Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 14, 2007, 05:38:00 pm
Well, some people will say it is probably because people are losing interest in calc stuff or everything has been done. Well, this is not the problem this year. There is effectively lot of activity going on in the TI community at the moment. However we cannot see it anymore, because almost everything in the works is secret now. Since 2007 started there seemed to be a drastic increase in secret calculator projects, especially games, so much that everyone joined the bandwagoon and now I can cound on an hand how many public game projects are still active on each major TI forums (UTI, MC, Omnimaga, TI-Freakware, Revsoft, Cemetech, Calcgames and Detacheds Solution), and this doesn't just include the staff of each forums. On some of those forums they're currently nonexistant.
I don't mean to bash anyone making a secret project, because I understand that some people doesn't want to give false hope to people if they don't finish it, I myself do this with almost all my games until I have something major done. I am just saying that currently there is way too many secret TI projects compared to public ones, so members barely have anymore reason to post on forums. Even MaxCoderz, Revsoft and Cemetech have decreased in activity (altough Cemetech's may be partially due to the recent downtime), Omnimaga forums survives because of the few public projects that are still active and UTI is mostly calc help and support now, same for calcgames and detacheds. And this sucks because the TI community is actually very active atm, even more than last year. Every 2 or 3 days I get greeted via PM on IRC with a new secret project sprite set or screenshot.
I think the 2008 resolution for the TI community should be to have at least 70% of public projects, or at least when the entire engine is coded make the secret project partially public. Just posting updates once per month would alerady help. The other 30% should be surprises. Right now at least 60% of the calc projects I found are secret. If more were public this would give those lurking guests more reason to join, so at least something else than spambots would register now. It would also make a bit more discussion.
Imagine: a monthly update on 10 people projects, and each updates triggering 1-30 pages of discussion and questions/suggestions, that make 10-300 more posts on the forums about calculator programming talk, and considering some people would probably updates their projects more regulary that would make even more discussion, thus, the community would look more active.
Anyway it is just my opinion, I do not force people to abide by my suggestions, and people can keep their stuff secret if they want to, I just mean that in the future we should consider posting a bit more publicly.
Post by: Ranman on November 14, 2007, 05:43:00 pm
Post by: Halifax on November 14, 2007, 06:06:00 pm
Generally this is due to the fact of trying to keep the public interested, dealing with requests, dealing with doubts, suggestions, updates, etc.
With secret projects I could be working on it every single day, or not have worked on it for a whole month, but I know that I don't need to keep anyone interested, or impress them.
Overall I find secret projects more stimulating when you are tight on time, don't feel like dealing with the public, or for other reasons.
I believe that the status of a project, public or private, should be up to the discretion of a programmer/programming team. Overall I would be glad if I was getting the screenshots/tile sets. ;)
Post by: kalan_vod on November 14, 2007, 06:08:00 pm
*kalan_vod
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 14, 2007, 06:18:00 pm
That said, please do not overhelm yourself by posting updates all the time either. You could announce the project once 1/4 of it is done then post a news about it, and only wait until you have major progress before posting updates on the project
Post by: kalan_vod on November 14, 2007, 06:52:00 pm
Post by: Liazon on November 15, 2007, 03:56:00 pm
Post by: JonimusPrime on November 16, 2007, 02:11:00 am
Post by: TIfanx1999 on November 16, 2007, 06:53:00 am
| QUOTE |
| I understand you point guys. The only problem is if everything is kept secret it make the TI community look dead. Omnimaga is active because the amount of projects in the works here is insane compared to other sites, but on UTI you look the new posts and you rarely see any project updates. |
This is one of the things that drew me to omnimaga when I was getting back into the community because it was so active and always being updated. The other sites... not so much. People do tend to keep things under wraps for the said reason; time constraints, not wanting people to pester you, or the project just not being far enough along to warrant discussion yet. Personally I think once a project is a fair amount done it could be posted. Depends on personal preference when it comes down to it.
Post by: Zera on November 16, 2007, 07:53:00 am
Post by: lordofthegeeks on November 16, 2007, 08:20:00 am
I plan on making a pure basic game with 3 sprites. i got a sprite in basic to run almost as fast as a xlib one.
Edit: spelled sprite srite :oops:
Post by: trevmeister66 on November 16, 2007, 09:45:00 am
). So i need to start over with transfering the sprites and making the map engine. I'll let you know when I up to speed agian.
Post by: dinhotheone on November 16, 2007, 02:49:00 pm
| QUOTE (lordofthegeeks @ 16 Nov, 2007, 14:20) |
| My next project will be secret. For the 2 days it will take me to finish it :) I plan on making a pure basic game with 3 sprites. i got a sprite in basic to run almost as fast as a xlib one. Edit: spelled sprite srite :oops: |
i made a sick sprite that does this, except its a dot
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 16, 2007, 03:11:00 pm
| QUOTE (dinhotheone @ 16 Nov, 2007, 20:49) | ||
QuoteBegin-lordofthegeeks+16 Nov, 2007, 14:2-->
i made a sick sprite that does this, except its a dot |
:paf:
Post by: Speler on November 16, 2007, 03:26:00 pm
.
Post by: Halifax on November 16, 2007, 04:22:00 pm
| QUOTE (kalan_vod @ 15 Nov, 2007, 0:52) |
| I believe it is also that less and less things are amazing or original, so one might see it possible for one to steal ideas :P |
Yes, I agree with that. Development is becoming much more...in-depth, I guess.
The price of time that it takes for someone to develop a quality game these days is a much larger task. This may be a reason that programmers would not want to make false hopes.
Also the ratio of programmers to sprite artists could possibly be another problem. Even greater is the ratio of programmers to sprite artists willing to do a week's worth of work.
Post by: lordofthegeeks on November 17, 2007, 02:55:00 am
Post by: Liazon on November 17, 2007, 01:39:00 pm
Post by: AaroneusTheGreat on November 17, 2007, 07:09:00 pm
Post by: Halifax on November 17, 2007, 08:38:00 pm
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 17, 2007, 10:26:00 pm
Post by: Liazon on November 18, 2007, 04:18:00 pm
most schools allow 68ks, and nspire kinda looks like a 89/83 hybrid to me
the crowd will probably increase if they put 83+ out of production, but i doubt that since 84+ was so recent. i don't want that though, but if they do, they'd better make sure nspire can be coded in ARM asm or C.
edit:
sorry for getting us so off topic
as for the topic at hand, I generally think it's better to announce projects publicly at at least 50% completion. Any project without considerable production usually dies. At about 50%, it's like no turning back, so the support from the community is a nice boost in the final stretch.
Post by: Halifax on November 19, 2007, 09:34:00 am
If they do make ARM assembly, although I am pretty sure from my sources they won't, then they will create a whole world. So long as the OS is documented fairly well, like the 83+ OS. New assembly optimizations, tutorials, compilers, etc. I think it would be really fun. I would feel like a kid in a candy store I know that. :P
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 19, 2007, 05:11:00 pm
| QUOTE (Halifax @ 19 Nov, 2007, 15:34) |
| If they do make ARM assembly, although I am pretty sure from my sources they won't, then they will create a whole world. |
EDIT: Sorry I pushed edit by acciedent instead of pushing quote. I didn't want to edit anything.
Post by: Liazon on November 19, 2007, 06:03:00 pm
edit:
can someone move some of these posts into the ti-nspire rant so we can get back on topic? that is, if we want to get back on topic?
Post by: DJ Omnimaga on November 19, 2007, 07:11:00 pm
Post by: Liazon on November 20, 2007, 12:58:00 pm
Post by: Halifax on November 20, 2007, 01:58:00 pm
| QUOTE (DJ Omnimaga @ 19 Nov, 2007, 23:11) | ||
QuoteBegin-Halifax+19 Nov, 2007, 15:34-->
|
LMAO
I don't know why in TI's right mind they would put an LCD driver in it. That would suck.
Either way, if C is released for the Nspire, or a compiler is somehow made, then I think the first business at hand is to port ClosedGL!