What makes a project proposal valid to be on dev.java.net. I know originally it was open to any old game but I thought that had been tightened up?
What are the criteria?
EDIT: And what template is being given for project descriptions. A one liner saying its “a multiplayer game server aimed to simplfy gaming” isn’t really any use?
Kev
Well im just your temporary adminstrator.
You guys (the community) need to decide on your criteria. I’m drawing the line at projects with NO description, but
unless you guys give me some other guideline Im going to post for discussion anything that has any kind of description ebcause ist not my place to be making decisions on whats and “acceptable” level of detail unilaterally.
JK
I personally don’t think it’s fair that any project is denied, since this is the java game community and any work should be encouraged. But saying that, I also understand the need to not have hundreds of unfinished pieces of code which are going nowhere clogging the project lists.
My suggestion would be to rate projects rather that accept / deny (much like hotels), so we have download areas for projects going from 1 star (say) to 5 sta. Projects could be re-evaluated periodically at the project leads discression and possibly earn another star. This way we would know that the 5 star projects represent the cream of the community and the 1 star projects are the going-nowhere-yet projects.
I vote for “must have filled out a game concept doc (GCD) and preferably provided some base code to kickstart the project”.
Game concept docs are an essential skill to get used to, and there’s no excuse for not doing them. There’s a guide on Gamasutra to writing 2-3 page ones, but most people for these size games can do all the important bits in less than 1 page - perfect!
Any project that starts with base code - no matter how shoddy - is 20 times more likely to go somewhere. There’s really no other way of effectively weeding out all the projects that will start but then do nothing. It’s sounds harsh, but … how hard is it to write some interfaces and a simple game-loop + some very basic prototype code? Even just a menu screen and no game would only take an evening for a begginer using the resources round here (or under 30 minutes for someone who’s done it all before). If people can’t even stretch that far, whats the chance they’ll do anything on their project?
Just MHO…