Anything happening on the GG dev side of things, it just seems very very quiet right now.

There are multiple threads about this. It is frustrating but... what you gonna do?

The Mods should really lock this thread... feels like beating a dead horse now

If the mods keep deleting threads like this it looks bad imo. There's not much going on here anyway and if Lee wants to stop these sorts of posts he would do well to get back involved. I'll be honest, that token post off Lee did nothing for me. Why? Because going on holiday and working on AGK is not an excuse for a total blackout. Last time I checked, the Twitch page still had the 24th of August as the next stream date. Why hasn't this been updated? It's almost a month out now and still not been changed.

Lee posts this one post here and everyone is all happy again? I doubt it. I'd have been happier if he'd released interim update as mentioned, but nothing still. Also, the fact he's saying he will release this interim update, as the EBE isn't ready, shouts at me that it will NOT be ready for some time. I was never a fan of it being worked on to begin with and now it seems it is going to take half a year to add in, and I dare say will need more work after.

Things aren't looking good from where I'm sitting. When a community is so used to news or interaction of some sort and they suddenly stop dead, concerns will always be raised. I just think it's bad form. Update the twitch page at least! It looks either lazy, incompetent or just plain lackadaisical. No matter what the emergency for getting your newest project out the door, there's no excuse for leaving an appointment date both unattended and then unchanged for weeks on end! It would take what? A couple of minutes to change it.

Why does everyone say this? There are several work in progress threads and a lot of quite impressive things going on in the 3rd party models and media board.



-Wolf

Agreed there's loads going on but just not much in product chat ....

good to read. Can't wait for the new content. I am very excited about the new things!

Hi all, I'm in agreement with DVader and let me tell you why.

For me, I'm new here so seeing a twitch channel not updated or someone else in the business running it while Lee’s on holiday is concerning. So far it’s been great support and then it just drops to nearly nothing. Is this a company holiday / shut down over this period each year? If so let us know.

How do we or I even know that it was not having major issues that could not be explained yet. As a new customer you have no idea if this product is still going to be support. I bet even the store sales have gone down due to this and now we have just found out that the store will be run by someone else. From a new customer point of view, how do I know that the company is not breaking up and each is going their own way; and this does happens a lot. You just don't know. From a new customer it’s a little lazy not to put up a notice and change a twitch time frame to something a little more realistic.

Now customers always talk and don't complain by using their feet. I would hate to think how many have done so already.
For me I do understand some things are a little more important than others being a business owner myself, but I always let my customers know as it only take a couple of minutes to do so. I believe there is a news section even on this forum lol

It’s really easy to forget about new customers when there may still be a little chatter going on between the older members who have been here for years. Try not to forget this guys!


We understand this but we are not just talking about the forum and I have notice it dropping off too.

Just one question if any of you are part of the moderator team why don't you let us know by updating the news feed or pin a post.

But still looking forward to what's new.

What you don't realise is all the news, twitches etc is actually done by one man and thats Lee .. GameGuru is his main project.
TGC have been pretty active with AGK and a new app called EduGuru amongst other things which Lee has had to help get them up to speed with since he came back from holiday as he explains in the quote above.. Ravey, Rick etc each have other TGC products to deal with ..

I'm no different from anyone else ... I miss the news and twitches but for me that was pretty unique ... No other steam product I own has ever been and still isn't so active with its community ...In fact I'm lucky if I hear from those Devs every few months and that's only to announce an update so Lees explanation why he has been busy isn't really a concern ....

The only down side is it takes him away from GG progress at the moment although I have had emails from Lee over certain bugs he's trying to iron out and he has answered a few questions on steam this week ..

(Post removed by the author, since the great Lee has returned)

Hi synchromesh, I see what you’re saying but maybe Lee and his team could open the twitch up for guys like yourself to do a twitch or help support when you’re not too busy. Most dev guys get many of their community members or long term backers involved in alpha testing and not just beta testing, the same with social media. All I'm saying is maybe there is a way for Lee's team to get more support from us also. I sure with the experience some of you guys have you could easily pull off a simple twitch, even if you have to pop in there office to do so.

Good way to find talent too... who knows they could even be working with them in a few months time.


I do now I'm sure I've seen other do twitches from time to time - Maybe someone can update these areas on behalf of the Team from the forum - with guidelines set in place of course... anybody with a smartphone lol


I agree... I don't even understand why it's there.

I used to use 3D Game Maker many moons ago and have seen it move on to what it is today and I like what I see. I still have a copy in the loft.

Anyway I have said my piece.

I guess a lot of users want to play their maps with friends who do not own GameGuru ...
I'm guessing that would be a quick job though which would be a good thing ?

Maybe but GG won't break the bank lol

Plus the more the people using GG the better the product.

I just worry about my liver. All this frustration is making my drinking problem worse.

Well that's the thing .... Basically you cannot try GameGuru MP unless you buy it ..... Allowing someone to play you who doesn't own GG in MP in a map you created may make them want to purchase to create their own ....
From a development point of view its not top of the list I agree ...But from a sales point of view it should be available already

On another note .... Ertlov's " Fathers Island " on steam ...


Which just proves GG is capable of creating a good game even at this stage .
5000 odd units at £3.99 is a nice little earner

Thanks, but don't forget that we haven't any combat components included. It's a walking simulator / adventure hybrid, most people digging into GG are going for something else.

Current status Father' Island on Steam:

Full Game: 4,466 players (including IndieGala bundle activations, so no, I am not rich yet)
Father´s Island Demo (no cost) : 10,246 players
90% positive reviews after the Steam review system change

So, yes, there is quite a lot you can get out of GG at the moment, but you have to compromise in several areas.
And you have to set the min. System requirements very high for a indie game.

What cut does Steam take? And how hard is it to get a Greenlight?

I'm in agreement with DVader, Teabone and GD.

If there's a lack of activity from the "leader" of a community then it resonates through the community. From an outside perspective it looks like a lack of interest from TGC in the product. (I know that isn't the case, but it does appear like that.)

Even the forum activity has slowed down. Sure there are the regulars here. But it also appears that things have plateaued and sooner or later it'll dwindle.



Whatever you're drinking, I'll have one too.

Unfortunately, the answer is way too much vodka. I really need to be creative to be happy. It is really frustrating I can't make a proper start on my project until the EBE is released. When I was writing my screenplay (a few years ago) I was drinking much less. Also, my book "Dear Celebrity" - available on the Kindle or used in paperback.

So speaking as someone who HASN'T been part of this community for more than say 2-3 years and has both an active social media presence (my blog averages about a thousand unique visitors a month) and also developed/ran the social media platform for Sprint LTD (a multibillion dollar company here in the states) I can say the following:

The social media presence here pretty much exemplifies everything I've ever heard about the British Cottage industry. It's small, tight knit with a slowly developed but functional product that's generally good when complete. *WHEN COMPLETE.*

Now from a social media standpoint there's some serious issues Lee should really consider:
1) The primary user base are mostly not only very active but generally the main drivers of progress. This makes them his 'whales' if you use the free-to-play lingo. They are the ones he should effectively cater to since they effectively pay the bills. They funded the product, got it off the ground, continue to make/purchase/sell on the store, etc. It is *VERY* bad form to ignore them or give them a token post.

2) I am well aware of the time constraints that small teams have. Writing an excerpt/blog/video is time consuming. This is generally why most groups will have someone part time (Like 10 or less hours a week) who acts as a filter. They are usually referred to as 'community managers'. They write blog posts, they moderate forums, they put up little twitter updates. Etc. Owner/operators RARELY have time to actually do that kind of thing.

3) From the standpoint of the above no news is actually good news - it means he's working. Unfortunately perception is a huge driver for customers as they must be CAREFULLY managed. If they are not, they will quickly run out of control. Sometimes this is good (hype trains generate huge $$) and sometimes this is tremendously bad (hype train causes viral dissent resulting in a sales crash/refunds/etc).

4) Humans in general need to see progress. It's something stupid that we use as an indicator of function. It works in a survival setting but oft-times in the real post industrial world we have difficulty understanding that the wizard of oz is doing things behind the curtain. Therefore more obvious moves need made.


So recommendations here?
1) Find a passionate person in the community. Make them 'community manager'. Pay them a wage either in free services/updates/etc or direct compensation with a STRICT enforcement of update policy (even if all they do is say 'I will check on that').

2) Make sure there are daily updates to twitter, facebook, reddit, forum posts as community member.

3) Make sure that there is at least a weekly newsletter. This is NOT something that needs to be a major production. It helps, of course, to make it look super nice but the reality is as long as you can show what's being worked on and talk about it proficiently enough it will satisfy the consumer.

4) Sell more products, more often. I know this is a silly concept but DLCs keep platforms alive. Perhaps break up more of the feature list of things that are being creeped and offer them as an expansion if they go beyond the stated scope of game guru.

Example:

Game guru (regular) -
Includes game guru and all stated features.
Game guru (expert) -
Includes HDR engine, event engine, etc.
Game guru (pro) -
Includes all the latest bells and whistles.

Etc.

Or not. Its your company. I just shop here ;P

Officially you are not allowed to talk about the details of your contract with valve.
English Wikipedia says 30%, and who am I to disagree?

Getting greenlight is obviously pretty easy, as our partners from Against All Odds got the greenlight for Antinomy in 36 hours, but we don'T run Greenlight campaigns for the Homegrown Games titles, we are already direct listers.

You've all got it wrong! Alien Bob has escaped from the Sci-Fi pack and has the TGC staff under his power, if you need any answers or would like to pay the ransom of 3 packets of quavers, 1 bottle of chilled coke and half a bottle of JC's Vodka (you'll have to barter him for that) you now have to contact alienbobsransomfund@tgc.com

Of course I agree, but at this point it feels like screaming at a brick wall, you can yell loudly all you want but it's not going to answer back... I work in retail and I have always followed the old mantra that the 'Customer is King' and I always make the time for people, even when I am busy. Some people I really want to murder, especially regular customers, but they spend their money and that's all that matters at the end of the day.

@ Wolfy, I was referring to the Product Chat section when saying things are quiet. I don't often visit the other sections of the site. I do visit the WIP section occasionally, but normally log on for news of the product rather than games being developed. I have noticed the product chat section is always slow between updates, more so when the devs are quiet. I should visit the WIP more often but my, some of those posts are enormous!

My main gripe is just the lack of care and attention to the small things, the Twitch page being one that has annoyed me most. Not updating it to indicate there is no twitch that day led to several non twitch streams being attended for no reason. A waste of many peoples time which could have been avoided by simply updating it to let people know. I'm sure it would take very little time to update it. Obviously when Lee left for his holiday he intended to do a normal Twitch when he returned, or the date wouldn't have been on at all. To then not attend and then fail to attend on other days, without modifying the twitch main page was not a good move. People basically don't like being left in the dark and that is how many people feel at the moment. I know there's not a massive twitch following, but this will not help it grow.

Lack of news in other sections concern me also, as normally, said section would be very busy indeed at this cycle of development.

I agree that Lee does a good job generally and is helpful more often than not. This is down to having too many plates to spin I realise. However, there were mods who knew that Lee forgot about the Twitch, surely there's some communication to remind him? If not then there should be, communication is the issue here after all.

Lee needs to put on his floppy ears and parade for his people

@DVader: I see! As a mod, I'm obligated to keep an eye on all the boards and there is always something going on if you take the forum as a whole.
(Harry is making dinosaurs! dinosaurs! Everyones inner 8year old should see this.)



It does! But if we lock it, another will rise and this will continue until as DVader puts it...and he is right. There are also no forum rules against beating a dead horse on here



-Wolf

Beating horses? I guess it's OK if they are dead.

Sorry if I am violating the rules but I have just started a 10 week course on art and I am psyched! The relevance is that I am using this to try to express my creativity while the EBE is in development. I really cannot function without a creative outlet and GG will provide that when the EBE is released. In the meantime, what do you think of this, the result of my first class (considering I have cerebral palsy - a compliment to my teacher, not a cry for sympathy)?;

"Contented Guru"

He is, and they are amazing!



Perhaps the dead horse should get it's own board? There are enough threads on the topic to fill a page at least, lol!



I don't see a problem, these threads kinda need a little detour now and again; good luck with that course! I'm jealous. The mods might have an issue with the detour, but I sure don't!

it's like the Mary Celeste 'round here

Thanks, Jerry.

As you sure, lets hope it was not the Mary Rose you saw in the distance. A little bit of a fight then it sunk lol

lordjulian, have you ever consider a hunt for you liver transplant across town. Finding alive victim before all the zombies kill everybody in the hospitals. They only down side is you have to drink vodka to stay alive in the game. - not that I can see that's a down side

gd - That's quite a cool premise. Rather gruesome but cool. Not sure how I would perform the transplant on myself though.

Watch the movie " repo man" and you might get some ideas

Either do what mguy1122 said or that's the end of the game you just show a video and it fading out then roll the credits. The mind will still workout the rest. But don't forget that last part... what you may ask??? - your have to PM me for that lol

You could have it so he needs some meds from hospitals as well as alcohol. The med's keep him strong and the alcohol keeps him functioning or he gets it bad, the shakes. - I think someone did a script to shack the screen on here.
Edit - I think it was one of smallg's scripts but don't quote me!

Make it so there are different levels with stronger zombies and hospitals, security and radiation areas. Maybe he will need a suit and or meds for the radiation poisoning.

Just think of the glowing zombies, your see them a mile away lol

That's just given me an idea for a Star Trek based game, you play the part of a Vidiian traveling the Delt Quadrant in search of the organs you need to fight off the phage virus, fighting your way past obsessed Borg, aggressive Kazon, increasingly annoying Telaxians, and obnoxious, missplaced starfleet captains obessed with getting home

I would like to see that game Belidos.

There is one thing. I guess these ideas still meets the title of the thread
Plus it was going no where fast. - as if that's even possible... Just like warp drive lol

One way you could get away with publishing news without it actually being directly about the product development, is highlighting games created with GG in the news and social media. Also WIPs. This would not only keep everyone motivated, inspired but also bring more traffic to the forums and directly to the projects people are working on or have created.

I know that Lee already does this by adding it inside his development posts but I think even if a post is made on its own talking about these kinds of things, it would keep the motivation and activity alive.

Dejavu!

I just remember Misery : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misery_(novel)

Wath's about Lee having the same issue.
LOL.

Many people are complaining about the lack of news.
This may seem counterproductive and even negative, but however does not..
A positive reading would tell us that people are just showing that they are interested in the project and its evolution, and this should never be negative, on the contrary it should be a motivation to move forward with the project.

I would be more worried, if no one was interested in the lack of news.
Just my thoughts.

3com

I totally agree. I also agree that maybe the news section should be handled by someone or a group of people rather than Lee himself, or at least be delegated to people when he is unable to do it, the same goes for twitch streams, although some organisation would be needed for this. We have a passionate community that I'm sure would be more than willing to pick up the slack when needed.

@lordjulian I love it! It's certainly miles ahead of what I can do. I'm afraid I haven't advanced beyond stick men yet.

As regards news, Lee made this post 17 hours ago on Steam.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/266310/discussions/0/343787283747347983/#c343787283749479921

Which is actually just a very short version of what he posted on here 11 days ago...

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/216314#msg2558376

yeah. I agree that in addition to Community Management via moderations (which happens reliably due to our awesome mods), Community Management incorporating a steady news and update flow is heavily desired.

Why can't a post like that be made in the news section? If the next update is in a few weeks does that mean we won't have any developer news updates till then? I guess technically there would be nothing to even say till then...

@ polaraul yes he did,
Lee Bamber [DEV] [developer] 22 Sep @ 3:23pm
Work on the EBE (GameGuru's own mini-modeller) is taking longer than I would have liked, but I have decided to keep the updates coming in the meantime with a V1.132 build which will increase the game assets and scripts in the software along with some fixes and tweaks. This release should be in a few weeks so keep an eye out on the Steam announcements.

See you don't believe me its Alien Bob i have inside intel from the imps lol

At the end of the day,Still no news .

Dave

yes i agree lee should have the decency to post on this board,
how long does it take to post a message, or short post.
how long does a mod have to keep posting and defending tgc.
this is not a rant but, this is so unprofessional,
not to be rude but i am starting to think, x9 x10,

Lets just hope we get some solid news soon. I know Lee is a busy man.

EBE is obviously a more complex task than 1st thought. I know that one thing is certain, performance still remains an issue. I can only hope this is looked at as well as all the other great stuff in the future.

Well X9 was never really dropped in that way.... Reloaded was just the next thing which became GG.
X10 was dropped for other reasons .... It was for vista only originally and coded for it specifically .... Microsoft said Vista was the future and promised so much for that OS that never came through ....

Have we ?
I just post any info that I find out ...