Marketing Plan Plan

[smoth]

MODule and maps.

[Hobo Joe]

Any chance of making an installer? I think Gundam would really benefit from it.

[smoth]

I still have to get with z and koshi.

[Hobo Joe]

It's not that hard to do yourself.

[azaremoth]

[...]There are other mods I'm not very familiar with that would be nice to have more info on, namely Conflict Terra and The Cursed. Are they in playable states?

The Cursed is in a perfectly playable state. Go and check it out yourself
I'l keep on balancing, polishing and adding improving things - but that is putting the cherry on the cake.

[SinbadEV]

Alright, so maybe after all this discussion we can all come to a nominal consensus.

First: Which games are "Promotable" by the following definition (or can be made so by, let's say, next weekend)

Has a site with:

• Introduction + Features
• Instruction Manual
• Download link for a "Full Installer" compatible with the current spring version*

*We'll cross the "that won't break next time spring is updated" later

Has:

• In-game tutorial Missions or a self-explanatory interface
• Some form of single-player experience that nominally duplicates the online multi-player experience (essentially a compatible AI that doesn't crash most of the time. and doesn't lose all the time.)
• a way to start a single-player game without signing into the lobby and that looks more like a menu to start a game then an un-signed in lobby

???

Kernel Panic? Gundam? The Cursed? CA/ZK? Evo?

[Hobo Joe]

The Cursed is in a perfectly playable state. Go and check it out yourself
I'l keep on balancing, polishing and adding improving things - but that is putting the cherry on the cake.

Any chance of getting screenshots/download/description from you? I can do it myself but it would probably be better coming from someone familiar with the game (especially a dev ), I'm planning on putting the post up tonight so sooner would be better!


Already have stuff done for BA/KP/Gundam/CA, and I'll be adding The Cursed now. Anything I'm missing?

[KaiserJ]

noobs LOVE chicken defense

[Wombat]

noobs LOVE chicken defense

>__>

[knorke]

I am going to advertise Spring on SomethingAwful.

Good idea! I think that is more likely Springs target audience then people who install software from magazine CDs.

...namely Conflict Terra [...] in playable states?

Playable as in "does not crash": yes.
Though has some things that you would not want to show to first time spring players. ie landing Factory Cruisers terraforming the terrain so that sometimes units can not exit or some shaders enabled by default that can kill fps. Also only really playable on some mapst that noobs wont know. I think the "CT Testmission" is quite noobfriendly though even if it does an error at end. (maybe can fix now with new editor)

Since the SA guys appear quite clever and not pure olololgamerz I think there is no problem when you showcase the Engine instead of a specific game. Might even raise more interesse for some people? If people want to know how to make spring games you could link to the SVN of a mod.
ie to the "falling space rocks" Lua of CT:
http://code.google.com/p/conflictterra/ ... erocks.lua
(relative easy to read and imo an interessting examle)

if you happen to know of any particularly good videos, either comprehensive of Spring or mod-specific

olol my youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/knorker

scripted miners part 2: Conflict Terra with temporary effects & units
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMZU7T7OMCM
Shows Lua used for new features
SpringRTS Engine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycqjNmQjmc
Trailer suppossed to give overview about Spring
Many similiar trailers look nicer but consists mostly of BA and are too long and choatic.
Wrap around map, again how easy it is to do stuff with Lua:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGaahexSBe4

Car's Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/wagonrepairer
Throw the obelisk Lua magic again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgMRwVyR-20
also other stuff.

Anything I'm missing?

Kernel Panic!
Best "out of the box" playability with own menu etc, easy to learn etc.
upload/search some good replays on replays.adune.nl so that new players can see what the games are played like.
Show your startpost here before you post it at SA. Don't think you will do stupid stuff like writing "TA Spring" like others did but I think it would still be a good idea.

Try out TASClient, Springlobby, zklobby, rapid, the installers & games.
So that you can answer questions like "how to change maps in zklobby?" (!map) or "If I download gundam, (how) can I play other spring games with that install?" or "How do I find the cryptic tags for rapid?"

[Hobo Joe]

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=3368270

done and done


I'll be changing this later but for now I'd appreciate it if other people could keep it active and answer questions and whatnot, cause I'll be rather busy with the chaos of thanksgiving.

[Wombat]

Quote:
I am going to advertise Spring on SomethingAwful.Good idea! I think that is more likely Springs target audience then people who install software from magazine CDs.

haha, that made me lol

[knorke]

oh noez, i was too late.
oh well.

[Hobo Joe]

oh noez, i was too late.
oh well.

if you want me to change or add something go ahead and say it, i wanna make it as welcoming as possible.

[knorke]

The screenshots could be better:
#1 logo
#2 2/3 of image dark, does not look like RTS
#3 never dying image of techdemo map nobody ever plays
#4 KP: ok
#5 isnt that actually xta? but looks ok
#6 kind of the same as #2

grts images are ok

the CA images look a bit strange again, imo RTS should be shown from top down view.
also CA is "zeroK" now.

"These games look ugly, why would I play them?"
nice introduction

Snow image to show the craters is ugly, can not tell what these black pixelmess is: units, wrecks, rocks?

[zwzsg]

Kernel Panic is not a solo project, even if KDR_11k single handly made most of it.

[knorke]

the thread is now about which *a mod is best.
fail.

[smoth]

That line of evolution continued and the result is known as Balanced Annihilation.

Followed by ba as the first project gg, you mak it seem lik ba is the base game. Doesn't help that we still have to use that fucking MODule nomenclator which makes our projects seem like the amateur hack job of teenagers

Gundam

Is not a searchable form "gundam rts" would have been correct ffs I have a logo and all.

Ba is not the focus of spring, it is an offshoot of AA. The spring devs USED to dev XTA and only bothered with swta and XTA. I was the third converted project. But no, spring started as this fucking weird civil war looking thing.

It is a good effort but you should have left the *a stuff as a footnote

[SinbadEV]

I think we should take this fight to the SA forums... someone make another post telling people to ignore the first and promoting only non-*A variants... community infighting is totally an awesome way to get attention.

[Hobo Joe]

"These games look ugly, why would I play them?"
nice introduction

That's the self-deprecating nature of SA, gotta know your audience.

Mainly just a way to explain the good points of Spring without sounding like a tool.


Thanks for suggestions though, changing some things.