Timo 2024-06-12 20:12 (Edited)
Hi!
For quite some time I'm thinking about implementing tags for programs on this website. Maybe I'll find some moments to work on this (slowly)...
So, first I want to change the categories for programs. I think the "Work in Progress" concept doesn't really help a lot. Quite often people leave projects and they stay in that category forever, even the game is maybe already fun.
For new users we have "Featured", and community members probably check everything anyway.
==CATEGORIES==
I would like to return to more "classic" categories:
- Game
- Demo (mostly non-interactive stuff: animations, effects, screensavers,...)
- Tool
- Example (programming examples)
- Asset (tile sets, sprite packs, fonts etc.)
That's just a first draft, it can still change.
==TAGS==
And, now the important part: I want to add tags :) We have a lot of published programs already, so I think it would be cool to have a better way of finding specific things in the "catalog". These will be in addition to the categories.
Here is my current draft (updated!):
Game Genres:
"Action", "Adventure", "Educational", "Fighting", "Platform", "Puzzle", "Racing", "Shooter", "Simulation", "Sports", "Strategy"
Technical Genres (usually for Tools or Examples):
"Editor", "Engine", "Interpreter", "Library", "Utility", "Viewer"
Characteristics:
"3D", "Isometric", "Multiplayer", "Physics", "Pixelbuffer", "Raster", "Text-Only"
Inputs:
"Gamepad", "Keyboard", "Touch"
Media (or better "Resources"? Usually for Tools or Assets):
"Font", "Music", "Sounds", "Sprites", "Tiles", "Backgrounds"
I don't want to create too many hyper-specific tags, so if something can be generalized, I'd prefer doing that.
I also thought about style tags like "science-fiction" and "fantasy" etc. but maybe that's a rabbit hole. Probably people are more interested in genres anyway. And because this is a programmers' community, I also want to add technical stuff like what I wrote for "Characteristics".
What are your thoughts? Do you miss some tags? Do you think there are too many? Are some completely unclear? (They should be kind of self-explaining.)
McPepic 2024-06-12 20:46
I have a question: Would it be possible to have a "newly updated" section that lists programs based on how recently they were modified by the author? I realized that unless you've liked a program, it's pretty hard to know whether any more work has been done on it. Hence, the number of times someone makes a duplicate program so it's easier for people to see on the page.
Also, I really like the idea of a 3D tag, as 3D programs don't show up on search, even if the title of the program explicitly contains the keyphrase.
Timo 2024-06-12 21:30
I’ll probably change the whole search and filter part. Adding “recently updated” sorting is a good idea.
The text search uses a special MySQL feature, but it ignores words with less than 3 letters, so 3D cannot be searched. Maybe I could change this.
I don’t really have time though, but it’s occupying space in my head and wants to leave it :O
Timo 2024-06-13 11:53
So, the main page of "Programs" will be focused on keeping you up to date. So the current category selection will be replaced with sort options:
New, Updated, Featured
If you are a guest or not logged in, it will change the order, so "Featured" will be the default (it's already like this):
Featured, New, Updated
All search and filter options will move to a separate page to clean up the "Programs" page.
was8bit 2024-06-13 16:36
How about adding the ability to search a "person", either by a search available on a person's page, or adding "person" as a filter to the main search
for WIP, they are really two varieties... playable but not finished, and not playable...
If Playable WIP included version comenatary, it would be obvious it isnt finished, and could fall into GAME ... if unplayable, it could fall into DEMO... so maybe reword WIP as DEMO, and encourage any playable WIP to be changed to GAME with version comentary
Or perhaps use TAGS to indicate if a game is WIP-DEMO or WIP-PLAYABLE or FINISHED
Timo 2024-06-13 18:20
DEMO is supposed to be something really different than a game. It's all about cool realtime effects and maybe art, animations and music. It's something to look at, not to play. A very simple form would be your screensavers for example.
Originally I liked the idea of WIP, so that it's easier for guests to find something playable, but now I think "Featured" is a much better place for that. Community members will try out anything anyway, I think.
Timo 2024-06-13 18:22
Ah yes, searching for a person would be cool, too. Let's see if I find a simple solution. But it's not priority at the moment.
was8bit 2024-06-14 03:24
I like your explanations :)
I am just so happy to have lowresNX, and am happy with this community :)
…. Everything else is bonus :)
nathanielbabiak 2024-06-15 14:55
i'd like to see a clear location for libraries. Maybe within the example category? I'm never really sure where to place libraries…
was8bit 2024-06-15 17:08
Libraries ?
Timo 2024-06-16 06:34
Function libraries, or better called subprogram libraries in BASIC.
As category I would use Examples, usually they should come with some programming example anyway.
But a specific tag for them would be helpful. Good idea!
was8bit 2024-06-16 12:39
SUB's are a very powerful part of lowresNX... how you have crafted them really makes them really fun and useful to use :D
Timo 2024-06-19 13:21 (Edited)
I added "technical genres". New draft:
Game Genres:
"Action", "Adventure", "Educational", "Fighting", "Platform", "Puzzle", "Racing", "Shooter", "Simulation", "Sports", "Strategy"
Technical Genres (usually for Tools or Examples):
"Editor", "Engine", "Interpreter", "Library", "Utility", "Viewer"
Characteristics:
"3D", "Isometric", "Multiplayer", "Physics", "Pixelbuffer", "Raster", "Text-Only"
Inputs:
"Gamepad", "Keyboard", "Touch"
Media (or better "Resources"? Usually for Tools or Assets):
"Font", "Music", "Sounds", "Sprites", "Tiles", "Backgrounds"
was8bit 2024-06-19 18:16
I like the input categories, so I am guessing one can do search for those…
Keyboard, however, can be used in both touch and gamepad…
was8bit 2024-06-19 18:20 (Edited)
I would like to see more TOOL programs… it is abit tricky to start out with it, and also for a limited people who would want to make them
… as for using tools, it is abit inconvient to not be able to remove just one tool… rather you are forced to remove all tools, then reload tools you want to keep… that is very annoying and most users will likely just say “forget it” and not bother to try using tools…
If one has downloaded a lot of programs, reloading tools means they have to scroll thru and refind each tool and reload… and should they reload a wrong tool, they have to unload all and try to reload all over again
nathanielbabiak 2024-06-20 00:20
Timo, your draft categories aren't mutually exclusive. There's far too much overlap. Maybe consider using them as tags, rather than categories?
Timo 2024-06-20 06:59 (Edited)
The categories are: Game, Demo, Tool, Example, Asset
Everything else will be tags and you can select any number of them :)
(Also all tags will be available for all categories, even most of them are thought for one or two specific categories.)
was8bit 2024-06-24 12:04
@Timo, sounds good :)
Timo 2024-06-26 21:58
What do you think about my new category descriptions? Are they understandable?
Game: Interactive entertainment
Demo: Non-interactive entertainment
Tool: Something useful
Example: Something mostly interesting for programmers
Asset: Graphics, sounds or music offered to other projects
nathanielbabiak 2024-06-27 03:06 (Edited)
Categories and tags make sense. I'd recommed being more verbose on "tool," only because your user base seems to be global.
Game: Interactive entertainment
Demo: Non-interactive entertainment
Tool: Something useful to add to the Tools menu
Example: Something mostly interesting for programmers
Asset: Graphics, sounds or music offered to other projects
I did notice with some of the tags (specifically Pixelbuffer and text-only) you might have some language localization users that would expect the two words to have a space, or a hyphen, or be combined as one word. Probably doesn't matter.
Search by name or search by date are interesting ideas. I'd like to add one more: searcy by post body text (rather than a post's subject line only).
was8bit 2024-06-27 03:19 (Edited)
...how about these thoughts...
Game/Toy (interactive, rules/goals or sandbox)
Demo/SS (non interactive, shows how-to or fun screensaver)
Tool/Sub (TOOLs or SUBs, can use as is)
Example/Code (learn by reading the code)
Assets (Graphics/Sounds/Music/Fonts/Backgrounds)
... is it possible to add an explanatory line of text below the clickable options that help further describe the option selected (on the search page)
Timo 2024-06-27 09:51
I'll change the spelling to "Pixel-Buffer", I thought it's common to write it as one word, but a quick web search showed me that it's not :O
Tools: Here I included both editors (for the tools menu) as well as utilities (like a calculator) and even stuff like emulators (chip-8 etc) and programming languages (brainf*ck etc). SUBs should go to "Example". Any idea how to describe this in a short but understandable way?
Asset: I want to make the idea of the creator clear to separate it from "Demo". If you create art/music with the idea, that someone else can use it in their project, it's an "asset". If you create art/music, which stands for itself, it's probably a "Demo".
was8bit 2024-06-27 10:56
It might be usefull to have a seperate page that can include examples as you have done here.... its quite helpful :)
nathanielbabiak 2024-06-27 18:46
Seems you're trying to differentiate between functioning software and code snippets. I'd recommend just being explicit:
Games, Demos, Tools/Utility Software, Example Source Code, Assets
I'm not concerned about "asset" - looking through the current uploads it doesn't seem like it's confused too many others either.