People's opinions seem fairly divided on this topic. I think we need some kind of general rule on this, but I'll tell you my opinion first: The forums are not for advertising your games and projects! There are hundreds of people working on their own projects, and if everybody posted on the forums every time they updated their project, then the forums would be bloated in no time. My point is that we've already got a separate section for projects, where people can see your game and follow its development - there's no need for a duplicate forum thread telling us the exact same thing!
You need to get this: If your game is good, then it will be noticed (and potentially front-paged), it's as simple as that. If it's not good, then constantly hyping and advertising your game on the forums will not make it any better, it might even annoy people. You've just got to have patience. The only exception is if you've got something special and interesting to show us, such as a video trailer or a big piece of artwork. That's forum thread material! Posting a link, saying "hey check out my game", is not.
If you've done something new on your project, add a devlog entry! It bumps your project to the top of the projects page, where people can see it. When releasing a demo or a beta, post about it in your project forum, submit it as a download, and move on. Just don't make a forum thread, please!
That's my opinion, okay? I thought it was fairly obvious, but it seems like every time I point it out, people get upset. So, I want to know, what do you guys think about it? Am I just being an idiot? Is it okay to make a thread for your game, even if you've already submitted it as a download or a project?
As an aside:
I'm not sure if this already happens but for all the projects you add as 'Favourites' it'd be nice to have access to a page that simply lists those. This way you can see when the last updates for these games have happened and not have to wade through the games you're not as keen on. Of course, you would still check the 'last updated' to see if there were any new projects to add but I thought this could be a nice addition.
Deosn't that seem kind of backwards to you? The project and download sections of the site are there so that people can get feedback and promote their games, that's their sole purpose. It's true though, few people visit the other sections of the site.
I completely agree with axel - no need to duplicate project section's information onto the forum.
If the project section is not active, then TDC does a lousy job in 'promoting' it (I thought Rikus' project news were a great addition a couple months ago) or then people just are not interested. Simple as that. Why to recreate uninteresting material for larger audience? Would be silly.
I usually check most projects, I just tend not to comment as the only thing I ever feel like saying is "OMG THIS GAME IS AWESOME! I LOVE YOU!" but that isn't appreciated by most.
I don't really see a problem how things are right now. If people were filling up the forums on a regular basis with links to their games then the Admins would need to decide on a ruling.
It's quite a rare thing at the moment.
HEY GUYS! YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT MY GAME AT HTTP://... What I think is... the main page needs redesigned. There needs to be a section devoted to news like it is now. And another section devoted to the various updates of games, maybe well-known, maybe not! Sometimes front page news has those in it, but I think it would be a good idea to have a dedicated section. Maybe there could be a committee of update watchers that select various devlogs from the projects page and puts 'em up. Then it shows only about five or so before they get bonked off. I've never noticed people divided about it. Most people yell very intensely loudly when the subject is mentioned that it should NOT be on the forums. I don't tend to agree with that sentiment... but most do. I do think that it would get out of hand if everybody posted about it... but I don't know. Sometimes a heads up on a big project might be handy. Not to slip in an ad, but I recently added a new movement engine in BOM, but since it's already been written off by alot of people, they won't check it again.
I think the site needs an overall redesign. It would be good to have things more image based. Since a game rarely gets downloaded without a screenshot, I'd think having a screen of the game on the main page instead of half the title cut off would make more of an impact. Check out http://xbox360.ign.com/
Instead of having a sidebar with What's New there could be a scrolling bar at the top that shows a pic from the latest games that've been uploaded.
I think the main focus should be:
1.) Recently updated projects (what has been most recently uploaded new, or what has been most recently updated)
2.) Recently Uploaded games or demos (this would be the scroll bar at the top of the screen)
I don't really see a need for having Downloads in both the What's Hot and What's New sidebars since if you look at them it's the exact same thing in each.
What you should do is list have a column for genre in the Projects section, maybe in a smaller font so it picks. People looking at the projects section are going to feel lost and not know what to look at first. And maybe a line underneath for a short description would REALLY help too. This site could be a lot better designed to benefit everyone, I think, though that of course would mean a little more bandwidth.
Check out my Telekinesis'em'up Thread and the ALICE Machines -
God I just looked in the forums of some of the more popular games and the lack of posts was kind of depressing :/
We should have a thread on the board just for projects, saying what's been worked on, and posting for major updates(and only major updates!). People would be more likely to check it out than the Projects section I think.
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Edited by the Author.
What I think is... the main page needs redesigned. There needs to be a section devoted to news like it is now. And another section devoted to the various updates of games, maybe well-known, maybe not! Sometimes front page news has those in it, but I think it would be a good idea to have a dedicated section. Maybe there could be a committee of update watchers that select various devlogs from the projects page and puts 'em up. Then it shows only about five or so before they get bonked off. I've never noticed people divided about it. Most people yell very intensely loudly when the subject is mentioned that it should NOT be on the forums. I don't tend to agree with that sentiment... but most do. I do think that it would get out of hand if everybody posted about it... but I don't know. Sometimes a heads up on a big project might be handy. Not to slip in an ad, but I recently added a new movement engine in BOM, but since it's already been written off by alot of people, they won't check it again.
