Author Topic: The Crowdsourced Game  (Read 375326 times)

v6v

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #30 on: 2012-04-01, 07:53:06 AM »
I Oughtta build it. XD That's it!

bluemonkmn

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #31 on: 2012-04-01, 11:45:22 AM »
Reading an article comparing git and mercurial I was initially leaning toward git, but as I progressed through the article (and started seeing some of git's drawbacks and the final conclusion) I started to think that Mercurial would be more appropriate for this project. On the one hand, git is very flexible and powerful, and I was most interested by its "omniscient merge capabilities". But Mercurial seems more suited to newbies and simple projects. Since this project will likely consist of 1 (.SGDK2) or 2 (+ .html) files, the source control is likely to be very simple. The main complexity comes in the branching if we plan to have a branch for each user, with a whole lot of users in play. If we do get a massively branched project I start to wonder if git would be more appropriate. But both systems handle branching, and I don't see why we would want to make it more complex than necessary if we have a choice. I will probably try to read a bit more about each system, but at the moment, Mercurial looks good.

The things I don't know about yet are what kind of interfaces exist to these systems. If git has a really good UI for people to merge changes without having to download anything (will have to investigage github.com to see if that's what this is) it might be worthwhile. But when the article started talking about installing hundreds of binaries, I was seriously turned off of git. Ideally, I want people to be able to submit their SGDK2 file, and have the server handle all the merging, and even the hosting of the final HTML5 results. Perhaps both git and Mercurial can host all that logic on the server with the help of some PHP scripts. But it's not clear to me yet how that would operate in each environment. Maybe I'm going against the grain by trying to centrally host a distributed version control system. I'm still not very clear on how that works with SourceForge (they allow hosting with Git, Subversion or Mercurial).

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #32 on: 2012-04-01, 12:20:19 PM »
I was not aware that source control had evolved so dramatically since I last visited the topic when I learned about Team Foundation Server.  As I read an illustrated introduction to distributed version control, I'm getting excited about the possibilities, and just how well it will fit this project (IotaBuildIt?). I was concerned about the ability of users to be able to pick and choose changes to share and how to identify them independently of other changes, but those are much more native concepts in distributed version control than they were in central version control. This is great! That means it might be much easier to identify and rate unique sets of changes, and how/where to pick them up.

Vincent

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #33 on: 2012-04-02, 05:49:26 AM »
I like IotaBuildIt.  If we start with the concept of nanobots (or iotabots?) it seems very relevant.  I'm not sure about the greek letter in the logo.  It's so close to an "i" that it will probably confuse people.  They will think that it's "ibuiltIt" rather than "iota".
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bluemonkmn

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #34 on: 2012-04-02, 06:56:36 AM »
I had the same thought about using the iota symbol next to the words "BuildIt". I think it would work better if the logo were the iota symbol next to an image of some sort, like ... a wrench and a humanoid figure without a head... or a head held in his hand (presumably a robot, but not distinguishable in a monochrome logo-style image).
« Last Edit: 2012-04-02, 07:19:55 AM by bluemonkmn »

v6v

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #35 on: 2012-04-02, 08:52:46 AM »
I can't wait to see how the actual project evolves, the name seems to be final.

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #36 on: 2012-04-02, 09:11:51 AM »
How do you feel about the name, durnurd? I don't know if I'd change it, but still interested in your thoughts. :)

Also, I came up with an alternate version of the logo, where it's clear that the body is a robot.

Still making progress on getting the game to run as HTML5.

Vincent

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #37 on: 2012-04-02, 09:55:23 AM »
I prefer the new head.  But maybe the whole body should me made blocky too.
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durnurd

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #38 on: 2012-04-03, 06:55:00 AM »
This new name does seem a lot better to me, yes.

Now, my thoughts on the logo:  the first thing I get is that it's something I should be reading left to right. Which I suppose is what you're going far insofar as describing the project with a logo.  However, what I read from it is "I wrench headless robot". At least, that's my first thought.  If you're trying to make the logo a literal interpretation of the project's name, it is going in the right direction at least. I can even see it saying "iota build headless robot".

Perhaps the logo here is a version specific to the nano bot version.  What we could do is find some way to make a logo saying "iota build ___", and for any particular version of the project, you fill in the blank with the concept of the project. So, with this iteration of the logo, any project would have the iota symbol followed by the wrench, followed by a stylistically equivalent icon representing the theme, eg a robot.

I'm not sure that the iota followed by the wrench option is the best option, but it's certainly a good place to start.  And as for the robot, the way it's standing there, it could look cool to have it be building itself.

However in this case, you also have to avoid accidentally saying "iota repair headless robot", which is what this icon could be conveying because of the connection between wrenches in particular, and machinery like a robot.  A different tool, or tools, could be used instead, like a hammer and a screwdriver crossed in an X.  Or something.
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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #39 on: 2012-04-03, 08:39:14 AM »
Perhaps instead of a wrench, I should have another human figure, and instead of the robot head being held by the robot, it will be in the process of being placed by the human figure on the robot. (And I do think the robot should be all block-y like the head is.) No time to do that now, but I'll try that later if it sounds like a better idea. I have to make sure it looks like the head is going on and not coming off. I think I can suggest that a bit by having the human standing on stairs next to the bot. Or maybe, because the robots are supposed to be small, the human figure could be kneeling and putting the head on a small robot.

Edit: I wonder if it would be enough to just have a robot with the head above a gap and a down arrow (no wrench or human).  The simpler the logo the better, probably.
« Last Edit: 2012-04-03, 08:47:34 AM by bluemonkmn »

v6v

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #40 on: 2012-04-03, 10:03:19 PM »
I understand the need to have an icon that will draw the masses here, but will the icon ever reach a point where the users define it themselves?

Or is the icon static, and set in stone regardless to whatever shape the game takes later?

It's nothing at the icon right now, I don't have a problem with it- I just want to scope exactly what range of arbitrary definition this game will have- the engine and gameplay being fluid, or the marketing that defines it.

(Then again countries get together to change their flags.)

bluemonkmn

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #41 on: 2012-04-04, 06:13:32 AM »
I wasn't planning on having the icon or logo change for this iteration of the project. But I wouldn't rule it out.

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #42 on: 2012-04-04, 07:00:40 AM »
Are either of these better?

Vincent

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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #43 on: 2012-04-04, 07:06:18 AM »
I like the second one, with iota as a tie! :)
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Re: The Crowdsourced Game
« Reply #44 on: 2012-04-04, 07:09:40 AM »
Ah, I didn't see it as a tie, but now that you mention it, it does look that way. Nice! :)
Maybe someday ThinkGeek will make iota ties :)