RMXPUnlimited in 2010

[Marked 197]

RMXPUnlimited in 2010

This topic is about the ideas and plans for 2010. The topics mentioned here may or may not come to be in 2010 and merely plans. It is a new direction the site will be taking and may be controversial and should be discussed by the members.

 

Alight then, lets begin. I imagine this topic is going to be rather long so only the more dedicated members will read it through completely, otherwise just read the sections that interest you. I will make headings and clear and distinguish the sections properly.

 

 

User Submitted Content

This is completely related to to the CCK(custom content kit) of the website, which was used to build the RGSS Scripts Archives(RMXP/RMVX). The beauty of a CCK is the ability to create any type of content you want, allowing RMXPUnlimited to have unique one of a kind systems.

 

I. RGSS Scripts

Arguably the most attractive attribute an RPG Maker website can have, the RGSS Scripts Archives have already been designed and since their introduction in April of this year, have been reasonably successful. Since then, there have been 66,000 hits on the items alone. Items refer to the individual script 'articles', or basically the content contains the information of the script.

 

I have been working on a Script Submit Component which allows members of RMXPUnlimited to logon and go through a simple form, uploading an .rtf file for the script, and multiple images, and hit submit. That content is then displayed through template to look something, for example, like this: GubiDs Tactical Battle System v1.4(we have permission to host this script).

 

I was actually quite successful and put a good amount of hours into developing this component and got far enough to create a release candidate. To see it in action, here is a video:

 

However, I will not be releasing this component as it operates outside of the websites framework. This is important, but I will not go into detail about it here. Instead of using the component I created I will instead start again from scratch and create the component within the CCK component, using it's code and building it within the framework on the website. The end result will hopefully look exactly like in the video.

 

When this is complete, it will take a very short amount of time for a member to submit their work to the site, and all the display work is done. And that is how members will be able to submit their RGSS Scripts on RMXPUnlimited. To view a mock-up of the form, I have set one up on the website: http://rmxpunlimited.net/contact-us

 

II. Projects

Projects are the next thing which will be developed using a CCK, and this will replace the current projects section on the website. This should be one of the most popular parts of the site, and hopefully a lot of people will want to have their projects up on display.

 

Once this is finished it will be a full project display section. There's not a lot I can say about what it is going to look like, of course I have not designed it yet, but it will have a lot of nice features. It will work almost identically to the RGSS Scripts Archive. There will be various textarea forms which you will fill out, and this goes text goes to the template. Just like the scripts explained above. In the project submission form there will be textareas such as storyline, characters, sreenshots, etc. Each section of the project template will be derived from forum topics and how members have done it in the past.

 

Project hosting(the actual game download), for now, is planned to be in the forums Download Manager. Now I know a lot of you are skeptical about it and think it's useless and this won't work for the big projects. However the Downloads Manager is going to be updated and will include a flash uploader which has features such as upload progress.

 

My overall goal of the Projects section is to be like a mini-site for that project, where the member will link to on other sites. Basically a reliable and attractive project hosting place.

 

 

III. Tutorials

I have been wondering about how to create a tutorials section using a CCK. I know that I want an archive of tutorials on the website and with proper styling and CSS. At the moment how I'm thinking of doing is this is creating around 30 sections. Each section is a step in the tutorial and contains a textarea and an option image upload. So, you have the step 1 part: write out step1 text and then upload an image for it if you like. Then step 2: repeat the process. And then at the end when the tutorial is submitted it will come out in the template as a nice step by step tutorial. There are however limitations to this, not all tutorials will follow a direct step by step method. We'll have to see how this goes, but it is planned for 2010.

 

IV. Reviews Section

This is me and Arkbennetts little project. He contacted me with how it's going to look, and sent me this mock-up:

This is how the category view is going to be. The review itself will have various sections offering critique or praise for various elements of game design. A new staff group will be created for this and they will do the reviews. I would prefer that not any ordinary member attempt a review. They need to be proper and full English, insightful and thorough.

 

V. Make money by submitting your content?

This is just an idea, but I had thought of how to do it and it's not actually too hard. Once all the above are launched here on RMXPUnlimited, there may be a radio button asking whether or not to display ads in the item(perhaps not in projects and certainly not in reviews), and if yes then an ad will appear on the page of the script/tutorial you submitted. I do have a google adsense account, but I'm not a fan of ads and at the moment there is no reason for RMXPUnlimited to be raising money, so the site is adless. Anyway, using google analytics it is possible to determine how much revenue is gained on a specific page, and this way it is possible for members to request the revenue earned from submitting their content. The only issue is paying the author, the author would have to be aware that money is available to them. That bit I haven't figured out. However, no one person is likely to earn large amounts of money from us, but it is still a little pay back for their work.

 

 

R & D

R & D for those who don't know stands for Research and Development. Heavily used in the marketing department of a business, the concept is simple, you research what is effective and apply it. So what is the application of this on RMXPUnlimited?

 

As the head of Admin of RMXPUnlimited, or the person who initiates the major changes, it could be said that I operate in a vacuum. That is to say, this forum being the only one I'm active on prohibits the necessary changes to keep with the constantly changing preferences of the entire RPG Maker community. It also means that in creating the various forums and advertising various sections is all guess work, how do I know what is going to be effective or not?

 

So, for future decisions, content and other things on RMXPunlimited are going to be based on the 'users' preferences. How this is possible is rather simple but has been neglected in the past. There is substantial information avaliable, in such detail as to what percentage of clicks each link gets on every page of the site. So it is possible to optimize, shift and create content from the information of browsing preferences of the visitors to RMXPUnlimited. To summarize, R&D = relevant content.

 

The most noticeable effect of this is going to be yet another forum re-structure. Not necessarily the entire forum structure, because those are not what RMXPUnlimited's about, but the RPG Maker forums. We have gone through and through various structures of the RPG Maker sections and I dont think any have been truely effective. In saying this I dont even know what I will end up doing with them yet, there is research to be done. It is necessary to look at other sites which accommodate more than one engine and see how they how they offer support, resources etc. My goal is to find the most effective way to facilitate multiple engines on a forum.

 

This R&D concept will be (hopefully) reflected through most sections of the site, and our visitors will be able to find what they are looking for.

 

A shift Towards RPG Maker VX

It is obvious that the majority of members on RMXPUnlimited are RPG Maker XP users. However there is a definite issue with this.

 

This is arguable, but it's my opinion that RPG Maker XP, better or worse than its successor, is fading and will die before RPG Maker VX.

 

My basis for this reasoning is the comparison of the most popular RMXP site with the most popular RMVX site. Their respective traffic ranks suggest that RPG Maker VX is becoming more popular than RPG Maker XP, and therefor it is necessary for RMXPUnlimited to become more RPG Maker VX orientated. That is not to say more so than RMXP, but more so than it is at the moment. I think this is essential for the survival of the forum.

 

This will be reflected in the separation of the engines on the forums. At the moment scripts, tuts and support topics are crammed into the same forums for both engines. For a start, i dont like the prefixing of topics, and also this is demoting RMVX with our clear bias towards RMXP. So this is set to change. How do you guys feel about this?

 

Exclusive Content

Can anyone find any exclusive content on the site? I'm sure there are a few nice things we have here, but not nearly enough. That is to say that as a forum of our age(3+ years) we have abnormally low exclusive content. Exclusive content is usually something that is generated from your own pool of 'loyal' members that are active in the operations or purpose of the forum..to offer support(which includes tutorials) and resources(scripts, images, audio).

 

It is therefor a goal of 2010 to create exclusive content that is easily found and accessible(remember, R&D). In reflection of this, it also a goal to, in so many words, train members of community in RPG Maker. Seems pretty obvious and universal, but let me attempt to explain...users come here and learn how to use the program. Perhaps we have a great eventing tutorials section from which members develop and build on, and then they share their eventing systems with he community.

 

What I would like to do is have sortof catalog or tour of the RPG Makers which breaks down RPG Maker starting from the most simple things you can learn, leading on to more and more advanced material and processes. All the new users would go through it and develop their own understanding of the program, which will provide a base for more advanced stuff. I think I will write the RPG Maker XP one myself, but I know very little about RMVX.

[Kiriashi 117]

The last two topics really caught my attention. I assume you were referring to RPG Maker VX.net... Well I guess it's finally, happening; RMXP is growing its white hairs. Because of this, I agree that we should become more RMVX friendly. (Maybe get permission from Aindra to host her stuff) A separate forum for the engine wouldn't hurt. There is an alternative: we could try to resurrect RMXP. I dunno' where I'm going with this, but maybe we could get our friends, who've never heard of RMXP, to toy with the program. This probably won't go anywhere.

 

As for exclusive content.. Well.. Take a look at my signature. That's going to be RMXP Unlimited Exclusive. :rolleyes:

[Tomo2000 60]

Well, I'll be getting the full version of VX in a while and think that more things to do with VX would be great.

 

Also, I think that the numbers of active members are dwindling. I'm constantly active and see about 5-8 new members but only see about 2-3 of them ever log in. This might be just to download demos or other materials. I remember signing up to download 'Outlaw City' and then posted like there was no tomorrow :D . I would say something about zombies, although this might count, but I don't want to put a joke on the whole "like theres no tomorrow" thing.

 

Anyway, I think the new upgrades will be awesome. Thanks.

[Leon 55]

For exclusive content, I can be sure to get you excellent scripts exclusive to this site. I have one now that blew Kiriashi's load all over his screen. Granted, it is more of a add-on script than anything, it is adapted to be surprising. To ensure they stay here, I can put a few choice keywords in the script that if anyone posts it elsewhere, I can track it and have it removed. Besides, this is the only place I feel truly welcome anyway (besides one other place that i remain inactive at)

[Wyzrd 12]

This looks good Marked. I think 2010 will be a good year. I'm not sure how much I can contribute but I will help out where I can.

[Polraudio 122]

I like all these ideas. Leaning towards VX might be a very good idea.

I had this idea of a school like Kiriashi. Mine is more based of like the classes we have but we will have each member that is in the class will have to keep their attendance and grades up. We will start from the basics of building a game and then go on teaching them how everything works, Then events, and so on. We could have other members that know lots in a certain area teach a section in class.

So we will give out homework and have a due date then grade them and record attendance. Once were complete we will have a topic for graduation and hand out something to them to show they are graduated.

 

I like all your ideas and i think they will work perfectly. If you need help setting anything up just ask.

[formlesstree4 18]

Something unique to RMXPU is obviously Scrive. Granted, we need to work on it some more, and possibly we could utilize your own database for Scrive's purposes. It'd be up to you, as it would alleviate Scrive's only weakness of having no central database.

 

Not to mention I'm going to be kicking my teachings into full swing for VB.net.

[Marked 197]

The last two topics really caught my attention. I assume you were referring to RPG Maker VX.net... Well I guess it's finally, happening; RMXP is growing its white hairs. Because of this, I agree that we should become more RMVX friendly. (Maybe get permission from Aindra to host her stuff) A separate forum for the engine wouldn't hurt. There is an alternative: we could try to resurrect RMXP. I dunno' where I'm going with this, but maybe we could get our friends, who've never heard of RMXP, to toy with the program. This probably won't go anywhere.

 

As for exclusive content.. Well.. Take a look at my signature. That's going to be RMXP Unlimited Exclusive. :rolleyes:

Yes I was talking about rpgmakervx.net, and by the way, how many other RMVX forums are out there? I dont get out much(on the internet) so I'm not sure, but that site seems to be the only major one around... There are dozens(or were) of RPG Maker XP sites. As for resurrecting RMXP, it can't hurt, but when an engine becomes old or obsolete(which perhaps does not apply here) then it is dead. And to ensure RMXPUnlimited does not die completely, I assume we will fade RMXP out slowly, but only when no one is using it anymore. Which could be years, it has lasted a long time already.

 

Also, I think that the numbers of active members are dwindling. I'm constantly active and see about 5-8 new members but only see about 2-3 of them ever log in.

Hope you don't mind, i cut your quote. Yes I agree about the members, it has always been the case and I'm fine with some members. All sites with a decent amount of resources will get that, but we need to establish a nice base community. I suppose I could get complicated with it, I seem to develop my own theories..but anyway, 'community' is definitely a goal of 2010.

 

For exclusive content, I can be sure to get you excellent scripts exclusive to this site. I have one now that blew Kiriashi's load all over his screen. Granted, it is more of a add-on script than anything, it is adapted to be surprising. To ensure they stay here, I can put a few choice keywords in the script that if anyone posts it elsewhere, I can track it and have it removed. Besides, this is the only place I feel truly welcome anyway (besides one other place that i remain inactive at)

Beautiful imagery. I'm glad you feel welcome here, you have been referred on other sites as RMXPUnlimited's Leon, and you are one of the originals of course. Although I don't want you to feel there is any obligation on you to remain loyal here and restrict your work to this site. However I will be working a lot of the scripts archive, I can do alot with it and hopefully you will see that in months to come. Unlike topics(excluding forum software such as VB which has tags) items in the script archive have meta keywords and descriptions making them search engine friendly, as well as the themes I choose. Also Leon, how you would feel about making money from your scripts? If you don't know what I'm talking about, its in the first post. Would you like to allow ads on the pages with your scripts, and receiving any money that generates?

 

This looks good Marked. I think 2010 will be a good year. I'm not sure how much I can contribute but I will help out where I can.

Being a moderator here, as you were before you left, is a big contribution. Just do that, and I'll be way happy :)

 

 

I like all these ideas. Leaning towards VX might be a very good idea.

I had this idea of a school like Kiriashi. Mine is more based of like the classes we have but we will have each member that is in the class will have to keep their attendance and grades up. We will start from the basics of building a game and then go on teaching them how everything works, Then events, and so on. We could have other members that know lots in a certain area teach a section in class.

So we will give out homework and have a due date then grade them and record attendance. Once were complete we will have a topic for graduation and hand out something to them to show they are graduated.

 

I like all your ideas and i think they will work perfectly. If you need help setting anything up just ask.

I'm glad you like the ideas and I will be willing to setup the necessary sections to you and Kiriashi to do what you mentioned in this post. That's fine but it is also, at the moment, a little optimistic. My reasons for the saying that is I think it will be difficult to catch members and get them to participate in something that sounds like a short-term commitment. And I would imagine this will be time consuming and stressful for both of you. But if you can pull it off, you have my support. But in saying its optimistic, I mean, I need to start pulling in some decent traffic. When I changed the URLs mentioned in the other topic, I killed all the pages that lead to the website, most of them will now be 404s. Until all those pages are indexed again, and we've have them since early 2008, traffic is going to be a little bit worse off and its definitely been showing through the last few days. However it will prove beneficial in the long run.

 

Something unique to RMXPU is obviously Scrive. Granted, we need to work on it some more, and possibly we could utilize your own database for Scrive's purposes. It'd be up to you, as it would alleviate Scrive's only weakness of having no central database.

 

Not to mention I'm going to be kicking my teachings into full swing for VB.net.

Scrive is not really advertised anywhere on the site and not many people know it is exclusive to RMXPUnlimited. I need to work on the website a lot, but I would whoever is in charge of the Scrive(RMXPitare or you, im not sure who it is) to PM me so we can discuss some things, such as more advertising of Scrive. Integration of the Scripts Archive and Scrive are possible, but I have a lot of work to do including learning more php and the sites framework, but I hope we can pull that off.

 

I'm glad you will continuing your VB tutorials, you don't seem very active and I was wondering whether to lock Blackbounds and your forums which would make them read-only forums.

[Kiriashi 117]

Oh no no no Marked. My project isn't something you have to be apart of and post to use. The title has the word school, but really it is just teaching. It is a giant tutorial that you play through, it isn't a forum thing.

 

@ Leon: Heh... :P

[Leon 55]

I have no problem posting the script solely here. In fact, most other places people don't take me seriously. I say I am a master scripter, and they laugh simply because I don't post 50x a day there and reveal my true persona. Stupid fools.

[Agckuu_Coceg 5]

Ideas of great administrator Marked I like, and if these ideas are realized, then a portal will become very much and very good. It I talk as a man which visited on MANY portals on RPG Maker.

 

P.S. We also try to open out similar ideas herein and next year. Why not to unite force with us? Yet more powerful structure of portal will turn out in the total. Besides, international.

[Kiriashi 117]

I have no problem posting the script solely here. In fact, most other places people don't take me seriously. I say I am a master scripter, and they laugh simply because I don't post 50x a day there and reveal my true persona. Stupid fools.

 

 

I'm a stupid fool....? :(

 

No really though, we know who you are; no one else matters.

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

I have some nice script ideas...but I don't know how to script...if someone could teach me (I've never successfully taught myself so far) then I'd be willing to make them exclusively for here.

[Kiriashi 117]

..I thought you've written some before. What about that character stat export thingy?

 

Leon has some nice tutorials on scripting, and there are more on the internet.

 

OMGz MARKED HOW DO YOU GET THE ARHSES RUNNING AROUND AND JUMPING!?!?!? DOES WANT!

[Marked 197]

I have some nice script ideas...but I don't know how to script...if someone could teach me (I've never successfully taught myself so far) then I'd be willing to make them exclusively for here.

In terms of my first post, I don't mean exclusive content in terms of saying: everyone who is active start making exclusive scripts, tutorials etc. We have had this discussion before of course, and I didn't go far. If the members who are on here now do not contribute such content, then they are unlikely to do so in the future. I think this quote helps:

it also a goal to, in so many words, train members of community in RPG Maker. Seems pretty obvious and universal, but let me attempt to explain...users come here and learn how to use the program. Perhaps we have a great eventing tutorials section from which members develop and build on, and then they share their eventing systems with he community.

But it also goes deeper than just members posting useful content. An example is the step by step walkthrough tutorial that i mentioned in the first post. What I am getting at is you don't have to go and learn scripting for us, if you want to then that is great, but do it for you. I feel like I didn't explain this well, do you understand?

 

..I thought you've written some before. What about that character stat export thingy?

 

Leon has some nice tutorials on scripting, and there are more on the internet.

 

OMGz MARKED HOW DO YOU GET THE ARHSES RUNNING AROUND AND JUMPING!?!?!? DOES WANT!

I was thinking about moving some of the tutorial from the training center to the website and creating an archive of unique(from each other, not exclusive content) tutorials divided into separate categories so the member goes through them in order and learns what they want.

 

As for my signature, Kiriashi, you need to learn flash. If you want I can make an animation for you from the RTP sprites? I can't do complicated animation though, I gave up flash years ago. I just did a simple one for mine, I was thinking of doing a fight scene between arshes and the first guy from VX.

[formlesstree4 18]

I know I haven't been to active recently, and I'm sorry about that. I'm working on that. I'll contact you soon about Scrive integration. You wouldn't really have to worry about PHP, as Scrive handles all the MySQL queries on it's own. It was one of the first features that I tried to incorporate as to not require some sort of PHP frontend.

[Kiriashi 117]

Or you could make more VB tutorials!!! ^_^

 

Marked, I want it... please? lol Animating in flash is a pain in the ass.

[formlesstree4 18]

Or you could make more VB tutorials!!! ^_^

 

Marked, I want it... please? lol Animating in flash is a pain in the ass.

Get on Yahoo! more and maybe I can also tutor you alongside the tutorials.... *glare*

[FranklinX 37]

I am going to be much more active on this forums. I have tried to help friends make forums, but it always go down hill. There are actually many good people on this forum who are willing to give this place the "cutting edge".

 

I suggest we focus on ALL of the RPG Makers. We only focus on XP. This limits the site to potential members.

[Marked 197]

Or you could make more VB tutorials!!! ^_^

 

Marked, I want it... please? lol Animating in flash is a pain in the ass.

You want mine? http://www.rmxpunlimited.net/arhes.swf

PM me if you want me to make you one...

 

 

I am going to be much more active on this forums. I have tried to help friends make forums, but it always go down hill. There are actually many good people on this forum who are willing to give this place the "cutting edge".

 

I suggest we focus on ALL of the RPG Makers. We only focus on XP. This limits the site to potential members.

I agree, I would to support all of the makers from RPG Maker XP and onwards. We do not actually focus on RMXP along, but your statement from a members point of view does show how little VX is used here.

[Blackbound 4]

Dont forget about VXP which I plan to be builting over the next 1.5 years, I already have a good portion of the interfacing for it done already, but its still a ton of work to build. However its going to be a RMXPU Exclusive- and possably backdoor only on first release-

But other than that you might want to see about making some more exclusives within the site.

 

[Agckuu_Coceg 5]

Why only XP? Many people are also interested in VX, but some is still used in 2000 and 2003 RPG Maker. I need to constantly support them. And for this exist Tutorials and teachers to work with RPGM.

[FranklinX 37]

I can start uploading more VX resources. We really don't have much.

[Kiriashi 117]

Well RMVX and RMXP are not as old as 2k3, 95, etc. I don't think there would be a point in supporting them. :/

[Noob Saibot 38]

Well hopefully you can make use of the Tutorial system I RMXP Unlimited you.

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

One thing to keep in mind is that we don't want to support too much. If we support too many programs, we'll have a lot of blank forums, and as such, we'll look very inactive. That was a problem we had before when we were supporting RMXP/VX, Action Game Maker, Adventure Game Studio, and Game Maker all at once. People still join for RMXP/VX and none of the others (cause we had nothing for them) and we might have lost some members due to the look of inactivity. So, let's try to keep that in mind -nods-

 

@Marked: Well, I do want to learn scripting for myself. I want to complete a working version of my Export-Import System. My current version works, but I want it to be able to read and save via a name and not a number (like at current it exports the files as E1.export, I'd like it to export with "william.export" and have the ability to have it read any ".export" file, no matter the filename, but my scripting ability hasn't reached that yet). Also, I'd like to be able to make my own CMS for Crystals of Chaos, cause I don't like the default and I can't find a CMS that is compatible with any of the scripts I'm using right now lol

[Noob Saibot 38]

One thing to keep in mind is that we don't want to support too much. If we support too many programs, we'll have a lot of blank forums, and as such, we'll look very inactive. That was a problem we had before when we were supporting RMXP/VX, Action Game Maker, Adventure Game Studio, and Game Maker all at once. People still join for RMXP/VX and none of the others (cause we had nothing for them) and we might have lost some members due to the look of inactivity. So, let's try to keep that in mind -nods-

 

@Marked: Well, I do want to learn scripting for myself. I want to complete a working version of my Export-Import System. My current version works, but I want it to be able to read and save via a name and not a number (like at current it exports the files as E1.export, I'd like it to export with "william.export" and have the ability to have it read any ".export" file, no matter the filename, but my scripting ability hasn't reached that yet). Also, I'd like to be able to make my own CMS for Crystals of Chaos, cause I don't like the default and I can't find a CMS that is compatible with any of the scripts I'm using right now lol

 

 

 

Just stick with Enterbrain products.

[Kiriashi 117]

Emmy, try diddling with all the numbers and stuff, and you can change stuff around.

[FranklinX 37]

I think there should be a new design for the main page. It does not really have a design. It would be nice to have more updates. Tell people about new members, projects, contests, member of the month, etc on the main page for more frequent updates.

[Kiriashi 117]

Yeah, that would be nice, but the archive thing is pretty smexy! :)

 

Maybe have a layout where the bars at the top go down in a column instead of in a row. :mellow: