Dungeon Craft News Letter #1

[manikus]

Who wants some?

We'll have to make it, of course.

If you want in, let me know in this thread.

What do we need and what do we want?

-Articles-
These can be how to, "how I did xyz", what's going on in DC, what's coming up in DC, etc.

-Reviews-
There aren't too many designs or demos...but let's get 'em written about.

-Previews-
Adventures or demos that are on the way.

-Artist Corner-
New graphics and how they came to be, ticks of the trade, explanations of guides and templates

-GPDL/Logic Block-
Tricks and explanations of, you guessed it, GPDL and Logic Block

-Fiction-
Short stories, poems, songs

-Editorials-
Comments on or about different aspects of DC, AD&D or RPGs in general.

-Want Ads-
Requests for art, sounds, etc.

-Cover Page-
An original graphic related to DC or AD&D that we can put a title and text over or near to be our front page.

So, anybody want to play?

[Dinonykos]

I think a newsletter would only make sense if there are significantly more readers than writers. Otherwise, I would prefer to handle most of the topics you suggested above with the forum.
Which brings me to the question how many DC users there are. Correct me if I am wrong, but at the Yahoo-Forum may even be less users than here at Ironworks.

[manikus]

One advantage of a newsletter over the forums is that it can be made available for downloads.

By doing that, we are not just creating it for the current group of us, but for anyone in the future who is interested.

As per users, there are 160 members as of this moment. We shouldn't confuse posters with users. FRUA and DC have a long tradition of people just reading the lists b/c they use them as announcements for new releases/adventrues/art.

Also, the writing for the newsletter would be held to a different standard than just throwing out a response here in the forum. It would also encompass a bit larger scope, such as fiction related to DC.

I'm just testing the waters, anyways. It will most likely turn out that I am the only one that is really interested in doing this, so I'll just do it in parts on my webseite.

I'm just trying to think of ways to stay interested in DC. I've been doing this a long time, and well, to be frank, there isn't a whole lot going on in the coding department at the moment. If I can't grow other parts of the project, there's not much point in keeping this beast active. (I don't mean closing the forums or stopping making art, I just mean as an actively developed project on SourceForge.)

I'm trying to put off as long as possible writing the post telling everyone that development is dead. Don't worry, though. It's not going to happen any time soon. There are still many things I will try first. If only CocoaSpud had stayed with us until 1.0, since he was/is the guiding force behind the coding. Damn that World of Warcraft! (That's what we lost him to for about six months and then he discovered that he had lost his passion for this project.)

[Dinonykos]

I see your points. I must admit (and already did earlier) that I also watched the forum for around 2 years before I started posting. So there may indeed be more readers than I thought. However, looking at the Yahoo forum, I got the impression that some people got lost during 2008 who posted in 2006/2007. Has the WOW-virus spread?

Concerning motivation for developers: If I was one, I would be motivated by more finished adventures and more promising demos... and perhaps a nice newsletter!

[manikus]

Originally Posted by Dinonykos I see your points. I must admit (and already did earlier) that I also watched the forum for around 2 years before I started posting. So there may indeed be more readers than I thought. However, looking at the Yahoo forum, I got the impression that some people got lost during 2008 who posted in 2006/2007. Has the WOW-virus spread?

We had some people leave and some new people come. A lot of people just get quiet, but still subscribe to the list.

Originally Posted by Dinonykos Concerning motivation for developers: If I was one, I would be motivated by more finished adventures and more promising demos... and perhaps a nice newsletter!

Ironically, the only active developer (Paul) doesn't play DC or Dungeons and Dragons.

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus Ironically, the only active developer (Paul) doesn't play DC or Dungeons and Dragons.

Even so, it is motivation when your stuff is used. Provohost (and the city project, probably) for example is a good motivation for me to produce more art.

If Paul Stevens had added some additional editing options to his Dungeon-Master (or CSB) clone, I would probably never have gotten into DC.

[manikus]

Well, I am glad he didn't, then.

I completely agree with you. It's just funny that the coder that is most motivated is not a fan of this game.

[Dinonykos]

Originally Posted by manikus Well, I am glad he didn't, then.

I still don't know what I would do if there was an editor for Dungeon-Master-or-Might-and-Magic-3-5-similar games out there with options comparable to DC...

But back to the News letter - I would be ready to add some stuff on walls and perspectives, perhaps also things like how-to-draw (N)PCs in different styles.

But perhaps a poll would be useful to find out how big the general interest into a news letter is...

[manikus]

I've never played either one of those games. I've looked at Paul's site a few times, but since I didn't know anything about the game, well, I didn't download or read too deeply.

I'm glad to hear that you may be interested in helping with a newsletter.

[Uatu]

I think a newsletter would be great! Some nice topics and hints have been on this forum (like coding/scripting/eventing tips that I cannot find anymore - it would help to make these accessible later on to new users (and forgetful guys like me!)).

Would be nice to have some information about mods or upcoming mods as well, with screenshots!

Not sure how much I would be able to help with less time on my hands these days, but I can try!