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1

MC Link's Awakening / Project Board Applications

« on: March 29, 2009, 05:58:48 pm »

Do you feel that your game project is good enough to earn its own board?  Then submit a Project Board Application!

An accepted application will earn you and your team a board for your project to use as you like.  Team members will be granted moderation privileges for their board and can run it how they like constrained only by the global forum rules. 

Why?

A board gives your team much more organizational power than a thread so you can better coordinate as your games gets closer to finish.  Additionally, having a project board will highlight your game to the community bringing it that much more attention.  The staff will also try to assist in your project by directing members who may be interested in working on it to you.

Keeping your board

In order to keep your board, the staff must see that your game is progressing reasonably.  If production slackens or halts, your team will be notified by staff.  If nothing continues to happen, you will lose your board and return to the WIP section.

Application:

In order to apply, send a PM to a Project Board staff member, which is currently myself.  Your application will be reviewed and you will be messaged when a decision is reached.  If your board is approved, then you'll be ready to go.  If not, you will be notified as such with details as to why and you will be barred from submitting the title for application for three weeks.  This is to provide time to continue working on your project to refine it.  Please use the following template for your application.

Application Template:

Project Title:
-Game Title
Project Description/Features:
-Description of game and features.  Focus on technical details and story scope of your game so the doability of your project can be determined.

Team Members/Role:
-Member name and what role they serve on your team

Why this project should have a board:
Estimated Date of Completion:
Demo/Prototype:
-A link to a demo or prototype exe.  All applications must have something to this extent.

All applications improperly filled out or which are sent incomplete will be rejected with the waiting period applied.

An accepted application would feature a game with a largely bug free demo, reasonable scope and corresponding team size, and acceptable reason to have a board.

NOTE: This system is largely under test

2

Previous Matches / [FINAL DESTINATION] Jar vs. The Fartriloquist

« on: February 05, 2009, 01:00:38 am »

Well it's been months.  There have been good guys, bad guys, explosions, all as far as the eye can see.

But, only one can survive, I wonder who it will be?

No low blows, no eye shots, no items, FINAL DESTINATION.

Read about the characters here
The Fartriloquist
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32325.0

Jar
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32303.0

3

Previous Matches / [ROUND 2] ¡Jalapeño! vs. Sarah Palin

« on: January 23, 2009, 12:01:29 am »

Yes folks, it's new vote time now that Jar has finished maiming lolcat.  This time the spicy Jalapeno vs. Sarah Palin. 

Usual rules, 4 days to vote, contents of the vote are hidden and not to be disclosed by staff, most votes win.  You can change your vote.

Read about ye characters hur
¡Jalapeño!
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32330.0

Sarah Palin
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32334.0

4

Previous Matches / [ROUND 2] The Great White Dope VS. Capsy

« on: January 12, 2009, 02:08:31 am »

So due to wally's incredible busitude, I'm getting this round up for him.  The Fartriloquist progress to Round 3 but who will beat the other silly in this match?

Again, round 2 means that you can change your vote, HOWEVER, you may not review results until after the poll has run its course four days from now.

Read about the characters here
The Great White Dope
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32362.0

Capsy
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=32315.0

5

Feedback / Recruiting Board

« on: December 17, 2008, 02:39:35 am »

So yeah, couple suggestions for the recruiting board.

1. Let it be a two way street

Make it apparent that people who are looking to work on a project can leave a thread detailing their skills and experience, potentially with samples of their work so people can instead find them.

2. Enforce that threads should follow a specific format

When I see [Recruiting] Legend of Zelda: Wally's Nuts that tells me two things.  That you're looking for help and the name of the game (shock, a Zelda Fan Game on ZFGC) which is next to nothing.  I get a board of this and I end up getting virtually a bunch of black boxes. 

Threads should follow a standard like [Recruiting] Experienced GML Programmer and Spriter and maybe a brief one-liner on the project in the thread description.

There I get what you need, a brief idea of what you're doing, and can actually decide if I have any interest before going into the thread. 

Similarly you could have [For Hire] Experienced Programmer (XNA, GML, C++, OpenGL).  Maybe with a description like, Willing to work on Zelda and non Zelda games.  There recruiters can see exactly what they're getting and can look at some samples of their work. 

This type of organization also helps people weed out complete amateurs.  [Recruiting] 2 Experienced Programmers, a Musician, and Spriter would wave a red flag to most.  I'm guessing it'd also lend itself well to searching threads by tag (Recruiting or For Hire) and profession as an added bonus.

It would require moderation to make sure requests are well represented and maybe some guidelines on what constitutes a Beginner, an Intermediate, and an Experienced member.  Though that's pretty obvious for anything but Programmer which boils down to year experience, languages proficient in, and projects worked on with samples.

6

Feedback / How to better orient the forum towards fan game development

« on: December 10, 2008, 03:30:50 am »

I was taking a look through the forum the other day and was talking with Vash about some of the policy around ZFGC and he felt I should share my observations and ideas with the members.

In any case, the issue I'm looking at here is the for the most part horrendous track record in fan games.  Not one full game has ever been completed or come even close for that matter.  I'm not here to !@#$% about it, I'm here to tell you how to fix it from my point of view.

Vash and I both agree that fan game development is not an uncommon first step towards game development.  However it seems most of the staff has the misconception that fan game development is the first step toward real programming.  The thing to understand is that these are two very different things.

Game development is the process of forming a team of people with varied talents, coming up with a concept, starting it, and most importantly, finishing it. 

Good programming is the efficient and effective use of code such it does its job well, quickly, and is written in a fashion that most programmers would take little time to familiarize with it.

The fundamental issue here isn't that people aren't using XNA or C++ or don't know how to program, the issue is that users lack the sense to properly form a team.  This isn't their fault though, this burden falls on the forum.

Again, fan game devs are often newbies.  They come in with their own concept that they want to do but generally very few people are interested in helping.  Typically they're lucky to get a tester and a mediocre spriter and work in GM or something.  They also tend to work on multiple projects of this type.  Eventually, with no one but themselves to keep motivated, they lose interest and the project(s) is scrapped.

This is not to say GM is bad.  It is a language for the inexperienced so its logical that inexperienced people use them.  There's nothing wrong with encouraging use of more powerful languages but pinning that as the problem is naive.  This is why all the Fan Game tutorials aren't well used because they all start lesson 1 at programming.

What should be happening is new users should be encouraged to form teams, create a new concept as a team, and then execute on it.  These teams shouldn't be entirely composed of new/inexperienced members but should have a few of ZFGC's senior members so the newer can learn from them. 

In example, programmers could start by getting grips with GM on a simple project.  They could then advance to a more complex project where they establish some programming concepts.  Then say some of those people work on a project with let's say Infini and learn how to apply those concepts in C#.

I suggest to overhaul the Projects section.  Potentially keep the threads, but create sub-forums for approved teams of members.  Approve teams based on the scope of their project, experience, if any members are undertaking other projects and so forth.  Additionally, add a section where members can post a thread stating they are looking for a team in which they document their skills and experience. 

This sets up a system in which members are accountable for each other.  Programmers make sure they're all working as do artists and the other team members.  If not, they can pick someone up from the Looking for Work board.  This also puts administrative pressure on the team for fear of losing their board.  Possibly most important, is that it puts the staff in the position to guide and teach members better game design habits.

This of course requires heavy participation from the staff in working on projects, moderating the boards, approving teams, and so forth.  That seems entirely doable if less focus is put on extraneous things like the resource repository and the Weekly.  I'm not saying they're bad or useless, but they don't fix the fan game development problem.  I'm also not saying this forum should lose its personality.


I understand this is a lot stuff to process so questions, comments, criticisms, and suggestions are all welcome.  However, please keep it as constructive as possible.

7

Entertainment / Who else is getting Soul Calibur IV for their Wii?

« on: July 28, 2008, 05:48:06 am »

I know I am, I'm totally looking forward to it.  I didn't reserve it at GameStop so I'm probably going to swing by Wal-mart and grab it this week.  Just wanted to see who else is grabbing it.

 

8

Entertainment / Wii Classic and GCN Controllers potentially banned due to lawsuit

« on: July 22, 2008, 08:47:02 pm »

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aO_ucYxT3eNw

Yeah Nintendo lost a lawsuit to Anascape, Ltd. on controllers which could result in a ban on the GCN and Wii Classic Controllers.  The nunchuck was excluded.  Nintendo is filing for an appeal but it doesn't look to be going well.  More details are in the link. 

Microsoft and Sony chose to settle before the trial.

What the ban comprises isn't exactly known.  Whether it means Nintendo can no longer sell the controllers or if they have to release a firmware update that will stop usage of the controllers.