Pushing forward!
Yadu Rajiv
fresh and new :) You can find a list of things you will find new or
just with a new coat of paint below :D
If you find any bugs or problems, do drop a mail to monster [aT]
indiegamedev.in ^_^
What's new?
Tided up the website, added a bit more color, new logo, more
content(well, its on its way)
Login using facebook
http://indiegamedev.in/user
What can you do and how can you help?
After you have logged in, you can invite your friends.
http://indiegamedev.in/fbconnect/invite/friends
Post a project.
If you are working on a game, alone or with a team; add the project to
the projects listing. As more of your team members join in, you can
add them to the project as well. You can also post screenshots and
preview links to your project. If its that one unfinished game that
you want to put out and need a helping hand, the project listing also
has an option for it. You can change the status of a project to a
seeking help status so that your friends can easily find it and help
you out.
Complete your profile and get yourself listed in the directory.
Find others near you in the member directory
http://indiegamedev.in/directory/members
Blog!
Post development updates, news, reviews or technical articles that
might help your fellow developers on the InGDIn Blog.
Events.
Be it meet-ups, workshops or a Build-Your-Own-Game sprint; just jump
in and do it! Find friends in the same city who can spare a weekend
off to meet-up or build games! If you want any help with setting up
and getting local meets going, just drop in a line to monster [aT]
indiegamedev.in.
What's happening!
Get active on the mailing list! If you are making something, we all
want to know it! If you have something you want to test, feel free to
post about it!
Anything else?
If you would like to help out in managing the website(Drupal), the
mailing list, writing blogs, doing interviews and taking care of the
community on facebook; do drop a mail to monster [aT]
indiegamedev.in :)
Also, if you haven't already done it, connect with everyone on
facebook - http://facebook.com/ingdin
twitter - http://twitter.com/ingdin
steam - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ingdin
the mailing list - http://groups.google.com/group/ingdin/
and the website - http://indiegamedev.in
Lets all try to do our best and put our games on the map. Will be back
with more awesome stuff soon :)
shirish शिरीष
On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 16:29, Yadu Rajiv <yadu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The InGDIn website just went through a tiny overhaul and here it is,
> fresh and new :) You can find a list of things you will find new or
> just with a new coat of paint below :D
nice.
> If you find any bugs or problems, do drop a mail to monster [aT]
> indiegamedev.in ^_^
>
> What's new?
> Tided up the website, added a bit more color, new logo, more
> content(well, its on its way)
>
> Login using facebook
> http://indiegamedev.in/user
It would be good to be able to sign in using gmail as well.
Quite a few sites do that and its a good way for users who don't want
to go through the whole sign-in procedure on public comps.
> --
> --
> Indie GameDev India Community
> http://indiegamedev.in
Some more ideas/points to discuss :-
a. I really didn't like the poll which is/was there on the site. As a
gamer I can't pick favorites . I have played my share of fps, tps,
rpg's, point and click adventures, sims the works.
If I were to pick a favorite genre it would be a three-some tie
between RPG's, Point and Click Adventures and simulations.
what perhaps would have been more relevant to find out would be casual
game playing vs big file games.
For instance over the years I found/feel that casual games give the
same kick vis-a-vis the big multi gig downloads .
The system requirements are smaller, the space used is smaller, the
download time is smaller hence more easy to game.
b. Give some sort of classification for games :-
If I were a gamer who would come looking at the site for games I would
like to filter it both by my sytem environment (PC,Xbox, Sony
Playstation,IPhone, Android etc.) , file-size (less than 200 MB, more
than 200 MB for starters), genre, license (FOSS, closed-source paid
etc.) , level where the development is (manually or automated if can
be) so I know what could be interesting to me.
c. If I were a developer (I'm not) then a database of small gaming
development companies working on games platform-wise, game wise
whatever. It could be a great tool for networking and raising
awareness of games being developed in India.
d. Also somewhere a definition of what makes the indie game
developer/s different from commercial big-name studios . Something
like https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Independent_video_game_development
for starters because there are/would be many wanna be indie game
developers who perhaps might not know what or how things would be.
e. Links to various global (and if possible local) game development
forums, happenings. For instance in the FOSS world,
freegamer.blogspot.com and http://planet.freegamedev.net/ cover lots
going over at that place.
f. Have a section on tools/libraries known about, more OSS rather than
closed tools as development becomes cheaper/easier (perhaps) .
I am sure all of the above is in the TODO of the website designer/s
but still my 2 paise.
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal शिरीष अग्रवाल
My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
065C 6D79 A68C E7EA 52B3 8D70 950D 53FB 729A 8B17
Nandeep Mali
not mon...@gmail.com. Lets not disturb the gmail monster.
@Yadu Is it possible to let someone else contribute to the development
of ingdin? Shirish has a lot of ideas and am sure he would love to
jump in the development of the site. It will help distribute the work.
You don't need to be a developer to work on drupal.
---
n9986
P.S: Kindly take pains snip/cut the content from previous mails before
replying. Makes it easier to read the actual content.
Joel Johnson
Yadu Rajiv
It would be good to be able to sign in using gmail as well.
you can use your gmail to login, since gmail is an openID(not your email, but your profile url)
http://www.google.com/profiles/yournamehere
But you are still required to fill in your profile and finish the registration.
a. I really didn't like the poll which is/was there on the site. As a
gamer I can't pick favorites . I have played my share of fps, tps,
rpg's, point and click adventures, sims the works.
There are more people who didn't like it :) do comment below the poll itself.
If I were to pick a favorite genre it would be a three-some tie
between RPG's, Point and Click Adventures and simulations.
Again, I didn't want to specifically mention genres, but I did since most people relate to them; if not, you can leave a comment about it elaborating your ideas and thoughts. I'm sure a lot more people would join in and push the conversation forward as well.
what perhaps would have been more relevant to find out would be casual
game playing vs big file games.
Once you create an account, you can create your own polls! just added it in the morning, also the reason for the current poll to be there ~_~
b. Give some sort of classification for games :-
If I were a gamer who would come looking at the site for games I would
like to filter it both by my sytem environment (PC,Xbox, Sony
Playstation,IPhone, Android etc.) , file-size (less than 200 MB, more
than 200 MB for starters), genre, license (FOSS, closed-source paid
etc.) , level where the development is (manually or automated if can
be) so I know what could be interesting to me.
+1 for that; more filters means ore fields to fill for developers :D when they list their game.
c. If I were a developer (I'm not) then a database of small gaming
development companies working on games platform-wise, game wise
whatever. It could be a great tool for networking and raising
awareness of games being developed in India.
Actually working towards something like this right now.
d. Also somewhere a definition of what makes the indie game
developer/s different from commercial big-name studios . Something
like https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Independent_video_game_development
for starters because there are/would be many wanna be indie game
developers who perhaps might not know what or how things would be.
yes.. true.. check this out as well - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32810/Opinion_A_Declaration_Of_Independence.php
e. Links to various global (and if possible local) game development
forums, happenings. For instance in the FOSS world,
freegamer.blogspot.com and http://planet.freegamedev.net/ cover lots
going over at that place.
Most of all the stuff is being pushed on the facebook page, from freegamer too; A lot of stuff is aggregated on the planet as well - http://indiegamedev.in/aggregator
We are trying to get original content, writing it while doing a lot of other things are just taking time. Once you log in you can write blog posts too :) be it a technical article or reviews or what not.
f. Have a section on tools/libraries known about, more OSS rather than
closed tools as development becomes cheaper/easier (perhaps) .
Thanks for all the feed back! and do jump in :)
peace,
Yadu
Yadu Rajiv
@Yadu Is it possible to let someone else contribute to the development
of ingdin? Shirish has a lot of ideas and am sure he would love to
jump in the development of the site. It will help distribute the work.
You don't need to be a developer to work on drupal.
Kinshuk was supposed to start a thread on this particular topic too.. mm
current website dev team is - http://indiegamedev.in/humans.txt
Y
Yadu Rajiv
What IS the monster? :)
is someone who takes care of the site while we are not around :D
Kinshuk Sunil
What IS the monster? :)is someone who takes care of the site while we are not around :D
and thats definitely not me
Kinshuk Sunil
@Yadu Is it possible to let someone else contribute to the development
of ingdin? Shirish has a lot of ideas and am sure he would love to
jump in the development of the site. It will help distribute the work.
You don't need to be a developer to work on drupal.Please jump in!! If you have used drupal, wicked, else its not a big deal, you will see :)
Kinshuk was supposed to start a thread on this particular topic too.. mm
more on this coming soon. working out how the team should work, open to suggestions.
--
--
Kinshuk Sunil
a. I really didn't like the poll which is/was there on the site. As a
gamer I can't pick favorites . I have played my share of fps, tps,
rpg's, point and click adventures, sims the works.
There are more people who didn't like it :) do comment below the poll itself.
Not liking the poll shouldnt be a problem. Everyoen can create polls. Perhaps, we should have a feature highlight on the site, and some moderation too.
[snip]
b. Give some sort of classification for games :-
If I were a gamer who would come looking at the site for games I would
like to filter it both by my sytem environment (PC,Xbox, Sony
Playstation,IPhone, Android etc.) , file-size (less than 200 MB, more
than 200 MB for starters), genre, license (FOSS, closed-source paid
etc.) , level where the development is (manually or automated if can
be) so I know what could be interesting to me.
+1 for that; more filters means ore fields to fill for developers :D when they list their game.
we had a lot more than that in mind, when we set out with the directory and midway realized that it is better to release-and-build, so more awesomeness will keep coming in there.
we also wanted to stay from genres, since many games these days (esp indies) are crossovers and cant fit in a single genre.
perhaps there should be dedicated section on the site to discuss features and processes ? something like uservoice ?
c. If I were a developer (I'm not) then a database of small gaming
development companies working on games platform-wise, game wise
whatever. It could be a great tool for networking and raising
awareness of games being developed in India.
Actually working towards something like this right now.
yup, in works. plus we just dont want to list these studios, but involve them actively with the community initiatives. these are, afterall, our veterans from the front. if you are such a studio, pls contact.. soon, we will also share some ideas on the list
d. Also somewhere a definition of what makes the indie game
developer/s different from commercial big-name studios . Something
like https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Independent_video_game_development
for starters because there are/would be many wanna be indie game
developers who perhaps might not know what or how things would be.
yes.. true.. check this out as well - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32810/Opinion_A_Declaration_Of_Independence.php
something we dont want to do is reinvent the wheel - what I, personally, mean by that is there are tons of forums and communities out there that declare and define indie gamedev. we want to avoid creating another knowledgebase or skills exchange.
right now, best i can suggest for such things is that members should share such content as blog posts on the site. we are also gonna setup a wiki sometime soon.
e. Links to various global (and if possible local) game development
forums, happenings. For instance in the FOSS world,
freegamer.blogspot.com and http://planet.freegamedev.net/ cover lots
going over at that place.
Most of all the stuff is being pushed on the facebook page, from freegamer too; A lot of stuff is aggregated on the planet as well - http://indiegamedev.in/aggregator
We are trying to get original content, writing it while doing a lot of other things are just taking time. Once you log in you can write blog posts too :) be it a technical article or reviews or what not.
f. Have a section on tools/libraries known about, more OSS rather than
closed tools as development becomes cheaper/easier (perhaps) .+1 for this too :)
just a directory of tools or knowledge-base of them ?
Thanks for all the feed back! and do jump in :)
with time, we will have to rework the project and member directory as well. both are pretty clumsy right now.
hear more from me by tonight.
--
shirish शिरीष
Some thoughts, responses and rants :-
@Yadu :- I'm not a php guy and Drupal works best with guys who are
attuned or understand PHP as their baby. Also I'm wary of giving
commitment to projects where I'm not sure if its something I'll want
to get into long-term. Taking commitments for short-term is also out
as it doesn't do any good for the community. The web-craft team is
best of some commited members who are ready to slog in some hours so
people can create content. They are just building the framework, the
better the framework, the more people can come in and more the site is
scalable as well.
This kind of work involves lot of sleepless nights and not something
I'm ready to give in atm.
@Kinshunk - Yes, you are right that most of the games (esp. in the
casual genre) have more than one classification. Most of the games I
played in the recent past had one or more genres attached to it.
As far as articles go, two recent mobygames articles did catch my eye .
http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,25/
as well as its sequel
http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,31/section,207/
the second one I found more interesting although the unsaid question
there would have been how much LOTR affected the RPG genre ? The idea
of having a lore and a culture I feel became more dominant after LOTR
got the fame and money. What really pulled me is that FOSS games like
http://dungeonhack.sourceforge.net also going through the same route.
When you asked me for the knowledge-base thing, I do think there is a
real need both for gamers as well as for developers.
As a gamer I have to search through google to know about any game,
spending from minutes to an hour to really know whether I want a game
or not and many a times the info. is not there.
In my perfect world, every game title which gets published
commercially, free-to-play, abandonware, FOSS whatever would have
right from system requirements to screenies to reviews of the game
from an independant (not paid by game development guy) source.
For self, I have failed to find such a resource. While jayisgames
comes close enough its not enough.
On the FOSS tools, while surely some or all may know blender, how many
know say bullet physics http://www.bulletphysics.org/ . I myself came
across this while researching something else altogether. There are
many such tools in the FOSS food-chain which are unknowns sadly . So
having a wiki or a site (upto you) would be beneficial.
Just my 2 paise.