Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Interviews and publicity

fllood

By fllood
in Off-Topic

 Share

Recommended Posts

fllood

fllood

Posted
Posted (edited)

Let me say Thanks for another interesting Q&A's @ moddb nbor1more. And thanks Jesps!

cool read like the takies with Sotha, Bikderdude and Grayman before!

 

Wouldn't it be a shame if these spotlights go unnoticed ??

Afaik really few Thief fans frequent Moddb regularly...

 

I've read a few posts where some of you people taking ideas how more taffers could be attracted to TDM. User behaviour statistics of web apps (where/when do people exit websites) are very definite that the start page of a site is most critical to get people new to a site hooked or lost. So ... in my case when I returned to Thief lately and headed to the TDM site to see how the work on this ambitious mod did advanced I felt the same ungoliant and Sotha wrote in this topic: Only a few updates over a lengthly period of time did welcome my curiosity. This gave me the first impression of a mod falling asleep... yes, I know. there a lot of missions to tell otherwise. point is: one new to the TDM can't see that right away. To my surprise with all this terrific progressional work all you people put into TDM and missions that first impression is of course totally wrong. (Huge respect' to your work so far folks and really thanks for that!!)

 

Put simply, I'm positive that updating the TDM front page with frequent features like nbor's fine interviews, more continuous updates of released mission directly on the news page (alongside mission site and 1.03 download service) and any sneak preview what spells the team is casting into upcoming updates will do much impact for getting interest and attraction. More than dozens of posts and arguments on forums, moddb or elsewhere. These won't do much without having a living and breathing news site imo. ...

 

So how about starting with putting a link on the Dark Mod news page to these interviews ?

Edited by fllood

"To rush is without doubt the most important enemy of joy" ~ Thieves Saying

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nbohr1more

nbohr1more

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the kind words fllood. :)

 

I would feel a bit self-aggrandizing to make such a suggestion but I would not object to having my articles linked in the news area... ;)

 

The Mod authors and Mission authors are first and foremost "the real news" around these parts. (I am just coasting on their fumes :laugh:... )

 

I do wish I could've done a v1.03 features sneak-peek article for the Top 10 voting but it's understandable that they want to keep a low profile until everything is settled and working.

 

(I don't even know if I could've written a proper article anyway because of my continued diminished PC time... We will see if HappyCheeze or someone else comes around and does the "Release" article thus saving me a lot of stress ...but also sparing me the joy of it... :laugh: )

 

 

All I know is I will be amongst the happiest TDM enthusiasts when the News area says "Dark Mod v1.03 released!" no matter who posts it. :D

 

(We'll see how long I get away with these interviews, I'm having too much fun for this gig to last :laugh: )

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Springheel

Springheel

Posted
Posted

Speaking of updates to the website, I'd like to update the screenshot section, but just haven't had time.

 

If anyone felt like helping out, I'd love to get some shots of some newer missions. Actually, maybe we should wait for 1.03 and get pics with all the new eye-candy on full.

TDM Missions:   A Score to Settle  *  A Reputation to Uphold  *  A New Job  *  A Matter of Hours

Video Series:   Springheel's Modules  *  Speedbuild Challenge  *  New Mappers Workshop  *  Building Traps

Link to comment
Share on other sites
STiFU

STiFU

Posted
Posted

I agree to all that has been said. We rely a little too much on people visiting the forums. A more complex but easy-to-use newssystem for the TDM frontpage would be great. There could be news categories like "TDM development", "Fanmissions" and "Editing", so that one can filter the relevant stuff. New Fanmissions should be announced as well as nbohr's interviews etc. and there basically should be more TDM development updates. Currently I would for example write an article like "Final round of testing and tweaking for TDM 1.03". That being said, we currently don't have a news-php-system, it's all manual editing of the frontpage and for that reason it's understandable news updates don't come so frequently. So if someone with some php knowledge were to dive in, I am almost certain the inner team also wouldn't object.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fllood

fllood

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Thanks for the kind words fllood

... well deserved nbohr! :)

 

Speaking of updates to the website, I'd like to update the screenshot section

That's cool Springheel!

 

I think it's not so very much about what get posted but that things get posted. To have regular timestamps on the news page.

 

We rely a little too much on people visiting the forums.

That's true. People usually venture to a forum when they get stuck in a mission, search for help or do love a game, project or mission map. But that's all after they have been attracted ... it's not the best place for starting people get interested or general infos. that is the welcome or news page. for it has the most visitor traffic (usually).

 

A more complex but easy-to-use newssystem for the TDM frontpage would be great. ... it's all manual editing of the frontpage

Suggestion:

 

How about incorporating a Blog system into the news site where team and selected contributors have access to post and edit ??

 

... that could help to allocate postings and maintenance from the webadmin to many hands like Wiki's do. and making hardcoding dispensable. no web-coding knowledge is needed to feed a blog.

 

There could be news categories like "TDM development", "Fanmissions" and "Editing

Tagging is the magic CMS blog systems do offer as well :)

Edited by fllood

"To rush is without doubt the most important enemy of joy" ~ Thieves Saying

Link to comment
Share on other sites
solarsplace

solarsplace

Posted
Posted (edited)

Any suggestions or experiences for a lightweight PHP/MySQL blogging solution?

 

Hi

 

Have you considdered Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/) - We use it for our D3 TC (http://arxendofsun.solarsplace.com/), very easy to set up, you just need PHP with common extensions and MySQL. Makes posting updates and screen shots very easy!

 

Plus, I am sure with all the art talent you have at your disposal it would be easy to create a fantastic TDM theme rather than use a stock free one like ours is at the moment.

 

Cheers all

Edited by solarsplace
Arx - EOS - Blog / Arx - EOS - ModDB
Link to comment
Share on other sites
STiFU

STiFU

Posted
Posted

Just disable the comment feature and you won't have any problems with bots... :) Or simply use captchas.

 

The description of textpattern sounds pretty good. I also talked to a friend about it and he said that wordpress was the best cms, but totally above our scope, as Serp already pointed out. He used Nucleus CMS for blogging about his engine called Panic, because he was, just like we are, looking for a very simple and minimal solution for posting newsitems. But if we said we'd want to integrate the Images and Downloads Sections into CMS, we'd probably be better of with textpattern, from what I hear.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tels

Tels

Posted
Posted

Any suggestions or experiences for a lightweight PHP/MySQL blogging solution?

 

twitter/facebook? I am only half joking, because it seems every website now has an RSS feed (because it was all the rage 3 years ago, a facebook button, a facebook page, a twitter account, a link to dig/redit/slashdot/jumble upon/Ishitwhatever, and so on. Just the content seems to be lacking in most cases - but I digres :D

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

"Remember: If the game lets you do it, it's not cheating." -- Xarax

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fllood

fllood

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

RSS feed (because it was all the rage 3 years ago, a facebook button, a facebook page, a twitter account, a link to dig/redit/slashdot/jumble upon/Ishitwhatever, and so on.

... because folks have lots of different preferences how they like to get informed. And even while I think there is too much buzz about mentioned sites and services some of these are quiet helpful keeping you up to date and saving time. I personally would love to see any Dark Mod news pop up in my facebook news as soon as added.

 

Reality is: People increasingly prefer to get informed and less and less do search for information updates themself. Thus the more popular social media channels TDM do support the better !!

... and another good reason to go for a CMS system. for to connect to any social service you may setup for TDM sooner or later all you have to do is adding a few lines to a form like in this example for Textpattern. :)

Edited by fllood

"To rush is without doubt the most important enemy of joy" ~ Thieves Saying

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fidcal

Fidcal

Posted
Posted

Someday someone should do a graphical review of Dark Radiant. I continue to be impressed with the readables editor. I see the font selector now provides an instant preview of the actual page in any font! Images of that along with objectives, s & r, ase export, along with the usual camera and ortho views with a decent FM showing ought to impress.

 

When I was a lad we had to sit up past midnight writing xdata by candlelight with a quill pen. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 5 months later...
Glyph Seeker

Glyph Seeker

Posted
Posted

Hi

 

Have you considdered Wordpress (http://wordpress.org/) - We use it for our D3 TC (http://arxendofsun.solarsplace.com/ ), very easy to set up, you just need PHP with common extensions and MySQL. Makes posting updates and screen shots very easy!

 

Plus, I am sure with all the art talent you have at your disposal it would be easy to create a fantastic TDM theme rather than use a stock free one like ours is at the moment.

 

Cheers all

 

Oh, hey Solarspace! Was really impressed with the preview video (proof of concept) you did for End of Sun - actually made me hang out on ModDB a lot and eventually come and register here to see how people got to working on a mod.

 

Yes - I honestly have found the plain TheDarkMod.com "shopfront" to be a bit dull and offputting - and thought a specific devblog might attract more players.

"No proposition Euclid wrote,

No formulae the text-books know,

Will turn the bullet from your coat,

Or ward the tulwar's downward blow

Strike hard who cares—shoot straight who can—

The odds are on the cheaper man."

 

From 'Arithmetic on the Frontier' by Rudyard Kipling

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recent Status Updates

    • OrbWeaver

      OrbWeaver

      Does anyone actually use the Normalise button in the Surface inspector? Even after looking at the code I'm not quite sure what it's for.
      · 6 replies
    • Ansome

      Ansome

      Turns out my 15th anniversary mission idea has already been done once or twice before! I've been beaten to the punch once again, but I suppose that's to be expected when there's over 170 FMs out there, eh? I'm not complaining though, I love learning new tricks and taking inspiration from past FMs. Best of luck on your own fan missions!
      · 4 replies
    • The Black Arrow

      The Black Arrow

      I wanna play Doom 3, but fhDoom has much better features than dhewm3, yet fhDoom is old, outdated and probably not supported. Damn!
      Makes me think that TDM engine for Doom 3 itself would actually be perfect.
      · 6 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      Petike the Taffer

      Maybe a bit of advice ? In the FM series I'm preparing, the two main characters have the given names Toby and Agnes (it's the protagonist and deuteragonist, respectively), I've been toying with the idea of giving them family names as well, since many of the FM series have named protagonists who have surnames. Toby's from a family who were usually farriers, though he eventually wound up working as a cobbler (this serves as a daylight "front" for his night time thieving). Would it make sense if the man's popularly accepted family name was Farrier ? It's an existing, though less common English surname, and it directly refers to the profession practiced by his relatives. Your suggestions ?
      · 9 replies
    • nbohr1more

      nbohr1more

      Looks like the "Reverse April Fools" releases were too well hidden. Darkfate still hasn't acknowledge all the new releases. Did you play any of the new April Fools missions?
      · 5 replies
×
×
  • Create New...