What is missing in Verge?

Isn't it time to give a progress report on the community of VERGE after all these years? Being a old Vergers, I could see the evolution of the community and I come to the conclusion that it reached a lethargic point. What is missing so we can regild its blazon. What can we make individually to make a more active community of it?

I am the only one to see the community of VERGE like a dying community. It’s like it is under a respirator and that the machine missed. I do not speak here about the development of the engine because VERGE is very 'usable' even if certain of its tools are not yet at the point. I rather speak about the restricted number of projects developed, about the little information we get about them and the little participation of the VERGERS.

The explanation of the lack of projects probably comes that VERGE does not turn any more around the RPG but rather around insipid discussions without goal. I do not say that there should not be any, because some among it are rather diverting, but I would like to hear people speak about their projects from time to time. From this fact, we would have more information. For my part, to see the projects of others was always a source of motivation. I do not want to say that there are not good projects in progress, but rather I would like to see some more!

And now, about the low participation of the members. On the few hundreds of people who pass on this site, little takes time to speak or are too timid to speak. I address myself to all those which remain in the shade: express yourself. Do not be afraid to give your opinion on a project. That makes it possible to its author to correct the shooting when part of the play is not appreciated by the player. You have an idea which would make the play more interesting, why not submit it to its author. Then, it will do what they want of it.

Another missing point: Reviewers. For example, at the time of the release of my demo, I received many comments of the kind: 'Bravo! It is good! 'But, although appreciated, I would have preferred to know what people liked and what they did not like of my game. After all, a game is made to give pleasure, not to bring frustration on frustration. But if nobody says a word, I cannot correct it. Then, if you like to write and like to criticize, why not to take time to give us your opinion, it does not matter if it is positive or negative.

The channel of IRC of VERGE is always there, but rare are the discussions. I feel almost embarrassed to talk about my projects on the channel. However, It would be so nice to hear people talk about their projects. In fact, it would be nice to only hear people speak.

I thought of making a kind of repertory of all the projects in production with news, just to help giving back some life to VERGE. Perhaps there exists a similar site... If so, indicate it to me!

For the moment, it is all that comes to my mind. BTW, do not take what I wrote as a personal attack. I wanted only to give my perception of the things, and not to poke the anger of some. What is your opinion? I’m I right or wrong ? (Sorry for my english).

I think I large part of the reason we're seeing less and less is because as verge has become more capable people aim higher than what they can achieve. Don't get me wrong here, I've had more fun with v3 than v2 and v1 combined (though only just), but an enriched feature set leads to larger ambitions, and ideas die rapidly under the realisation of how large scale an effort it would be.
Obviously there are exceptions to this, i.e. Wooly, Eldritch, Grenideer, Zara, etc who put in the enormous effort to see something through. But I know I personally have had dozens of grand plans that all fell through just because I planned something too big and lost direction. The things that have actually seen fruition from me have been projects that were planned to be small from the outset; small demos, tactics engines, 3d engines or the like.
There's certainly a great deal of talent lying around here untapped, and I think the biggest problem is a lack of focus/fastidious planning. By which I mean we need projects where people have well defined objectives ( 'I need you to make a churchyard tileset' rather than 'I need an artist').
I'm having difficulty expressing my sentiments here late at night, but I hope you gather the gist of my humble opinion.

/*edit: grenideer, not greindeer. I spent like 3 years misreading that name and now it's habit...*/

We should have another verge compo! That might jumpstart the activity...

Quote:Originally posted by RageCage

We should have another verge compo! That might jumpstart the activity...

Well, that'd be fun, as long as it doesn't result in the frustration that TomT64's Christmas Compo Thing made. If the compo doesn't come next week or so (exams), then it's cool. I'm sure that whatever compo I participate in next won't be quite so... engine-hacky (what with the hue-swapping and 'critter' code and my bad code of our last entry).

I don't think there's a reliable recipe for getting the community thriving again. Some more talking (about actual game stuff) and some more game related activity might do wonders for this place, but then again it might not. When I say that it might not, I point to countless independant game sites that are simply littered with old, small demos and lots of pie-in-the-sky dream talk. We've all seen enough of that and so I can't blame people for holding off until they've got something solid to present.

Then again, if it's more game show-casing that people want, I suggest a repository type thing the same as Wooly mentioned. Perhaps like what they do over at madmonkey.net or rpgdx.net. People put up profiles for their projects and they can put screenshots and links and let people review their game if they so desire. That doesn't have to be done here either as anybody with the time and know-how can do that (that excludes me of course :). Hell, if nothing else, perhaps all we need is some links to people's projects so that anyone interested in someone's work can go and get some information.

Overall, I don't think things are so bad. I just assume that we're all busy... either with real life, or with making games. There's code being shared and some demos being released and although things seem to be moving slow, things are moving. I think we have to take into account that making games is not as easy as it seems and it's certainly not a quick process. We can't compare the Verge of today with the Verge of yesterday. Today's Verge is more mature (except for Castle Heck of course) and more methodical. Patience grasshopper.

/g

flipcode.org has a little screen shot in the top corner called 'screen shot of the day' or something. It would be cool if the Verge page had something similar but say recycle the screen shots (as they probably won't get as steady a stream of new screen shots unlike a site such as flipcode).

Screen shots always inspire me, especially if the designer has some comments under it - technical or about the game anything; it's all interesting.

Then again this could probably be done with a big screen shot thread - each reply a screen shot and collecting some of the screens shots taken up to this point. Probably another thread for commenting on said screen shots.

My old Demo, Valour: The Restoration . . . . No, but seriously I want to help with mapping Epic of Serinor but am restricted to tile art because of VERGE's development files vegging out on Windows XP non-administrative accounts.

More on these things later.

Yeah maybe some development (either on the engine, website or tools) would spark interest. Regardless, we are working on duskbane, but we are all busy with life and a plethora of other projects. At the moment I figure we are all too busy working on our games and we don't want to ruin the suprise. I know that's the case with the duskbane team. Give us some time, once these games start coming out we will be kickin!

I've also tried to put stuff up on the art/music section, but I've never really felt it was welcome, appreciated, or noticed. Maybe I'll try again, and I encourage others to do the same.

Well I put this little page together to share with you all. It is an rpg I had planned to release during the holidays but alas it's kinda morphed into a full fledged world editor ...

check it out --> http://www.sharelegal.com/sebtemp/preview/

Comments welcome :)

I got to play with a sneak preview of zonk's editor the other night and I can say with confidence that you are all in for a treat when he releases. It is very cool. ^_^