Spring developer crisis

[zerver]

I was looking at the Spring commit history and was saddened to see we are down to our last 4 active developers (jK, rt, zerver and abma).

3 devs now, because I was just banned
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p540236

I don't see anything in the forum rules against talking about different Spring versions / forks. This is getting better and better!

[gajop]

It's not in the forum rules, and you weren't banned from the forums.
You just seem to agitate the other devs and they decided to remove your rights on other services.
At this point, if I were you, I would leave MT alone and do something else until feelings cool off.

[NeonStorm]

and do something else until feelings cool off.

+1
I didn't "like" the MT too, because other things are more important.


Even if you cannot commit, you could ask another apply a patch - if it is a "clearly useful" one.

Wiki: And you still have influence by promoting other opinions and support new/other devs which try things that you favor with your knowledge.

Don't underestimate that :)

[FireStorm_]

Almost done (WIP)



-bigger
-gradient background
-black and White / grey-scale (for cheaper printing )

Didn't honour "Less is more" as well as I've should, but I think it can get the message across. (I was considering making another one in the future which would feature little more than a brand/logo and url, but that might just be swapping one effect for another.) In the mean time I think this may serve.

[gajop]

Fucking awesome.

[Johannes]

Maybe it'd look a bit sleeker if the all text had the same indentation (or whatever it's called)? The white logo on the background could be removed or faded I think, not sure if it really serves any purpose.

Also you could add "mapmaker" in there also. And the Gamer? text could imply more that it's a strategy game, and not just about big exploshuns and levelups (and levels and unlocks are not featured on most games here, pretty much just ZK?).

But overall good job!

[NeonStorm]

once you are level 100+ you don't have to bother about unlocks in zk

Unlocks where there because noobs only wanted to win with Starlight or Disco Rave Party or Detriment.
-> zkdevs though they should learn to win with basic units first and unlock more complex stuff 1 by 1.

[Anarchid]

once you are level 100+ you don't have to bother about unlocks in zk

Nah, that's the level where you have to donate to get that red lazor. Or play without red lazor. But you know. Red lazor.

[FireStorm_]

Thanks for feedback guys, much appreciated.

I'll tweak the white logo and try to tweak the text.
But the text is very tricky to me. You know: Get the wording right, it messes up the layout. fix that and it overlaps something else... change one thing, change a bunch.

I totally forgot mapmaker and will add it.

About the 'Gamer?': Not the focus of the promo, to little room to describe everything, and most gamers know: most games give a sort of Veni Vidi Vici experience.

Overall the promo tries to communicate in possibilities (not so much realities)

And I chose 'level up' and 'unlock tech' because they could be ambiguous. It has meaning in zero-k but might also mean 'build a research center' or 'tech up to T2' or what ever a aspiring game dev thinks it means...

(hope to update soonish)

[malric]

Very nice graphical poster!

As you say the message I think is a bit too generic.

If you would target university students for projects, I would put something like:

"Looking for a cool AI project ? Use our engine to test your AI against your friends."

"Interested in game development? Create your own RTS game or help an existing project."

"Want to work in the gaming industry? Work on tools that enable games being played (map editor, lobby, server)"

"Wondered how art integrates in a 3D RTS? Create 3D models and see them shattered in real games"

Minor comment, what about using springrts.org (seems to point to .com), but seems more "neutral"....

Could you link to the source (whatever format are you using guess you do not use Paint) of the poster? Maybe other people can make variations (as you said for you is hard to tweak the text, would have tried to improve it myself but not starting from .png ).

Edit: you could put under the title something like "Open source RTS engine looking for artists, developers or just enthusiasts. Come and have fun with us!" (instead of "free open source"

[Johannes]

The "Gamer?" part is important because it sets the tone about what kind of games the engine is about, and of course any potential dev has to like the RTS games. Talking of levels and unlocks gives an MMO kind of wibe, which isn't accurate.

[CarRepairer]

Awesome poster. Contact English speakers in the lobby because it needs some grammatical fixes. For now, omit spaces before question marks. To elaborate, the flow is difficult to read.

Are you a gamer?

Blows stuff up

Fight big battles.

Lines #1 and #3 address the reader in 2nd person but not line 2.

[zwzsg]

It's quite verbose. Effective marketing use large images and very few words. At least from what I see in the street or subway.

Otherwise I like how you put some info in the picture part, like the C++ engine, or the folders of Lua files.

[gajop]

Currently this mostly seems like something I'd post on social networks (using the spring account, someone has it, right?), and the rest of us should try and share it so our friends/colleagues see it (try to target at least Facebook and Google+).

If you would target university students for projects

I would make it even more technical for the uni students, as most of them are looking what they can gain from it (which is usually experience and money).
1) It's really important to note that it's open source (most uni students freshly introduced to the GNU/Linux world fall for that), so i'd put that in bigger, capital letters.

2) Mention technologies that can be learned for certain layers, e.g.
for the engine : OpenGL, C++, Networking,
for the AIs: real-time, event-driven, real-life problems (can be played against)
general stuff: VCS tools like SVN/GIT, cooperation in big communities, multiple programming languages integrated in large systems

3) Maybe put a screenshot or two of the development process too, instead of having 3 screenshots of games. Something like:
1. Engine development (C++ code, take a screenshot in vim or something equally spacey).
2. AI/Game (in-game) development (Screenshot of a game with debug information, obvious that it's not yet done).
3. Working game people are playing!.

Oh and when you're done with this version let's put it on a spring site (maybe in a more-positive sounding thread) and have an URL we can link to.

PS: I realize I've made a bit long post... Didn't really want to nitpick but I think this can gain some popularity. Btw, maybe someone (community leader(s), ) can try and organize how we spread it?

[hoijui]

a dev is someone that is active (as described by spliff), BrainDamage and cleanrock fit better under the term contributors.

making the engine more modular is not technically hard. it is only time consuming.

[Neddie]

Healthy eye roll there, gajop.

Most efforts are good efforts, but in this case, coordination would probably not offer any real benefit. Social media marketing can either come from personal connection or from an authoritative central entity, but I've found mixing the two to be counterproductive in my professional experience.

Some simpler, more targetted images could prove as effective. When you study image sharing on Facebook, you'll find that a simple and positive image with good contrast will trump an intricate or intellectual one. It skews a bit in the other direction with Tumblr and Pinterest, but you're dealing with smaller specialist audiences there, so...

Anyway, point is, when you advertise to everyone, you advertise to noone. This was a problem I ran into when I ran advertisements for S44, GRTS, and KP. Target-centric advertisement needs to be tailored, but you can tailor different ads for different targets and run them concurrently. Maybe make one image for gamers, one image for AI coders, one image for programming students.

Another note from experience, people are often repelled by "free" - particularly in the United States. When you speak with a focus group, they will inevitably explain that they either assume there is some angle being played, that the product is inferior, or both. This was a huge sticking point in my advertisement experiments for Spring, because at the end of the day, the sell was in the screenshot - not the nature of the product. At my present employer, we don't focus on the free nature of our service at all, as it isn't positive messaging in the marketplace.

[hoijui]

maybe make one poster, and grey out parts (eg. everythign except the gaming part for gamers)?
whatever you do, don't split engine and AI deving, it are the same people.
someone that specializes in machine learning or the like, does not write an AI for an RTS, and even if he does, he is likely still able to also work on the engine.

[PepeAmpere]

whatever you do, don't split engine and AI deving, it are the same people.

bullshit, just bullshit

---------------------------------------

firestorm - TO POSTER:

Btw, the basic idea of poster is good (those level steps)! But rest is amateur. Try to be more simple, cut the text, use shortcuts. Dont use "logo" on the backgroud, have special place for it. Read something about layout/DTP/typography first (basic overview, typographic basic rules). Dont try to put all in one poster, make poster for each category of people you want to attract for example. Each of such category of people (target group) appreciate different kind/parts of project (cool robots or battle screens for players, developers domene screens for developers). All-in-one add is way to hell. Trust me (and Neddie), this is notAjoke!

[gajop]

I disagree with having multiple posters for each discipline.
One of the main sources of people who would want to participate in Spring are people who want to make games, in general. I know when I started programming, it was because I wanted to make games, not write engines or create lobbies, those are just skills.

Besides no one needs to attract the attention of your average attention span facebook reader (still suggest we use fb/g+), unless you are going to write "Spring RTS" on a cat.

It may be that unis are completely different here than where you are, but what attracts the best and brightest people are detailed posters, many without a single image, which clearly and precisely explain what they are about.
Avoiding any marketing things is a good thing, as it shows some level of seriousness.

Also, open source is rather popular here, 1st and 2nd year CSI/SE students learn coding (C/C++) in GNU/Linux, and even though we still have a couple of lectures in C#, most of it is open source or can run in Linux. There's even a small open source/hacker movement (I'm not part of it), and some of the teaching staff are a part of it. So it's really unlikely they would be put off by it.

Well whatever firestorm makes I'll probably put over a couple of walls and see how that pans out .

[hoijui]

@gajop +1