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RMN V4.3 APPROACHES! COMMAND?
Posts
kentona
View playlists
CloseRMNv4.3
I am prepping another minor update for RMN. I know how you all hate surprisesand loathe change so I'd thought I'd give you a heads up on the things I am looking at doing and give you a chance to voice your suggestions, thoughts and opinions.
For the record, we are currently on RMNv4.2, in our loosely defined adhoc versioning system.
Game Vault/RM Game Archive
-to allow for uploading of old games to compensate for the MegaUpload take down. RMN encourages the original creators to upload their game and create a profile, but that is not always feasible or realistic. Some careful thought will be need to be put into the administration and rules for this, but this feature is on the table.
Notification and Subscription functionality expansion
-imho, our greatest feature is the automatic Notifications for activity on the site (even more important than the gameprofiles is to be aware of updates on them!). I would like to expand this functionality to allow for finer grained control (being able to sub/unsub from events and articles, for example) and allow for subscriptions to an engine, to get notified the latest stuffs submitted for that engine (gams, tuts, scripts).
A Who's Currently Active on RMN list
-this should be doable, but we need to figure out a way to do it efficiently!
Increased recognition for contributors
-Automatically dole out certain achievements in the overnight job for contributing a certain number of items (ie- Reviewer Achievement for reviewing 10 games, say).
Game Developer Roles
-The current setup is fixed and hardcoded and not very flexible. I need to rework this to allow leads to assign roles (perhaps multiple roles) to a game's developer. This would allow me to add things like Musician and Writing roles for games, and (hopefully) allow people to have multiple roles for a game (if applicable).
Episodic games support
-I am looking at a way to better showcase and support games that are episodic in nature. Right now, there is an assumption with the RMN architecture that you game is either Complete or In Development. There is no concert of "Episode Complete but More Episodes are in Development". I want to see if I can remedy that, somehow.
Frontpage rejigging
-People are never satisfied with the frontpage, and while I liked it more than most, I am still not completely satisfied. NOTE: I am not completely revamping the site. I just want to move the elements around, and rethink on how some elements are displayed, and maybe adding/removing item feeds from it. I elaborate below on some ideas.
Portals for our main facets
-So, I am envisioning our RMN menubar to move away from GAMES - REVIEWS - BLOGS - MEDIA - ARTICLES - SCRIPTS - ENGINES - EVENTS - FORUMS and move to GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - FORUMS. So there will be a mini-frontpage for each of those facets, focusing on that facet, in addition to the various list pages that those facets consist of (games list, review list, blog list, etc...). I am hoping that less clutter and more options for showcasing quality stuffs will be beneficial.
Improved Important! notification bar
-Right now we have Current Events and one Important! item pinned. I was thinking of expanding that to also include a customizable (by staff) bar for important things that would show up on ALL pages (except gameprofiles, probably). (I keep hearing about "I had no idea this was going on!!" about site contests, events, cool news or whatever. That bugs me. Having a fancy Important! bar could help remedy this)
Official support for resources
-a contentious issue! But it keeps coming up, and people seem to want it. I would rather have us somehow focus only on custom resources (or heavy edits (but where do we draw the line?)) but I am open to the idea and suggestions on how to handle it. I don't make or use custom resources (not really, anyways) so I am not in the best position to design a system for it right now.
Personal Showcase Game
-There is a desire for the ability to sort, organize or otherwise highlight your own personal flagship game on your personal list of games, instead of lolcommunitygamesandonehours. I think this idea has merit. At the very least, I will make it so that you can select your 'flagship' game and have that feature first/more prominently. I will also look at some of the more elaborate ideas about groupings and sort orders and see what's feasible and reasonable to implement.
Some minor improvements/fixes
-Allow for the upload of a file for Tutorials/Scripts (for demos, for example)
-Tag tutorials as Beginner/Intermediate/Expert
-look into the feasibility and desirability for a Game Programming subforum, for script and plugin development, and to reduce clutter in the Help forum
-permanent link to RMN's vendor affiliate program
-take a look at user names and special characters
-allow Donators to change their own damn user titles
-have a single Submit Script link, instead of one per engine
-Possible to delete a Game Page marked as 'Primary', fix that
-some other bugs
My Personal goals going forward:
- limit my meddling, especially in regards to moderation
- actually develop games again and contribute to the community in that regard (it's what we're about, dammit!)
- delegate responsibilities that I am not as good at/incompetent to other staff members
RMN goals:
- endeavor to make RMN more self-sufficient finacially
- attempt to make RMN more attractive for scripters in Ace
- enhance the notification system (our greatest strength, imho!) to include engines and finetuning for other items
- improve visibility of games (frontpage rejig, portals, improved notifications)
- add some sort of official support for resources
Further elaboration:
Finances:
Regarding RMN's finances, for a while there we were just paying for our server ($150/month). Several recurring donators have stopped their recurring donations , but a few new ones did come on to help offset that. I haven't calculated it recently, but I think we have enough to cover us on a month to month basis. I have yet to get paid for any Google advertising or VX Ace sales - for Google Adsense you have to cross a threshold of $100 before it gets paid out, and we haven't reached that yet. On good days we get about $2.50, and on bad days I've seen < 40 cents. (We have gotten the odd $5+ day, but that is very rare). I think we can count on $30 a month from advertising. This leaves a $120 shortfall, which, thankfully, is being met by recurring donations. VX Ace sales are very sporadic - it is not a reliable source of income. RMN is able to meet its cost, but we don't have that big of a buffer, and we have no extra cash to, say, buy prizes or whatnot. I don't want to be relying so heavily on donations, though.
I am going to make a permanent Purchase VX Ace link in the header section of RMNv4.3 . We get a good cut of the profit for VX Ace sales, and increasing sales would do a lot to wean us off of the dependence of donations. However, the appeal of VX Ace will wane over time, as more people get the program and as the program ages. So basically I want to cash in on this now to help build up our coffers while the engine is still hot. I haven't been very successful at all. :<
I am also hoping to make a Donate button a permanent fixture on the frontpage somewhere. I haven't done a donation drive since taking over the site. I don't want to, though, if I don't have to.
Facets:
The way I see it, we have 4 primary facets that we cater to in some degree or another: GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - COMMUNITY. Most of our current pages would fall under one of those categories I'd rejig the RMN Menu bar to have GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - FORUMS.
Like the top userbar, the RMN menubar would show more options when hovered over. Clicking on the main item would take you to a "frontpage" portal for that facet. So clicking on GAMES would take you to the Games portal and would geared towards getting people to playing games and following games. Likewise, DEVELOPMENT would showcase things that help developers. EVENTS would showcase not only current events, but celebrate games/submissions from past events, and maybe even provide a spot to mention upcoming events. COMMUNITY might not be its own portal (I think having a direct link to the forums is more important) but it is important to think of COMMUNITY as a facet to be fostered at RMN, and recognizing contributions that enhance it.
When you hover over GAMES, you would see menu options like Reviews, Media, Blogs, and Games List (and maybe other things?). Games List would take you to our current Games page on RMN right now. When you hover over DEVELOPMENT, you'd see things like Scripts, Tutorials, Articles, Engines. Etc...
All of this is just brainstorming, of course. Input and suggestions are welcome.
Frontpage:
Anywho, here is the frontpage mockup I showed nubstep the other week:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/rmn4_3_prototypeM.png
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/rmn4_3_prototype2a.PNG
My thought was that no one uses the tabs on the frontpage main banner BUT people have told me that they actually DO check out the other tabs, so maybe I was wrong! Anywho, my idea to address this (potentially non-)issue was to have only 2 large banners of 240px (vs the current 320px) stacked, then move the 2 gamespots directly below that. There would be 2 distinct columns - the left one being 640px and the right one being 336px (as it is currently). WHATS BUZZING would be in the rightmost column. Below the gamespots would be 4 columns of 160px for the "latest" game related submissions - reviews, blogs, downloads, media - with the absolute latest one having a little thumbnail, to spruce up the lists! Below that nub and I discussed having a "quilt" of 160x120px thumbnails. I only showed the ones for Buzzing Games and Random Screenshots, but we could do more like recently added and recently completed and have a full 4x4 thumbnail quilt. Beside it (which could easily go below it if we were to do a full 4x4 quilt) is another "latest" style list that is a combo of two 160px columns, but this time with a featured item. I chose articles, so on the left part there is a featured article with a little custom thumbnail and a preview blurb, then a list on the right of the latest. I dropped all of the extraneous info from these latest lists - people can find the authors and games I figure when they click the link. Maybe interesting titles will encourage people to explore more games. On the 336px right column I'd have 3 "permanent" links - I don't know what would go there necessarily, but that might be a good place for a permanent link to DONATE TO RMN and BUY VX ACE (and maybe NEW TO RMN?). Below that would be the latest items that would benefit from a little blurb, like Bulletins and Scripts. Articles would also fit in that section here, too, if we decide to put them here instead. Articles can be split between actual articles and tutorials, too, so maybe articles can go in the 336px column, and tutorials can have a "featured" style in the main column.
Like I said though, this was predicated on the assumption that no one checks out the other tabs. Do you check out the other tabs??
Here is nubbins sketch of an elaborate quilt:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/RMNLayoutthing.png
The idea would be (if possible) when they clicked or hovered or something, the selected column would expand to show a full 4x4 quilt of the top 16 items in that category. So selecting the Buzzing Games one would expand it from the top 4 to showing the top 16 games. I have no idea how or if this can be done in javascript, but its probably doable.
Anywho, this was where I was going with the frontpage. I know that a few of you had ideas, too, and I'd like to see your mockups and sketches.
Like I mentioned, this is all brainstorming right now, and nothing is set in stone, and no timeline is set either. Feel free to comment.
I am prepping another minor update for RMN. I know how you all hate surprises
For the record, we are currently on RMNv4.2, in our loosely defined adhoc versioning system.
Game Vault/RM Game Archive
-to allow for uploading of old games to compensate for the MegaUpload take down. RMN encourages the original creators to upload their game and create a profile, but that is not always feasible or realistic. Some careful thought will be need to be put into the administration and rules for this, but this feature is on the table.
Notification and Subscription functionality expansion
-imho, our greatest feature is the automatic Notifications for activity on the site (even more important than the gameprofiles is to be aware of updates on them!). I would like to expand this functionality to allow for finer grained control (being able to sub/unsub from events and articles, for example) and allow for subscriptions to an engine, to get notified the latest stuffs submitted for that engine (gams, tuts, scripts).
A Who's Currently Active on RMN list
-this should be doable, but we need to figure out a way to do it efficiently!
Increased recognition for contributors
-Automatically dole out certain achievements in the overnight job for contributing a certain number of items (ie- Reviewer Achievement for reviewing 10 games, say).
Game Developer Roles
-The current setup is fixed and hardcoded and not very flexible. I need to rework this to allow leads to assign roles (perhaps multiple roles) to a game's developer. This would allow me to add things like Musician and Writing roles for games, and (hopefully) allow people to have multiple roles for a game (if applicable).
Episodic games support
-I am looking at a way to better showcase and support games that are episodic in nature. Right now, there is an assumption with the RMN architecture that you game is either Complete or In Development. There is no concert of "Episode Complete but More Episodes are in Development". I want to see if I can remedy that, somehow.
Frontpage rejigging
-People are never satisfied with the frontpage, and while I liked it more than most, I am still not completely satisfied. NOTE: I am not completely revamping the site. I just want to move the elements around, and rethink on how some elements are displayed, and maybe adding/removing item feeds from it. I elaborate below on some ideas.
Portals for our main facets
-So, I am envisioning our RMN menubar to move away from GAMES - REVIEWS - BLOGS - MEDIA - ARTICLES - SCRIPTS - ENGINES - EVENTS - FORUMS and move to GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - FORUMS. So there will be a mini-frontpage for each of those facets, focusing on that facet, in addition to the various list pages that those facets consist of (games list, review list, blog list, etc...). I am hoping that less clutter and more options for showcasing quality stuffs will be beneficial.
Improved Important! notification bar
-Right now we have Current Events and one Important! item pinned. I was thinking of expanding that to also include a customizable (by staff) bar for important things that would show up on ALL pages (except gameprofiles, probably). (I keep hearing about "I had no idea this was going on!!" about site contests, events, cool news or whatever. That bugs me. Having a fancy Important! bar could help remedy this)
Official support for resources
-a contentious issue! But it keeps coming up, and people seem to want it. I would rather have us somehow focus only on custom resources (or heavy edits (but where do we draw the line?)) but I am open to the idea and suggestions on how to handle it. I don't make or use custom resources (not really, anyways) so I am not in the best position to design a system for it right now.
Personal Showcase Game
-There is a desire for the ability to sort, organize or otherwise highlight your own personal flagship game on your personal list of games, instead of lolcommunitygamesandonehours. I think this idea has merit. At the very least, I will make it so that you can select your 'flagship' game and have that feature first/more prominently. I will also look at some of the more elaborate ideas about groupings and sort orders and see what's feasible and reasonable to implement.
Some minor improvements/fixes
-Allow for the upload of a file for Tutorials/Scripts (for demos, for example)
-Tag tutorials as Beginner/Intermediate/Expert
-look into the feasibility and desirability for a Game Programming subforum, for script and plugin development, and to reduce clutter in the Help forum
-permanent link to RMN's vendor affiliate program
-take a look at user names and special characters
-allow Donators to change their own damn user titles
-have a single Submit Script link, instead of one per engine
-Possible to delete a Game Page marked as 'Primary', fix that
-some other bugs
My Personal goals going forward:
- limit my meddling, especially in regards to moderation
- actually develop games again and contribute to the community in that regard (it's what we're about, dammit!)
- delegate responsibilities that I am not as good at/incompetent to other staff members
RMN goals:
- endeavor to make RMN more self-sufficient finacially
- attempt to make RMN more attractive for scripters in Ace
- enhance the notification system (our greatest strength, imho!) to include engines and finetuning for other items
- improve visibility of games (frontpage rejig, portals, improved notifications)
- add some sort of official support for resources
Further elaboration:
Finances:
Regarding RMN's finances, for a while there we were just paying for our server ($150/month). Several recurring donators have stopped their recurring donations , but a few new ones did come on to help offset that. I haven't calculated it recently, but I think we have enough to cover us on a month to month basis. I have yet to get paid for any Google advertising or VX Ace sales - for Google Adsense you have to cross a threshold of $100 before it gets paid out, and we haven't reached that yet. On good days we get about $2.50, and on bad days I've seen < 40 cents. (We have gotten the odd $5+ day, but that is very rare). I think we can count on $30 a month from advertising. This leaves a $120 shortfall, which, thankfully, is being met by recurring donations. VX Ace sales are very sporadic - it is not a reliable source of income. RMN is able to meet its cost, but we don't have that big of a buffer, and we have no extra cash to, say, buy prizes or whatnot. I don't want to be relying so heavily on donations, though.
I am going to make a permanent Purchase VX Ace link in the header section of RMNv4.3 . We get a good cut of the profit for VX Ace sales, and increasing sales would do a lot to wean us off of the dependence of donations. However, the appeal of VX Ace will wane over time, as more people get the program and as the program ages. So basically I want to cash in on this now to help build up our coffers while the engine is still hot. I haven't been very successful at all. :<
I am also hoping to make a Donate button a permanent fixture on the frontpage somewhere. I haven't done a donation drive since taking over the site. I don't want to, though, if I don't have to.
Facets:
The way I see it, we have 4 primary facets that we cater to in some degree or another: GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - COMMUNITY. Most of our current pages would fall under one of those categories I'd rejig the RMN Menu bar to have GAMES - DEVELOPMENT - EVENTS - FORUMS.
Like the top userbar, the RMN menubar would show more options when hovered over. Clicking on the main item would take you to a "frontpage" portal for that facet. So clicking on GAMES would take you to the Games portal and would geared towards getting people to playing games and following games. Likewise, DEVELOPMENT would showcase things that help developers. EVENTS would showcase not only current events, but celebrate games/submissions from past events, and maybe even provide a spot to mention upcoming events. COMMUNITY might not be its own portal (I think having a direct link to the forums is more important) but it is important to think of COMMUNITY as a facet to be fostered at RMN, and recognizing contributions that enhance it.
When you hover over GAMES, you would see menu options like Reviews, Media, Blogs, and Games List (and maybe other things?). Games List would take you to our current Games page on RMN right now. When you hover over DEVELOPMENT, you'd see things like Scripts, Tutorials, Articles, Engines. Etc...
All of this is just brainstorming, of course. Input and suggestions are welcome.
Frontpage:
Anywho, here is the frontpage mockup I showed nubstep the other week:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/rmn4_3_prototypeM.png
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/rmn4_3_prototype2a.PNG
My thought was that no one uses the tabs on the frontpage main banner BUT people have told me that they actually DO check out the other tabs, so maybe I was wrong! Anywho, my idea to address this (potentially non-)issue was to have only 2 large banners of 240px (vs the current 320px) stacked, then move the 2 gamespots directly below that. There would be 2 distinct columns - the left one being 640px and the right one being 336px (as it is currently). WHATS BUZZING would be in the rightmost column. Below the gamespots would be 4 columns of 160px for the "latest" game related submissions - reviews, blogs, downloads, media - with the absolute latest one having a little thumbnail, to spruce up the lists! Below that nub and I discussed having a "quilt" of 160x120px thumbnails. I only showed the ones for Buzzing Games and Random Screenshots, but we could do more like recently added and recently completed and have a full 4x4 thumbnail quilt. Beside it (which could easily go below it if we were to do a full 4x4 quilt) is another "latest" style list that is a combo of two 160px columns, but this time with a featured item. I chose articles, so on the left part there is a featured article with a little custom thumbnail and a preview blurb, then a list on the right of the latest. I dropped all of the extraneous info from these latest lists - people can find the authors and games I figure when they click the link. Maybe interesting titles will encourage people to explore more games. On the 336px right column I'd have 3 "permanent" links - I don't know what would go there necessarily, but that might be a good place for a permanent link to DONATE TO RMN and BUY VX ACE (and maybe NEW TO RMN?). Below that would be the latest items that would benefit from a little blurb, like Bulletins and Scripts. Articles would also fit in that section here, too, if we decide to put them here instead. Articles can be split between actual articles and tutorials, too, so maybe articles can go in the 336px column, and tutorials can have a "featured" style in the main column.
Like I said though, this was predicated on the assumption that no one checks out the other tabs. Do you check out the other tabs??
Here is nubbins sketch of an elaborate quilt:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/RMNLayoutthing.png
The idea would be (if possible) when they clicked or hovered or something, the selected column would expand to show a full 4x4 quilt of the top 16 items in that category. So selecting the Buzzing Games one would expand it from the top 4 to showing the top 16 games. I have no idea how or if this can be done in javascript, but its probably doable.
Anywho, this was where I was going with the frontpage. I know that a few of you had ideas, too, and I'd like to see your mockups and sketches.
Like I mentioned, this is all brainstorming right now, and nothing is set in stone, and no timeline is set either. Feel free to comment.
Speaking of having a flagship game, here's an idea for user profiles, either as the main page when you click somebody's name or an alternative to the current "games" tab:
Alternatively: Click Here to see it on its own.
Nothing set in stone, just an idea. It would be up to the user which games occupy which slots and could possibly be dynamic based on how many games a user has. Also depending on whether the rest of the page was revamped it could possibly make better use of space than I have in this mockup.
But you get the idea.
Alternatively: Click Here to see it on its own.
Nothing set in stone, just an idea. It would be up to the user which games occupy which slots and could possibly be dynamic based on how many games a user has. Also depending on whether the rest of the page was revamped it could possibly make better use of space than I have in this mockup.
But you get the idea.
Perhaps I missed this and you said it somewhere but :
While this is RMN (rpgmaker.net) it's obvious that RMN supports reviews and articles and such and I'd like to point out some people only make games and others write while others draw\pixel\ paint. I'd like to see a way to showcase writings and art as easily as showcasing games would be.
On a more helpful note, hovering may be easier to catch interest then clicking.
I only explore the other tabs if I'm feeling adventurous or looking for an answer to someone's question.
By the way, these changes sound great.
While this is RMN (rpgmaker.net) it's obvious that RMN supports reviews and articles and such and I'd like to point out some people only make games and others write while others draw\pixel\ paint. I'd like to see a way to showcase writings and art as easily as showcasing games would be.
On a more helpful note, hovering may be easier to catch interest then clicking.
I only explore the other tabs if I'm feeling adventurous or looking for an answer to someone's question.
By the way, these changes sound great.
Miracle
1044
I'm really interested in the automated achievements, that's a great idea. Not really important but about how much makerscore would they be worth? Anyways I'm looking forward to any improvements
also you could put a 'donate' button somewhere around here: http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/29742/2415072.png
Just a thought :>
also you could put a 'donate' button somewhere around here: http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/29742/2415072.png
Just a thought :>
TheNecromancer
3160
author=kentona
Notification and Subscription functionality expansion
-imho, our greatest feature is the automatic Notifications for activity on the site (even more important than the gameprofiles is to be aware of updates on them!). I would like to expand this functionality to allow for finer grained control (being able to sub/unsub from events and articles, for example) and allow for subscriptions to an engine, to get notified the latest stuffs submitted for that engine (gams, tuts, scripts).
How about an option to only be updated by activity from the author, instead of every user.
And maybe a way to get notifications from topics?
Increased recognition for contributors-Automatically dole out certain achievements in the overnight job for contributing a certain number of items (ie- Reviewer Achievement for reviewing 10 games, say).
awesome
Frontpage rejigging
-People are never satisfied with the frontpage, and while I liked it more than most, I am still not completely satisfied. NOTE: I am not completely revamping the site. I just want to move the elements around, and rethink on how some elements are displayed, and maybe adding/removing item feeds from it. I elaborate below on some ideas.
How about changing the gamespots so the font bar doesn't cover so much of the image. Or at least take the visibility into account when picking the image. Nightfall is a good(bad?) example of this.
-allow Donators to change their own damn user titles
xD
Like the top userbar, the RMN menubar would show more options when hovered over. Clicking on the main item would take you to a "frontpage" portal for that facet. So clicking on GAMES would take you to the Games portal and would geared towards getting people to playing games and following games. Likewise, DEVELOPMENT would showcase things that help developers. EVENTS would showcase not only current events, but celebrate games/submissions from past events, and maybe even provide a spot to mention upcoming events. COMMUNITY might not be its own portal (I think having a direct link to the forums is more important) but it is important to think of COMMUNITY as a facet to be fostered at RMN, and recognizing contributions that enhance it.
When you hover over GAMES, you would see menu options like Reviews, Media, Blogs, and Games List (and maybe other things?). Games List would take you to our current Games page on RMN right now. When you hover over DEVELOPMENT, you'd see things like Scripts, Tutorials, Articles, Engines. Etc...
All of this is just brainstorming, of course. Input and suggestions are welcome.
This sounds good to me. You'll have to hire a team to think of content to put on the portals, I think haha Make a staff-like status for users that gives them 1 makerscore a day to do various grunt work like that.
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/rmn4_3_prototype2a.PNG
I don't like any bit of this
Do you check out the other tabs??
The games | review | blogs | media... part? I do, sometimes. I don't need them on the screen like that, but I do want quick/easy access to them on every page.
Here is nubbins sketch of an elaborate quilt:
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/105/locker/RMNLayoutthing.png
The idea would be (if possible) when they clicked or hovered or something, the selected column would expand to show a full 4x4 quilt of the top 16 items in that category. So selecting the Buzzing Games one would expand it from the top 4 to showing the top 16 games. I have no idea how or if this can be done in javascript, but its probably doable.
It could work. I'm not a fan of the tiny tabs then huge wall of thumbnails. But please don't put it on hover. When you are trying to put your mouse on something in a row of hovers, it takes too much precision hahah I like to whip my mouse around and activate a link when I'm good and ready with a good ol' fashioned click. It's bad enough dealing with it in the userbar.
I don't have anything to say about the layout, or suggestions to make your mockups look any better. Web design is not something I know anything about. But what I look for in a page is quick access to all the places I like to go. The "fringe" or "abyss" at the bottom of the page is becoming my most used part of the site. My go-to place. Fancy image based stuff is good, but I like the static simplicity of links. Put a link to everything down there for me, please ^.^ (I'm a link fanboy)
Dyhalto
7536
Geez. As soon as I get used to the layout, it goes and gets changed.
FUUUUUUUUUUU-
Yeah, I got busted recently. The black bar is fairly unnoticeable because of how unoften if changes. Color or design themes per event and stage of event (sign up, doing, voting) would do the trick here. Maybe some flashing killer seizure robot lights too.
I like NewBlack's user game profile page.
author=kentona
A Who's Currently Active on RMN list-this should be doable, but we need to figure out a way to do it efficiently!
FUUUUUUUUUUU-
author=kentona
Improved Important! notification bar... (I keep hearing about "I had no idea this was going on!!" about site contests, events, cool news or whatever. That bugs me.
Yeah, I got busted recently. The black bar is fairly unnoticeable because of how unoften if changes. Color or design themes per event and stage of event (sign up, doing, voting) would do the trick here. Maybe some flashing killer seizure robot lights too.
I like NewBlack's user game profile page.
Do you check out the other tabs??The games | review | blogs | media... part? I do, sometimes. I don't need them on the screen like that, but I do want quick/easy access to them on every page.
I meant the tabs on the frontpage banner (currently Featured Game | Buy Ace thru RMN | Mini Music Results | Super RMN Bros 3)
author=kentonaI meant the tabs on the frontpage banner (currently Featured Game | Buy Ace thru RMN | Mini Music Results | Super RMN Bros 3)Do you check out the other tabs??The games | review | blogs | media... part? I do, sometimes. I don't need them on the screen like that, but I do want quick/easy access to them on every page.
Oh, then I check that out all the time.
These are only suggestions.
Official support for resources
The structure should be:
- Program (i.e.: rm2k3, ACE, Game Maker, etc);
_> Custom (made from scratch);
__* Character
____* Charsets
____* Facesets
__* Battle
____* Charsets
____* Weapons
____* Magic/Skill Animations
____* Monsters
____* Backdrops
__* Chipsets
__* Music
__* System (depending on the program the below points may be necessary)
____* System
____* Battle System
_> Heavy Edit (from rips);
__* Subpoints are the same as above
Heavy Edits would only be accepted if they had almost no resemblance with the original rip (say it's a FFVI edit and one could see the editor used a FFVI rip as base but you couldn't quite figure out which characters were in the rip before editing), or we could make a page for Heavy Edits to be submitted and the community would vote on whether or not it should be accepted.
I believe we should promote custom resources and forbid rips, I know a lot of games use rips, but we should draw the line in rip resources (a bit like we do with rm2k3, we allow games but not the program). This way there should be more games popping up with custom graphics.
There should also be a link to pixel tutorials in the resources pages, and we could organize for a good RMN pixel artist to make a tutorial and use some of the custom resources as example.
Frontpage
I do look into the other tabs from time to time, but I think we would greatly benefit from having a "new" icon (in a contrasting colour) next to any new tabs/info, not sure if we already have that (I've never seen it in the tabs).
Finances
This one got me worried, some of the programs allow us to sell games legally, I know RMN is a free games community, but we could have a few premium games with extras that we sold for $1, specially made to grow funds for RMN, like an event.
Official support for resources
The structure should be:
- Program (i.e.: rm2k3, ACE, Game Maker, etc);
_> Custom (made from scratch);
__* Character
____* Charsets
____* Facesets
__* Battle
____* Charsets
____* Weapons
____* Magic/Skill Animations
____* Monsters
____* Backdrops
__* Chipsets
__* Music
__* System (depending on the program the below points may be necessary)
____* System
____* Battle System
_> Heavy Edit (from rips);
__* Subpoints are the same as above
Heavy Edits would only be accepted if they had almost no resemblance with the original rip (say it's a FFVI edit and one could see the editor used a FFVI rip as base but you couldn't quite figure out which characters were in the rip before editing), or we could make a page for Heavy Edits to be submitted and the community would vote on whether or not it should be accepted.
I believe we should promote custom resources and forbid rips, I know a lot of games use rips, but we should draw the line in rip resources (a bit like we do with rm2k3, we allow games but not the program). This way there should be more games popping up with custom graphics.
There should also be a link to pixel tutorials in the resources pages, and we could organize for a good RMN pixel artist to make a tutorial and use some of the custom resources as example.
Frontpage
I do look into the other tabs from time to time, but I think we would greatly benefit from having a "new" icon (in a contrasting colour) next to any new tabs/info, not sure if we already have that (I've never seen it in the tabs).
Finances
This one got me worried, some of the programs allow us to sell games legally, I know RMN is a free games community, but we could have a few premium games with extras that we sold for $1, specially made to grow funds for RMN, like an event.
^ With the 'standards' of this site, expect this to become charas-project round 2 if official support for resources becomes a reality. =P
Sounds good, but I don't like much any of the proposed ideas so far. If I can I'll make my own mock-up so it can be ignored again. ;D
So everybody can see I'm here the entire day? No thanks. >_>;
Frontpage rejigging
Sounds good, but I don't like much any of the proposed ideas so far. If I can I'll make my own mock-up so it can be ignored again. ;D
A Who's Currently Active on RMN list
So everybody can see I'm here the entire day? No thanks. >_>;
author=iddalai
These are only suggestions.
Official support for resources
The structure should be:
- Program (i.e.: rm2k3, ACE, Game Maker, etc);
Snip.
I would cut out the program specific thing and just allow tags for sorting. Since rpgmaker isn't the only engine supported around here.
Or just a show all for categories.
author=Khos
I would cut out the program specific thing and just allow tags for sorting. Since rpgmaker isn't the only engine supported around here.
Or just a show all for categories.
Points like "Charset", "Chipset" or "Faceset" are used as common denominators for what they are. Even if Game Maker or other non-rpg maker programs don't call'em that these files can still be used in those programs.
I think that separating them by type would be better since it's faster to find something specific that way.
I would enable a notification organization feature, because on some days, I get 2-3 pages of notices that I would like to be able to sort by Game name alphabetical, and whether it's blog or media or image or etc. Also, a notice should stay bold until clicked on.
A Who's Currently Active on RMN list
I like that, it sound neat.
I know I've discussed this already by PM but it'd be great to have more control as to what shows up on the front page. Having the option of ignoring certain projects would be nice so that blogs, images, releases from games which do not interest us do not appear.
Just to give an example, ''Sour into Sweet'' is something I have 0 interest for but it often takes up space on the front page because it's buzzing as a few members have an msn style conversation. It would also prevent the ''Jomar Center'' incident when irresponsible blog spamming reared its ugly face again.
Just my two cents.
TheNecromancer
3160
author=Creation
Having the option of ignoring certain projects would be nice so that blogs, images, releases from games which do not interest us do not appear.
This
Oh, those tabs? Nope, they are practically invisible to me.
I think the notification system is RMN's best feature, too. One way to organize or filter it would be by one's relationship to the game (developer/tester/subscriber).
For the resource section, just gotta be careful not to let this become one of those places where people start upping resources with descriptions like "credit to the original authors, whoever the hell they are".
For the resource section, just gotta be careful not to let this become one of those places where people start upping resources with descriptions like "credit to the original authors, whoever the hell they are".
I like the concept of users up flagging certain games as "flagship games". The resources section sounds like a great idea, though I understand that there's a very fine line between an edit of another resource, and an outright rip. Of course, edits should have to cite the original source material, but I can see people doing edits of very obscure material and saying "I made this". Internet pessimism +4!
Creation's point about having a system in place to ignore a game by automation is kinda iffy. Sure, there's going to be games that I don't care about, and/or am frustrated by how much attention they get. Yet, having them just not appear seems... I dunno. I think "wrong" might be what I was looking for, but since I'd be ignoring them anyway, would I really be missing out on anything? I have no idea where this thought is going anymore.
Creation's point about having a system in place to ignore a game by automation is kinda iffy. Sure, there's going to be games that I don't care about, and/or am frustrated by how much attention they get. Yet, having them just not appear seems... I dunno. I think "wrong" might be what I was looking for, but since I'd be ignoring them anyway, would I really be missing out on anything? I have no idea where this thought is going anymore.
author=Marrend
I like the concept of users up flagging certain games as "flagship games". The resources section sounds like a great idea, though I understand that there's a very fine line between an edit of another resource, and an outright rip. Of course, edits should have to cite the original source material, but I can see people doing edits of very obscure material and saying "I made this".Internet pessimism +4!
Creation's point about having a system in place to ignore a game by automation is kinda iffy. Sure, there's going to be games that I don't care about, and/or am frustrated by how much attention they get. Yet, having them just not appear seems... I dunno. I think "wrong" might be what I was looking for, but since I'd be ignoring them anyway, would I really be missing out on anything? I have no idea where this thought is going anymore.
Do you mean "not appear" as in a filter per individual, that filters out what they don't like?
Well if that is the case, why not just a sort of system that it still SHOWS it, but in a small tab somewhere else. So the stuff you see, without clicking otherwise, is what you want to see?
Re: Creation's post.
I'm pretty sure Buzz Score was, at least in-part, introduced to remedy the problem with the old system of the frontpage updates reflecting which games had most recently had any form of activity on their page.. Now you have to accumulate Buzz Score via activity and the games that are producing the most "buzz" appear on the front page, rather than "IM-style conversation between two people = perpetual front page"
I'm pretty sure Buzz Score was, at least in-part, introduced to remedy the problem with the old system of the frontpage updates reflecting which games had most recently had any form of activity on their page.. Now you have to accumulate Buzz Score via activity and the games that are producing the most "buzz" appear on the front page, rather than "IM-style conversation between two people = perpetual front page"
