Well, I'm of the opinion that I've done my part in attempting to bring more traffic and activity to the site. When I see spam accounts all over the place, and literally no front page updates in over a month, download submissions that take two weeks or more to be approved and posted...
After The TDC Scrolls has ended, I'm out. I'm hoping the project will be a fitting Swan Song. Response to it does not look good so far, but it's not for lack of trying (I've even posted on the Clickteam forums to attempt to drum up some former TDC members' participation). OMC did a very nice logo for it, too.
Yeah, I'm not sure where everyone's gone to be honest. The clickteam forums don't seem any busier than before. Tigsource looks pretty active, but mostly with non-klikers.
Could it be that noone uses clikteam tools any more? I know there are plenty of alternatives to choose from these days...
There are a lot of factors, with other tools being one of them.
In Klik N Play's prime, this community (Silky's) was booming with enthusiasm, but I think that's because KNP was geared towards kids who loved games. Kids dream a lot, and they have the time to tinker. As we age, we have to make serious choices about time management. It doesn't help that the economy makes our lives even more of a grind.
Although MMF is essentially KNP, it is targeting would-be professionals. In the rare case that you get someone who has the ambition to devote real time to game development, they probably don't have time for much else. I'm a slow developer. It takes me 6 to 18 months to make a game, and that's putting in around 4-10 hours a week. S-M-R puts out a game concept in days!
On that note, and I learned this from The Dead Miles, game design is becoming a more popular art form. Good games are even more accessible than they were, and cheaper too. There's no need to seek them out on small sites like this any more.
A long time ago, I would visit Klik sites JUST to download people's games. There was always something there, and a lot of it was poor, but it was like rummaging at a garage sale: You never knew if you were going to find something special.
I miss the days when you could put a game out and get instant feedback. Even if that feedback was a one line comment.
I would be sad to see TDC go. The fact that it is here shows the love that people had for sites like this.
Send me feedback on my latest game, It Never Ends.
I think that's how it goes for a lot of things unfortunately. I used to be a someone who resided in the sidelines of tracked metal (metal made with mainly, or only, samples) but that community is totally gone too and I believe it's for the same reasons as you posted. The same goes for the DooM community which I was also very into.
I think the main issue is that a lot of us oldbies (I'm 31 now!) just don't have the time to devote to the site or clicking, and we haven't put alot of time into building a younger, more active community base.
Not to mention the site is quite dated. The update a while back (probably years ago now actually, I have no grasp on the passage of time now-a-days) did not do much in terms of functionality, or even looks for that matter. Only minor improvements here and there.
I rarely ever come here anymore (maybe once a week or less) simply because there is nothing here to come for. Front page news is few and far between, and when there is news it's just not interesting to me. None of the games look all that fun or worth my time (I miss the days of short quirky haphazardly made games just for the sake of making a silly game).
In all honesty, this site needs a reboot. The daily click will probably never completely die, so it is just a matter of pulling the plug, and starting over. It needs to evolve and become something else.
The lack of community activity does kill my enthusiasm slightly. However I do still have several things in mind I actually want to make before I give up totally on Click.
Right now i'm trying to make an Ouya game. It's been pissing me off because I started with a 427x240 screensize and the Ouya basically displays everything at 1080p. The resizing was causing a huge waste of processing time and I couldn't work out why at first. So now my art is about 400% bigger so there's less chance of hardcore slowdown.
Ive actually got two Ouya games on the go and started another Dizzy fangame too. I don't have much time however since I work full time.
I'm trying to get the guys together for a discussion on where TDC goes from here.
Honestly, I have no idea what's going to happen over the coming weeks about the site, and what direction it heads in. But I'll try and keep everyone in the loop.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but does TDC have a core group of around 20 regular visitors? I'm just picking that number out of a hat with my brain in it, but I'll bet the admins could get a better number.
Anyway, the height of Click tool popularity is gone. Unless MMF 3 does something spectacular, I don't see it coming back, but maybe a new direction is what is needed.
Sadly, TDC is not THE place to go to showcase your game, and it's not to THE place to go to download games. It isn't even THE place to go to ask questions about the tools. Those were the reasons why I came here. Perhaps the site's purpose could become super focused. For example: TDC could be about the core users making a single game. People have a role to play according to their strengths. That's just one idea. The contests are another.
Send me feedback on my latest game, It Never Ends.
I wonder what a fangame contest would be like. Given how in the past fangames had a bad reputation for being sprite rip and built in movement n00b fests with large doses of midis from VGmusic.com.
It would be interesting to see more capable fangames.
I did make a short Turrican fangame once and it was actually really good fun to make. I wasn't even really a fan back then either.
Advertisement
Post Reply
