Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
Registered 29/07/2002
Points 5686
29th April, 2010 at 12:28:47 -
I think a Team Formation thing would be cool. I could start a forum thread where people post their speciality (Coder, Artist, Musician/Sound) and then we can match people up into groups of two or more. Once teams are formed we should say that they need to post a project within 1 week or they've failed
I am actually thinking of starting a community site for beginners, mainly aimed at highschool students who just start out. I got a lot of my digital art students into using click products, but I won't send them here because everything is rated and the sometimes rude atmosphere. These are big downers for starters. I have most of the graphics done anyway, just have to find a good website coder.
@Hayo: I can not code interactive sites at all, but i would find writing articles on how to make engines (i.e. Using simple maths) fun . I help run labs at uni, and when someone shakes your hand or thanks you at the end of the course, it is a great feeling
Team Formation day? Pfft... let's have a team competition, where the requirement is to work in teams
I don't think it's really a big problem, though. I shamelessly look for a team member for the smallest thing, like writing stories. I think people just aren't forming teams properly. You have people who look for team members for projects they aren't interested in. You've got people with good ideas who keep all their ideas in their head. You have people with good projects and management, but don't actually finish their projects. 95% of teams don't work out.
Remember that OMG Zombies project? That fell through because of technical problems, but I really liked the team quality involved there. We need more projects like that, even if they don't go through. Just witnessing it was fun, because of the passion involved. Since it's so hard to actually finish a game these days, I think watching ambitious projects get finished would be just as fun as playing them.
I've also had a lot of fun in Click groups. All failed, but I think my best kliking times were making games with someone else. Even when it involves some argument
Hmm.. here's another suggestion... how about we make some "klik clans" and have TDC put up some rating board for whichever is the winning clan. Some simple rating system could work.
- Klik groups register their clan with TDC, through their profile or something.
- When a group member finishes a game rated over 3 stars, they get a point.
- When a group member finishes a game rated at 4 stars or above, they get 2 bonus points.
- If the game is featured on the TDC front page, it's another point. No points are given if they're off TDC, to prevent people from making indie blogs to bump their score, etc.
- When a group member has a project with more than 20 favorites (who aren't group members), they get a point.
- No points are given for GOTM to prevent large groups from flooding GOTM
- Klikers can rate other clans and change this rating in the future.
- TDC themed games and apps (arcade, chat, etc) may gain bonus points at the discretion of some judges
We then put another page on TDC to rank these clans, mention how many members they have, etc. So, there's some encouragement for klikers to help each other. Newer klikers can go for quantity and still gain points, old klikers could go for quality, gain less points, but a reputation for good games, and scrape a few points from bonus ratings.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Klick clans eh? That's the best idea I have ever heard(assuming Construct games can be submitted for groups too, hehe).
Maybe each one could be headed by an admin, and they could have their own designated forums?
I think it would be more organized, instead of 27 different groups that fall apart and stuff, maybe only like 3-4 different ones, each named/coloured by an admin or something.
Then people make the choice of which group they would like to make games for, and then their project page is placed in the corresponding section.
That would actually motivate me to visit this site wayyyy more often.
I.E. Instead of making a game just for a rating, then being forgotten, you would actually aid that entire group depending on the quality of the game.
I visit the site very often. Everyday actually. But I rarely post comments and give feedback to others; let alone download the game :/.
I guess people need motivation to give feedback? Maybe a level system like the one Kongregate has? But then again, TDC is fine as it is.
When I joined TDC I created "Blob's Adventure" and I seemed to be getting alot of positive feedback (also won the GOTW, yay!) which led me to creating more games, so I created Blobs Adventure 2 and got alot of positive feedback on that one too. It seems noone is really taking the time to download games/give feedback. School is taking up alot of time lately as UrbanMonk said and I think that's part the reason (for some clickers). But I don't think the community is dying
@Solgryn: If you had been here a few years earlier you would understand when people say the community is dying. When i look at the Active Users Page now i rarely see over 20 active users. 20 Active Users used to be the norm for this site.
@Muz: I think that sounds like a pretty good idea and should be done as soon as possible.
Originally Posted by Hayo mainly aimed at highschool students who just start out. I got a lot of my digital art students into using click products, but I won't send them here because everything is rated and the sometimes rude atmosphere. These are big downers for starters.
I agree with that, but I was maybe 10 whewn I first used MMF2, and once I bought it I found this site when I was maybe 11. I didn't find I had ever been put down, and I don't think anyones ever been rude to me before.
n/a
Assault Andy Administrator
I make other people create vaporware
We have a good mix of people, and I'll be able to form some teams soon, but we might need another artist or two. So if you're an artist looking to team up with some awesome coders, add your details to the thread
About Phizzy... I liked the dude and found him amusing most of the time, but he completely forgot he was in a family friendly site. He got banned for more than one reason and more than once, yet he always came back (usually under a new account). Some people were closer to him and I can understand that, but saying he was banned unfairly ? Falsely announcing Novasoft's death was a very good reason alone, and as far as I remember he wasn't banned for that.
As for why the community is dying:
Clickteam's products lost their popularity very quickly. The glory days are long gone, alternatives grew everywhere while clickteam kept updating and repackaging KnP under new names. Now that they noticed things aren't as bright anymore, they actually started working on really interesting stuff. HWA (should have been here for years) and the flash export (though force people to buy it as a separate addon is a bit of a shot in the foot, but oh well) are very nice additions, but I'm afraid it's too late now. Very little new users pop in, and a lot of people are abandoning the tools to use other solutions, most of them free, and with more attractive features than mmf2.
Sadly, TDC is suffering from this. Making the site less click-centric is the only solution, but even then it might not be enough because this site has been known only among clickers, most people here posting non-click games are former klikers who switched to new tools/ actual programming.
Oh and to the people saying the community is getting worse, that's definitely not true. Bad games get constructive comments and often give the creators some motivation to work on new games. A few years ago I remember many -my-first-game kind of game getting comments such as "why did you spend your time working on this junk ?", "this is absolute rubbish", "this sux" and so on. The community definitely matured (or at least a big portion of it), I don't think that's the reason.
Yeah, falsely announcing Novasofts death really annoyed me perhaps more than anything else Phizzy has done, especially as it was so close to the legitimate death of Darran Baker (DeathreaperX) who I got along with really well.
As for this site... well, people get older and the impetuous for a personal hobby goes away when you develop relationships, get married, get really busy jobs, etc. In some ways, the situation is comparable to TV shows like Big Brother, which each year loses millions of viewers as people get tired of the format.
What can we do though... I say keep going and keep plugging away. It could just be we've hit a quiet spot - don't forget this site was reasonably active around Christmas time. Even the games industry has quiet spots, with the infamous Summer Games Drought taking place each year. It's just a period of time. Students are concentrating on their exams too, preparing for them and what-not. And yes a little bit of advertising would not hurt, which is why I've contacted Retro Gamer magazine, hoping to plug this place and Click products in general. If other people did this too, with different magazines, I'm sure one of them would be willing to focus on the issue.
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Edited by Johnny Look
