to upgrade the forum software. I attempted to fix the integration that exists between the forums and our own custom GDU system, but I was unsuccessful. After using some development tools, I have managed to restore the bridge on the new forums system. As part of this upgrade, I have decided to do some design tweaks. The forums would need to be re-styled anyway, so I thought it was a good opportunity to update the entire site - which is necessary any for better consistency when there's two integrated systems. The new design will unify Game Dev Refinery with the rest of the site. I've gone off on a tangent with that one... Here's a snapshot of one of our redesigned GDU pages: http://www.gdunlimited.net/gdu4.html (ignore the text... this was written when we were still RMXP Unlimited and I was dreaming of bigger things :) ) The design is very simple and clean. It is based off of the following theme: http://gameforest.yakuzi.eu/games.html http://gameforest.yakuzi.eu/games-single.html I expect to launch GDU4 around 14 February. Three weeks prior to that I will be off work, so I expect to get enough time then to complete this update. Moving forwards, the development focus of GDU will be on the following: GDU Refinery Games Section Integration with the above (and other GDU sections) with the forums, i.e. games in forum profile, etc.

Hey guys I thought I would take a sec to ask you guys what you would like to see on the GDU Games section. There are a large number of other websites that do exactly same, but I suppose a bit differently. What new features are important for you as a developer? What do you think needs to be changed? I appreciate the feedback :)

Hey guys I managed to find a few hours over this weekend to code stuff :thumbsup: The GDU experience and leveling system is live. You will get a certain amount of experience for basically every action on GDR. Posts are obviously worth the most experience, followed by making comments. Receiving likes and followers will also get you a decent amount. If you head over to GDR now, you'll get a pop-up saying that you've leveled up. I ran a script to calculate everyone's experience to date, so the system is starting as if it was live from the start. You'll get a pop notifying you each time you level up :D It uses an exponential type function. I've copied an algorithm I found on game dev stack exchange. At first, you'll really jump in levels, but it will start to slow down. The goal is to encourage people early on, but ensuring the regulars don't appear miles ahead (coz the exponential function requires more experience to get further levels). Your level is now integrated basically everywhere your avvy pops up (featuring the resident ghost, because he's currently leading GDR):

Oh right. Excellent question, Kenzo. It's a tough one to answer. The games section is more or less a failure. I set out thinking I could make a better system than rpgmaker.net, which is famous for its games pages. There's a fair few game pages, but as time slowly goes on they become static. The general lack of activity on the website as a whole exacerbates this problem. I'm not sure if the system sucks or that there isn't currently enough users to motivate people to post their games. My general impression is that the type of traffic around RPGM communities don't really care about the quality of the system, so long as there is a community there to engage with. It's a chicken and egg problem. I can make some tweaks to the game pages to integrate refinery posts, but apart from that, I won't be wasting time on developing that system further before it is guaranteed success (via the backing of a larger community presence). The Game Dev Refinery has the exact same chicken and egg problem, and it's actually a bigger problem for that system. However, that's where all of my effort is going as it is a purely community-based system and *hopefully* the people will come, and they would also use other systems like the game pages. I am still developing Game Dev Refinery, it is not in an official release stage, so I will be switching from development to purely advertising when the time is right, but no later than the end of Jan 2017 :) I've put a lot of effort into GDR, I started development at the end of April this year. If that system is a failure, there will be no option but to officially close GDU. The current activity levels are so below recent years that we're already at closure stage, so I am on a salvage mission. I think I'm a good developer, but I've also got a career to focus on so it is slow and on the odd occasion it is clear that I don't always choose the best development options :) I'm not sure how closure will happen. I might disable all functions and leave the website live for several years so people have access to the content, but it would be 100% static.

Yeah, it does. Experience gains will be linear, i.e. higher level members will get he same experience for a post as a first-time poster, so it'll take that into account. I don't anticipate needing to use a complicating formula to determine levels. The basic concept will be more involvement and commendations from others, higher level. The overall goal will be for members to personally feel like their level reflects what they've put in. I'm working on implementing the system. I'm thinking there will be a pop-up when you level-up saying woooh you're awesome now; I'll try to back-date experience and give everyone experience for everything they've done thus far. Slightly tricky, might take a while to get it done I'll implement experience gains asap so you'll be collecting exp in the background, prior to when the system is announced and you can publically see your level.

Since you guys voted for it, I thought I'd let you have a say on how it works and looks. I've come with a spot of algorithm as follows. The format is: total experience (+additional experience needed to get to this level from the last level) - additional posts needed to get to this level from the last level - and the sum of ALL posts so far. I.e. level 99 = 1,000 posts. I think this formula is ok. Level 3 would be 6 posts, but that'll be made easier with other actions gaining smaller amounts of experience. The formula is based on posts = 25 experience. Any event will give you experience, but the big earners will be posts and receiving likes on posts and comments, and followers. Sound good?

Niiiiiiiiice, I never thought about that. Definitely gona include :D

Nothing, why do you think any of this affects game pages? The two systems are separate, except of course the ability to link a post to a game page. Everyone so far has voted for the experience system. Great choice :) *opens IDE*

Ya, I had to :( Glad you like the upd8s :D EDIT: Updated the first post with another update today. Follow Post changed to Bookmarked Posts.

Hey guys See my poll. I'll let you choose what you want me to work on next :) Here's an example of option #1 Which will mean something like this on profiles: