18 replies to this topic

[chance]

No doubt, there are lots of them. Most are fairly small, and I suppose many don't survive. But there are a fair number of GameMaker forums that have been around for a while and seem fairly active.

Just a few I've visited:

Polish
Spanish
Dutch
Czech
German
French

Phil Gamble listed many of these (and more) in his GameMaker blog post a couple years ago. So I decided to re-visit some and see how active they've remained. My few visits suggested that the Polish and Spanish GM communities are the most active -- but that's just my quick (non-objective) observation. And the Polish forum (GMClan) even had some involvement from YoYo Games (probably through gnysek's organizational efforts).

Mainly, I'm curious how many GMC regulars are also members of these (or other) GameMaker community forums. Specifically, I mean GM forums that have been around a long while, and have +1000 members -- not small start-up forums (please...)

[YellowAfterlife]

To say about Russian communities:

• GM-Rus:
  Collapsed due to some 'technical reasons' in 2010.
  Authors promised a comeback in 2011, but nothing happened.
• 'Russian Game Maker' (slw-soft):
  Site itself is 'dead' for a long time already (still describes GameMaker7).
  Forum was online for some time later, but currently (for how long?) does not work, PHP error.
• RedSystem forum:
  Grown to 2300 members (from 400), somewhat active, healthy.
• HellRoom forum:
  Grown to 3000 members (from 200), active, healthy.
  I am a global moderator there.

Last two differ mainly in 'rule sets' and looks. Both have active sections for different types of content.

What feels really missing in GMC comparing to it's "russian colleagues" is threatening of "lameness" on side of newbies.
Both listed forums have pinned rule topics in 'novice question' sections stating that thou should first use search and\or common sense in investigating their problem, before creating a potentially useless topic.

Edit: Unlinked site seemingly hosting a illegal version.

Edited by YellowAfterlife, 02 April 2012 - 07:08 PM.

[TalonAgav]

This one is a reddit, but it pretty much acts as a forum. It's pretty active, and has gone from 40 members to 400 members in 2 months:

www.reddit.com/r/gamemaker

Edited by TalonAgav, 29 March 2012 - 03:35 PM.

[Docopoper]

I love reading topics like this.
At this point I just assume most people on the internet are from America or Canada... except that it seems most of the GMC aren't.
Maybe it's YouTube that made me assume that, I don't know...

Ah well, I wonder where that stereotype came from anyway, I'd say it's probably because I don't usually Google in a language I don't know. (That includes Irish, I'm so bad at it )

This is by far the most awkward post I've ever written. It's not meant to be offensive, it's such a touchy subject.

[chance]

To say about Russian communities:
<snip>

I'm aware of those Russian sites, but decided not list them. One of them hosts cracked software (which may also install rootkit viruses). And both of them, at various times, have triggered serious malware/virus alerts when I visit. To be safe, I avoid them. But that's an individual decision we all make for ourselves.

At this point I just assume most people on the internet are from America or Canada...

Bad assumption. You probably assume that because places like North America, Australia, Europe, Japan/Korea, have the highest percentage of their populations on the internet.

But in terms of sheer numbers, China and Europe dominate. Asia and Europe together comprise 65% of the world's internet users -- compared to only 12% from US/Canada.


source (with original image)

[Docopoper]

At this point I just assume most people on the internet are from America or Canada...

Bad assumption. You probably assume that because places like North America, Australia, Europe, Japan/Korea, have the highest percentage of their populations on the internet.

But in terms of sheer numbers, China and Europe dominate. Asia and Europe together comprise 65% of the world's internet users -- compared to only 12% from US/Canada.


source (with original image)

Wow, I expected it to be a minority - but not by that much. For some reason I thought America has quite a big population - I'm not surprised Asia is the highest though. I think I probably got that idea because of the amount of news I've been hearing about the internet from America's perspective. (such as SOPA, and the fact that a lot of the TV channels here are either British or American).

[free_napalm]

Keep in mind that the Americans and (most) Canadians have English content on their websites. However, everybody who wants to attract the largest crowd possible has English content on his website, therefore nearly every page appears to be made by a native speaker at first glance.

What surprised me most in the chart is that there are nearly as many people online from Latin America and the Carribbean as from North America. I felt like discovering a huge city in Fallout
-free napalm

[Wolf Dreamer]

Asia has 26.2 % of its population online which equals 1,016,799,076 users. North America has 78.6 % of its population using the internet, which is 273,067,546 users. Interesting.

Any idea as to how many people own a copy of GameMaker? Years ago I had a Game Maker forum, which has 661 members, but none of us active there anymore. I believe it was one of the first user made forums for Game Maker, first on ezboard, then when that entire company got hacked and most everything deleted, over to invision. FreeGadgets had his own forum there, where he talked about his creation, the first method of making 3D games on Game Maker, it said to be impossible by many up to that point. Others who created their own 3D systems for Game Maker had their own active forum rooms over there as well.

I think Game Maker is more popular now. Its now also called GameMaker without the space, while this forum says "Game Maker Community" at the top of the page. I miss the space. We have spaces between words these days, the internet can handle them.

[chance]

Back to the original question: is anybody else (in addition to YellowAfterlife) a member of those other GM forums?

[Erik Leppen]

My few visits suggested that the Polish and Spanish GM communities are the most active -- but that's just my quick (non-objective) observation.

You might have overlooked a lot of activity on the Dutch forum (Nederlandse Game Maker Community) then, because it is thriving, and viewing total message counts, seems to be larger than both of these two added up Don't forget that Game Maker started out as a program created by a Dutch guy. I think that helped a lot. And we're in our 33rd (friendly but "official") competition already

Mainly, I'm curious how many GMC regulars are also members of these (or other) GameMaker community forums. Specifically, I mean GM forums that have been around a long while, and have +1000 members -- not small start-up forums (please...)

I started out on the Dutch forum before even finding this GMC here. In fact I have been a moderator since 2007 and just recently became administrator.

What feels really missing in GMC comparing to it's "russian colleagues" is threatening of "lameness" on side of newbies.
Both listed forums have pinned rule topics in 'novice question' sections stating that thou should first use search and\or common sense in investigating their problem, before creating a potentially useless topic.

We have it too, but I don't think it works very well

At this point I just assume most people on the internet are from America or Canada...

Bad assumption. You probably assume that because places like North America, Australia, Europe, Japan/Korea, have the highest percentage of their populations on the internet.

Or simply because the English half of the internet and the Chinese half of the internet don't have a lot of cross links, so you simply don't come across a lot of non-English pages.

Edited by Erik Leppen, 31 March 2012 - 07:50 AM.

[makerofthegames]

Erik, that's pretty interesting but I couldn't really phase your post based on the amount of winking smileys there within.
Joking, joking.

[chance]

My few visits suggested that the Polish and Spanish GM communities are the most active -- but that's just my quick (non-objective) observation.

You might have overlooked a lot of activity on the Dutch forum (Nederlandse Game Maker Community) then, because it is thriving, and viewing total message counts, seems to be larger than both of these two added up
<snip>
I started out on the Dutch forum before even finding this GMC here. In fact I have been a moderator since 2007 and just recently became administrator.

You're right -- I did miss that. It looks like a great forum, and quite active. I'm guessing it has a large overlap with the GMC, in turns of member database.

[Erik Leppen]

I'm guessing it has a large overlap with the GMC, in turns of member database.

The Dutch are usually fairly good English speakers. I think. Maybe that has something to do with it.


(By the way, nice topic)

[chance]

I'm guessing it has a large overlap with the GMC, in turns of member database.

The Dutch are usually fairly good English speakers. I think. Maybe that has something to do with it.

I agree. I find that Dutch, Swiss, German, and Indian (from India) people general speak English very well. Of course, that's based on my experiences with US visitors/workers from those countries, so my sample is highly biased.

I've only joined one other non-English forum: ComunidadGM. But I still fumble a bit there.

[Andy]

Although this forum is not dedicated to Game Maker,
http://forums.tigsource.com/
is a nice game development forum. Game Maker is discussed often.

[Popcorn123]

Hay, i just finished creating a new community and anyone who wishes to join may. Please come and look. (Remember it is BRAND NEW AND there arn't many people there yet.)

[Swifty]

64digits is the one that comes to mind for me. While it's not directly about Game Maker and not really a forum.. Game Maker does tie in quite heavily to it. Definitely worth a browse.

Swifty

[Erik Leppen]

not small start-up forums (please...)

Remember it is BRAND NEW

Please, read before you write.

[Andy]

64digits is the one that comes to mind for me. While it's not directly about Game Maker and not really a forum.. Game Maker does tie in quite heavily to it. Definitely worth a browse.

Swifty

64digits is a classic Game Maker community, and overall fun site, good suggestion.