I recently had an idea to add a kind of game organization feature to my website for games that are currently in development or game development studios. The idea is that someone can make a page about the game they are developing, just like a Facebook page, but the owner of the page can invite the developers of the game as developers. So it is basically a organization planner, so lets say the boss wanted someone to program a new script he could post the job online and then someone could accept it, once the job had been completed they could mark it as completed and post any additional notes. Such as when it was completed and where it has been stored.
You would also have the abilities to post jobs that need multiple people so you could allow 2 developers to accept the job, as a budding developer myself I would personally find this quite useful but I was just looking for some feedback.
I know this is not very clear as it is quite hard to explain but if any of you understand the idea what do you think? Is it a good one?
There are numerous production management tools out there. Google Apps as many simple ones, sometimes called productivity management tools, or some other spin. By far, the best I have ever used is by Shotgun Software. It isn’t free but you could run a company of ANY size with it.
For something simpler, you could have a look at Google Groups, or Google Sites + Docs and Gadgets. GoogleApps is awesome for companies with less than 10 people (free) or larger companies (paid/user)
Some places will offer free hosting for both SVN (version control) along side Trac, which is a wiki-like, ugly but long-standing task/ticketing system. We use projectlocker.com. They offer 300mb for free, though I’m starting to wonder if that is enough. If you use GoogleApps, then you have GoogleDocs which gives you 1gig per user and can be used for the safe-keeping of larger files that don’t necessarily need version control.
This is just scratching the surface of what is out there. You just need to define your specific needs first.
Thank You for the reply, it will probably be like that so yes the idea is to have some sort of login portal for developers where they can upload pictures and files for storage aswell.
You would also have to look into and ensure that it will be safe and secure otherwise why would anyone use it as opposed to the very secure and still free alternatives.
Yeah, I recently acquired a PHP security book, I know PHP is not particularly secure although the book goes through filtering out form data encrypting data bases and blocking brute force attacks. Obviously this is going to be quite a challenge, to get my system better than my competition.
I think it’s a pretty good idea, but you need to do more with it than just making it be an Organizational site.
Organization might be one feature of it, but you should also make a front-end to it in the form of “Here are some featured titles that are currently on development”. Developers can of course choose not to be featured, but if they choose to be, then perhaps you could some kind of weekly rotation as to which games are featured on the front page.
When you click on the game you should get a page similar to a facebook page regarding the game. Again the developers can choose what appears and doesn’t appear for the public to see.
So basically what I’m saying is don’t just make it for the developers, but also make it for gamers interested in learning about games in development, so developers can use it as a home-base for their project where they can put all public, as well as internal data on your site.
Another idea I just thought of is… each game might have a “Like” button. Then on the home page, there would be some statistics about which game has the most amount of likes (Maybe these are the games that get featured).
You could really create something of a default go-to portal for indie games (Or maybe if you’re successful you might even attract AAA developers to set up a page for their games!). Have a look at myspace. It has become a really popular “home” for many music artists. You could create something similar for game developers
Those are some very good ideas, I like the idea of having featured games on the homepage so like you said the games with the most likes get featured on the homepage. The idea was to have it set out like facebook but yeah have some pages hidden from the public but not hidden to the people registered to the group.
I was also wondering if you could help me with another problem, I already have a site called teengamers.co.uk but I was wondering for this new idea should I make a completely new site or continue with the idea on my current one?
You should definitely NOT call the site teengamers, haha, you need to get the idea across that it’s serious business. teengamers makes it seem a bit too fun and games to me. It’s fine for what you’re using it for right now (Tutorials, game reviews?) but for a more professional and potentially commercial product you should come up with something else It should be a .com domain as well. You want to attract international customers, right? .com or .net are your only choices in my opinion.
But don’t worry about getting the right domain name for the site just yet. Just work on it first, get the functionality working (Or figure out how to do it, if you’re still learning).
Okay so I’ll come up with a name later but do you have any ideas of what I could call it? As I don’t have many ideas for a name, yeah Teengamers wouldn’t really work as I suppose it would seem a bit too much fun games like you said. I’ll probably try and take some sort of FaceBook approach to it but make it a bit more game styled or should I go for a professional look?
I really appreciate your help, I kind of feel bad as in a way I am stealing your ideas. Also another idea though could I charge say serious developers to be able to have their page promoted on the site?
Haha no worries man, I am interested in web development but I’d never go into making a full blown site like these, they simply take too much time
Yeah you could definitely come up with some kind of premium services where if the developer pays (a bit) of money then maybe you might feature them a bit more throughout the site (Though I’d say leave the front page totally unbiased). Maybe you could put some banners or logo of the paying developer’s games throughout the site. These kinds of features really rely on the popularity of your site. If no one is visiting then this is pointless, so you should leave things like these until you have a sizable user base.
Okay that makes sense as no one is going to want to advertise on an empty site. I like your Spaceball game it looks like it is coming along rather well. Did you make the art yourself? As I cannot model for my life, I’m more of the coder type of people. Thanks again for the advice and I hope your game goes well.
You can’t model for your life because there’s different thought processes between coding and creative art. I can do both equally well, however I noticed one thing: switching between them stalls me horribly, and it can take up to a day to get back into higher end coding or high quality art. It’s like I have to recall everything into cache memory or something.
What I am saying is, you think you suck at 3D modelling or whatever, because you don’t do it for a long period. It needs to be done for a week at least to see cool improvements.
Well I would say that I am improving but I will never be up to a good enough standard to be able to develop a game independently without buying the assets or hiring a modeller. I have never been able to go forward with my ideas because of the creative block with 3d art etc. People who can do both inspire me as I wish I could be as good at one another but is there actually a hope of me becoming any better. Another problem is the fact that as soon as I model something half decent I can’t texture or animate it. I also struggle with modelling organics such as animals and humans. Is there some sort of knack to Organic Modelling?
You can’t want to be good at something, you have to learn it and try it and if you keep going long after your eyes have begun to bleed, then you can become great ;). I can model and animate (I’ve even directed a little) but I don’t enjoy getting lost in it like I do with rigging, simulation and scripting. It isn;t that I doubt my ability, I just choose not to spend the time. I’d rather find someone who likes modelling with bloody eyes (if you follow, heh)
To create a really full-featured site like you hint at isn’t a new idea, it just takes a LOT of resources. It would be like 1 guy trying to make a feature film. You can plan it, and sell it, but eventually you need funding, teams of various skill-sets, business people, etc…in my opinion of course. I’ve had a similar idea that extends in to other areas that I’d rather not share (), but I won’t even bother applying my efforts to leading it until after I have a hit game, which will also release some of my time.
BUT, that isn’t to say it can’t be done. If you have passion for an idea and are really prepared to jump in with both feet, your wallet, your health, or whatever else it may take, then do it. Someone will always tell you it is great and someone else will always tell you it is dumb. You can’t listen. You just have to see it through and see what happens.
Thanks for the advice, so if I stick at it I can only get better like you say. I have recently been doing a few small models and then trying to texture them.
It should be a .com domain as well. You want to attract international customers, right? .com or .net are your only choices in my opinion.
), but I won’t even bother applying my efforts to leading it until after I have a hit game, which will also release some of my time.