The Purpose of Make Games SA
Hi Guys,
I'm glad to announce that the much talked about revamp of the site and forums is going to finally happen. A big thank you to Free Lives who will be contributing some financial assistance so we can get some professional help doing the web development and migration. We will start the process formally next year.
In the mean time I want to use this opportunity for us to reflect on what the purpose of Make Games actually is. The end result will be that we want the functionality of the new site to reflect our "why".
So I ask you to please list what you think the purpose of Make Games is, and more importantly what functionality would be needed on the website to enable this purpose.
I'm glad to announce that the much talked about revamp of the site and forums is going to finally happen. A big thank you to Free Lives who will be contributing some financial assistance so we can get some professional help doing the web development and migration. We will start the process formally next year.
In the mean time I want to use this opportunity for us to reflect on what the purpose of Make Games actually is. The end result will be that we want the functionality of the new site to reflect our "why".
So I ask you to please list what you think the purpose of Make Games is, and more importantly what functionality would be needed on the website to enable this purpose.
Thanked by 10critic mattbenic Karuji AngryMoose Elyaradine pieter vince watson tbulford SubiyaCryolite
Comments
-To provide a community and (safe) space for South African game developers of all persuasions, from all backgrounds, and of all levels (from curious potential gamedevs and absolute beginners, through hobbyists to professional developers) to commune both online and IRL.
-Within that community/space to provide help and learning opportunities, constructive feedback on projects and opportunities to compete and collaborate in competitions and jams.
-To grow this community by reaching out to those new to game development or currently working in isolation from the larger community and industry.
And to help achieve this the website should:
-Communicate the above purpose
-On first arrival provide useful information on where to start with both the community and game development itself, the latter through direct links to existing forum content
-Have clear, prominent links to the forum itself, as well as to whatever social media spaces (probably an FB group and the MGSA Twitter account) determined to be most useful in achieving the above purpose
-Have concise information on the date and location of upcoming MGSA meetups
-Still be focused strongly on the forum and interacting on it
-Facilitate easy sharing of forum content to the above social media spaces
When it comes to the Facebook group:
In addition for the ability of any member to share any thread or post on the site
-Regular sharing of selected, possibly curated threads
-A means for facebook users to easily join the forum with minimal signup friction
I'd like to take a quite historical look at things. MGSA arrived from both Game.Dev and SAGD being shutdown and the need for a place for the local community to congregate. The first important note was the choice of name: Make Games. This was to communicate that the primary focus of the community was to be about the direct creation of games. The second point is the sustainability of resources. There was a lot of effort made on some posts that were lost on old forums, so part of the philosophy was to have a place that would allow for a long term gathering of knowledge.
This leads me to believe that there are three core functions to MGSA:
1. The creation and propagation of game dev in SA.
2. Communication of people in the local community; to remove isolation and facilitate growth.
3. Preservation of knowledge of past challenges.
While these are the core function they are not the only functions, and I do believe that there is great use in secondary functions. Though at this point I would like to stress that we should be focusing our efforts on things that are more unique to the South African sphere. There is little purpose in propping us up to be a knowledge sharing sphere when places like Gamasutra exist.
There have been many discussions and resources over the years of how to improve and what we can do better. I think the current direction of improving the forums via server and software is a good course of action. Though there might be the question of wether a community wiki or a curated blog would be better, I think the answer is not really important so long as there is an easily accessible well curated set of resources that people have access to. While we have a wealth of knowledge on the forums it is often a pain to find exactly what is needed.
I think that MGSA has recently shown positive growth in its cultural, I believe that the number of diverse voices in our community have somewhat diminished in our most recent change of leadership. The current passive approach to community guidance does seem to favour those already active, and I believe those most active to be of a very specific demographic endemic to the tech culture. I would like to see MGSA be a diverse play, and indeed we need to focus efforts on this given the growth and culture of the country for which it serves.
There has, and continues to be, great potential for MGSA. And I believe we have lived up to it quite well: we have seen great games grown out of the community. The split of MGSA and IESA has been excellent as it allows both to focus on what they are truly good at, and the focus has allowed for much growth in the local industry. There is much we can do to grow, and I am definitely glad to see it happening. I know I don't post as much as I used to, but I still normally check the forums a couple of times a day, and am always willing to help if needed :)
Firstly, Like @Karuji suggests, it'd be great to have the resource pages be more formalized with permanent links, more like a wiki, and @Elyaradine has suggested that if we use threads to store information it would be ideal if we could make some threads collaborative so that groups of people could edit and add knowledge (again, like a wiki). Would it be possible for people to sign in with their Facebook accounts? (I think this is what @Mattbenic is suggesting, and I think it's a great idea).
If I were to sum up the purpose of Make Games myself it'd be:
Firstly to get advice and feedback towards making games (this is where the forum format shines afterall)
Secondly to connect people making games so that we're not all alone and we all know what potential resources are available to us (Facebook is better here?)
Thirdly, to get people to meet in real life and collaborate on making games together (This is why we have meetups and in-real-life jams).
Fourthly, to encourage investment in the South African games industry (from local and foreign investors, or foreign game developers relocating here) through promoting the successes of South African game developers as well as showing a vibrant and welcoming community (a well organized website front-end is best here?).
Fifthly, to provide motivation to make games and motivation to interact with other game makers (through jams and competitions and other designed rewards?).
Sixthly, as a knowledge database (and forums aren't great at this, though it's more motivating to share information on a forum than on a wiki).
Seventhly, to advocate for making games, and converting game development curious people into full time developers (Facebook has better reach, but a website can do a better presentation?).
(Which is pretty close to the points @Matbenic and @Karuji made. It's a lot of different functions, but it's become a big and complex community with a lot of different needs).
This might not be something to implement in the immediate future, but I feel it might add value to us having the discussions we have, in that they don't just become lost in a haystack of forum threads.