Dev: Completed Games Section

[Ellie]

I'm going to finish the completed games section tonight (and project development). There were a couple of features I wanted to add. If anyone has any further suggestions though, please post them!

The features I am adding are development blogs, screenshots gallery, and reviews. It should look and work pretty well when done but is done with basic forum features so there's not much opportunity for it to go Horrendously Wrong and should be pretty intuitive.

Watch this space.

 

[Ellie]

Hmm. Maybe if I actually used dev blogs for my game other people might be tempted to. So far nobody's bitten (but maybe nobody knows it's there or what to do with them).

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I have things to add to my dev blog, but I'm trying to figure out an easy way to format everyone off-site so I can copy+paste it on every forum I post to for the game.

 

[Ellie]

I did once use a low-data image I could just update my end, but some places frown upon that (mainly because it's inaccessible to those who use screen readers).

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I posted an update on my team's website, but copy + pasting that and the images is okay, but... When I have to re-format things for every forum the game shows up for - I get lazy. ><

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Hmm. Maybe if I actually used dev blogs for my game other people might be tempted to. So far nobody's bitten (but maybe nobody knows it's there or what to do with them).

I see them, I just find it hard to be emphatic about writing stuff out when this site is so inactive the screenshots thread is hard pressed to get posts at times. :0

 

[ZenVirZan]

If I could actually get my ass in gear and start a game and follow through with it, I might use it.

The tricky bit is how the dev blog is detached (somewhat) from the original thread. Usually when you're working on something, you create a topic in Games in Development and then the topic is essentially the dev blog. If you create a Completed Games topic for a game that is not complete, why is it there?

Also, I noticed that anybody can make a development blog for any game. I think you might need some sort of permissions system there.

 

[coyotecraft]

If you use social media you can write up something here, then share it with the media icons in the corner of the first post. Facebook, twitter, ect....
But then, people who actually use social media probably have their own blogs anyways. Hmm....

What if hbgames had a Feed reader for outside blogs that all members could see?
I mean, blogger had a sidebar blog list that shows recently updated blogs that that-particular blogger subscribes too.
It's just a list that said something like:
:rock: Game Studio Blog
Post Title Here...
updated yesterday

So instead of making a dev blog here, members could just add their blog to HBGAMES blog list that everyone can see and tie it to their profile. Of course the blog list would need to be moderated for game development stuff only. Eh, that's probably too much work.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I recently posted to our team's blog: https://nerdbombent.wordpress.com/devlog/

Luckily, most forums use HTML, but some are annoying and utilize different things. RMW uses [img=????[/img ] instead of ?????[/img ]. Other codes can be slightly different too. Plus rules or limits on some forums - like picture amount or size. Usage of links or not.

Editing all of these all the time can be a pain, so I haven't really posted anywhere else besides the blog. *shrugs*

Each blog post is shared on Facebook & Twitter.

Either way, I plan to get better at "marketing" since that's one of my jobs on this team. :P

 

[Ellie]

Update: Personal Blogs

You now have a personal development blog, viewable from your profile. This lists all your development blog posts for any game, basically anything you put in the dev blogs board even if it's just an isolated thread.

Eventually this will be prettied up to look like a blog roll.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool.

 

[coyotecraft]

Does this mean we should retire the "What are you working on?" topic?

 

[ZenVirZan]

Does this mean we should retire the "What are you working on?" topic?

I'd assume not, because you can't discuss things when you can only post to your own thread / feed.

 

[Ellie]

Blog posts are just forum threads that will eventually be reskinned to look like a blog with comments, so people can discuss them, just nobody can make threads in your blog*. So imagine a blog as just being a forum, where only your threads show, where the first post of each thread is formatted differently to look like a blog. It will make sense.

So to make a blog post just post a thread in Development Blogs.




* Technically. They can make threads in your game's blog, but we will remove them if so; this is so people can work on teams, even loose ones, without losing any functionality. We'll see how it works.

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

It will make sense.

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

It will make sense.

I trust Amy.

 

[Ellie]

Basically at the end of the day a comment is just a post. So in reality a blog is just a forum presented in a different way. Give a song and dance about the first post in a thread and you have a blog post.