How are we going to make a lot of money?

[ekianjo]

And Pandoralive and PNDManager (and C4A, and Jedi Knight, and Pyra, and everything else, really) are a very good examples of how things work in Pandoraland: if you want something to happen, start it yourself and expect to mostly do it alone.

Yeah, I think you summed up things well. If your idea has potential, it's likely to get traction with other users anyway - there are examples where some work started mainly from a single contributor (apkenv for one) and the project was interesting enough so that additional contributors joined and helped as well.

Even for C4A, while it's the work of Skeezix, the implementation of C4A in other games is done by the other authors - and it's done because it makes sense to have it, not because people are forced to do it

Pandoralive is another good example: I'm probably the one contributing the most, but I ask for guest writers to come from time to time and they have no problem doing it, while some people decline because they feel they cannot write well enough. But I do welcome such contributions anyway since it's a good way for people to show how they use the Pandora apart from what I do with it. 

So yeah, if anyone wants to start anything, it's best to start working on it and release a prototype to get attention and see if your idea has potential. Just posting on the boards is not enough to make things happen. 

 

[klapse]

and get a digital magazine monthly are just a few things that could be offered.

Which magazine ? WHo's writing it ? 

How about the same format as pandoralive.info. "pyralive.info". Community newsletter for users, by users.

 

[quadcricket]

I would like to start a community app. I do see its potential. Even more though I want to finish Legend of Pandora. After that is done I will most likely move on to another game.

 

[Ziz]

I would like to start a community app. I do see its potential. Even more though I want to finish Legend of Pandora. After that is done I will most likely move on to another game.

I don't want demotivate you, but this have been tried a lot of times. Most of the time it failed, because

• The structures were clear, but several team members lost their interest and the project died a slowly dead.
• The structeres were not clear, they only discussed and in the end the project didn't even start, or two persons started at the same time and new discussions started which approach is better...

So if you want to make a community project, some advises

• Take the lead. You don't have to be the best in everything and you don't have to do >50% on your own, but be the person to say, what is happening - and what not. Especially as programmer it is quite easy to fill this role. That doesn't mean, that no discussion should happen, just stop them at specific points and decide, what to do. A bit like ED making the Pyra. But try to be part of the discussions.
• Don't count on single members. So if you like the drawing style of on specific project member, don't base the complete project on it. If the persons leaves the project the show must be able to go on!
• However only start a project, which you really want to finish, it is hard to replace the project leader and if you loose the interest the project will probably die.
• Try to split the project in logical parts like programming, gfx, sound effects, music, gameplay, story, etc. and give other project members the lead of this parts.
• Make early prototypes.

A good example it _wb_'s Nano Lemmings. This is a game of him, no real community project, but other members made sound effects, gave hints for the controls or even contributed levels. However he had the lead and said, what happened next.

 

[oxym]

One of most discussed things in this thread was a new UI for Pyra.


I agree that developing a new UI requires more resources than pyra is able to spend. But there are existing desktop environments which might be worth considering.


I've googled a bit and found some that may be suitable for pyra:


- plasma active


- zenvoid


- hildon


- E18 (I'm not sure if it is any better than Xfce)


Unity, KDE and Gnome may be too heavy to run them on a handheld (on the other hand pyra has great specs, so it might be not an issue)


There may be more.


Is it a good idea to select different default Desktop Environment, or was the idea already rejected on some other thread?

 

[ekianjo]

KDE and Gnome

Gnome, you mean Gnome 3 ? 

KDE runs fine on the Pandora already. You can already use it with slackware. 

Is it a good idea to select different default Desktop Environment, or was the idea already rejected on some other thread?

So far the key topic discussed was the distro, not the default environment, while I assume xfce kind of has priority.  

 

[LEOXD]

ED also used KDE with GIMP and 2 PS1 emulators in this video, so it definitely isn't too heavy.

I actually think that GNOME 3.12 and KDE (especially Plasma Active) may be preferable over xfce as they're designed to be (also) used for touch.

 

[ekianjo]

I actually think that GNOME 3.12 and KDE (especially Plasma Active) may be preferable over xfce as they're designed to be (also) used for touch.

 

It's not a problem to propose a choice of windows manager in Linux at login, instead of force-feeding one of them on the user. I personally wouldn't care less about touch, so I'd say let's have two or three choices by default and let the user choose if they want a touch based experience or a regular desktop one. 

 

[_jr_]

I don't care much for DEs, but isn't it already the case that it is mostly about selecting the appropriate package(s) in the package manager? Does a Debian user really have to do more than that?

 

[EvilDragon]

I don't care much for DEs, but isn't it already the case that it is mostly about selecting the appropriate package(s) in the package manager? Does a Debian user really have to do more than that?

Nope, that's it.

Install a smart desktop startup manager (like KDM) and then all you need to do is intall the package for the DE you'd like to have - and simply select your favourite one when you login.

 

[PokeParadox]

I would like to start a community app. I do see its potential. Even more though I want to finish Legend of Pandora. After that is done I will most likely move on to another game.

I don't want demotivate you, but this have been tried a lot of times. Most of the time it failed, because

• The structures were clear, but several team members lost their interest and the project died a slowly dead.
• The structeres were not clear, they only discussed and in the end the project didn't even start, or two persons started at the same time and new discussions started which approach is better...

So if you want to make a community project, some advises

• Take the lead. You don't have to be the best in everything and you don't have to do >50% on your own, but be the person to say, what is happening - and what not. Especially as programmer it is quite easy to fill this role. That doesn't mean, that no discussion should happen, just stop them at specific points and decide, what to do. A bit like ED making the Pyra. But try to be part of the discussions.
• Don't count on single members. So if you like the drawing style of on specific project member, don't base the complete project on it. If the persons leaves the project the show must be able to go on!
• However only start a project, which you really want to finish, it is hard to replace the project leader and if you loose the interest the project will probably die.
• Try to split the project in logical parts like programming, gfx, sound effects, music, gameplay, story, etc. and give other project members the lead of this parts.
• Make early prototypes.

A good example it _wb_'s Nano Lemmings. This is a game of him, no real community project, but other members made sound effects, gave hints for the controls or even contributed levels. However he had the lead and said, what happened next.

This.

PandoraPanic! basically "worked" as the criteria were very accessible and from the get-go I said "don't worry if you are not a C/C++ hotshot, I'll help out where possible and I'll fix up any problems(memory leaks) before release"


I slapped together a functional engine and an example minigame and said how to make a game as a unit.

Support was pretty good and as result that in turn kept me motivated.

Is PandoraPanic! the best game ever nope, it never intended to be - the minigames are a mix of different skill levels of different developers and different artists, musicians but it is a functional game and it did get a lot of the community involved while waiting for the first Pandoras to ship.

It also gave some people confidence to go on and make they're own games... but yes these things need a leader to keep things moving.