New Stuff?

[Ben]

New stuff is rad. You like rad stuff, and I like rad stuff...

site traffic has slowed down substantially over the last couple of years. The reasons for this are not important, and although small, our community is still strong and warm and fuzzy and rad.

Over the years, Game development as both a hobby and a career has grown immensely. The interests and software preferences of our user base is much more variant and eclectic then it ever has been in the past, with more of our users experimenting with game development middle ware and toolsets that arent RPGmaker2k/2k3 then the users that are. Our generators are literally iconic among many developers, and charas project.net has been an entry level community for several active game developers of note today.

The staff here is rad. We'd like to stay that way. As such, the site is to be undergoing a bit of change....slowly, over time, to adapt to the changing world that is "making rad games"


Some Rad Stuff that might or might not be coming

 new sprite generators (isometric, platformer, top down, more variety in size, in an online flash format)
 tileset compilers
 New areas added to CR
 new forums to support information, discussion and links for more 2-D game making platforms RPGmaker XP, VX, AGM/IGM, Game Maker, Scratch, Stencyl,)
 Information, articles, links, and blogs to feed your thirsty "Rad stuff making" glands
 New front page Images and tweaks so that we don't look like were still in the year 2002
 Improved Security, Flash Embeds, Polls, SMF addons for everything from Countdown timers to RP tools like dice rolls )
Stuff you want to see.


This is not a Charas4.0 announcement. Its the same charas....just with some more TLC, and food for your brains.

But most of all, we want to hear about what sort of things YOU think would make this place more rad. Your ideas, your games, the stuff youre into...propositions...you name it. You want to review games and have your reviews on the front page? Tell us. You want to make videos of your cat and embed them into your signature or something stupid? COULDN'T HURT TO BRING IT UP.
 Seriously, we care. The whole staff cares. This website was once a hub of hobby game creators everywhere, and Its time we  make things more rad.

DISCUSS THIS WITH US GUYS...I love the way your opinions look in text.

[fruckert]

You know, [youtube] tags WOULD be awesome.
Other than that, it looks like you guys have it handled.

[SaiKar]

Who uses rad anymore? I mean, seriously.

Erm, yes

Full staff support, should be awesome, dawning of a new era, etc etc.

[Valiere]

I actually do use "rad."

And I say ground zero for any kind of transformation is our namesake, the Charas Generators. The current ones are ugly and outmoded.

[A Forgotten Legend]

I like rad.  I never say it though...

I love this idea! =D

[Ben]

The current generators will be here til the end. I would never wish for them to go anywhere. Not to say that newer, and seperate generators would not be welcome.


I use rad all the time. Its pretty common these days. But then again, I frequent hipster circles.

[drenrin2120]

Maybe some proper game hosting? and I'm not talking the actual files, more so front page promotion for games. We should select games though. Not every single game should make it to some kind of front page promotion. Also, a premier game every month is just too ambiguous. Post 'em when they come and we can find other ways to encourage people to create games.

Other than that, I likes what I see!

[Ben]

Dren:

   Im all for this, and honestly, have a loose plan in mind for doing so. Some issues Im trying to mentally sort out are

 RPG maker, Game maker, and some other platforms of  games obviously save in an executable format. Third party hosting is probably optimal for theese cases. I have no problem showcasing the games on the front page. The onus lies on the creator of the project to submit to us a summary, download link, screencaps if they want their project showcased. If it is in say, flash or Java format, the onus still lies in the creator to get us that content, and for now, host it. After the first round or two of changes happens, I can most definatly look into hosting the games here at charas....but before that happens, we need to have a large enough stream of user generated content. With previous attempts at game of the month, I ran into the problem of  not having enough material to publish, so I would invariably end up having to seek out non charas content. Thats why it was eventually called "Game of the month" Rather then "Charas Project Game of the month. Some months will be slow, and as such, I was using this as more of a platform to just show off some rad, free games.

basically, if you have a project, and want it exposed on the front page, get it into us. If its in a medium that I can actually embed to the front page, then Ill do it. If we dont have enough user generated content...then as it stands, the front page game coverage will have to be outsourced to third party developers.


Make games. Get them to us. TELL the staff specifically that you want to showcase your game. Just updating your project thread isnt going to help us know wether you want to be showcased.

 On top of this, make a playable product. A FULL demo, or FULL game helps.

Put the work in, and show us that you have proper material and documentation. I dont want to play your game to take screen caps. Provide us with some. Give us a breif synopsis.

Im all about getting your stuff some exposure...but there is an awfull shortage of finished product around here...so if we dont get submissions, The showcased material will end up being third party.


Id like to get somebody in charge of reviewing games...charas created, or otherwise. Preferably free, independant games. I dont want to showcase somebodys review of Halo. That will not happen. But if say, one of you had a favorite freeware or indy title, that you think we all need to know about, then do a proper review, and send it to us. I personally promise that if its well thought out, It will be posted.

More content is a good thing
In a perfect world, I would appoint a staff member to take care of this. But we have lots of staff, and lots of incative staff on top of this. Unless an existing staff member wants to handle this, I cant see justifying appointing a new staff member to take care of this until the list of staff is decreased. We have a pretty wierd ratio of active posters to staff members.

It should also be noted that embedding a flash game to the site does not require on-site hosting.

TLDR

Make the games, and Ill post them. Or review the games, and Ill post that. If we get enough of this stuff rolling in, Ill check into on-site hosting.

[RockJohnAxe]

Alright this is exciting!

Theres gonna be Lasers and candy and more action and adventure than you can shake a stick at!

[MissingName]

Maybe if we were allowed to change our displayed names, but have our real ones still visible on our profile...

[Phayre]

I like the idea of promoting flash games as well. There are tons of huge flash communities out there, and we could probably get a lot of deleeshus fresh meat by drawing them into another place to publicize.

A lot of what draws me back to Charas time and time again is the longevity of the members, though. I still see people active who were here when I first joined, and you don't get that just anywhere. So I also like the game spotlighting. In fact it might even give me that push I need to work on something.

Maybe even a push for some kind of, I dunno, project blog thread idea. Like building off the threads people post for their projects, but with updates on things like story dev, characters, coding, maps, all of that. Things that would be updated a lot, and be place for people to see what really goes into the crafting of these things. Not just for games either-- even for portfolios of art, writing, that kind of thing, you know?

[drenrin2120]

Gem, pretty much what I was thinking. Though, I think it's safe to say we won't be having a lot of original games come out of charas until we get more traffic and more (new) users that like making games and actually make them. That makes the generators pivotal 'cuz they're our only pull point (and a pretty damn good one at that)

I know the community has become a lot less focused on game making over the years and more on just being a community and knowing each other, but it can easily retain that feature while returning to its roots.  I think, if we really like charas, we kind of owe a little something to Alex to make this place at least a little more prosperous, because let's face it, charas won't be around another 2 or 3 years if we stick to "community for the sake of community". I just can't see that happening.

[Ben]

You've pretty much nailed my motivations here. Alex does us all a really awesome favour by hosting the big blue crackrock that is charas, and between this, and considering the history and significance of the site, Id like to give something back. Id like to see this place hit its ten year birthday with some members around to celebrate it.

At this point though, I wont lie, there is a lot of work to be done. The flash generators are going to take a lot of work...at least my own versions...and Im not the most experienced programmer, as most of you know, Im more of a graphics guy. So far, this isn't meeting any resistance, and everyone seems to generally support the sentiments Im conveying...but honestly, if the place is going to turn around, we all need to chip in a little.  We need some OC dammit.

[X_marks_the_ed]

Well, this certainly motivates me to finish something.

[Zerthick]

I personally think it is a great idea for charas to branch out into other areas of game making.  Some things I would like to see are:
  1.As I had posted earlier I think it would be great if some of the more commonly used outfits in the generators were in all three. It would greatly improve the practicality and usefulness of the site.
  2.Some more newbie documentation to explain things like the form rank system, important rules and events, and where you can Legally obtain a copy of rpg maker.
  3.The wiki to be updated
  4.I think more spriting tutorials would be great
  5.Possibly a charas-project community game?
  6.More things pertaining to game maker 
I would love to help in anyway I can, but I am still learning how to program/sprite so I might not be of much help.