Theory of GDU

[Marked 197]

With the release of GDU approaching, here is a post on the theory behind the system. Please note that this is the theory behind it, and a lot of these features will not be included upon release. But this is what we are building to.

 

From RMXP site to Indie Game Development – with support for specific engines

RMXP Unlimited started out as a site for RPG Maker XP and has since struggled to keep up in developing a community for its successors. GDU will be a site to incorporate indie game development in general with no specific engine or class of engines at the centre of it. This is not to say that our majority of members, RMXP users, will no longer find a home here. There will still be sections for specific engines.

 

Quality content

GDU will aim to produce good quality content that is exclusive to the site and offer incentives for the authors who choose GDU to host it. RMXPU being a home to 2^nd hand resources had long-term benefits but was overall damaging to building the community. No more content will show up on GDU that was coped form somewhere else, unless by a member.

 

Central content system

At one point in time on RMXPU (although not the case at the present time) there were 4 locations where you could find a script. This included on the website, on the forums and in the downloads manager. Similar for tutorials, specific content was not located in one place.

Sections for each class of content will be created based on the needs of each and to allow all visitors to the site to find what they want as easily and efficiently as possible. This means that content will not be posted in forum topics anymore.

 

Forum topics are temporary

Many indie game development sites setup a forum and leave it at that. Forums for everything – graphics, scripts, tutorials etc. It works but its not the best way to do things. Certain content needs different things – more than just a single textbox filled with bbcode. The theory behind the GDU forum is temporary benefits. The best example of this is a support topic. A member makes a topic requesting help, another member answers the topic, the topic is closed and forgotten about. It never needs to come up again except in searches for those who have the same problem. The specific forums on GDU will be determined based on this temporary benefits theory, with long-term benefits content in their own sections.

 

Integration

With the need for many more sections that just a forum, a lot more coding and new sections must be developed. For this to happen, member integration and theme integration must be seamless. On RMXPU the theme is made to look identical but there are different images and different CSS styles for both of those themes. Similarly members have a forum account and a website account that used to login at the same time. On GDU, there is no duplicate code – globally across the site the theme is generated from the exact same file, and the members use their forum account everywhere. The website and forum are essentially one system.

 

Finding the content you are interested in

You will be able to manage and keep track of the things that interest you on a dashboard. You will be able to find content based on your personal set of tags/keywords, see who has replied to your topics or see replies to topics you have posted in, keep track of new/updated content that you choose, see the activity of members you choose to follow, etc. All the possible activity across GDU will be in one centralised location so you don’t miss out on anything.

 

Value in your account

Your GDU account should be valuable and worth something. This is the point behind the points system and an awards system.

 

Effective collaboration and hosting of games

The games section is for you to upload your games for the visitors to download and play – think of it as your own website for your game. You will have a large range of options to customize your games pages and attract visitors to download it. On top of that, you will be able to add ‘team members’ to your game to have access to your own control panel. The control panel is a collaboration/team management system that is used to develop your team project online with other members of the community, rather than through PMs or topics posts. This system will also include a recruitment system which will available publically so you can attract members to your team.

[Polraudio 122]

Very nice. I like how it all sounds. This will work out great :D.

 

I like the idea of exclusive resources. That we dont get people complaining that their resources are here without there permission.

[Marked 197]

I like the idea of exclusive resources. That we dont get people complaining that their resources are here without there permission.

Has there ever been a complaint? Not to sound immoral, but that's never really been a problem and doesn't influence the decision not to do it. But Ive dealt with 1 complaint and asked permission on several occasions for content that I did post here from other places.

[isaacsol 10]

Sounding really good Mark, if you need any help let me know :) And it might be easier to contact me on my email addresses as I am working on sorting my internet out for good.

[Jon Bon 43]

This sounds awesome. Well thought out and practical. I can hardly wait! Keep up the good work, and make sure to take it easy every once and a while!

[Bigace360 38]

I'm guessing once were done, marked's taking a vacation. This shit is sweet and everything Jon Bon said. Effective collaboration and hosting of games sounds pretty cool, with the ability allowing me to create my website type forum for my game. I won't have to use my email.

[Marked 197]

I'm guessing once were done, marked's taking a vacation. This shit is sweet and everything Jon Bon said. Effective collaboration and hosting of games sounds pretty cool, with the ability allowing me to create my website type forum for my game. I won't have to use my email.

Not all of this will be ready once GDU goes live... originally that was the plan. Since I moved into a flat with other students in Feb I find that I haven't got much time to spare anymore. Gotta work at least 20 hours a week to keep a float as well as a pretty busy study workload. If you go to GDU now and look at the menu items that have been dimmed out, those are the features that will not be available when we switch over, which is a decent chunk of the above.

 

I made the decision to switch over to GDU prematurely to finally be rid of this broken down system we're currently using. It's clear to me that there's not enough time, and the best I can offer is work on GDU over time, starting with functioning forums, which is pretty much all we have here to begin with.

 

At the core of GDU is the dashboard and the games section, but these will take some time to develop and considerable testing too.

 

Hopefully I will be able to get staff testing the GDU forums shortly and once we're functioning properly, we'll make the switch.

[FranklinX 37]

Sounds like you got a good plan. I will be here to support!

[joman195 9]

I know I'm not the most active member (1 post per 3 weeks XD) but I like the way GDU will be set up.