Elysian Shadows

eatcomics wrote:LOL

so who wants to get this ball rolling, what's our first order of business?

I'd assume it would be to select someone to 'man it all'. Someone to take all the articles that everyone's written and put them into a nice e-newsletter format.

So far it looks like Thomas_Bates and/or aamesxdavid ?

I just read through all of the posts and I think it's a great idea, I would definately read something like that (and contribute in the future when I get off my ass and make a project, launch a site etc)

I do have one suggestion though, would it be possible for someone to set up some sort of a newsletter archive?, a place where you could just look up the edition and download it, it would be a good reference as we could refer people to specific articles relating to a subject, also people would be able to look up old newsletters as opposed to trawling their inbox, just a thought

programmerinprogress wrote:I just read through all of the posts and I think it's a great idea, I would definately read something like that (and contribute in the future when I get off my ass and make a project, launch a site etc)

I do have one suggestion though, would it be possible for someone to set up some sort of a newsletter archive?, a place where you could just look up the edition and download it, it would be a good reference as we could refer people to specific articles relating to a subject, also people would be able to look up old newsletters as opposed to trawling their inbox, just a thought

Well I'd say if we used GoogleDocs (cause it looks like some people are leaning that way?) We'd just give it public access, right? And then they'd all be there?

If you'll notice, I'm trying to be hands off. I've got alot on my slate right now and don't have time to put something like this together. =/

But if one of you do and can take charge, I will absolutely contribute. I've tried to refer people to this topic when I felt it was appropriate...But if we could get a "jounalist" type person to actually say "Give me your articles and I'll make it happen" then you'll receive my eternal gratitude. ;p

And definitely we'd be able to host on this site as well.

Sorry, I was away for a long weekend, but now this shit is on!

GyroVorbis wrote:Somebody either tell me when or hook me up with a Google Docs invite. I'm free to write whenever.

Articles can be submitted in any form. If we use Google Docs, it would be more for just layout purposes - it would probably be more difficult if entire articles were going in at different times rather than one or two people assembling the entire newsletter from separate docs.

Arce wrote:I'm not sure about calling it "Elysian Shadows Newsletter," though....

Agreed, we don't want it to be falsely advertised as something entirely about ES - that's what the ES Rev videos are for. Besides, once you guys are done and start making your next awesome game, the name wouldn't make any sense!

Arce wrote:I'd love to have a section for us if you guys can fit it, though. ;p

Being the centerpoint of the community, any ES team-related articles would be absolutely fantastic.

eatcomics wrote:so who wants to get this ball rolling, what's our first order of business?

I'm more than ready to organize anything necessary, and our first order of business is getting things to organize! Anyone who can contribute articles - let me know what you can/want to do, I'll keep a master list on this thread of everyone willing to work on a particular section, and we'll take it from there. While that's getting together, I'll make a mock-up of an issue to get ideas for what everyone likes as far as layout, sections, etc. And hopefully it will also gain some interest for potential writers, when they see a proof of concept.

programmerinprogress wrote:I do have one suggestion though, would it be possible for someone to set up some sort of a newsletter archive?

Absolutely. But I don't want to use GoogleDocs for that, because it would require everyone to have a Gmail, and internet connection, and would just be overall unofficial-feeling. I like PDF for the format for these reasons:
-Very common
-Easily exportable from GoogleDocs
-Every OS has a free reader
-Not editable format

As for the archive, all we need is hosting. I can just have a direct link to them on my site, or create a subdomain. If this really takes off, I could easily get a new domain/hosting for it.

Arce wrote:But if one of you do and can take charge, I will absolutely contribute. I've tried to refer people to this topic when I felt it was appropriate...But if we could get a "jounalist" type person to actually say "Give me your articles and I'll make it happen" then you'll receive my eternal gratitude. ;p

Send me shit, and you'll get a kick-ass newsletter.

aamesxdavid@gmail.com

Or reply here with what you would want to do later if you don't have anything specific yet.

Well, I think first and foremost, anyone that has a project, should write something up, get some screen shots and such.

Then there should be a few people that should write 'tutorials' of some sort.

So anyone that has a project, get to it xD

Oh and assuming the first issue won't be released until after LussikkaMage's Unintuitive Physics Competition, the newsletter would be a great place to show off some of the top entries, and maybe ask the judges write what they thought of the top entries?

Okay, I'm officially working on my article.

Great to hear! I'll be thinking about possible contributions. ;p

I would love to contribute my iPhone game in some way and/or some pixel art opinion/tutorials (I could contribute installments of these every now and then if you would like). I also could contribute some of the things I have learnt at my time at uni such as BSP trees info, getting started with shaders, etc.

zeid wrote:I would love to contribute my iPhone game in some way and/or some pixel art opinion/tutorials (I could contribute installments of these every now and then if you would like). I also could contribute some of the things I have learnt at my time at uni such as BSP trees info, getting started with shaders, etc.

That sounds absolutely perfect. Any kind of series that we can get going with these would only add to the excitement for the next issue. Tutorials are always great, and even better when they relate to a current project. And like the ES videos, we should try to keep a balance between being educational and entertaining - we'll have one, maybe two tutorials, and the rest would be more like updates or general knowledge, not in tutorial form.

And as I said before guys, even if you don't have a project or anything, there's room for game reviews, general design ideas/opinions, or anything you can think would work in this medium.

I have a cover page and single article mock-up coming along. It's rough, but it gets the idea across. Anyone who wants to contribute some art/logo things, it would be much appreciated. Also, the title as it stands now is simply "The Chaos Rift Newsletter". Ideas for that are welcome as well.

I'd love to contribute but currently have nothing to contribute xD

Oh wait just had a thunk, I would imagine lusikka would be okay with me doing an article on her contest after it finishes this sunday, I'll ask her and if she says yes I can do that

I can ask all the participants about their entries, and do a review on them

I'm not sure if this is a good place for suggestions or requests but I'd like to make a couple.


I would really like to see someone with a lot of experience in OO programming write an article about protecting data within games. When is it appropriate to make a class member public vs. when should they be private? When is privatizing class members just completely unnecessary? What is the logic behind this? (specifically on the subject of game development). I have been educated in a very structured way that basically encourages strong encapsulation with accessors/mutators for every variable(this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know). I find this to be tedious and downright stupid in some cases. I think one of the more experienced programmers on this forum could do a nice writeup on this that would really help beginners.



I thought of another subject I wanted to learn more about earlier but it is completely slipping my mind right now so I will update this post later when I remember

hurstshifter wrote:I'm not sure if this is a good place for suggestions or requests but I'd like to make a couple.


I would really like to see someone with a lot of experience in OO programming write an article about protecting data within games. When is it appropriate to make a class member public vs. when should they be private? When is privatizing class members just completely unnecessary? What is the logic behind this? (specifically on the subject of game development). I have been educated in a very structured way that basically encourages strong encapsulation with accessors/mutators for every variable(this is a bit of an exaggeration, but you know). I find this to be tedious and downright stupid in some cases. I think one of the more experienced programmers on this forum could do a nice writeup on this that would really help beginners.



I thought of another subject I wanted to learn more about earlier but it is completely slipping my mind right now so I will update this post later when I remember

Actually, the vast majority of my articles were probably going to be of this nature.

I'm a designer/architect by nature. That's the kind of stuff that comes to me naturally, versus the more mathematical end of game development (where I have to spend quite awhile formulating an article). My first article was going to be on a particular design pattern, actually.

I love this idea. Guess this means that I should unveil what I've been working on. I need to get a few more things implemented, but once that's done I might have something worth showing.

I'd like to find a way to contribute to this as well - I'd definitely like to give back to the community and ES team for all that I've learned and gained from the forum and videos.

GyroVorbis wrote:Actually, the vast majority of my articles were probably going to be of this nature.

I'm a designer/architect by nature. That's the kind of stuff that comes to me naturally, versus the more mathematical end of game development (where I have to spend quite awhile formulating an article). My first article was going to be on a particular design pattern, actually.

This is great to hear, and I actually remembered the second subject I wanted to hear more about: Time vs. Frame based rendering. There are some great articles out there about this subject but I haven't been able to find one that truly covers the pro's and con's of both techniques. I think this would be an excellent article for the newsletter.