Student Game Developers Community

[Ajene]

I'm thinking of doing a project that will be dedicated to helping out teen game developers, I have a site and an extra domain I can use that I haven't used yet, and the one thing I'm thinking of using it for is for teen game developers. Though the one things is, I don't wanna do this alone it would be better for me to start building up a team for it. anyone up for it?

[TheBigCheese]

What exactly would the site entail? I'm not really able to join any projects at the moment, but I'm not exactly sure what teen developing would encompass.

In my opinion though, there's no reason teenagers should need to be separated from the rest of the developing society. If they've got the drive, it's easy to read through a few tutorials with something like Flash.

[Ajene]

my idea is sorta build it like a small community. I'm actually thinking of doing it for students as teens just limits it to teens.

Yea there's not really a reason to separate it from those who are older, but it could be easier for some to hear things from people their own age.

It would have a blog with different writers writing about different technologies, or reviewing other peoples projects, it would resemble some other communities but be for those who are younger or those who are just getting into game development.

[Endoperez]

What would "just getting into game development" mean?

People who are interested in becoming involved with game development? Or people who have done mods, and want to become serious about it? Or people who are trying to get their first job in a game company?

Is this for artists, coders, scripters, designers, writers, directors, idea people, level desigerns?

Once few ideas are thrown about, try to find related communities. I don't know a lot about this, but here are few:

* game-artists.net
3D and textures for games. Low-poly, high-poly, competitions, texturing...
* Unity 3D community forums
Unity 3D game engine discussion, with a surge of new users now that basic version of Unity has become free

Also everything in the latest blog post & comments.


There could be space, even need, for this kind of community, but it'd be hard to get started with that kind of competition. Perhaps instead of trying to collect a community (forum), you could make some sort of a hub with articles from these different sites and different aspects of game development. Game development related posts on Wolfire blog draw a big crowd, so those would be a good guide for what you want to do.

[Ajene]

This is a kinda sloppy copy I came up with.

Student Game Developers Community.
The Basic Idea: SGD Community Is a community based around student game developers. It will be made to accommodate Artists, programmers, Musicians, and so on. Though Many communities are based around those things this community will be different in that it is mainly students and beginners, thus allowing beginners to talk with beginners and will serve as a learning community largely based around educational process of Game Development(meaning it is more for those who are making a game to learn than making a game to make $$). The reason for this is to ensure that beginners can simply learn without moving too fast and trying to get straight into the money and tries its best to help those take the rights steps so as to be more successful. Many communities tend to have beginners who have no experience trying to do this for the money which many times ultimately ends in failure.

What will it have? SGD Community will have these features
• Community Forums(For talking with other developers)
• Blog(Articles on reviews of peoples games, keeping track on student competitions, interviews, new technology, reviewing of said technology, tutorials, etc.)
• a community dedicated to trying to help people with art, programming, music, and business anything involved with game development.
• Contests to win many things from software, hardware, games and possibly cash.
• Image galleries for users to upload screenshots of their game as well as links to where you can find it.

What makes it different?
Unlike many communities ,that are mostly filled with those who know what they are doing usually the, This one tries to cater to the beginners needs by explaining things in the most simplest of ways. It will be largely based around treating the beginner as ignorant as possible (not meant to offend ) this way they know exactly what people are talking about. This will also be a community where beginners try to learn from failures rather than the beginner hitting those failures themselves we try to make sure they a good start at what they are doing. The big idea of the community is to think small, and once you have done that, think smaller.

How does it cater to MY needs?
Whether an artist or a programmer we try to keep things well explained for each.
We attempt to try to make a person very versatile from getting them prepared to work alone whether they are mainly artist, programmer, or musician. we want to teach everyone the basics of each subject and begin to move them up.
We attempt to try to help others begin to work in teams helping them learn the fundamentals of working together, we even try to have community members group up with people they don't know and attempt to make a small game for prizes.

SGD Community will be like a school, only you don't have to pay to get in!

[TheBigCheese]

I wish you good luck. Hopefully it'll work out.
Make sure to tell us when it's up.

[socks]

Count me in.

Prefer "students" over "teens" though.

edit: What kinds of tutorials do you plan to start with? How low-level do you plan to start?

[Ajene]

thanks, I'll have a site up but it'll be closed just for working on, And within some weeks or if we get enough people and move fast enough, less than a few weeks we should be done
At the moment its 2 people (not counting me) and my web host service has to fix my domain problem.

[FamousCrayon]

This sounds really interesting, if I had any decent skills with regards to anything, I would love to assist you. I've got a few friends in game development courses in local colleges where I live. I'll see if I can get any of them to write up tutorials.

Also, Isometric art would be really neat to learn, if there's any chance that could be a subsection when this is created I would love it

[Ajene]

I'll see what I can do, I sadly haven't worked with Isometric art much. but I'm thinking I'll do some drawings of it when I can.

I got a domain name for the site, I'm uploading a CMS to it so it will be easier to maintain.

[Ajene]

http://sgdevs.net/ this is where it will be, trying to get some help with the template.

[TheBigCheese]

Lookin' good. The guy in the center kind of creeps me out a little. Maybe a bit too happy.

[Ajene]

lol, yea i changed the template now. took awhile, and the banner is temp until i can get a new one. but its a screenshot from chrono trigger.

[TadMod]

While the website looks professional, it does seem to take a while to load :s, other than that, it looks good so far!

[Ajene]

hmm, i've had people say it could look more professional. atm i'm not working much on it cause I dont have a team. but it'll be up soon hopefully, possibly as i get into college in the next few weeks (or months depending) i'll update it some more.