OMGCarlos

So if you follow me on Twitter you know I'm taking my long work-in-progress project, the Game Makers' Dev Network and renaming it to undefined.xxx (I actually acquired the domain lol!) Since the project has always been geared towards GameMaker since forever, I figured I'd ask what you guys thought of this idea...

Since forever ago, I've wanted to create a way to teach people how to create kickass games with gamemaker. I've gone through several prototypes and websites but I keep failing because the ideas are WAY too ambitious for one guy - even if I am utterly obsessed. The new idea is to create a learn-by-being-a-copy-cat site, lemme explain:

We take existing games and try to replicate it. So we take a game like Super Meatboy, Spelunky, etc and recreate it with GameMaker in a step-by-step series (not complete start-to-finish games obviously, but enough to learn from). Simple. I would hire a few graphic artists to create the art, and you and I simply write the tutorial and code the examples.

There would be two memberships, Free and Undefined (premium). Free gets access to the articles, and Undefined gets access to the actual examples/downloads. Authors would get $X per unique download. I would need to do a premium service to pay the authors, otherwise I would never be able to do it at the scale I'd like.

There would also be an online community driven reference to the manual, as per the original GMDN idea. This would be similar to the PHP Manual, Mozilla Dev Network, and others so you would have the command/function help as well as user submitted examples for that command at the bottom of the page.

What do you think? Good idea? Flop? I'd like to gauge the reception and maybe see who would be interested in writing. I'd eventually expand to other engines/languages, but I'm most comfortable with GM so it's only natural to start there. That and GM is finally becoming recognized as the respectable, professional tool it always has been (about damn time).

I built the website already, I'm just waiting to get my .XXX membership - you can register a .xxx domain but apparently it has to go through some crazy process in order for you to actually upload files/content.

do more...by searching less
(click above for youtube promo video)

It's been a crazy, CRAZY year. Last year I began what I called the GameMaker Interactive Online Help System. The idea was simple, build an online help system - similar to the help manual you have now but with live examples using GM:HTML5. Wiki-based, it allowed anyone to edit it kinda like the GM Wiki.

The idea was based off a prototype system I built earlier that year. It enabled you to listen and work through tutorials real-time, while having the ability to test GML code regardless of whether you even have GM installed or not. I poured hundreds of hours into research and development, and was met with only 4 comments (a sickening feeling considering the time I put into it).

Fast forward 1.5 years since then, and I have the Game Makers' Dev Network. The GMDN is the culmination of 15 years of coding (almost 10 with GM wtf!?). Here are a few of the features that will be packed into it:

Interactive docs, stuffed with examples (live if HTML5 supported), demos, and useful snippets/scripts. Optional browser extension to quickly search the docs by pressing a keyboard shortcut from ANY website (or desktop).
"Make it Like" Series. Instead of the classic tutorial structure, we take a game (like Super Meatboy) and redo it completely in an engine, in a step by step series.
Online editors. If you've ever tried to build a website, you've come across JSFiddle. THAT, but for GameMaker (and others)
* Game Dev Tools: Team collaboration managers, Online map editors, spritesheet generators, world wide competition listings (like http://compohub.net/ ), job boards, team requests, etc

The entire project will be open source from the ground up; the browser extensions, the docs, the tools, even the website itself! We would like to eventually begin sponsoring competitions, have meets/workshops, and sneak ourselves into exhibitions (PAX, E3) etc as well as do charities and school programs. Eventually...

Anyways, the reason for the post. Growing up with GameMaker almost since the very beginning (2001?) I figured I'd like to start by tacking GameMaker. So if you'd like to volunteer in this epic community project here are the options:

Document Writers (w/ pic)


Javascript Developers


The site will launch August 1st with the editor (which is already completed), but I could begin sooner if I get enough interest.

Also:
1) Do you think this is a tool you would use?
2) Is there an online Game Dev tool (GameMaker specific or general) you would like to see developed that would allow YOU to develop faster?
3) IF I were to start a Kickstarter, is this something you would like to support? It would go into hiring a full time staff for 3 months.

As of last month (Oct 2011), the number of web surfers that use the forsaken browser - Internet Explorer - is a depressing 21%. What's worse is that only about 5% of internet users have bothered to upgrade to IE9 - the only one of Microsofts deviant browser to have HTML5 support…

…and if you haven't already guessed, this means that a potential 16%+ of the web cannot have access to your game. Now, 16% doesn't seem like a lot - at least not until you figure that 2.1 BILLION people use the net*. The trick of course is to convince your visitors to upgrade their browser or download an alternative like Firefox. So, just how do you convince them to upgrade?

You can't.

You don't.

Google has released a plugin for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 which essentially allows them to switch the archaic rendering engine IE uses in favor for a modern one which allows a wider percentage of users to enjoy your project! It's called Google Chrome Frame, and it is elfin awesome! Not only is it easy for your users to install the plugin, but it's easy for you to setup - here's how:

Open up your projects index.html page and add this tag to the <head> section:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge,chrome=1">

That single line of code will activate Google Chrome Frame if the visitor already has it installed. However, obviously not all IE users have it installed so you'll need to prompt them to do so. This too is easy, simply add the following code right before the </body> tag:

  <!--[if IE]>
    <script type="text/javascript" 
     src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/chrome-frame/1/CFInstall.min.js"></script>
    <style>
     .chromeFrameInstallDefaultStyle {
       width: 100%; /* default is 800px */
       border: 5px solid blue;
     }
    </style>

    <div id="prompt">
     <!-- if IE without GCF, prompt goes here -->
    </div>
 
    <script>
     // The conditional ensures that this code will only execute in IE,
     // Therefore we can use the IE-specific attachEvent without worry
     window.attachEvent("onload", function() {
       CFInstall.check({
         mode: "inline", // the default
         node: "prompt"
       });
     });
    </script>
  <![endif]-->

And that's it, really! It's all done within the browser, similar to how you had to install Adobe Flash back in the day.

 
* (actualy these numbers can range wildly from 5%-50% depending on your target audience, but that's outside the scope of this article)

References
* Browser Stats - http://www.w3schools...wsers_stats.asp
* Usage Stats - http://www.internetw...s.com/stats.htm
* GCF Getting Started - http://www.chromium....getting-started

After using the GMC for a while I only just recently learned about the profile section with an activity wall similar to Twitter. Not everyone uses Twitter, but everyone here uses the GMC so making the Activity Feed easier to use would benefit all of us. Here are some suggestions:
WHAT
* In the main forum, on the right you'll see a module that says "Recently Added Topics", I think this should be shown in every forum not just the top level forum (gmc.yoyogames.com)
* There should be a "Recently Added Status' " module underneath it, that will let us easily see when a member updates a status
* We should get notified when someone replies to a status in the status feed...currently it doesn't do this. I had replies from a while back but I didn't know about it and since it only shows the last 2 activities I only saw it by chance.
* Right now I have to navigate a couple menus before I can get to the Member's Update page: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?app=members&module=profile§ion=status&type=all , this should be available easily right from the forum

WHY
* It will allows us to keep track of our friends and favorite GM members development progress VERY easily
* Develop a tighter community. It's already available, but not everyone knows about it - and even for those who do it's not easy to use.
* Would make the GMC stand out over it's competitors. Again, the features are there - they just need to be obvious and easy to use.
* NEW - It would also make things easier for the guys behind indieFunction and GameMakerBlog.com to get information from, because more people would update their status more frequently...and this benefits you - whether or not you know it.

Seeing as how internet is moving towards a more social web, these simple modifications would really move the community forward. I would love to help do this, but I understand that the guys at YoYo don't know who I am so can't trust me, but maybe someone they do trust could add these simple modifications!

updated with proof of concept


u[dated with a micro case-study


What do you guys think?

I'd like to start developing tutorials for the GMC on working with HTML5, Javascript, and PHP. They would be GM:HTML5 related tutorials and just random tutorials on said web tech. For examples topics I'd like to cover:
* How to build a site around your GM:HTML5 Game
* How to embed a game into various CMS'
* Using web technology to enhance the game
* etc

I'd like to know if and where I could post these too, as web development is now just as important to the game as is the game itself.