Spring RTS Engine

Edit: Spring Network (WIP)

So here's the jist of my idea. Most games for Spring have their own sites, however, they're all in different styles and have different content and different navigation and some aren't all that user friendly.

My intention here is to create small mini-sites for each popular game and collaborate them altogether to create a site that features all the basics for these games. Then, network them together and create an easy link between games which would increase the chances of visitors finding a game they might be interested in playing.

The sites should be pretty and cleverly laid out to drag visitors in. They should feature plenty of game content and media and any text should be clear and to the point. Bullet'd points make for good reading in visitor viewing.

The sites should be as simple as possible with some summary information about the game, a fair amount of nice media (screenshots and videos), and of course, a download page.

I've drawn up a small sample of what I'm thinking:



Yes, these are in essence, marketing sites. These are the kind of sites you'd link your friends up to in order to get people interested. In order to make these viral, they'll need to be fully complete with download links to game installers for that particular game (I know S44 already has its own installer, other games will have to make some as well).

I was also thinking some sort of referral system of some kind would be a good idea to get people spreading them.

Also, this project would be aimed at spreading the games for Spring, not the Spring Engine itself.

I would be willing to make the designs for those games that want in, although, it would require some effort from a few parties. Things such as the installers, video media, server space etc would need to be sorted.

Of course, I'll only begin this project once more than 3 games have accepted.

Thoughts, comments suggestions?

Sure, if you swear an oath to personnaly keep maintaining it till your last breath, why not?

zwzsg wrote:Sure, if you swear an oath to personnaly keep maintaining it till your last breath, why not?

Once it's all up, there wouldn't be much to maintain. Download links could just link to the official sites so they're auto-updated. Or just include an installer that retrieves latest version from wherever and then the download link wouldn't need to be changed at all.

They should feature plenty of game content and media and any text should be clear and to the point.

Who will write the clear text? Who will shot the media? Who'll spend all his free time fighting the layout system to make sure everything is well aligned and pretty to look at? Who will reshot the pictures, reshot the videos, rewrite the texts, to keep up with the mods update?

Once it's all up, there wouldn't be much to maintain. Download links could just link to the official sites so they're auto-updated. Or just include an installer that retrieves latest version from wherever and then the download link wouldn't need to be changed at all.

Oh. So you already decided you won't bother updating it manually once it's up. Then no thanks. I don't think a page of rotten links would be that useful.

Also, could you explain me what would be so wrong with spending your energy on improving http://springrts.com/wiki/Games or http://www.springinfo.info/?page_id=4 ?

zwzsg wrote:

They should feature plenty of game content and media and any text should be clear and to the point.

Who will write the clear text? Who will shot the media? Who'll spend all his free time fighting the layout system to make sure everything is well aligned and pretty to look at? Who will reshot the pictures, reshot the videos, rewrite the texts, to keep up with the mods update?

I'll do all that apart from Vidoes because I can't capture at anything higher than 5 FPS ...

zwzsg wrote:

Once it's all up, there wouldn't be much to maintain. Download links could just link to the official sites so they're auto-updated. Or just include an installer that retrieves latest version from wherever and then the download link wouldn't need to be changed at all.

Oh. So you already decided you won't bother updating it manually once it's up. Then no thanks. I don't think a page of rotten links would be that useful.

I said there wouldn't be much to maintain. Not, "I'm not going to maintain anything". If there is something that needs changing then I'll change it. That's why I'm asking for a reliable place to host them, so things don't get deleted or the sites are down all the time.

zwzsg wrote:Also, could you explain me what would be so wrong with spending your energy on improving http://springrts.com/wiki/Games or http://www.springinfo.info/?page_id=4 ?

Because they're summary pages of each game/mod. If somebody's going to pick from those they'll just pick the prettiest one and not necessarily the best choice for them.

A layout like this: http://springrts.com/wiki/Kernel_Panic isn't terribly attractive, nor does it drag visitors in. Wiki pages aren't designed for marketing purposes, they're designed to display information.

I'll do all that apart from Vidoes because I can't capture at anything higher than 5 FPS ...

If there is something that needs changing then I'll change it.

Cool!

That's why I'm asking for a reliable place to host them, so things don't get deleted or the sites are down all the time.

What about Forb's place? He keeps saying he built his site "for the community" and eargly awaits new contributors.

If content developers did their job properly, maintaining text and images would be a copy paste operation.

I'm glad someone else has finally took to the idea, my own attempt at making sites for the games of this community was a non-starter what with wolfegames.com being built and then never used.

There's still no reason content developers couldnt make sites that are just 2 pages, one with the name, a short description, 2 sentences long, then a slew of videos and screen shots and pictures, then on page 2, a set of download links and change log, which content devs already do in their own thread, copy paste affair.

But I've gone over this a long time ago in great detail. Content devs want to say they cant do it themselves, and ignore the people in the community who CAN do it who have time on their hands. They then declare that these people can arrive one day with a site ready built out of nowhere and set it up for them, despite the fact that every occasion it has happened, it has been an utter disaster for the person contributing the work. It only seems to have worked when existing members of the team have done it.

What happened to the ladder site btw? Unless that's totally buried idea for whatever reason, why not include these small info pages there, if there exists a ladder for that game

JohannesH wrote:What happened to the ladder site btw? Unless that's totally buried idea for whatever reason, why not include these small info pages there, if there exists a ladder for that game

Hopefully we'll be able to integrate everything as much as possible in the future.

I can do some media related things for this, possibly even video, recently got a new CPU, I'll test later today to see if I can record above 30 FPS.

This is something we really need.

looks great jaz, cool design there on the mockup

can i suggest talking to forb and possibly getting this rocking on springinfo?

KaiserJ wrote:looks great jaz, cool design there on the mockup

can i suggest talking to forb and possibly getting this rocking on springinfo?

I already PM'd him in the lobby a while ago, he's prolly asleep though

Regardless, this will probably take at least a month till this is actually online. There's a fair amount to do. I've already begun work coding the general template of the site. The only thing I can't do is make separate installers for each game and record video of the games in action.

ah great;

well, maybe stick a 640x480 hole in the template for the vids later; i tried recently to get a decent capture... only works at about 1/4 speed :/

I talked to forb about redoing the wordpress theme for springinfo, I've been busy since I got back from cornwall mind so I haven't had much time to do ought, are you working in a git/svn repo I can look at? Id rather not waltz in and cause a caffufle, maybe lend a helping hand or two?

Using the portable archive, it should be quite easy to install spring-mods like separate games. Its a waste of diskspace but who cares. Could be really professional if its combined with a game-specific lobby-template.

Here's a CA vid you can try using: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szeRnfWNsBo

I'm going to tentatively say that 1944 is interested, with the caveat that I would prefer two separate sites - one for IP independent or validated titles, one for other titles. This means, of course, that KP/1944/SW:IW might be on the former, while CA/BA/XTA would end up on the latter. I'm sure we can talk about it later.

Well Springinfo is syndicating wherever it can, but many of these sites don't have rss feeds which causes a lot of problems, because otherwise I don't have access to post contents.

In a way, a welcome site seems a little redundant, and to that end, AF, couldn't we redesign Springinfo to serve this purpose as well as just news? I would think so. I mean as it is it's pretty modularized and shifting large amounts of stuff around wouldn't be an issue, but seriously guys... If your site doesn't have an rss feed that's no good. Needs moar rss feed.

Neddie wrote:I'm going to tentatively say that 1944 is interested, with the caveat that I would prefer two separate sites - one for IP independent or validated titles, one for other titles. This means, of course, that KP/1944/SW:IW might be on the former, while CA/BA/XTA would end up on the latter. I'm sure we can talk about it later.

Hmm, yes. That's a good point well made. So, do the "validated" title games not want to be related at all to the TA breeds? I mean, you guys don't mind being on the same page as: http://springrts.com/wiki/Games

But then again, they're under different headings... I could make two sites, and link those sites discretely, and then within those sites, make pages for the relevant games with proper public navigation between them.

What'd ya think? Better idea?

I think that is a pretty good idea. We will discuss it more in lobby, or perhaps through another real-time medium?