Ok. So basically we should offer some good tutorials here even if there are tutorials in the wiki. And this section should focus on the beginners. Beginning at RMXP is rather hard 'cause you don't find a lot of helpers but a lot of beginners so many of them ends up quitting because they couldn't find the help they were looking for. There could also be some little events and maybe emblems to make people more eager in their work.
There aren't much non-Pokemon games made in there and most if not all are developed for computers. Other types of games need programming knowledge and not everyone have them.
That's definitely true. There's currently not really anything which beginners can look at to help them get started, in particular something with the focus of making a Pokémon game.
There's a thread in the Tutorials section which is a start to addressing this problem, but it's specific to RMXP and a bit wordy - something more generalised would be better, as would be including links to various off-site tutorials and other things.
It's also true that everything in here so far are computer games. Perhaps I'll have a competition to come up with an idea for a non-digital Pokémon game (e.g. card game, board game, D&D-type game, word game, whatever), just to force the idea that not all games need to be computer-based.
One of the problems with the forum is uncontrollable, good projects come, but they never finish. Unless you've wondrous contraption which can fix that, is a problem which will always consist.
Also, we need more group activity, we seem to always be doing solo things, nothing ever together, which was the point of my 'group project' idea a while back, but not many seemed interested, or people were suggesting un group type things. We could have a group project, a competition, something along those lines, getting us all together, bigger and stronger. Rather than alone and things.
Yes, your first paragraph is certainly one of the "biggies". Part of coping with it would be more information about the game development process, and indicating how much work it actually takes. Maybe there could even be a freelancer who goes between projects helping out for a while at a time? Yes, I know that's unlikely.
Aside from a community game (which I liked the idea of, although I had a different idea to everyone else), I'm not entirely sure what to get people involved in. Writing tutorials and helpful articles, perhaps? Some form of GDM?
A thread listing all the existing Pokemon Stater Kits for various game-making programs (in-progress or finished, assuming there're any finished ones that aren't Essentials) would be useful. I don't think there's a thread like that yet, is there?
There isn't, as far as I know. This would tie in to my suggestion above of a general thread for beginners which introduces game dev.
I think the Beginners' Showcase could benefit from being split into a forum of the same title and a second forum exclusively for idea posts, with the latter having tags for whether the thread creator was seeking feedback, team members, or both. (Though a requirement prior to seeking team members such as established examples of work would probably be useful.)
I'm hesitant to increase the number of sections, and I'm not sure that ideas are different enough to beginning projects to warrant them being separated. Tags could certainly be used for threads to provide more immediate information, though, so I'll look into how those work.
It should focus on Essentials. No other Pokemon Kit is as advanced. There can be a Sub-Forum for more Pokemon starter kits but it's pointless to focus on them or encourage people to use a starter-kit that is not finished. Its more unlikely to finish a game with an unfinished Kit you know.
Only Pokemon Related. This is the pokecommunity after all. I don't see a reason why someone should advertise a non-Pokemon game in a Pokemon forum. Non-Pokemon fangames should at least be similar to Pokemon (monster catching/training).
I disagree on both points. Yes, Essentials is the best option for the average person, but it's certainly not the only option and we shouldn't restrict the alternatives. Yes, the majority of games here will be Pokémon-related, but there will be (and are) a couple which aren't, and those shouldn't be discouraged either. This is just the "Game Development" section, not the "Pokémon Games Made In Essentials" section.
The key words are "Resources" and "Tutorials". The current "Tutorials & Resources" Sub-Forum is a mess. It would be wise to divide the two. The useful tutorials and the scripts get lost between the Graphic "Resources". And to be honest the graphics mostly aren't useful at all.
That section could definitely use a bit of tidying-up, although I'm not sure how to do it. The two things are related, but are they enough to keep them in the same section? I just think perhaps that a stand-alone Tutorials section would be rather bare.
A stickied thread with links to all the tutorial threads could help, but it'd be a whole lot of effort.
It can be changed. :D
First I don't get why there are two "Showcases". Is it to divide the just started projects with more advanced ones? If so what benefits does it have if the activity in both Sub-Forums is almost dead? Instead of dividing "new" and "old" projects you should divide "Finished Games", "Games in Development", "Ideas" and "Game Graveyard". This way finished games will get more attention, all games currently developed are in one place, "Idea" threads wont distract from games that are actually developed and abandoned projects will rest in peace.
That's how I see those two sections working, yes. I think it's the best way to split them up, because The Showcase takes all the "big" games so that they don't overshadow the beginning games and ideas. I've already mentioned that there's little difference between ideas and new games, and I don't think they need to be separated.
Dead projects will eventually become inactive anyway, and we have a necro-bumping rule (i.e. don't). Projects which specifically announce that they've stopped will have their threads locked. We don't need to do anything special about those.
There's a thread mentioning all the games with demos, including the finished games, which I think is enough. It's up to each game's developer to let me know if their game needs adding to the list, though.
Like i said before the "Tutorials & Resources" Sub-Forum should be divided in two. Tutorials, Scripts and Programs in one Sub-Forum and Graphics and Audio Resources in another one. The Graphics & Audio Sub-Forum should get prefixes that determine the style the resources have. For example the prefixes can look like this: [RBY/GSC Style], [RSE/FRLG Style], [DPP/HGSS Style], [BW/BW2 Style], [Mixed], [Other]
There should be three kids of Tutorial prefixes in the "Tutorial, Scripts & Programs" Sub-Forum. One is the [RMXP Tutorials] prefix, the other one is [Essentials Tutorials] prefix and the [Other] prefix. The remaining prefixes in this Sub-Forum should be [Script], [Program] and [Misc.].
The "Archive" sticky thread should be replaced completely because it is outdated. The Resources offered there should be Essentials compatible.
The "Requests" sticky thread should be removed.
Some good ideas there. More prefixes would definitely be useful, and that archive thread probably needs removing. I'm not sure about scrapping the Requests thread, though.
How about having a thread for each kind of resource, rather than having everyone make their own threads for a couple of sprites or tiles? The first post in each thread could list all the posted resources within it, with links. In that case, which threads are needed would need to be decided.
The Essentials Sub-Forum should be renamed to "Questions, Suggestions & Requests". If Essentials is the main focus of Game Development (which it currently is) there is no need for its own Sub-Forum. The "Download" and "Bug report" threads could be on the main page of game development as sticky threads. The "Suggestions" sticky thread should be removed and a "Suggestion" and "Request" prefix should be added. A "Fulfilled Request" prefix could be helpful to keep the overview. A "FAQ" sticky thread is needed as well (for RMXP & Essentials).
As I said before, Game Dev shouldn't be restricted to just one kind of game (such as Essentials games). Essentials is certainly a big thing here, but it shouldn't be the only thing.
I think the Essentials section is fine as it is, although I'm not sure whether to encourage Essentials-specific tutorials to go in there or in the Tutorials & Resources section.