Re: How can the minetest community be made bigger?
Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:31
I see lots of posts about default game being to simplistic and a bad first impression, and making it more interesting (downloading mods) is not that clear for complete beginners. But at the same time there is a concern that it takes away the devs' time to maintain a complex sub game/ default game? And including other community created sub games could lead to issues being reported against Minetest rather than the sub game?
Not sure if this has been mentioned or suggested before (probably but too lazy to search): Maybe create a community maintained third party sub game/ mod combo registry or call it DLC (as gamers are familiar with that term?). Name as such: "Third Party" or "Community Maintained". Provide this registry either as text file distributed in the game or as an online file containing name, description of the game, forum links, where to report issues and link to github/ zip file? Click on the sub game or mod combo, download the game/ mods, decompress and/ or put in games folder, create world and start the game. Example list (where Technology Game is e.g. a "mod combo" which downloads Mesecons, Technic and Pipeworks):
It should be noted that, even when explicitly mentioning that these sub games are third party and providing links where to go to in case of problems, quite a bit of QA should be taken into consideration by the sub game creators before it is included in the list. Also it might be wise to make a simplistic "sub game depends on Minetest version" system e.g. >=0.4.16 or 0.4.14,0.4.15 or 0.4.10-0.4.16.
In the sub game list in the UI (maybe explicitly provide a third party/ DLC list?), filter games unsupported for that particular Minetest version by default but provide e.g. a "Show Unsupported Games" or "Show for Current Version Only" checkbox. When choosing an unsupported game, warn if versions do not mismatch.
It might be a problem that if a new Minetest version arrives, there are not a lot of sub games available in the list. Then again, I think sub game devs could start testing before the next Minetest release, and there is (or, there should at least be) a bit of time before a binary build is available for e.g. Windows, Android, MacOS.
In case of issues or the sub game creator not being active/ reachable when the sub game is broken with a new version, then at some point remove sub game from the registry.
The fact that your sub game is in the registry and promoted as such could be an incentive for you as sub game dev to keep it up to date and up to par, and make sure that the compatible version string in the registry is updated properly by reaching out to the registry maintainers. But when you don't want to do anything with the sub game anymore, there is no issue whatsoever, no strings attached. It will automatically disappear from the version filtered list in the newer Minetest versions, unless a player explicitly wants to try a game tested on an older version only and ticks/ unticks the filter checkbox.
Who would maintain this registry? Could the active sub game creators be given the task of doing so? (as it is in their interest). And, obviously, this requires changes in the Minetest launcher ..... (maybe I could give it a shot at some point in time when I am less busy :-)
Anyways, looking for the best balance between devs focusing on the core and keep the default game simple, offering a show case of what is possible as soon as you start the game, more interesting game choices for players, making it clear what to expect and where to go in case of issues and allowing sub game devs to maintain the registry so that they can promote their work. But then again, I might be a bit too ambitious ;-)
Not sure if this has been mentioned or suggested before (probably but too lazy to search): Maybe create a community maintained third party sub game/ mod combo registry or call it DLC (as gamers are familiar with that term?). Name as such: "Third Party" or "Community Maintained". Provide this registry either as text file distributed in the game or as an online file containing name, description of the game, forum links, where to report issues and link to github/ zip file? Click on the sub game or mod combo, download the game/ mods, decompress and/ or put in games folder, create world and start the game. Example list (where Technology Game is e.g. a "mod combo" which downloads Mesecons, Technic and Pipeworks):
Code: Select all
Third Party DLC
Name Description
Lord of the Rings You shall not pass!!
Technology Game Build computers and advanced machines
Extreme Survival Survival, hard core difficuty
Mars Survival Survive on planet Mars
Legend of Minetest Play Zelda in Minetest
Etc.
In the sub game list in the UI (maybe explicitly provide a third party/ DLC list?), filter games unsupported for that particular Minetest version by default but provide e.g. a "Show Unsupported Games" or "Show for Current Version Only" checkbox. When choosing an unsupported game, warn if versions do not mismatch.
It might be a problem that if a new Minetest version arrives, there are not a lot of sub games available in the list. Then again, I think sub game devs could start testing before the next Minetest release, and there is (or, there should at least be) a bit of time before a binary build is available for e.g. Windows, Android, MacOS.
In case of issues or the sub game creator not being active/ reachable when the sub game is broken with a new version, then at some point remove sub game from the registry.
The fact that your sub game is in the registry and promoted as such could be an incentive for you as sub game dev to keep it up to date and up to par, and make sure that the compatible version string in the registry is updated properly by reaching out to the registry maintainers. But when you don't want to do anything with the sub game anymore, there is no issue whatsoever, no strings attached. It will automatically disappear from the version filtered list in the newer Minetest versions, unless a player explicitly wants to try a game tested on an older version only and ticks/ unticks the filter checkbox.
Who would maintain this registry? Could the active sub game creators be given the task of doing so? (as it is in their interest). And, obviously, this requires changes in the Minetest launcher ..... (maybe I could give it a shot at some point in time when I am less busy :-)
Anyways, looking for the best balance between devs focusing on the core and keep the default game simple, offering a show case of what is possible as soon as you start the game, more interesting game choices for players, making it clear what to expect and where to go in case of issues and allowing sub game devs to maintain the registry so that they can promote their work. But then again, I might be a bit too ambitious ;-)