[Courthold]

Hey folks, thought I'd pop over and post a few thoughts / news tibbits I've got.

First off, after much debate on my part.. with myself, I've decided to bring back adventure developers. It WILL be better than before, and it WILL be a great place for all prospective and current developers out there. What we need is you guys to actually visit the site, and take part in what's going on. As with a lot of big sites, the community is the main thing, and so we want heavy use of forums etc.

We have some hosted sites, ie. game developers who get webspace, support etc. from us and get to promote their games easier. This is of course totally free. More details to follow on this.

I will be (again) looking for as many people as possible who want to take part in the whole content side of the site - as in, posting news as often as possible, writing articles, reviewing games, etc. This is important as I cannot run the entire site on my own as much as I'd like to.

So, yeah, that's pretty much it :) We will be back, and when we are, you'll love us so much, we'll be your new homepage. In fact, you'll never even look at another website again.

Also: Erwin! Where are you? Why doesn't your email work!? Get in contact damn you :p

Also #2: Bill Tiller has said he will br writing another tiller techniques (i know, i know, i nearly cried too), so make SURE you stay tuned for that.

Reply and let me know your thoughts / wants / desires etc. and hopefully look forward to building a great community in the not too distant future.

PS. if you want to contact me for whatever reason, use [email protected]

- Tom

[Wormsie]

I believe the problem with adventuredeveloper and crowsnest etc. is that people tend to use the discussion boards of the engine of their choice, because that is more convenient - and if the engine they uses is a smaller one, they tend to go to the AGS forums if they want to present something the masses will notice, or look for people to join their team. This causes the lack of activity in the community, and I don't think there's much anything that could be done to it.

[remixor]

I'd have to agree with deadworm on this one. Most people don't have time to be that active in too many forums, and adventuredevelopers is sort of specific without being specific or general enough. Adventure gamers in general will come to a big core site like AG or JA, since everyone there likes adventure games. Amateur developers will in all likelihood also go to the forum of their engine, since it's more useful to them.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't bring back AD. I'm all for it! But it might be a bit much to expect a huge forum community, at least for a while.

[Erwin_Br]

Well, hopefully we'll bring these shattered groups of developers from all these forums together. I think AD could be the perfect place.

There are lots of gamedesign topics to talk about, which aren't engine related.

Oh and Tom, I'll conact you as soon as I'm back from work.

--Erwin

[jannar85]

Oh, and your e-mail isn't working

Anyways, I surely hope AD will get back from the dead.
Vel @ the AGS forums is doing an AGS zine.. He can contribute those to AD as well... Vel?

Here's the site: http://www.amazing-ebooks.co.uk/ezine/

Hmmm... and.. let me see...
I'm too busy to help, so I'm sorry
Counting staff @ AD: You, Erwin, Bionic Bill, Scummbuddy...


It's a start..

[AGA]

I wrote a few reviews too, but they were pretty crap. I think Gonzo, from the AGS forums, did too...

[Wormsie]

The problem with Adventure Developers was that there were so few reviews - I would have visited the site if it had told me what to play and what not to play. nd the reviewer has to be someone who isn't afraid of upsetting his developer friends...

[Courthold]

That'll change If we had a different name you wouldn't even recognise the site :p

[AGA]

Maybe if you had someone from each amateur community - AGS, SLUDGE, AGAST etc who was specifically devoted to keeping an eye on new releases and reviewing them, your cover would be a lot more comprehensive... Larger communities like AGS would need two or three people I suppose...

[Courthold]

That'd be ideal assuming we could find anyone who was willing to help :)

[AGA]

Well I moderate both the completed games forum and the upcoming games forum for AGS, so I could keep an eye on those. I'm not too good at writing reviews though, so maybe someone else could deal with those.

[Courthold]

That'd be cool. How i figure it is that the more people we can get helping with the site and contributing, the bigger the reader count because we can cater for a wider range of people etc. Are you home yet Erwin? :p

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by deadworm222

people tend to use the discussion boards of the engine of their choice, because that is more convenient

That could probably be changed if a site like adventuredevelopers.com would approach all the engine developers and they would all come to an agreement to host their engine specific forums under their own forums so all the forums would be in one place. I don't know how easy it would be to come to such an agreement though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I think, thought I've been away from the community for a long time (I used to run The Crow's Nest a few years ago).

[AGA]

Heh, not gonna happen, Erkki. Especially with lucasforums' notoriously huge downtime...

[Courthold]

Originally Posted by AGA

Heh, not gonna happen, Erkki. Especially with lucasforums' notoriously huge downtime...

Not using lucasforums anymore, that way we can offer forums (with custom designs) to anyone who wants them.

[jannar85]

Originally Posted by Courthold

Not using lucasforums anymore, that way we can offer forums (with custom designs) to anyone who wants them.

Cool. I'm up for that!

Now, where's the pen, and where do I sign?

[Zygomaticus]

I love adventuredevelopers, and always have. It's what introduced me to AG, and after it went down...*sigh* you know the rest.

Anyway, I'm all for the revival of AdventureDevlopers.com. Given the content increases. And as for the points made about the traffic - they're all good ones. It will indeed be difficult to get huge masses because most amateur adventure developers will go to the forum of the engine they use, but that doesn't mean people won't visit AD. I did, and will.

Content-wise, it has something unique to provide, that so far, I see only AG's Underground section doing. So no problem with the content.

Speaking of content, I, personally, am against giving number ratings to amateur adventure games. They're free; the developer(s) made them for the fun of it and not for financial gain, and given that, it's unfair to outright say weather a game is good or bad. It's discouraging. And so, I feel, it's always best to just have a verbal review, an overview, some praise, some suggestions, etc. Somewhat similar to what AG does. Only I'm sure you guys could come up with newer ways

Speaking of you guys, I would be willing to help with the effort of writing content for the site. I've always loved playing Amat. Adventure games, so I believe I'd be up to the tast. Only problem is, I'm in the middle of college applications, and mightn't be able to contribute regularly till mid-December or so...

[Vel]

I'd love to contribute to AD! It's been my favourite site ever since I found it. It would be really nice if AD could host the ezine and stuff. The main AGS ezine page hasnt been updated (not my fault), but if you'd like to read the other ezines, I will give links. I can also write reviews and articles for AD.

[Courthold]

Great to hear that so many of you guys are interested I don't really have a timescale (and uni work may affect it a bit) but before christmas would be cool so that's what I'm aiming for.

[Tamara]

For the player of amateur adventures, a general site such as AD will always be the best, IMO. I don't, honestly, think any general site has been done to reach close to its full potential; if it did I think people would flock to it. The ones I've seen always had huge sections missing or incomplete, or were badly edited/presented. Also, for both the player *and* the developer of amateur games, I believe ratings are helpful. Saying 'this is crap' isn't helpful, but 'this could be improved there, there and there', is. Players need to know which games to download; devs need to know what they can do better.

Currently I've very little time, but any reviews I get inspired to write, I'll send your way. And as always, any editing/nitpicking work is welcome.