Thrive Task List

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Thu Jun 12, 2014 4:57 am

While NickTheNicks initial programming ranks would be more appropriate for a very large company with very specialized programmers, and I do agree that moopli's options are easier to identify with on this project. But unless people can have more than one rank, I would still like to have a 'General Programmer' rank for people who won't want to impose a perceived limitation on what they do or want to do, if people want to specialize, then that's fine with me, but I couldn't have afforded to do that at any stage

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Thu Jun 12, 2014 11:02 am

Some aspects of Wiki Management and Outreach could be combined into a Community Management usergroup - there have been several members now and in the past who've done that job, and for an open source project it's probably of even bigger importance than others. Writing too (likely technical - game mechanic explanations, help dialogues, etc. - instead of creative) might be a good idea.

A note about audio - from experience working on a few sound effects recently, I can tell you composing and sound effect creation require entirely different skill sets. Someone who's good at one may not necessarily be good at the other, so there should in my opinion be a distinction.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:03 pm

I agree completely -- community management is how we'll maintain a strong userbase, which is good for bugs, contributors, and of course, because the game won't mean much without anyone playing it :P. A technical writing team is a good idea, and only going to become more of one as we get more releases out and start polishing. Good technical writers though, able to say much with little, are pretty hard to come by I think.

On another note, I've noticed that some people seem to be using the GitHub issue tracker to discuss game design decisions instead of implementation details. To me, this is a bad thing; it distracts from the issue tracker's main purpose discussing implementation details, and more importantly, it circumvents the use of the forum itself as the main place to discuss this sort of thing. One thing I really like about our current process is that we make, and stick to, good functional specs. But for that we need some self-discipline.
/psa

Note: I'm not linking to all the issues where this happens, it would make a pretty long list, and I don't want to directly incriminate the culprits. Only indirectly

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Fri Jun 13, 2014 4:30 am

@Crovea:

Okay, I'll leave the option open to generalize as just a programmer, or specialize in one field (once it becomes viable to do so).

@Oliver and moopli:

So how about wiki managers and PR managers are part of a usergroup called community management? (Wiki management would be replaced by it)

Also, this might not fit in with the discussion here but on the topic of task lists, seeing moopli's success in compiling the game made me realize that we lack an organized structure telling the developers what to try and finish for the next release. The GDD and the wiki will paint the final picture, but there needs to be something incremental, like a thread that just has planned features for each subsequent release. Do you guys think it would be a good idea to make such a thread for the Microbe Stage? Each planned feature could have a corresponding link to a wiki page or thread (preferably wiki page) describing that feature.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Fri Jun 13, 2014 7:26 am

A thousand times yes -- I've thought for a while now that we need to talk about milestones (hence why I keep suggesting rough milestones for all my suggestions). In fact, I think it's such a good idea I did it myself.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Fri Jun 13, 2014 2:43 pm

NickTheNick wrote:: So how about wiki managers and PR managers are part of a usergroup called community management? (Wiki management would be replaced by it)

Agreed. May I also suggest website management and fan interaction (or a better phrasing of that same sort of idea) are added as ranks/subgroups? Some users have been useful in the past not just for what they've directly contributed, but how they've answered newcomers' questions adequately, removing the need for others to do so.

Going through the current groups and ranks, with current and old members in mind, here's a preliminary list I've come up with:

Spoiler:

Newcomer Posts : 48 Reputation : 8 Join date : 2014-04-01

We could better manage the project by using gthub pages(info on that is here.)for the deveopment forum,website, maybe a community form(for things like sharing creations,art,videos ect.),github wiki/pages for the wiki, and a branch on github/google docs for the GDD.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sat Jun 14, 2014 6:47 pm

While I (obviously :P) agree with using gh-pages for the website, i'm not so sure about using github to hold our forum.

Putting the wiki on it could work pretty well though; since it could just be a set of markdown pages, and we could easily collaborate through commits/pull requests.

A community wiki has been part of the plan for a good long while, using wikia most likely, but a community forum is a good idea in the long run too. Currently though, we'll probably leave fantalk to our subreddit and moddb. Eventually though, we'll hopefully have too much activity to restrict to a single subreddit, so then (but probably only then) we'll either spawn a new forum or add a fantalk section to this one. I'd prefer starting a new one, personally.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 15, 2014 3:35 am

Okay so I'm going to go ahead and make the following usergroups based off of what we discussed:

Programming
Game Design
Art
Audio
Project Management
Community Management

I will also include associated ranks and I can add more as we decide on them. When I finish the process I can post a list of the groups and ranks.

A community wiki already exists, but is rarely used. In fact, it has its own forum which can be used as a community forum. Here is the link:

http://thrive.wikia.com/wiki/Thrive_Wiki

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 15, 2014 4:57 am

Sounds great! So will section leads be able to issue tasks to developers in that section?

Newcomer Posts : 48 Reputation : 8 Join date : 2014-04-01

moopli: Why don't you want to use github pages for the development form? It whould be easier to manage.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 15, 2014 11:45 am

It doesn't really fit the open-source volunteerism spirit to assign people to tasks; so perhaps instead the section leads will have more say in deciding what the important priorities are, but people can still pick up anything they want (with the caveat that their submissions won't necessarily be accepted as-is).

Imo most sections of game development would fit poorly on GitHub -- programming is really the exception. GitHub makes discussions around code easy using the issue tracker, but I'm not so keen on moving all the game design, meta-discussion and so on there; as GitHub isn't so good for rambling, long discussions I think; as the issue tracker is designed for discussing relatively concrete things -- changes, new additions, implementation details.

Perhaps it will work on stuff that's stabilized more -- that is, once some idea/concept/mechanic has crystallized from a rambling discussion into a coherent document, it can go up on GitHub, in a wiki section of the gh-pages branch, and we can handle the finer details with GitHub issues.

Actually, with this refinement I really like it. We move the dev wiki to gh-pages once the website is set up there, and that way we can easily collaborate on anything that's been settled enough to wikify.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 15, 2014 3:02 pm

I see what your saying, but there is still the problem of efficiency that multiple people are, unknowingly, doing the same job. Shouldn't people nominate themselves/be nominated for everyone who would have done it to see. Hope that makes sense

Oliveriver wrote:

NickTheNick wrote:: So how about wiki managers and PR managers are part of a usergroup called community management? (Wiki management would be replaced by it)

Agreed. May I also suggest website management and fan interaction (or a better phrasing of that same sort of idea) are added as ranks/subgroups? Some users have been useful in the past not just for what they've directly contributed, but how they've answered newcomers' questions adequately, removing the need for others to do so.

Going through the current groups and ranks, with current and old members in mind, here's a preliminary list I've come up with:

Spoiler:

Wow Oliver, you really have your work cut out judging on the 1500 give-or-take members.(Although only about 100 of them actually contribute)

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Wed Jun 18, 2014 11:47 am

It can't just be me doing it - the mods and team leads will have to have their say as well. Since Nick's made the usergroups, it might be a good time to start thinking about how to sort everybody and then do it.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Wed Jun 18, 2014 4:51 pm

I added your list (with some formatting) to the wiki a few days ago; it'll be much easier to edit there. Efficiency!

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:29 am

Excuse me moopli, would you please add me to the art team, I work on interfaces/concepts

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sat Jun 21, 2014 6:02 pm

@RabiesPig:
1) I don't think so -- the issue tracker does allow issue assignment, and we already do so much talking around here that I think the only way effort will get duplicated is if two people both get frustrated with slow progress and take matters into their own hands.
2) It is done. Looking over concept art contributions makes me think that our definition for concept art isn't particularly rigorous, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Now, with the holidays upon us, you think you'll have the time to get the website off your hands Oliver? We could move it to GitHub, you could stop having to maintain it, and then we could move it somewhere else later if need be. With the website moved (which I could do in a few hours if I had the files), we'll quickly be able to check a few more things off that list.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 22, 2014 5:39 am

It's great that you're willing to help, although at this moment in time I'm a little busy to do anything major (my summer holidays don't actually start for another month, and I've got an exam tomorrow as well). Since you've been added to the Skype chat and I've added you as a contact, I could send you the files anyway. The domain transfer may be a little trickier and time consuming, which is a problem for me right now I'm afraid.

On the topic of a new website, I was intending the current files to be a placeholder for an actual website structure at some later point (WJacobC was considering ExpressionEngine, which I mentioned a couple of pages ago). The static files we've got at the moment are alright, but not ideal for constant updates, especially with things like the news page. The entire HTML document needs to be replaced each time a new update appears, and if we were to keep it like that on a new server, it would still mean I would be changing things because I'd be the only one with access to the program for editing it.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Mon Jun 23, 2014 2:37 pm

moopli wrote:: @RabiesPig:
2) It is done. Looking over concept art contributions makes me think that our definition for concept art isn't particularly rigorous, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Most of my concept art is mainly UI concepts.I Will probably be more productive as the holidays roll in and am thinking of making some actual 'art' of concept. B)

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Mon Jun 23, 2014 8:23 pm

Technically RabiesPig, the GUI concepts you've drawn up are much more like "real" concept art than the stuff you're probably thinking of. It's a common misconception of non-concept-artists to think that conceot art is supposed to look good. But that's neither here nor there and is quite off-topic either way. I humbly suggest the concept art thread for discussion on what is and is not concept art.

Anyway, digression aside: If we host on github, anyone with commit access can update the pages, and if we refactor the html to be amenable to human editing (which is unlikely to be the current case if it's the output of a program), then we won't need any fancy tool to generate webpages for us. That removes the most important bottleneck, since seriously, the website should be easy for devs to add to.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:54 am

What I have already made are 'rough' concepts but what I am making now is basically just a pretty picture.

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Sun Jun 29, 2014 9:04 am

Moopli, I can send you the website files to host on Github now if you're still up for it (preferably via Skype), as well as transferring the revolutionarygamesstudio.com domain (providing it's possible, which I'm still assuming it is). An editable HTML setup would be far better for multiple devs, and anything with a blog-like format would serve as a replacement to the news page, with all the team leads able to post respective updates in their own fields. While the static web document has worked so far, I'm fully committed to replacing it as soon as possible with a better website structure. I'll see if I can get WJacobC to help, as he's had some input on this before.

Newcomer Posts : 48 Reputation : 8 Join date : 2014-04-01

Old website that needs to be taken down http://revolutionarygamesstudio.webs.com/

Subject: Re: Thrive Task List Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:59 am

~scio's the only one with the login for that, but I agree it should be taken down to remove possible duplicates.

Learner Posts : 139 Reputation : 7 Join date : 2012-04-24

Have the devs decided how to do behaviors yet?

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