Does anyone have ideas...

[SuperSonic]

...for making GE more famous?
I've noticed that there aren't many GE users (compared to other forums like GM). Also, all of the really good game coders seem to be leaving like dark parodox and aliceIIIX (of course there still some like bee ant and game a gogo). But the point is, if we want to really improve GE, we have to make it more widely known

So, I have a few ideas that we might be able to put to use...
1) Create an addicting open source game based on the GE icon
2) Develop some sort of website for GE. The website could be based on helping newbies become pros or it could be a repository for GE plugins or maybe even a place for programmers to add on to GE's source code.
3) Start some game competitions that anyone could join (yes that means GM users too)

If any of you have any more ideas feel free to post the here

Sonic

[skydereign]

This question has been raised many, many times. It has been generally accepted that the best way to make gE more widespread is to make high quality games (though this doesn't cover the publicity part). The most outwardly appealing aspect of gE I believe is the iphone port, and hopefully soon android port... so improvements to these, as well as successful examples of them would help. There haven't been a lot of new users that post on the forum, but if you look, almost all of them have had an interest in the iphone port. The idea behind having to have the logo on export is really when you distribute a game, it helps draw people in to look at gameEditor. The only way that logo will be shown to lots of people is if you make successful games, the easiest would be to distribute it on the itunes store or similar. There are at least 10 users here working on iphone games, so hopefully as they finish, gE will become more popular. The other way to help is to increase the amount of features, I think the most directly appealing one would be a flash port, that way people can show off their games without requiring the player to download it.

About your second point, that is goal of the forums here. The third would usually require some sort of real prize, which could be organized by way of entry fee, but still it would have to be done by someone central to gE, preferably a developer.

[SuperSonic]

Good point. Maybe we could arrange an iphone game contest. The rules would be simple. The contestants would make an iphone game and sell it. But the contest would be only for GE users and the entries would be judged by rankings on the app store. This would motivate the contestants to make more impressive games and therefore, anyone who plays them will see the GE icon and hopefully come here. As for a prize, that could be figured out later.
What do you think?

[157pl]

im not sure that would help much
i don't see a Nintendo logo and want to work for Nintendo
the games would need to be based on how cool and amazing game editor is while making it seam easy

[skydereign]

First off, the splash screen is a standard way of publicizing your game creation software. Second, there is no way of telling how easy a game was to make when playing it, so marketing that would be rather difficult to an average consumer. Also, Nintendo isn't a good example. Partially due to the size of Nintendo, but mostly due to how it operates. gE isn't targeted at large scale groups, it is meant for indie devs who want to use a easy and powerful tool. Essentially, the appeal of gameEditor is being able to create your own games, the Nintendo logo boasts nothing at all like that.

For example, if one of the top games on the app store had a splash logo advertising gE (or any other game creation software), people wanting to make games would probably look into it. If they don't, then they arguably aren't that interested. I know for one that if angry birds said it was powered by some other software, I'd at least look into it. In that regard, all gE needs to do is display great games, and show that it indeed was made with gE. If it was fun, and the player has any interest in making games, they might check it out (which is what we are aiming for). While this method doesn't show how easy it indeed is to make games with gameEditor, it will create interest.

Generally it is also accepted that gE is good enough at what it does, that when people try it, they will want to continue using it. If we can improve this aspect of it, then I'd love to hear ideas, but from the previous topics like this, that isn't the concern.

[akr]

I just studied the new features of game-maker. It looks like that iphone export is only possible on the yoyo website. Means no independant iphone
game can be created like we do.

Furthermore I see a big potential in the physics engine we have in 1.5. There are tons of new game types we can create. Angry birds is then no problem at all.

Android port is more complicated. Maybe we really need a website support feature to get into the Android space. The build environment is too complicated.
But I am not sure how the demand for Android is. Dont get much requests.

[Kodo]

What skydereign says makes perfect sense, we just need more high quality GE games out there, especially in the app store where there are many millions of users and thousands and thousands of devlopers; if a GE game does well there you can bet that there will be a serge of interest in game-editor. What puts me off getting involved with Android is that unlike Apple, Android devices are made by many different manufacturers, which means lots of different screen sizes and hardware configs, it makes it so much more difficult, or even impossible to support the full Android user base, it also increases the number of problems you get with people not being able to run your game, and because there are so many device types testing and fixing peoples problems is very difficult. You don't get any of those problems with iOS. So for me, even if I was able to make Android games with GE I wouldn't.

I have my eye on Apalia, it looks like it could generate quite a but of interest when it gets released, it's that level of quality that we need to get Game-Editor noticed.

[akr]

Kodo made the point with Android. I have no clue what to do when screen resolution changes from 480x800. There are so many. To support all of those
and releated features and input keys on all devices is nearly impossible.

We could reduce support down to 480x800. Maybe this is a doable way.

[again]

Many of the newer devices for android support 800x480 or WVGA resolution. Also if you make the Game Editor run the 1.0 firmware of andriod( 1st ROM) then it wouldnt have many compatibility issues.
As for gaining visibility , instead of hosting windows mobile games on my site , I can just use this website as a host. That will bring people here also.
Another problem is Makslane and Akr are busy and dont visit other iphone websites . I cannot promote Game Editor like it was my product. Toucharcade is the biggest iphone site and I never seen Makslane or Akr there. Add 148 apps , ipodtouchfans, etc. There hasnt been any marketing done on that level.
I could do it but even if I did people here would just say oh game editor got busy and has nothing to do with me. So thats some ideas for now.
Skydereign and Omni-arts have Swords of Apalia comming. Sonicfire and I have a multi-game pack comming out. Soon Game Editor games will break into the top 25 of iphone. Its just a matter of time till we become more famous.

[skydereign]

You should support gameEditor because you want to, not because we will praise you. Whether or not you helped to the growth of gameEditor shouldn't be about recognition, it should just be about your love of gameEditor... Anyway, I'd be fine with a limited port to just 800x480. Most people I know with android phones have that resolution, and it is definitely one of the more widespread. Just being able to port to both would be amazing, even if only one resolution is supported.

[AnarchCassius]

I just studied the new features of game-maker. It looks like that iphone export is only possible on the yoyo website. Means no independant iphone
game can be created like we do.

This is in fact the main reason I decided to go with Game Editor over Game Maker when I was looking around 6 monthes ago. There aren't too many dedicated game engines that export to iPhone. And Game Maker's export isn't even a simple submit and convert, they take more control the Apple. If they decide your game needs better music they'll put it in and charge you for it. I'm sure they are relatively reasonable but all the clauses and complications made me very hesitant.

Android port is more complicated. Maybe we really need a website support feature to get into the Android space. The build environment is too complicated.
But I am not sure how the demand for Android is. Dont get much requests.

I'm very interested in Android personally. Gonna be getting one in about a week and I think the app market for droid is just warming up. iPhone is great but Apple's control freakiness puts me on edge, and having both major mobile platforms exportable would be a huge edge for GE.

Though frankly I'm gonna say the elephant in the room here is GE's incredibly buggy and unstable interface. Commenting some lines crashes the engine, copying often fails to get the whole selection, crashes can cause loss of font data, the list goes on. All of these bugs can be worked around but the fact they exist means a lot of new users may not feel the engine is stable (which it does seem to be) or that the editor is too clunky to be worthwhile. Game Maker's code is IMO a bit harder to work with but the interface gives a feel of stability and cleanliness. GE would seem a lot more professional with these bugs fixed.

[skydereign]

Though frankly I'm gonna say the elephant in the room here is GE's incredibly buggy and unstable interface. Commenting some lines crashes the engine, copying often fails to get the whole selection, crashes can cause loss of font data, the list goes on. All of these bugs can be worked around but the fact they exist means a lot of new users may not feel the engine is stable (which it does seem to be) or that the editor is too clunky to be worthwhile. Game Maker's code is IMO a bit harder to work with but the interface gives a feel of stability and cleanliness. GE would seem a lot more professional with these bugs fixed.

Agreed. gameEditor has quite a few bugs, but since I use gE all the time I can easily overlook them. I don't think about it much, but that wouldn't be the case for new users. So it'd be nice to get a lot of those cleaned up (I'm still all for allowing exterior text editors), but the other problem is that we don't even get enough users to see gameEditor. Both worth while ventures of improving gE's exposure.

[again]

Ok you do have a point skyderiegn , here is what I need

I need a paragraph about 5-6 sentences long to post on various websites. The paragraph is to describe the features and benifits of game editor. I will use that paragraph and spread it to the iphone websites I know. I need you to make the paragraph skyderiegn so that we are on the same page. Once you finish I will begin going to different sites promoting it.
About the android I think we all agreed 800x480 is the standard. Plus multi-touch is supported also.

[SuperSonic]

Good idea "again"

[akr]

A lot of great ideas here. This is the most important part. We need to consolidate our ideas and dont waste our time somewhere it doesnt pay off.

So what is the most important thing to do? Here are the things we discussed. I share that there are plenty of things to do regarding marketing of ge.
I am not so good doing that. What can we do to promote ge? Is it to get a review there? To place game screens there?

Regarding GE dev:

1) Physics engine & GE 1.5
2) Android Port (is working but not user friendly. Requires Android SDK, Unix environment, modified linux build environment for GE). Maybe better as service? What do we do here?
3) GE bugs. I would love to have at least the most important bugs in the tracker: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/game-editor/. If u need access pls contact maks.

We need people that figure out how things are done in other game desingers. So how is iphone dev done in game-maker? How is android dev done in game-editor?
Maybe we can learn from them. We shouldnt re-invent the wheel.