New Board Discussion (Hard Theory, Creative Commons), A community discussion Options

[Titanhex]

I mentioned to a few of other moderators that there was a slight issue between the GTD and the other boards.

Design is soft sometimes, like you see in GTD. It's ideas floating around in our head. It's the thought of what makes boss battles interesting, character writing, or game re-playability. But then you start putting these ideas into your game and it becomes Hard Design. Creating character stats, making boss AI, and or deciding what actions make 100% completion in a game with multiple choices.

That's just the start of hard data. Numbers, diagrams, layouts, and even maps. Things you can back by pictures and formulas often times tied to specific games. Hard Design is your efforts trying to design levels, character stats, and a working battle system for in the context of your game.

My idea was to create a subforum in GUC that discusses these ideas. A Hard Theory board. You can post pictures of mapping for feedback, talk about systems you'll be using in your game and provide numbers and detailed workings of it instead of just vague general thoughts.

The forum will have some guidelines though. You have to provide more than a soft general idea. You should hard info, like screenshots, pictures, drawn layouts, or real numbers to work with. Your idea should be pretty solid when it's posted for discussion. Discussions such as balance, aesthetics, and function will take place here. It's about asking how two systems may work together, or if the map you drew on paper or created in an editor looks functional as well as pleasing. Also consider it for discussion of level design, minigame design, monster designs, character designs, etc. The discussion can even be specific to an engine you're using, so long as it's not questions on how to use the engine itself.

What do you all think of this new board?

Would it be helpful to you?
If so how helpful?

Would you use it?

Would you visit it and check it out from time to time?

Do you understand how it works?
If so tell me how you think it works and what you would post in it?

[Titanhex]

If you have a great idea you want to implement for your game in Long Demos then you can make a thread for it in "Hard Design"/"GUC" or wherever this will be. Hell you could link to the thread in your Long Demo game as well to discuss a feature you want in your game.

This gives people a lot of ways to contribute to your game too. I'm not so sure I understand where duplicate threads come in though. Certainly you can have a Long Demos thread separate from your Hard Design thread.

[Adrien.]

If you have a great idea you want to implement for your game in Long Demos then you can make a thread for it in "Hard Design"/"GUC" or wherever this will be. Hell you could link to the thread in your Long Demo game as well to discuss a feature you want in your game.

This gives people a lot of ways to contribute to your game too. I'm not so sure I understand where duplicate threads come in though. Certainly you can have a Long Demos thread separate from your Hard Design thread.

from my understanding I could multiple threads called war of the Souls ones discussing future features and one actually discussing the game and actual implemented features?

sounds like a bad idea - keep it all in one area. HTD should be about game design elements relating to all games using particular features. for example I might want to talk about a possible job feature using Yanfly based scripts and see what the community think as opposed to it being a War of the souls only thing.

thats if I understood what you said correctly.

Plus i never see this actually getting implemented like i never see screen shot thread coming back ...

[X-M-O]

sounds like a bad idea - keep it all in one area.

That's how we currently have it set up (no HTD and no Screenshot Thread). The HTD is meant as a way to have specific design discussions about a particular aspect of a game's design (and yes, it could be only about your game - if it's a topic about any game and is related to hashing out simple design ideas, then that is what the "soft" TD is for).
Of course, this is just in discussion and not yet implemented, which is why this topic is here. =]

At any rate, if there is no demand for an HTD area and its activity goes no where, it might not be implemented for a while (or at all) based on the ideas presented here - not because we don't implement ideas (we implement ideas all the time, many behind the scenes development, but plenty in open view that directly affects everyone).