It's all about creations

makerSquirrel

5 years ago

What is Gamebuino META about? Although many things are important about the whole project, one can probably boil down its essence to one thing:

Making.

This project is a child of the maker scene, made by a team of makers for us (game) makers and for us gamers.

So, why the theatrical speech? I think motivating oneself to start developing a game is hard, although the tutorials are good here, it is still mighty task for a newbie to learn how to do all this. But I fear that motivating oneself to actually finish a developing a game is even harder. Most of the projects stop after a first test version with promising elements, but many unfinished parts as well. The famous 80:20 rule applies to the maker scene as well: 80% of the output are only 20% of the work, but only who goes the final 20% will be able to deliver something that is more than just a nice piece of code. But how can we as a community help each other to motivate us for the last meters, how can we give each other the feeling that investing tens, hundreds or more hours in developing something is worth the trade?

Of course an important part of the answer to that is: Feedback. At the moment we can upvote creations and comment them. If no one actually tells the creator that his/her software has been used, the creator currently does not even know if anyone has ever tried the game, this is why I think there might be some things which could help to get a more - er, responsive - response ;).

Therefore I would like to propose some helpers which could be implemented in this homepage and maybe you can extend the list (and even more maybe the Gamebuino team finds the list interesting and actually adapts the homepage):

  • visitor counter
  • download counter
  • more detailed rating (i.e. stars)
  • [Edit] Play the game button clicked counter
  • ...

drummyfish

NEW 5 years ago

The counters are a good idea. I'd be careful about the star ratings because people might be afraid to publish things out of possibility to get a low rating. On the other hand there are already downvote buttons and it seems to work, so I may be wrong.

chris-scientist

NEW 5 years ago

Sorry, this is french response.


C'est sûr que c'est assez frustrant d'avoir que quelques retours et pas d'indicateurs tel qu'un compteurs de vues, un compteur de téléchargement et autres comme en parle makerSquirrel. On pourrait même imaginer des graphiques accessibles uniquement pour le créateur, qui donnerait par exemple l'évolution des téléchargements depuis la création de l'application/jeu.

Il faut aider tout les créateurs qu'il soit débutant ou confirmé !

C'est modification demande du travail c'est sûr mais ça aidera à faire grandir la communauté. Et peut-être même qu'il y en a parmi nous qui serait intéressé pour vous filer un coups de main dans les développements de ces améliorations (si vous l'ouvrez, après tout la console est open-source).

Et n'hésitez pas à nous consulter via par exemple un questionnaire sur les améliorations que nous aimerions voir sur ce site.

jicehel

NEW 5 years ago

Yes, its true. It's can seems unless to let an commentary on a game. I make not big game atm and i don't know if i'll do on day. I make short programms to retrieve technics used to make on of my favorite classics often because i like the sensation to recreate a little one of my favorite game. It's can look like copy sometimes but its ofen mainly the pleasure to be able to do somethings that look like the original more and less) and then i success, for me, the goal is completed and i just add some little things for making it playable for other players. Without commentary, you (me) could make big estimation error. For example, i thought that all known Simon and that my version was very easy to understand but someone said me that nobody had understood quickly how to use it. So i know i should add a little tuto part before and maybe works on the visuals to make it more user friendly. Someone else who make a big and complex game with some Salmons requested return to perfect gameplay too and good errors reports when it could occured. Returns make it more real too that the hour burned on the game has been usefull because some gamer have had fun (or not but then it's can be not so good for the demonstration  :D ).

jicehel

NEW 5 years ago

Message deleted

makerSquirrel

NEW 5 years ago

Hm, more things could be:

  • a counter how many people have added the game to their collection
  • separate beginners and pro-creations, so that beginners are not intimidated by big projects like Salmon Run and Reubens Quest.
  • two rows of creations on the start page (-> more room for the latest creations, the creations do not vanish that fast from view
  • More advanced tutorials, which are easy to find over the academy (the transition from beginner with pong and snake games to a Salmon runner is long and any help on the way is good for upcoming creations)
  • [Edit] Played It! button

jicehel

NEW 5 years ago

I'm not to separe beginners creations from big projects for two reasons: one the limit is hard to find and because a big project well coded, commented, asw can give idea, technics, asw to beginners like some tuto so it's good to beginners to have a look on the codes of the "masters".

More: its could be redundant with stars or other notation because these big games will already be separated with better notes

sylvain

NEW 5 years ago

Thanks for your messages guys! We're listening to any suggestion, don't hesitate to tell us the new features you'd love to see on the Gamebuino website. I can't guarantee will will develop all of your wishes of course, but we will improve the website for sure :)