This game is open source and everyone that volunteers time and content is willing to do so for free. People have real life commitments and work on contributing whatever they can, whenever they can. However, lacking some sort of structure will ultimately lead into a chaos project that is jumbled up with all sorts of content. Oskar does have ultimate say so over what goes in the dev releases on Google Play, however, as I have pointed out several times throughout my posts there is a lot of critical information that is lacking in the documentation in order to garner more support from the community. I honestly believe that this has caused a lot of really good ideas to be turned down as they do not fit within the scope of the project that few are privy to. I strongly feel more documentation regarding the engine development documentation would greatly benefit the community members who would like to make suggestions.
Since I have been given the opportunity to structure the new Wiki for review, I feel it is lined up in a way that will ultimately achieve more development in line with some sort of structured framework. That being said, there are still areas where things are still not very clearly set forth. The style of the game is a key element that can cause it to succeed or fail in many aspects. Currently, the overview of the information is that the game is 2D/Medieval/Fantasy styled, the graphics are free, more content is accepted…but there is so much more that needs to be defined, like screenshots for graphics from other games that the “end product of Andor’s Trail” will look like. This will allow for volunteer graphics artist to be found and submit edits to the current tileset for review, rather than stuff being submitted that is not going to be used.
Listing every single aspect of the game in the wiki was originally not wanted as a how-to-play guide from what I have read, yet the contributors do in fact need to know the sort of information, aside from saying to submit quest ideas, or maps, or items… I do have a lot of information already on the new Wiki, as well as other areas that are available to be filled in. Sections are separated into 2 main categories: Gameplay - for players, & Developers - for development information/spoilers/tutorials/etc… One key area for Developers is listing NPC’s that are being used in quests and ones that aren’t. This will assist people from writing contradicting content for the same NPC’s, or writing content for NPC’s that are going to be killed off.
Listing every single aspect of the game in the wiki was originally not wanted as a how-to-play guide from what I have read, yet the contributors do in fact need to know the sort of information, aside from saying to submit quest ideas, or maps, or items… I do have a lot of information already on the new Wiki, as well as other areas that are available to be filled in. Sections are separated into 2 main categories: Gameplay - for players, & Developers - for development information/spoilers/tutorials/etc… One key area for Developers is listing NPC’s that are being used in quests and ones that aren’t. This will assist people from writing contradicting content for the same NPC’s, or writing content for NPC’s that are going to be killed off.
(Crafting in general) - *New* Craft any item
(Map Layer Switching) (Paperdolling) - New here.
I am not saying that any of the specifics above need to be included with any part of the game. What I am saying is that people clearly need to know if these types of content are going to be available with the game at some point in time, even though they are not a priority. I have set a section aside in the new wiki (pending approval) that would list content already decided that will be in the game.
Providing some sort of professional submission process will also assist with getting more fully developed ideas being submitted, instead of one or two lined posts, or ideas for content that do not go along with the scope of the game. To further my original idea, closing off the Development forum to be a members only access forum would help. However, available in there would be the correct sub-forums for people to submit their content to. Anyone would still be able to submit non structured ideas in the main Ideas and future development forum. Not only would this allow for people to submit all sorts of ideas for discussion with other developers/contributors, any spoilers to exact content would be kept out of the eyes for the public. And to be allowed to formally submit a fully fleshed out idea, people simply request access like they currently do…it could even be limited to requesting access to the area they are interested in contributing to.
I'm not going to post this idea on the forums as it pertains to how stuff is written down in the meeting notes.
Currently the notes are structured like this:
[*]Andor's Trail Project Meeting ##
[*]1. Follow-up from last meeting:
[*]2. Completed since the last meeting:
[*]3. Things that are being worked on:
[*]4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts:
[*]5. What should we have ready for the next meeting?
[*]Brainstorm:
I'd like to see if there is anyway to break down #3 into different categories. And perhaps keep a rolling log between meetings...like in #3 on meeting #10, stuff isn't listed on meeting #11 on part #2 as finished, yet it doesn't show up as continued to be worked on either...this would just show that things haven't been forgotten.
[*]Andor's Trail Project Meeting ##
[*]1. Follow-up from last meeting:
[*]2. Completed since the last meeting:
[*]3. Things that are being worked on:
Items
Skills
Quests
Engine
Online (forums/wiki/website/facebook/twitter/myspace)
[*]4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts:
[*]5. What should we have ready for the next meeting?
[*]Brainstorm:
Also, I would like to see if there is a way to include a #6, or create an admin sticky on announcements, for "Things wanted in the game" also broken down into sections. This would allow for stuff to be included letting the community know that certain areas are on the list of stuff for the game, just no time soon. I have brought up paperdolling before, and was told that it would more than likely be included if the graphics were available. Likewise, music was initially said no to, yet a post some time back stated it might be available at some time in the future.
While there is a space on the new wiki for this information, posting it somewhere with the announcements would allow people to see what features are not currently available, but more than likely will be at some time in the future. Or at least making a list of stuff for the new wiki...people can then be pointed there if they bring up something already referenced.
And the Links to Already suggested Ideas! could be a place to post this stuff, but a separate area would allow for examples and details to be filled out, so that any volunteer efforts would be on point with the content that is needed for the idea.
I'm not a mod, but I will gladly format anything you guys send to me into something that one of y'all can post.
Currently the notes are structured like this:
[*]Andor's Trail Project Meeting ##
[*]1. Follow-up from last meeting:
[*]2. Completed since the last meeting:
[*]3. Things that are being worked on:
[*]4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts:
[*]5. What should we have ready for the next meeting?
[*]Brainstorm:
I'd like to see if there is anyway to break down #3 into different categories. And perhaps keep a rolling log between meetings...like in #3 on meeting #10, stuff isn't listed on meeting #11 on part #2 as finished, yet it doesn't show up as continued to be worked on either...this would just show that things haven't been forgotten.
[*]Andor's Trail Project Meeting ##
[*]1. Follow-up from last meeting:
[*]2. Completed since the last meeting:
[*]3. Things that are being worked on:
Items
Skills
Quests
Engine
Online (forums/wiki/website/facebook/twitter/myspace)
[*]4. Discussion of some forum threads/posts:
[*]5. What should we have ready for the next meeting?
[*]Brainstorm:
Also, I would like to see if there is a way to include a #6, or create an admin sticky on announcements, for "Things wanted in the game" also broken down into sections. This would allow for stuff to be included letting the community know that certain areas are on the list of stuff for the game, just no time soon. I have brought up paperdolling before, and was told that it would more than likely be included if the graphics were available. Likewise, music was initially said no to, yet a post some time back stated it might be available at some time in the future.
While there is a space on the new wiki for this information, posting it somewhere with the announcements would allow people to see what features are not currently available, but more than likely will be at some time in the future. Or at least making a list of stuff for the new wiki...people can then be pointed there if they bring up something already referenced.
And the Links to Already suggested Ideas! could be a place to post this stuff, but a separate area would allow for examples and details to be filled out, so that any volunteer efforts would be on point with the content that is needed for the idea.
I'm not a mod, but I will gladly format anything you guys send to me into something that one of y'all can post.
Engine:
Tablet GUI Feedback - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2031
Graphics:
Tiles - Grass/Sand/Snow Path Edging (*56K Warning*) - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1977
Game Content:
Filling in some background to areas. - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2028
Combat Map Movement/Parry/Flanking - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2032
Quest:
*Change* Quest - The Path Is Clear To Me. - http://andorstrail.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2033
I'm back guys!