Outreach Discussion

Now, let me start by saying I realize this thread is very similar to countless other threads in this sub-forum. Hopefully this thread doesn't become a repeat of the others, and thus need to be locked or disappear into time alongside other old threads. The intention of this thread is simply to discuss methods of attracting new people to the project, to help accelerate our development. Now, as many people have said and is worth noting, outreach should NOT priority over development. If anyone has the opportunity to create some art or sounds or code, they should not go advertise instead. Outreach is ONLY for individuals with spare time and no tasks at hand. Now below is the a list based off of the ModDB page of Thrive, listing all the different types of people we need for the project. I have highlighted the ones that, from my current impressions, I believe are most important.

- Graphic Artists
- 3D Artists
- Legal Advisors
- Programmers
- Scientific Advisors
- Composers
- Sound Effects Engineers
- Promoters

I think 3D Artists are a bit wishy washy as being most important. Promoters, however, would be of great assistance, because just one Reddit post about us one month ago brought a huge influx of people, and specifically programmers, to the forums; and of course, the programmers themselves the most essential. So, it is important that, when we actually go out to tell people about this project, we don't spam. Creating a whole new account on a completely new forum/website simply to tell people about Thrive IS spamming. I suggest we discuss some manners by which we could go about doing this below.

One last thing, before we discuss, we must realize that many people who see this game in its current stage will think of it simply as Vaporware. We want to avoid letting that spread around. For that reason, I was reluctant to start this thread, but in my opinion the current need for programmers, promoters, and artists warranted such proactive efforts.

So on to discussion!

I was thinking that first and foremost manner of outreach would simply be to tell our friends about this project and see if they are interested in joining.

Suggestions?

I think that telling friends would be the best idea.

If we want to get know about, it might be a good idea to talk to people of influence on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites people like these days. In particular, those who are either intellectual or gamers, because they would have the right sort of audience for an intellectual game.

Another idea, though it's probably been said before, is getting Thrive known on any science/programming forums people visit regularly, and have a good reputation on.

I agree. I think it would be good to make a list of the different ideas.

Word of Mouth

Social Media Sites

Facebook
Youtube
Twitter

Science/Programming Sites

Codecall

I only know a single programming forum. Do you know any good sites?

NickTheNick wrote:

I only know a single programming forum. Do you know any good sites?

Other than you have already - Google+?

That about covers my knowledge of relevant social sites/services, now Ping is dead.

Oh, well, there is always the Sporums…

Sporum is too full with the EA defense force and people trying to convince themselves that Maxis still exists.

So I guess Sporum a no go then. Does anyone know of any good programming or science forums that they happen to be a regular member of? Does anyone have any friends who can program, model, or promote?

An artist should make signatures for thrive so that they could be linked to the forum, which we could use on any forums we go to

That's a good idea. Do any artists offer their services?

The Uteen wrote:

I think that telling friends would be the best idea.

If we want to get know about, it might be a good idea to talk to people of influence on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites people like these days. In particular, those who are either intellectual or gamers, because they would have the right sort of audience for an intellectual game.

Another idea, though it's probably been said before, is getting Thrive known on any science/programming forums people visit regularly, and have a good reputation on.

i've told most of my Friends about this and they're interested so it should be just a matter of time for around 15 people to join(not important)
Also i could do a advertisment for when i get my youtube account on youtube (feb7) would this help at all?

At the moment, if you have read what Seregon wrote, the current programmers themselves aren't coordinated. I would wait until we do that.

Putting a thread about it on MSPA forums, they seem like the right types of people.

I can do a little bit of 3D modeling, nothing too complex though. I can get the basic forms for practically anything, though. Detailed bits (Like a wrinkly texture, etc.) are a bit harder for me. But I can give it a shot.

I could also try promoting it in the other places I am present. .3.

I have promoted us on my gaming discussion forum.

I am not sure how many people here follow NASA LT or ProjectWhiteCard , reason for a fun but sadly short educational game called MoonBase Alpha, and now are working on a NASA MMORPG called Starlite which is heavily under wraps, was funded to build it for the sake of educational benefits. This game has a LOT of potential to be very educational and knowledgeable, It is possible that with enough people to petition for it, and with valid proof that it will be a good educational tool and a fun game, NASALT may help/even have a option to help fund.

May be work getting in contact with them and seeing if there is a possibility to get help on making the game or at the least get valuable scientific feedback from the people who work with the stuff every day. If anything they have linked on the dot gov site , i personally use this stuff in my own study.
> MathTrax
> Earth+
> WorldWind
> Virtual Lab
> Math Description Engine <--Pain in the Belgium at times
> Scientific Visualization Studio
> Planetary Learning Suite

Just thought i would throw that out there for ya'll to have as a possibility.

Me and my family happen to be very good friends with Brian Reynolds, developer of many pioneering computer games like Civilization, Rise of Nations, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and more recently Farmville, but we don't like to talk about that. He's gained quite a reputation in the game industry...

I'll let him know about this project the next time I see him if he doesn't already know about it; he's semi-retired right now and he might willing to support an ambitious undertaking such as this one.

EVanimations wrote:

Me and my family happen to be very good friends with Brian Reynolds, developer of many pioneering computer games like Civilization, Rise of Nations, and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and more recently Farmville, but we don't like to talk about that. He's gained quite a reputation in the game industry...

I'll let him know about this project the next time I see him if he doesn't already know about it; he's semi-retired right now and he might willing to support an ambitious undertaking such as this one.

I stopped for a visit and to check up on development, and I find that you've won all fifty state lotteries. Good job, I guess.

EVanimations wrote:

I'll let him know about this project the next time I see him if he doesn't already know about it; he's semi-retired right now and he might willing to support an ambitious undertaking such as this one.

Sounds exciting!

I'm looking forward to see how that comes out! :) 

I have managed to scrounge together a little bit of an advertisement poster for Thrive using the Disturbance:

Le Poster:

It's been a while since we've posted on our Facebook, our Twitter, and our ModDB pages. We also have not yet had any organized attempts to look for people to recruit to the project. For the past several months we have been busy with our schedules or studiously working on Thrive and not taking the time to keep contact with the fans. However, with the onset of summer for many of us, I think it's time we start looking at our outreach efforts once again.

I think our goal should be to first release the next Microbe stage version, I believe 0.3.0? Then, when that is complete, we can post updates to Facebook, ModDB, Twitter, and our other social media outlets to notify the fans.

Then, the next big step will be to use the 0.3.0 release as our "tech demo" and begin advertising to begin recruit people of all game development skill sets to the team. So far have never done any organized attempts at recruiting new people to the project.

Sounds like a great plan Nick! Looks like we'd better get to work!  :D 

8 Days and I'll have free time!

While I'm busy it might be a good idea to settle on the features for the next release: https://thrivegame.canadaboard.net/t1428-planned-microbe-milestones#30221
If you propose a list of features based on what me and moopli have listed we can probably give an estimate of how long it would take and adjust from there!

One way of attracting people to the project is by contacting people, companies, teams, ect. we know of that have skills of use although it might look unprofessional. ie. the developer of No Man's Sky Hello Games.

Hey everyone,

Just yesterday I discovered an advertisement someone made for us on a gamedev forum. The enthusiasm is welcome, but sadly most of their info was woefully out-of-date. I've already done my best to correct the issue, but since I discovered it, regrettably, almost two months late, only time will tell if it'll improve our reputation.

So, clearly something must change. Here we are discussing were we'll promote, where to spread our message, but something's missing -- what message will we spread? Any time we decide to do some outreach somewhere, we should first know our target¸and write a post/script/article accordingly.

Case study: the gamedev forum linked above is for programmers who like to develop open-source games. They are interested in the technical side of things, whether they'll be able to work on things they like, what tools and workflows we use, interesting features currently in the works, ie, the things they'd have to know to be able to contribute right now. One of them raised a good question -- what content license do we use? I'm guessing a CC BY-SA or BY-NC-SA, but I don't think we've had this discussion.

Yes, I actually noticed that a few weeks ago. I then coincidentally noticed that on several other forums the same person with the same username was posting the same out of date ads, not even bothering to place hyperlinks where they were supposed to be. I contacted him and told him to stop advertising because his attempts were actually becoming detrimental to our outreach. 

I'm thinking we should have a template article to post on any forum we visit for outreach, instead of having to rewrite a whole business pitch for each site we visit, unless someone wants to take the time to write out a post for each forum we visit.

Speaking of licenses, I noticed that several of Thrivinator6000's ads issued the same response of people asking about the license, so I updated the READ BEFORE POSTING thread to have a short blurb on what Thrive is, and what license it uses (GPL License).

Back to the topic of outreach, I think you masterfully handled the damage control on Thrivinator6000's post. I think you'd make a good candidate for someone to do the outreach. Also, not to put you on the spot, I also would be able to vist several sites and look for people to join. I've actually been making a list of game developer forums online that we can market to, which I think can come in handy.

EDIT: Thrivinator6000 did respond, by the way, and affirmed that he would stop the advertising.