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Joe96
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Joe96
2,233 posts
Peasant

I'll start it here.
In the part of AG3, there is a part that says developers when you click 'My Armory'. I was just wondering, is that basically along the lines of subscribing to your favorite game developers?

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cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

No, the 'Developers' area is going to be what we've discussed several times in other threads as our "Developer Corner".

Our idea right now is to build up a number of resources for aspiring game developers. Everything from "how do I make a game" to "I have a game that I'd like feedback on" to accepting a finished product for consideration on the web site as a full game.

We'd also like to make lots of documentation available on how game developers can interact with our Armor Games Interface (AGI) library for things like online game-save (save game progress on our servers), high scores, micro-transactions, auto-login, and more.

Phase one of the DevCorner might just turn out to be an expansion of the "Programming Help" forum, where we post FAQ's and get developer feedback about our libraries. In the long term, we want to have code samples you can look at, ask questions about how to use our library code, that sort of thing.

GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,620 posts
Herald

Phase one of the DevCorner might just turn out to be an expansion of the "Programming Help" forum, where we post FAQ's and get developer feedback about our libraries. In the long term, we want to have code samples you can look at, ask questions about how to use our library code, that sort of thing.

Perhaps you can rename that section "Game Creation" or something along the lines of that. Then it'll include; Programming Help, API, Collaborations, and even a place where developer's can post their unfinished flash games so people can test them and post feedback.

As for Joe's idea, I'd like to be able to subscribe to developer's just to keep up-to-date with their flash games and such.
brp47
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brp47
580 posts
Peasant

As for Joe's idea, I'd like to be able to subscribe to developer's just to keep up-to-date with their flash games and such.


yes i would agree with that, it would be a nice addition to the site to be able to see what they are working on. The game developers could also post early Beta testing on some projects in that corner for people to give feedback on.
cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

I'd like to be able to subscribe to developer's just to keep up-to-date with their flash games and such.


You're welcome to "follow" them on AG3. That way, anything they do on the site will show up in your "activity stream" including submitting new games.
cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

GoM/brp47, that's actually a good point. Being made aware of their game development progress, etc., is certainly an interesting idea. If you "follow" them, and they post a status update on their profile, you'll see that. Perhaps once 'groups' are made, the developer can make a 'group' for themselves and users can opt to become members of that group to gain access to beta versions that the gamedev announces.

The tricky part is that some game developers are also users, though many of them only post games to our site. Being able to sift out which bits of news you want to get from a gamedev might need some design.

brp47
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brp47
580 posts
Peasant

yes it would be a bit tricky to sift out all the stuff that we don't want to get, perhaps the gamedev can have a different status area for posting that information, aswell as a standard one?

cormyn
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cormyn
2,892 posts
Nomad

Well, honestly, if the gamedevs are spending that much time on their site as a gamedev, it might just make more sense for them to post status updates, etc. on their own profile and let other users 'follow' them.

I don't think gamedevs are going to want to have to post in several places all at once.

KyahcoSukaimasutae
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KyahcoSukaimasutae
311 posts
Nomad

Ahhh jump for loy and haluyah! This is what I was trying to get at with my dev benfits topic a lonnnng time ago! Finaily its a stickyed idea!

But any who it would be best just to use the activity stream so we you don't have to post over and over, but if you make groups you might be able to integrade the activity stream with groups, like say the makers of the group can have a place to post where all members get the post in there activity stream but only the maker (or people with rights to do so, as dev teams are common) can post there, like the locked stickes here where cormyn post in to give updates on thing (like AG history topic) but it goes to the followers streams.

but it would be nice if some where it told people that there a dev like a little icon you could put it in the pop up box idea when you scroll over some ones armatar, and an icon that says dev and mod/amid could have one like it to, I would be good to make a diffence between Third party devs and the ones AG hires ther to maybe a diffent color or it could just say "Dev" with a bow around it for third party ones, and for the AG workers you could do the same but put n AG sheild behide it or something...
That way poeple will look and see there a dev and go to there porfile and find the games they made!

Dannydaninja
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Dannydaninja
948 posts
Nomad

It's really cool to know that Armor Games is doing it's best to support it's developers and potential developers.

You're welcome to "follow" them on AG3. That way, anything they do on the site will show up in your "activity stream" including submitting new games.


So even when they make a forum post? Will developers be able to make announcements to the people that follow them?
11pikachu11
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11pikachu11
167 posts
Nomad

i think on AG3 that people should be able to re-rate games but not get more AP!!

GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,620 posts
Herald

It's really cool to know that Armor Games is doing it's best to support it's developers and potential developers.

Yep, and the programming part of the community might even grow more.
So even when they make a forum post? Will developers be able to make announcements to the people that follow them?

In closed beta when you followed people all you would get was what they posted on their profile, like status updates. So if you follow them and they make an announcement on their profile you will see it.
i think on AG3 that people should be able to re-rate games but not get more AP!

Irrelevant to this thread but that is planned.
RaonAbsoluteZERO
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RaonAbsoluteZERO
91 posts
Constable

I have some good idea about this project, maybe some of the good game developers, can subscribe to a certain place, where they can help the beginer developers! The mini-dev asks some questions, and the good-dev select them and answer them, also if the question was good, it shall appear to a "game making FAQ" section with the answer !
Furthermore, we shall have some games, sorted in the order of complexity, and next to it, a "how to make" button, where we will be shown how the game has been made, from scratch.

insertusername
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insertusername
6 posts
Farmer

I just recently got a username but have been on the site for a very long time. I just noticed a link i have never noticed before, how long has Ag3 been available?

insertusername
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insertusername
6 posts
Farmer

Raon not really sure what that has to do with ag3 but there are already programs you can buy like the one you described

GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,620 posts
Herald

Only problem with your idea is that barely any game developers check the forums. And if they do then they most likely don't post as often. But there are a few programmers who occasionally post in the Programming Help section.

The only way I see Armor Games gaining a larger programming community is if they accept all appropriate games, instead of judging them based on quality. As long as it's a game and fits with the rules of the site then it would be posted on the site. That would be mimicking Kongregate though, so I doubt they'd do that.

And all games are made differently, so that wouldn't work well. If you require a guide of some sort then you should check out the stickied threads in the Programming Help section and Google some things. Not to mention you can't simply learn and suddenly gain knowledge how to make a game from a small tutorial like that, it takes months to learn how to code properly and the like.

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