Messages

46

Creative and Project Hub - The River Docks / Re: Building a community forum around an indie game

« on: February 16, 2017, 08:24:40 AM »

There is quite a range, plus we edited ours a fair bit (decreased the width, added borders, customized the breadcrumb)... I say "we", my friend John did it.  I like exilian though.  White on dark grey is easy on the eyes.  Plus we don't have stone groot 

47

Creative and Project Hub - The River Docks / Re: Building a community forum around an indie game

« on: February 15, 2017, 02:25:59 PM »

I would have to be mad to discount anyone who lists "Web community building" as a hobby & interest!

Everything you said makes good sense to me, I think I will follow your suggestion and lead with an announcements board.  General gameplay is also a nice one to stick up next as it will probably have the most interesting content for people to read. 

Thanks for the rules suggestions, I didn't want them too long to begin with but spam and illegal stuff probably does need to be up there from the start.

Also I had no idea there were two different spellings of defuse.  I guess people could 'diffuse' rude comments into a general grumpiness across several posts 

Maybe we could do a link exchange.  I am not sure where I would put it though.  I think modding might become a topic of discussion at some point, several people have mentioned an interest.  So if we made a board for that, we could link to exilian and you should get some relevant traffic

48

Creative and Project Hub - The River Docks / Building a community forum around an indie game

« on: February 15, 2017, 10:39:44 AM »

I think it makes sense to put this here...  I am in the process of putting together a forum to function as a community hub for followers of our insect-themed indie game "Empires of the Undergrowth".

The basic framework is in place (using simple machines like exilian does), but I am wondering what boards should be available at launch.  I hope the community will build over time, but in order to do that, we need our initial visitors to stick around.

At the moment I think it makes sense to have a "suggestions" board for ideas about the development and a "bugs / troubleshooting" board for reporting and fixing problems with the latest builds.  But what else do you think would be useful, particularly for a fresh forum.  So far we have a "Newbies" board for introductions and an "open" board which I am not sure is appropriate (or appropriately named).
Forum (WIP): http://forum.eotugame.com/

I would like to use the forum to post lets-plays of the game, and relevant things that might indirectly impact the game (news about our game genre and distribution in a wider sense).  We currently do this on Facebook but it rarely leads to conversations between followers.

We also have an added spanner in the works.  Up until this point we have been collecting peoples' comments, bugs, ideas etc on a social media platform called Stomt.  This allows people to make comments in 120 characters or less and they don't have to sign up to use the service.  It works surprisingly well for feedback and spam is rare.  I feel that our forum strategy should account for Stomt as there is going to be a definite overlap, but also a definite difference, I don't want to abandon our Stomt due to its accessibility. 
Stomt page: https://www.stomt.com/empires-of-the-undergrowth

I am not expecting an epiphany here, I will just try to approach the situation with common sense.  But if anyone here experienced in small community management has any advice to offer, I would appreciate it. 

49

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Quickfire Screenshots

« on: November 20, 2016, 12:14:51 PM »

Looks bloody awesome.  Your pixel art is really decent, the style is coherent between the screenshots.

Your method also sounds like Dr Who jargon,

starting with photographs, montaging them, then crunching the image and indexing

50

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / Re: Quickfire Screenshots

« on: November 20, 2016, 11:34:02 AM »

The space beast looks awesome.  Where are the other 6 frames?  Is it for a game?

51

Computer Game Development - The Indie Alley / I can't believe this place has been empty since March

« on: November 19, 2016, 01:54:44 PM »

Here is a demonstration of the natural phenomenon of low FPS around black ant supply junctions

52

Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Guess Who Will Post Next... II!

« on: November 19, 2016, 01:23:01 PM »

Haha! How did you guess? Nice one.

Ok, Dave.

53

Forum Games - The Beer Cellar! / Re: Guess Who Will Post Next... II!

« on: November 19, 2016, 01:22:35 PM »

Nope,

Probably me.

54

General Gaming - The Arcade / Re: Dune 2 & tablet RTS games

« on: November 17, 2016, 02:09:05 PM »

I think I will do a proper post about it in a few days as there is a big demo update about to go live that we have been working on for a while (3-person project).  The game is called "Empires of the Undergrowth".  It's sort of a god-sim / management game like Dungeon Keeper, only with ants instead of demons.

55

General Gaming - The Arcade / Dune 2 & tablet RTS games

« on: November 17, 2016, 12:35:55 PM »

It looks like there are quite a few RTS players here.  Does anyone here remember playing Dune 2?  I think it was probably my first proper game as a kid. 

A friend told me some time ago that there was actually an android version available that someone had ported independently and so I had to download it.  I installed it on my old 2012 Nexus 7 (which is a piece of junk as far as tablets go really) and it runs perfectly.  Given that it was produced in 1992 (considered by many to be the father of the modern RTS genre), it pre-dates the 'boxing' (with the mouse) and grouping features that are pretty much a given with any new RTS.  This simplification means that when playing on a touchscreen device, you don't feel disadvantaged over playing on a pc (like you would with say command and conquer).  In the original you had to click and move everything individually, so the touch screen actually feels a bit easier.

I have lost countless hours to it since installing on my tablet now.  It is great for long distance travel - especially if you don't have an internet connection.

The .apk was on google play for a while but apparently EA shut the dev down after they were trying to make money from the unofficial port.  You can still get it from very dodgy looking websites though by searching for "dune 2 android".  I can confirm that it exists, and is real - but depending on where you find it, might be best to give it a wash with your anti virus first.

I have nothing to do with it personally, I just thought I would shout out about it here as I have had so much fun with the thing. 

I am working on an RTS myself, but moved away from tablet to PC last year after a significant amount of "no one wants a mobile RTS" feedback.
 

56

The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Re: Good morning

« on: November 05, 2016, 07:56:36 AM »

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone and for pointing me to The Hitch-hiker's Guide to Exilian.  Very comprehensive.   

Is it just me or does this "ogre" look like a stone Groot?

57

The Welcome Hall - Start Here! / Good morning

« on: November 04, 2016, 09:52:08 AM »

A friend of mine pointed me here and said "have you seen this, it looks like TIG source".  I thought to myself, "what it TIG source?" and then registered here. 

In the evenings and weekends I am a game developer.  During the day I have a job where no one can see my screen.

I clicked on "Exilian on Youtube" and now I want to know what muffin hell is.