[tcaudilllg]

What is with RPGDX these days? Everyone seems to barely paying attention to the forum. Use of the site for project hosting is brisk, but discussion seems to have drawn to a trickle.

I'll probably get flamed for this, but maybe this site has become too professionalized. We hear from many members of this site that have made it into the industry as professionals. It may just be my opinion, but I think the site suffers from an over-emphasis on current professional technologies that are of interest to enthusiasts of the technology, but not to rpg developers in general. There has been much said of the decline of gameplay-related talk here in the recent past.

Part of the problem is the revival of the GDR. Now many of the interesting topics that would have been brought up here are instead discussed at the GDR. This seems a shame, because the GDR does seem to place a premium on what I see as mostly superfluous discussion that never gets down to the real problems facing indie rpgs today. It would be nice to see some serious discussions here instead of the usual interaction-driven fluff. Is the GP2x a good platform for game development, or should it be passed over? What do game designers want in a game development platform, specifically? What are the dividing lines between the opinions they hold on what are good development platforms, and what can be done to produce solid marketable products that meet the satisfaction of all sides, or are targeted towards the satisfaction of specific sides? Discussing the things that divide us, rather than simply expressing our views, may make this forum more enjoyable and productive.

[cowgod]

I've also noticed the low forum traffic, which I think is somewhat strange. rpg-dev had pretty decent forum traffic until its forum went down, so I don't know why no one posts on rpgdx.

There's only one way to change that though: post something.

Personally, I only check the forum every couple of days, so I shouldn't be one to talk. In fact, I was still at the bottom level (pretty fairy princess or something) for number of posts last time I checked.

The issue is that there's only so many things I could post. I'm working on a freeware RPG, but I don't really need help. My only problem is that I have to work 50 hours a week at my job and thus don't have time to work on the RPG. There's nothing anyone here can do about that, so I don't have anything to post.

[BadMrBox]

[RuneLancer]

Meh, it's summer yo. People go out and have a life. ;) Time for programming is often sparse because of that.

Myself, I go up north every once in a while. Out in the country. With no PC. Eerliy enough, it's bearable. And if I'm back home, I'll usually head out with a few friends, mix a few drinks, and after we're all good and hammered, play some pool down at the local bar.

It's just too damned hot to stay indoors and boil next to a PC that shoots out fireballs and cooks the room up to a point where it's hotter than outside by a handfull of 'C.
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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[BadMrBox]

I hear you RL, doing more or less the same thing as you (not mixing drinks thought, just drinking drinks.), yet it has been slow for quite awhile not just from summer start and forward. 25C around here now, my brain is boiling, if you wonder why I type and spell like a (morethanusual) retard :P.
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[RuneLancer]

[BadMrBox]

We have hit that temp here too, not to pleasant when you work in a god damn hellbent factory all day long. And its seems to be thunder today. I allways gets a helluva headache when it's hot outside and is a thunderstorm on its way :(.
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[BadMrBox]

God, we had 34'C in the shadow today and a good guess is that it was over 40'C in the sunny parts. Who knows how hot it is inside... pretty nice. I'm melting away but smiling doing so.
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[RedSlash]

It looks like I am migrating over here while the boards over on rpg-dev are getting fixed.

Here is my quick self introduction for those who don't know me. I am a programmer and am currently working on an action RPG similar to the latest Ys series for PC. It is being programing C and SDL/OpenGL. Unfortunately, I totally lack time and motiviation and work at a snails pace.

I think alot of the indie-RPG has been phasing out due to RPGMaker. RPGMaker-forums are packed full of people and it seems that due to its easiness of use, people just don't bother to learning to program anymore. I've been around for many years in the indie scene and I still remember the days before RPGMaker where everyone was trying to learn how to program RPGS for DOS.

I think what we need is a renewed interest in RPG development. Maybe some kind of collaborative project.. or something.

[Nodtveidt]

Right now, I'm working on both an RPG maker and custom-made RPG engines. There are definate merits to both. RPG makers are great for people who don't know how to program yet know how to write, and coding your own is great for the one-man-army RPG developer, or the small team who has a dedicated coder and a seperate story writer. I know a lot of people whine about "noobs" in the RPG maker scene, but if you look at history, our own coding scene has also been filled with "noobs" who think they can make an RPG by ripping off someone else's RPG engine and adding their own crap story complete with ripped graphics and Final Fantasy MIDIs.
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[Captain Vimes]

Well, the RPG-Dev.net forums are up again, but they've moved to another site. Everyone's still there, as far as I know. Here's the address:

www.hulkamaniac.com

And I think that RedSlash is right; RPGMakers are drawing people away from actually building it from the ground up, which means that they have no need to come to sites like this. I was actually thinking of a sort of "group-RPG" thing that we could do and get other sites to link to this one while talking about this big RPG project. People could come on, post ideas about it, and hopefully start to dump the RPG maker programs in favor of actually posting their own. I don't know if it would work, but it'd be worth a shot, right? Like, take a poll on the type of RPG (strategy like Fire Emblem, classic like Final Fantasy, action-adventure like The Legend of Zelda, etc.), come up with a name, decide to be fantasy, sci-fi, futuristic, modern, whatever... come up with a battle system... then have the guy with the best computer and programming skills put it all together... eh, I dunno. Maybe not. It probably wouldn't work, but then, what other ideas do we have?[/url]
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"Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness."
- Terry Pratchett

[RedSlash]

A group project would be fun. We'd need alot of motiviational power to get it to work.

Another idea is maybe we could start writing a game programming tutorials series. It would help people get started since programming drives alot of people away.

[Nodtveidt]

Large game corporations that develop RPGs have several programmers, each developing a specific part of the game. You might have one map programmer, one or two battle event programmers, one coder to write the scripting engine, another to handle the sound engine, etc etc etc. The problem with a forum environment like this is that many people who could be useful to such a project will have a lot of conflicts with each other...differences in coding style or even preferred compiler create problems very quickly and kill off what could be a good effort. For example...I made my reputation by developing a large RPG in QB, then later coding games in C, FB, and assembly. Many of the game developers here code in C++ and wouldn't dream of using something else for a major project. I wouldn't work well with these people, as I don't use C++ on a regular basis and probably never will. Also, there are quite a few people here that do not know C++, or even C, and wouldn't even be able to contribute on a coding level. Then there are those who have great ideas for a game but lack the media skills to see it realized, and some who are good artists by themselves but aren't so good when they're developing someone else's ideas. Some people like to work in 3D and think that 2D is for dinosaurs, and some people think that 3D is the devil and 2D reigns supreme. The reason for all of this is "independance"...even the motto of this site tells us that we are indies...we do our own thing our own way. To conform to a specific standard method of game design simply isn't in our blood as it is in the "professional" world, so this concept would have little chance of succeeding. However, if it WAS to succeed...imagine the games that could be produced! :)
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[RedSlash]

I agree totally on this point. I can easily see how 3 artists would have such different style in artwork. This is why there is a need for a leader in each department. The art lead would force all artists to conform to one style, while the software lead would design the interfaces and make all contributing programmers conform to the coding styles and interface. Then there would be the overall project manager that oversees each lead to conform to the overall game design. I can see the difficulties in finding suitable people for taking the leading role and then having to find suitable people from the forums to make it work. Futhermore, projects like these tends to start off great but then comes to a halt when everyone becomes to busy or loses interest halfway. But as said, if we could make it work, then it would be pretty awesome.

[tcaudilllg]

Why not ask DevX if he wants to lead a group project? I'd join....

On the other hand, I'll bet DevX is plenty busy with his business to pursue a project that would be filled with acrimony, distrust, and divergent visions.