Timo 2024-06-30 14:44 (Edited)
I updated the community website and added new features.
Please add tags to your programs using the “Tags” link on the program’s page. You will see added tags below the title and you can click on any to see more programs with the same tag. If you think there are important tags missing, propose them here.
(I'll help adding tags to all featured programs.)
“Release” and “work in progress” were removed and “Game”, “Demo” and “Tool” were added. By default the old categories were replaced with “Game”, so please update your program settings were necessary.
It's a combination of the old title text search, the category selection and the tags. It's even available on user profiles! The old category/featured filter on the Programs and User pages were replaced with the sorting options "New", "Updated" and "Featured". Currently "New" and "Updated" is the same for exiting programs, but I'll try to fix the old data.
I didn't add any of this to the discussion forum yet. I feel like it needs something else, but it's not my priority at the moment, so I didn't change it.
McPepic 2024-06-30 15:31
:O
Looks great! So great to see all the cool new changes! Good work Timo.
AkiPot 2024-06-30 18:41
How about add in the "Game Genres" a tag "Arcade"?
Timo 2024-06-30 20:27
I had "Arcade" on my list, but in the end I removed it, because I think it's not really a genre. Usually they are just Action or Puzzle games.
I am thinking about adding tags for "Maths" and "Scrolling". And maybe "Highscores". And I forgot to add "Backgrounds" to Media (I'm using these tags also for editors).
AkiPot 2024-07-01 09:09
Ok then how about "RPG"?
Timo 2024-07-01 12:08 (Edited)
RPG was also on my list, but in my opinion you could just call them “Adventure”. Ok, maybe turn based fights could make the difference, but do we already have real RPGs on LowRes NX?
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-01 19:28 (Edited)
Awesome work!
Should "remake" be a category? signifying that the game is familiar?
What do you think about theme categories like medieval, space, or western?
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-01 20:05 (Edited)
I have some questions regarding the tags:
Timo 2024-07-01 21:12
"remake" could be a useful tag.
Media tags:
I created them for "Assets". Then I noticed they are useful for editors, too, to tag them with the media you can edit. And sometimes there is a gray zone between Assets and Demos, so just in case I also used Media tags for Demos. But I'm not so sure anymore.
Tags should define the special points of each program. Most of the games use sprites and tiles and backgrounds, so it's silly to add the tags everywhere (and this is why I created the "Text-Only" tag, as the opposite). But Music is kind of special, because not so many programs have music.
I would just say, tag with anything you want to highlight. And we will see how it goes :)
Libraries are SUBs to help programming (usually some system). With Utility I mean tools like a calculator program.
Audio player, yes at the moment I would tag them with Viewer. "Player" would be a confusing tag. And a program to show animations could be called both viewer or player, so it's kind of the same. If you don't have a better idea :)
Engine is meant for game engines. I would call your GUI engine a GUI library actually.
Interpreter is meant for interpreters of commands, programming languages or byte code etc. Could also be something like an emulator. If you talk about file structures, I'm not sure yet. Your program also has commands though...
Timo 2024-07-01 21:14 (Edited)
At the moment let's collect ideas while we add tags to programs. After we get some more experience, we can decide which tags are really missing.
(I prefer not to start adding "style" tags like medieval, space, or western. There are too many possibilities... But we will see.)
TrashCan Games 2024-07-02 05:12
I think "Story" could be a useful tag for more story focused games
Timo 2024-07-02 08:14
I would tag story focused games with "Adventure", or do you have an example where Story fits better?
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-02 09:45 (Edited)
Should "converter" be a technical genre?
Also I think I could use the "physics" tag for any math demo.
Timo 2024-07-02 09:57 (Edited)
"converter" is a good idea, maybe also using physics for maths! :)
(but things like graph calculators are not very related to physics... let's see.)
Timo 2024-07-21 12:58
I'm trying to update categories of old programs and I'm starting to be unhappy with the "Demo" category. Or at least its definition. There are many programs with cool effects, but they are quite interactive, some of them are called toys. Originally I wanted to include toys in "Games", but sometimes it really doesn't fit.
Maaaaybe, what I really meant with "Demo" is "Art"! It can be non-interactive, but also interactive. I think it's usually quite clear, if something is a game or not. So in case something is clearly not a game, it's probably Art :)
Then just the separation between Art and Asset would be sometimes hard. But it was already with Demo and Asset. Should I just remove the Asset category?? I mean, it was really clear for Fonts, but if you have a cool picture or a cool song, then it's already difficult to say if it's an Asset or a Demo/Art...
I'm starting to like that idea. Font's are art, too, anyway.
Games, Art, Tools, Examples?
What do you think?
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-22 09:34 (Edited)
It would be quite a big change
Technology demos usually aren't art, or they may be depending on how you look at it, should they then be tagged as examples? I think anything could be art depending on how you look at it.
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-22 10:01 (Edited)
Perhaps assets and demos could be tags so that a piece of art can be an asset, a demo, or both (and the current categorizing efforts would be preserved)
Timo 2024-07-22 13:36
Everything can be art, and all art is discussable ;)
My definition of the category "Art" would be simply "Everything that looks and/or sounds cool, but is not a game". It's anyway very similar with what I thought for "Demos", but now it officially includes interactive stuff, too.
By the way, my idea of "Demo" was always the one of the "demo scene", never of "demo versions (of a game)". I think that was often misunderstood.
And as mentioned before, "Assets" was already not so clear. A song is an asset, a picture is an asset, but if you combine a song and a picture I would already call it "Demo". So the line between them is very thin...
"Assets" was also mainly thought for game creators, where they can find media for their own games. But even non-creators can be interested in listening to a cool song.
It wouldn't be a big change, all current "Demos" and "Assets" would be automatically changed to "Art". All tags would be preserved, so for example a font asset would still be found with the "Fonts" tag.
The main idea is: "Games" and "Art" is something for everybody, but people who really just want to play games can quickly find them.
"Examples" is mostly only for programmers (the code is more interesting than the output).
"Technology demos": If it shows something cool, it's "Art". If it shows something "boring" but has cool code (or not, doesn't really matter), it's an "Example". There is again a gray zone for things like 3D engines. I would say, if they are very game-like (like the Wolf3D demos), just call them "Game", even though they don't have actual game mechanics (yet). It might even be a "viewer" tool. It depends quite a lot on the idea of its creator...
Ok, categories are always complicated. It's never 100% clear. But I think replacing "Demos" and "Assets" (and a small part of toy-games) with "Art" would make it a bit easier.
Timo 2024-07-22 13:39
"the code is more interesting than the output"
I think this might even be the official definition of "Examples" :)
But it might also be used for very simple beginners' programs like "hello world".
Timo 2024-07-23 06:47
How about these definitions?
Game - Something to play
Art - Creative work, but not a game
Tool - Something that lets you be creative or that fulfills a practical purpose
Example - The source code is more interesting or useful than the output
SP4CEBAR 2024-07-23 07:35
These are very clear
Timo 2024-08-10 23:03
I changed the categories now and converted all existing "assets" and "demos" to "art".
SP4CEBAR 2024-08-11 11:47
Nice!