Dev.Mag super prep thread

[Chippit]

So since we're not really working on monthly content anymore, there's going to be no need to keep making monthly threads like we used to. However, the discussions that flowed from threads like those was invaluable, and it's always nice to know what everyone else is doing, since we've sorta been working away quietly for the past two weeks.

No more. This thread will become the official coordination mechanism between the magazine and everyone here.

The first thing I want everyone to do, however, is to refer to the new style guide, And that's everyone. There are important guidelines there that apply to the new format.

Then, the actual format of the thread is going to work a little differently. It's still going to be used for discussion on ideas/submissions and all that, but since deadlines are no longer fixed across the board, everything is going to be coordinated from a single Google calendar that I will share with all involved. In fact, you should have already gotten your invitation, assuming you have a gmail account (who doesn't) and I know your address. Each individual deadline is marked on the calendar, and it will be updated as new things turn up. If you've gotten your invitation, you should be able to see the it from http://calendar.google.com/.

Basically, we're looking at released at least three new articles every week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Older articles will be rereleased on weekends. Also, you may have noticed that news updates daily. All this means that the site will always have something new; with everyone's cooperation, it really should not be difficult to maintain this schedule, though.

So. Have a look at the new style guide, read our new art game piece, have a look at the new calendar, and then we all get back to doing stuff!

[Nandrew]

A little supplementary message: Chippit's being serious about the style guide. Please don't ignore it, or the rats shall come to eat your eyes and stuff.

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I've got a few ideas knocking around my head already if anybody is keen to follow through with them:

- Websites are always a ripe review source. How about looking at the IndieGames blog, for example, and reviewing that? Or Gamedev.net? I know we've done TIGSource in the past already, but I don't think we've touched on these two.

- Is anybody fortunate enough to own Zeno Clash? That would do well.

- How about a piece on good game development communities to join? I think we did this a while back, but I think it could do with an update.

- Somebody needs to do a round-up of regularly recurring game competitions, methinks. Almost a sort of "calendar" of events which people can participate in and stuff. We've already done news posts on Ludum Dare and the recent XNA Game Camp, but these were both AFTER the comps were over. Let's change that around, hmm?

- We need to get more articles on former Game.Dev comp themes and try to educate readers with a "postmortem" of sorts. Something like the "no text" competition would be great, as I find that to hold a particularly valuable lesson. And mebbe the mobile comp too. But other ideas would also be good.

- On April 28, voting for the TIGSource ****pit competition will be coming to a close. That's this Tuesday. If any writers are free on Tuesday, I think that it would be a good idea to grab the comp winner and review it as soon as possible.

That's all for now.

[AndrewJ]

From the style guide:

# indy ? correct spelling is indie, unless referring to Indiana Jones, in which case you probably shouldn't be writing for us anyway. :P

Dude, you suck. ;-) However, they do seem pretty fair and reasonable, and a bit professional to boot.

[Chippit]

Hey, I like Indiana Jones. But we're not film critics. :P If you're talking about an indie Indy game, then, of course, things are different. :P

[dislekcia]

Hey, I like Indiana Jones. But we're not film critics. :P If you're talking about an indie Indy game, then, of course, things are different. :P

Not only does that simply sound awesome, I know it would have a punch-to-propeller bossfight.

!!!

[Nandrew]

http://www.devmag.org.za/news/23/

Somebody really ought to review Glum Buster. Or failing that, just play Glum Buster. Because it's cool and stuff.

[Nandrew]

Oh, hey, ladies and gents: just by the way, keep in mind that news is *particularly* welcome over the weekend. Our RSS feeds seem to dry up when it comes to interesting stuff to report, and since we only have a certain capacity for old-fashioned eyes'n'ears work above and beyond what gets shoved onto our virtual doorsteps, we need more people to keep a lookout for interesting and original content. After all, we don't always wanna report the same old stuff that every other site out there is looking at. :P

So yeah. If you've played a cool flash game, swing it to us. If you're getting up to something and have put it on Game.Dev, we'll probably have a look at that too. Heck, we've done news reports on forum projects before. So don't be shy: the forums have been EXTREMELY quiet this past week, and need an activity boost anyway!''

News can be about really simple stuff. And it can even be about you. That's kinda what the mag is here for anyway.

[Tr00jg]

Only saw the news recently. Grats on the gamasutra post and being on Channel Go (did someone record it?)! Well done guys!

[Cyberninja]

Wow guys. Just read the article now. Congratulations. That's fantastic news. :P Did anyone record/youtube the TV segment?

[Chippit]

April progress report! Because the web format lets me get info like this.

Total Pageviews
8578

Top 15 articles by pageviews (all article pages)
Flash for Free - 439
Perlin Noise - 358
Collision Detection 1 - 313
Next Step editorial - 310
3D in Game Maker 1 - 281
WoG cursor - 268
Art game feature - 186
Collision Detection 2 - 175
3D in Game Maker 2 - 174
UQ feature - 163
Spacehack feature - 130
Trig 1 - 97
OA postmortem - 86
Dark continent feature - 82
2009 IGF roundup - 78

Stats are from 7 April - 30 April

[Fengol]

Would it be possible to have a Main Feed for Dev.Mag which has everything in it because I used to read the News and just discovered that I'm missing out on all the articles, features and game reviews. When I first subscribed I thought the News would cover that.

Is it really necessary to have all these different feeds?

[Chippit]

I have many so people can choose what they're interested in, and because they all have different update frequencies.

I'll see about making one for everything, but news and newest articles will cover all content for now.

[Nandrew]

What Chippit said: there's quite a few feeds, but two of them will cover *everything* (news and main articles).

We're following the RSS trend of places like GDNet and Gamasutra, because news and articles are two rather different content types.

[Chippit]

Also, I'd like to direct everyone to the fact that there have been a few additions to the style guide, all in the general section and most related to setting maths equations. I urge all writers to review the document again, especially the more technical among you.

[edg3]

hmm, I was wondering, is this article on guerilla tool development possibly going to be followed up on with some way of showing how to design a decent system of actually storing and modifying the data? I know the UE for UQ2 was flashed before our eyes at some stage in its making, but I would like to know more about the concepts used and the ideas behind the actual structure.

Its a topic Im rather interested in at the moment and Im looking for some pushes in the right direction.

[DukeOFprunes]

Gotta keep an eye on Tigsource's Assemblee comp too, which is now judging completed entries.

[herman.tulleken]

@edge Hmmm... only saw this now. Could be interesting. You are a bit vague though - do you mean editing data with some tool? Perhaps you could elaborate a bit; ask a few questions.

ht

[edg3]

@edge Hmmm... only saw this now. Could be interesting. You are a bit vague though - do you mean editing data with some tool? Perhaps you could elaborate a bit; ask a few questions.

ht

Well yeah, making your own tool to edit your level data. What winforms controls are good for what types of data etc, like would a list tree view be suitable for NPC dialog data? How should one manage multiple content files so the game knows how to load everything and that you can just extend the game through the editor on the fly?

[Chippit]

I think that question really does depend on what kind of data you're trying to store and edit, though. Although, if there's one do-all .NET component, it's this baby:



It is a perfect example of reflection doing awesome things to save you tons of time. I <3 it so much.

But yes, I repeat, it really does depend on the kind of stuff you're creating in your tool. The UQ map editor, for one, uses a custom made control that lets the editor use the exact same rendering engine as the game does, so that 1) I don't have to code everything twice, and 2) I get to use that fancy acronym WYSIWYG and sound smaht. Conversely, the dialogue editor portion uses a whole bunch of tabs and a fancy list-view to do most of its work. It mostly works a little like the dialogue editor from Neverwinter Nights, really.

As for the second question, what I've done in UQ is have the editor, on pre-build, create a list of all the assets that the game needs to know about, and then the game works out what it needs to load based on what's in every scene, unloading stuff it no longer needs while you move around. If it were on PC, the game would probably just scan a folder for all its contents itself and build its own list. That's very slow on the Xbox, though, so I needed to make a different plan in my case.

[edg3]

Thanks Chippit, that helped a lot :P *goes back to his blog prep*