[/quote]What we need is something different from the other factions. We have:[/quote]
[/quote]- The Empire: an empire conquering the world to it's former glory days
- House of Nobles: rich & noble, industrialists and modernizers, also perusing their interests via mercs
- Gaia: peaceful enviormentalists forced to take upp arms for natures realm
- Red Banner: Classwar, freed slaves that rebel and a civil rights based war[/quote]
[/quote]....so whatever the SG becomes it shouldn't be anything of the above.[/quote]
......
[/quote]So, as you see there's some room to develop them, but don't write anything until you suggest a couple of overviews/alternatives for them... =P[/quote]
As this is a team effort, I'll be running any ideas concerning faction story arcs, details, etc by you guys before submitting anything. I mostly try to focus on characters and the societal, political or relgious views or issues they go through in the context of the given event. What I AM really bad at is coming up with names for fictional alien/fantasy/mythological creatures, people or places, so having an established setting and place, as well as events and characters to work with is totally fine by me.
Anything I submit won't be all "emo doom and gritty gloom" though. Expect some mild tounge-in-cheek pokes at tired fantasy tropes and subtle jokes in the background. Pople want to read fun lore, not wannabe goth poetry with a couple minotaurs here and there. Overall though, I think the empahasis on making sure that each faction has an interesting story to tell beyond "hero of light slays ye dragons" is what's really gotten me into this project. Will check out the SG thread, then submit a couple of ideas for your consideration. I like the Mafia analogy, and will be sure to use it in one of my test examples.
[/quote]What would be helpful is if you did some serious research on which blogs/news-sites and forums are around the net that would somehow allow us to inform their users about our project
without our info being considered as spam or totally off-topic.[/quote]
[/quote]Currently have have more or less zero exposure and need to work more on that, but for us to start spreading the word we need to have plenty of channels where it's ok to do so
and where one might expect that the target audience is interested.[/quote]
[/quote]I can think of these five types of sites/forums where it would be useful if we got exposure[/quote]
[/quote]
- Python programming
- HTML5 / PHP / AJAX programming
- Card games: TCG, CCG, LCG:s etc. Also sites for specific card games but that also allow a discussion about other games somewhere...
- Indie games
- Open source
[/quote]
Here are a couple I'm a bit familiar with...
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/
Popular site for all kinds of tabletop games, including minatures, TCGs, foreign board games, etc. You should definetly try promoting on their forum once you've finalized the card templates.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/
While heavily video game focused, Penny Arcade has promoted games like Pathfinder (Which, admittedly I know nothing about except that it's apparently pretty hardcore (
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/30 )
If you guys did a Deep Crow card or something (
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/10) , the Penny Arcade community woud LOVE you for it.
http://www.reddit.com/r/tabletop/
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/
http://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/
Not really a huge redditor, but seeing how it's pretty much the front page of the interwebs currently, I figured these three subreddits would be a good place to guage interest in our product. Reaching the reddit community could potentially give us a MASSIVE boost in site traffic and interest, especially since these subreddits' demographic (16-25+ in gaming, little older in tabletop/rpg) are the most likley to spread the word via social networking, word of mouth, etc.
http://www.starcitygames.com/
Hardcore magic community and host of the biggest indipendantly run MTG tourney out there. Also sells other TCG games and seems to be very competetive, so once an online client and finalized rules are established, I'd absolutley post something on their forums.
http://www.deviantart.com/
Yeah, I know this one has a bad rep for cringe-worthy fanfiction and anime porn, but there's also an active community of talented artists and Linux users who would be THRILLED to participate in the WTactics community.
http://teamcovenant.com/
While looking up info for a Tim Burton film called "monsterpocalapse" (I LOVE Godzilla/Kaiju stuff!), I found this incredibly nerdy gem that apparently features the monpoc minatures game the movie is apparently based on in addition to some more obscure TCG/Board/Minature games. These guys produce, DVDs, cons, and more to give these games more exposure, and if you contacted these guys, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to support this project.
Dunno about indie game sites. They mostly tend to be video game oriented, which may work once you get your online client up and running. I think focusing on tabletop-friendly sites first is a good idea, then once more interest is generated, we might be able to spark some interest via Penny Arcade, Dtoid, etc.
Python and other codings sites are not really my field. I'm only just getting into Linux, and my knowledge of coding in general is nil. If I come across something though, I'll let ya know.
[/quote]You are right, it does sound horrible at first
(Yups, we're perfectly honest in here and have minds set on doing what's best for the project, which often isn't the same thing as anything goes or "my ideas are good and i'm missunderstood" ; ) [/quote]
Oh boy, that's gonna be a JOY to deal with...
*email no.23343*
(Nine-year-old derp) "WHY DIDN'T YOU ACCEPT MY PIKACHU SHADOWGUILD CARD?? IT'S REALLY COOL! MOMMY SAYS IT'S COOL! BLAHBLAHBLAH etc.
Yeah, maybe sticking with Wesnoth is for the best. The above nightmare scenario is one of the reasons I think allowing non-wesnoth Cardscape projects - at least initially- might go south on us. Too many kids trying to make their pookeyman/ woogioh cawds.
[/quote]Our issue right now is that we don't have a following yet that is partaking in the development, and that nothing would ever come out from such an attempt due to that reason.
I also think that the entry level/barrier for getting involved goes up somewhat with the video-requirement when it comes to the casual user. To date we haven't even gotten a single custom card made by anyone even as a JPG-file, suggesting that it will be hard to make people create videos, to say the least.[/quote]
...
[/quote]My second issue with the suggestion is that showing a card in a video sounds to me like it will be very static. After all, the card isn't (and in our case shouldn't be) animated. Why would you look at the video, and what's actually happening in it? What were your thoughts? (I imagine a user could show off a coupe of versions of it, and put a voice over where he/she discusses it's abilities etc. That would be kind of cool if done properly..)[/quote]
Before you read any more of this post, please check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lVO3EbtPp8
If you're not familiar with League of Legends, it's pretty much the biggest PC game out there at the moment, with more than 35 million people worldwide playing it.
Yes, she might be pretty annoying, but notice how she's presenting the fan art/creations. In and of themsevles, they're pretty static images, but because she's narrating/joking over the footage, it goes from a slideshow to an interactive experience for fans of the game. If, by the time Cardscape is 100% up and running, you released a similar video with one of the devs on a greenscreen background (perhaps the Wesnoth map), you could easily show off fan-made cards, artwork and more, as well as showcase expansions, events and tournaments hosted by the players once those are established.
This would obviouly have to come after you've promoted the game via forums, trailers, etc, but giving the fans an interactive form of social media that not only showcases fan cards, but keeps more casual gamers up to speed on everything will not only advertise the game's strong points (customization, open source-ness, casual and hardcore appeal), but will encourage people to like, comment and share the vids, resulting in more traffic, more potential consumers, and more support.
[/quote]Here I can admit that the error is also ours: Even though we have no strange source material and always had it all downloadable and public, we haven't explained it basically enough for people to be able to use it with ease to assemble new custom made cards. I will write up a guide and also record a video showing the steps to help this. I'll also make it easier to assemble cards in GIMP on the fly...[/quote]
Sounds good
Been messing with the inkscape stuff via the public trunk, but the actual monster/creature image is... blegh. Having a simplified template would be a good way to start out, giving people a sneak peek at the customizability of the cards.
[/quote]We'll try to turn as many good card ideas as possible into cards. It doesn't matter if there is lore or not for it already. The game isn't a support function for the lore. It's two different things that overlap each other. And in any case we have no lore yet beyond the two finished background stories. What's good in a CCG is that the art and cards themselves can be so versatile, giving much space when designing.[/quote]
Barring any modern/scifi themes (unless you guys would do a Wesnoth 2056 kind of deal..
), You can pretty much do anything with this setting. Robots? Put Iron Golems in the game. Ninjas? "Shadow Assasins", nuff said. Aliens? Just indroduce a few "cosmic entities" (cuthulhu style, not UFOs), and you got that covered as well. I look forward to seeing what crazy stuff people manage to keep in-universe...
[/quote]Yes, but as you write, it is important that we have nailed all the rules first by then and that we have it all playable in some form. Else it's premature and would only hurt the project. Btw, what's PA?[/quote]
An abbrevation for Penny Arcade. As you might've guessed by now, I'm quite a fan.
[/quote](Lastly, feel free to show up at the meeting on sunday.... info in wiki)[/quote]
I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything.
Thanks for responding. Sorry if this ends up being the longest thread in the history of threading, but I hope you consider some of those sites I've linked above for promotion/marketing.