Thanks, fktt!
To recap, we discussed the following:
Art packs - users should be able to organize art into "packs" or "folders" and submit or publish these. The pack can then be browsed by other users. This would allow users to organize and rate related art as they see fit.
Graphics on the frontpage - The frontpage is a bit text-heavy right now. We want to find ways to push content. One idea here was to give editors the possibility to "feature" art. Featured works would then somehow be shown in rotation on the frontpage.
Points system - Users would earn points for certain desirable actions, like submitting accepted work, commenting etc. This might give priority in queues and listings etc.
Notifications - When something has happened that you may want to pay attention to - new messages, art for review, replies to threads you follow, comments on your blogs etc, a notification would popup somewhere on the frontpage.
Ideas and thoughts are welcome! And come and pay us a visit on IRC at #OpenGameArt@irc.freenode.net. That's where the action is ;).
EDIT - I noticed that links had been dropped from the log. For those who try to follow our discussion, this is the crappy mockup I/we referred to at times.
Uploaded all of the content on gallery page 2, and the two weapon sets on the first page. I'll get around to the rest later, if no one else does so first.
Well, it sounds like you have a plan. Keep up the good work. :)
Game resources
I agree with the risk of spreading too thin. Game resources should probably come at a later date, if at all. However, it's what this site is for - helping people make games. Developers could potentially be an important part of the community. Like you said information on the technical aspects of game making already exists elsewhere and is hard to beat until the community has grown a LOT. This aspect IMO is best left to grow naturally at it's own pace. That said, there are other ways to attract developers. Game ideas, non-technical feedback, recruiting, meeting point between artist/writers/developers etc. Ideally you want the game makers to have this as their "home", the main place where they develop (gameplay, story and art) and showcase their project. I know this is hardly easy either, but it might be slighty more doable. But again, this is for the future when the site has grown some.
Art resources
Sounds great :).
Attracting talent
Agreed about Wesnoth. Essentially you want to steal their art boards ;).
"Conclusion"
It sounds like you already have good ideas. Sponsoring a game and at the same time commissioning art for it sounds great actually. The problem would of course be finding a talented developer with a good idea who can actually be expected to get somewhere. It would be cool if you could find a simple game that wouldn't be hard to make yet would require art resources valuable in other games.
As for what art would be most useful to have, I believe it's probably RPG-style tiles and side-scrolling platformer/shooter art. Which "look n feel" would be most useful I'm not so sure about.
If I had the skills, I would love to contribute to a project like this. One difficulty would be to know what is needed. I think that clear inspiration for potential contributing artist would be great. A good game project could do this.
And sorry for scaring away other commentators with my lengthy posts :p.
The site is looking good :). Obviously it will need work continously as it grows, and perhaps the search & browse interface will need to improve later. But it's hard to tell in what way until the site have been used a while and have a lot of content. For now it works as-is to me.
The most important point right now - as I'm sure you're already aware - is content. My suggestion here is to try to maintain certain "art styles". IMHO, you want more or less complete and coherrent sections with content that fit well together. Combining awesome art doesn't neccessarily mean the results are great if they are too different. I think it's better to have one full featured "style" than to have bits and pieces from several. Hopefully you can commision some great artists to make this easier. Having "style guidelines" and similiar might help but would probably require some momentum for the project before it would work.
Some possible ways to make opengameart gain momentum (brainstorming; some hard, some easy, some with a lot of benefit, some with less):
Art commissions. You're already doing this :).
Art resources. Make this site the first stop for (pixel) artists. Tutorials and hints, community, free art to play around with to learn and start from etc. This will take time to build.
Game resources. Same as above, but for the more technical aspects of making games.
"Pet" (game) projects. This will make it easier to develop full featured art "styles", see what is missing/needed and gain publicity. Again not easy, and probably something better left for the future.
Attract talent. Talent will attract talent. Doing this isn't easy and is at least to some extent based on luck.
In short, I guess what I'm trying to say is try to keep the site alive. The thing about a site like this is that it can be really hard to gain initial momentum, but if you manage to cultivate a thriving game developer/artist community it could potentially more or less run itself. Good luck!
...I'll trust you :).
...Trak's seems to be GPL2, which is possible to edit - although if they had CC2 that might have been silently dropped. If so, sorry about that.
I'm talking about Tiziana.
Thanks, fktt!
To recap, we discussed the following:
Art packs - users should be able to organize art into "packs" or "folders" and submit or publish these. The pack can then be browsed by other users. This would allow users to organize and rate related art as they see fit.
Graphics on the frontpage - The frontpage is a bit text-heavy right now. We want to find ways to push content. One idea here was to give editors the possibility to "feature" art. Featured works would then somehow be shown in rotation on the frontpage.
Points system - Users would earn points for certain desirable actions, like submitting accepted work, commenting etc. This might give priority in queues and listings etc.
Notifications - When something has happened that you may want to pay attention to - new messages, art for review, replies to threads you follow, comments on your blogs etc, a notification would popup somewhere on the frontpage.
Ideas and thoughts are welcome! And come and pay us a visit on IRC at #OpenGameArt@irc.freenode.net. That's where the action is ;).
EDIT - I noticed that links had been dropped from the log. For those who try to follow our discussion, this is the crappy mockup I/we referred to at times.
I forgot credits on this upload. Fixed now.
Uploaded all of the content on gallery page 2, and the two weapon sets on the first page. I'll get around to the rest later, if no one else does so first.
My guess is that it will take a while before this starts to get used a lot, but when it does it will be awesome :).
Great work :)
Well, it sounds like you have a plan. Keep up the good work. :)
Game resources
I agree with the risk of spreading too thin. Game resources should probably come at a later date, if at all. However, it's what this site is for - helping people make games. Developers could potentially be an important part of the community. Like you said information on the technical aspects of game making already exists elsewhere and is hard to beat until the community has grown a LOT. This aspect IMO is best left to grow naturally at it's own pace. That said, there are other ways to attract developers. Game ideas, non-technical feedback, recruiting, meeting point between artist/writers/developers etc. Ideally you want the game makers to have this as their "home", the main place where they develop (gameplay, story and art) and showcase their project. I know this is hardly easy either, but it might be slighty more doable. But again, this is for the future when the site has grown some.
Art resources
Sounds great :).
Attracting talent
Agreed about Wesnoth. Essentially you want to steal their art boards ;).
"Conclusion"
It sounds like you already have good ideas. Sponsoring a game and at the same time commissioning art for it sounds great actually. The problem would of course be finding a talented developer with a good idea who can actually be expected to get somewhere. It would be cool if you could find a simple game that wouldn't be hard to make yet would require art resources valuable in other games.
As for what art would be most useful to have, I believe it's probably RPG-style tiles and side-scrolling platformer/shooter art. Which "look n feel" would be most useful I'm not so sure about.
If I had the skills, I would love to contribute to a project like this. One difficulty would be to know what is needed. I think that clear inspiration for potential contributing artist would be great. A good game project could do this.
And sorry for scaring away other commentators with my lengthy posts :p.
The site is looking good :). Obviously it will need work continously as it grows, and perhaps the search & browse interface will need to improve later. But it's hard to tell in what way until the site have been used a while and have a lot of content. For now it works as-is to me.
The most important point right now - as I'm sure you're already aware - is content. My suggestion here is to try to maintain certain "art styles". IMHO, you want more or less complete and coherrent sections with content that fit well together. Combining awesome art doesn't neccessarily mean the results are great if they are too different. I think it's better to have one full featured "style" than to have bits and pieces from several. Hopefully you can commision some great artists to make this easier. Having "style guidelines" and similiar might help but would probably require some momentum for the project before it would work.
Some possible ways to make opengameart gain momentum (brainstorming; some hard, some easy, some with a lot of benefit, some with less):
In short, I guess what I'm trying to say is try to keep the site alive. The thing about a site like this is that it can be really hard to gain initial momentum, but if you manage to cultivate a thriving game developer/artist community it could potentially more or less run itself. Good luck!
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