I am very pleased to announce that:
Pokémon Essentials now belongs to the Wiki!
After speaking with Peter (poccil), he admitted that he had lost interest in maintaining Essentials, and therefore he would donate the project to the Pokémon Essentials Wiki.
This is great news, as it means there will now be more updates and bug fixes again. What's even better is that it'll now be a community project, meaning everyone can contribute to it. This will help development speed along, and we'll have a superb starter kit before you know it!
Naturally, there is a lot of organisation to be done first. The wiki needs to be updated, a small team of project leaders needs to be appointed, and guidelines and project aims need to be laid out.
I have already redesigned the wiki's
main page, and set up a page called
Suggested features where you can add the features and fixes you want to see.
Recruiting
What we need now is a small team of people who will head the development of Essentials. They will make the big decisions on what directions the kit will go in, and be in charge of sorting out all aspects of development.
Roles will include:
- Scripters - An obvious role, and the most important one. We need experienced scripters who can find and fix bugs, and implement new features. They may also rewrite large chunks of code to make things work better.
- Web monkey - Making sure the wiki looks good and is kept up to date. They will also help come up with the best design for the wiki, and should have a good sense of how to lay everything out. Experience with editing wikis is important.
- Resource gatherer - Collecting, organising and filing all the resources we need. This includes tilesets, sprites, music and other sound effects, fonts, updated PBS files, scripts and so forth. They should gather not just what is needed, but also what they think ought to be included.
- Stress testers - Playtesters, bug hunters, whatever you want to call them. These people try to do everything it's physically possible to do with the kit, and report when/why they can't. A good imagination will help you to think up scenarios in which the code might break.
- Game designers - People who understand the mechanics behind good games, and who can come up with the best ways of getting Essentials to work. This doesn't necessarily involve scripting, although it can help. Thinking outside the box and coming up with radical new ways of doing things is a big plus.
- Coordinators - Making sure everyone is working together, not separately. They will be responsible for the progress of development, allocation of tasks, updating the Change List and credits, taking suggestions/contributions and turning them into useful goals, developing and upholding the project aims, etc.
I should say now that these are not separate roles. Ideally the team of project leaders will consist of people who can do several of the above tasks (although specialising in one or two).
A project leader should be reasonable, dedicated and always have the best interests of the kit in mind. They should be able to defend tough decisions, and work well with the other leaders. They will have the same basic ideals as the other team leaders, in terms of how to work and how the kit will develop.
If you want to apply to be a project leader, please send me a PM outlining what you would bring to the team (including examples). You should also choose at least two of the below features, and for each of them come up with a good and balanced argument, and your personal conclusion, about whether they should be included in Essentials (and if so, to what extent).
- Contests
- Following Pokémon
- Dual screen and/or touch screen
- Updating to be a 4th/5th Gen kit
- One other important feature of your choosing
Of course, project leaders aren't the only people who can contribute to Essentials. Anyone can!
Initial aims
The first update or two of Essentials will be primarily about bug fixes and general tidying up of the kit. We will move on to adding new features/expanding existing ones later.
This means we need your help! If you've found a bug or a feature that doesn't work properly, let us know! Either post it in this thread or add it to the list on the
Suggested features page of the wiki. Nothing is too small to be mentioned.
I look forward to revitalising the Essentials kit with everyone's help. This is a terrific opportunity, and I hope you take full advantage of it.
