Author Topic: Daimonin summary for game listings (Read 6579 times)

_people_

I'm working on writing a new summary for Daimonin to publish on some MMORPG lists that we aren't already on. I've got Joe working on some screenshots, but more would be appreciated. I'll look through them all and pick the best ones for display.

Here's what I've written on the text summary so far:

Quote

Daimonin is a 2D-isometric fantasy MMO. It has aspects of traditional RPG genres such has hack'n'slash and rogue-like, but also has several unique aspects of its own. Among its specialty aspects is its community of friendly, supportive players. Throughout Daimonin's life, it has always been known for its friendly, close-knit community. Many players have continued playing solely to chat with friends.
Daimonin's plot is focused around an on-going war with an evil deity named Moroch. In a battle which occurred 35 years ago, an artifact was found by Moroch's opposition, humankind, which allowed them to restore their life force. This artifact, known as the Tabernacle of Life, plays a pivotal role in the game. Another byproduct of that war is a time loop which the gameworld is locked in. This has a few different effects on the gameplay.

The game features a large, open world with numerous dungeons, quests, items, and monsters. New dungeons, quests, and items are constantly being added to expand the gameworld. The plot isn't fully implemented in the gameworld but is progressively being added.
Daimonin has existed since 2001. It's survived many years of ups and downs. Currently we're trying to boost a stagnant playerbase by advertising on various sites. The game is open-source and we're always looking for developers to help out. We also accept player-designed maps, artwork and music. Daimonin's mapmaker program is very easy to use and has many features to make the content-making process enjoyable and intuitive.

Any suggestions for improvements/additions would be much appreciated!

clobber

Seems nicely encompassing.

I wonder whether we ought to look at some different game repositories and see whether daimonin could be added to them?

petarkiller

I like it, its not too short and not too long. People don't like to read a lot before even trying a game out.

_people_

A note to everyone: Our ratings on MMORPG.com are very low. I've just made an account to raise them. They have a system in place which requires a rank of 5 to vote, but it doesn't take long to attain that rank. I made the account yesterday, wrote two forum posts (useful posts, not just filler), logged in today, and had a rank of 32. It would be great if everyone could contribute their vote.

Quote from: clobber on 03, August 2014, 14:33:04

I wonder whether we ought to look at some different game repositories and see whether daimonin could be added to them?

The problem with getting added to repositories is that most of them are Linux (primarily Debian) based. With this comes an obligation to follow the Debian Free Software Guidelines. A long time ago I started on this undertaking and made decent progress. However there's still quite a bit left to be done.

There are a few client graphics whose origins are still unknown/undocumented, so we have to replace them to ensure they're DFSG-compliant.

Also, the way Daimonin's facepack files work is not DFSG-compliant. Because our pre-compiled facepack file contains non-DFSG images (ones we've borrowed from Dink, David Gervais, et al.) the client has to download that file from an external source, which it doesn't (we include the file with the download, and cache any images that aren't in it). From there I still have to make a Debian package and pass it by the Debian repo maintainers, who might then reject me and tell me to make even more changes.

Many other Linux repos have the same guidelines as Debian (most notably Ubuntu). While I really think it would help us out, it's a lot of work and I'm still not sure whether it's the best place to put my current efforts. In reality it's only a matter of making the client download the facepack from SF on DFSG builds and delegating everything else. But that could take some time as well.

smacky

Generally good I think. Suggestions:

Make it shorter. Cut the 2nd paragraph entirely (nothing there is relevant to/going to attract new players, and the time loop aspect doesn't really exist/affect gameplay until 0.10.7 [Shroud notwithstanding]).
In the 1st paragraph ditch the 2nd use of 'friendly'. Frame the last sentence in a more positive way (ATM it's too easy to read between the lines: the game is crap but there are some nice players.
In the 3rd paragraph again frame the plot bit more positively.
In the 4th paragraph don't use the word stagnant.

So (added ~~removed~~):

Quote

Daimonin is a 2D-isometric fantasy MMO. It has aspects of traditional RPG genres such has hack'n'slash and rogue-like, but also has several unique aspects of its own. ~~Among its specialty aspects is its community of friendly, supportive players. Throughout Daimonin's life, it~~Daimonin has always been known for its ~~friendly,~~ close-knit community of friendly, supportive players. ~~Many players have continued playing solely to chat with friends.~~

Daimonin's plot is focused around an on-going war with an evil deity named Moroch. In a battle which occurred 35 years ago, an artifact was found by Moroch's opposition, humankind, which allowed them to restore their life force. This artifact, known as the Tabernacle of Life, plays a pivotal role in the game. Another byproduct of that war is a time loop which the gameworld is locked in. This has a few different effects on the gameplay.

The game features a large, open world with intricate plot and numerous dungeons, quests, items, and monsters. The plot is progressively being implemented and new dungeons, quests, and items are constantly being added to expand the gameworld. ~~The plot isn't fully implemented in the gameworld but is progressively being added.~~

Daimonin has existed since 2001. It's survived many years of ups and downs. Currently we're trying to boost ~~a stagnant~~the playerbase ~~by advertising on various sites~~. The game is open-source and we're always looking for developers to help out. We also accept player-designed maps, artwork and music. Daimonin's mapmaker program is very easy to use and has many features to make the content-making process enjoyable and intuitive.

clobber

Well, Joe and I are decent artists.

If you can tell us how to figure out which images, we can get started on that (sorry, Joe

) and then at least we'll be a little closer. That way if it ever does become a focus, it will be less work.

Just seeing Smacky's sneaked in reply... So a suggestion on that front. Maybe add something about how we develop the game as a community and many ideas come from players and are discussed by the players, tested by players etc.?

_people_

@Clobber: Download the Subsidity skin. Subaru made it for me last time I attempted this project. Delete from your client folder (rather, move to another folder so you can re-add) any files that exist in both Subsidity and your vanilla copy of the client. I'm not entirely sure which of the remnants are properly licensed, so many of them should be replaced or if we can prove that they were made for Daimonin they should be fine.

Add any images you change or verify to the Subsidity skin. If you need help with verification I can help out since I know where some of the licenses can be found.

I also remembered that our bitmap fonts are NOT DFSG-compliant. Fortunately Smacky has implemented DaiFonts which will be the next step. So we also need a nice-looking font replacement. See Smacky's DaiFonts info for details:
https://www.daimonin.org/daipedia/DaiFonts
https://www.daimonin.org/forums/daimonin-project/daifonts

petarkiller

What clobber said, it would be nice for possibly new players to know if players can suggest ideas. Getting more players would be nice. at least i hope for server to be as popular as it was in b4.

smacky

I agree that we should play to our (not fully realised still) strength of player involvement in dev and therefore mention the suggestions thing (in the last para which already mentions maps, art, and music. Rereading it I also think we should drop the 'currently we are trying to boost the playerbase' sentence entirely.

We also (probably IMO) need to keep this aimed at attracting players, not code-type devs.

For the Subsidity skin, you should be able to just use the --addon switch I think.

Re DaiFonts: these were in the allOurHardWork/SECoND clients, not the current one. In future we'll probably just use a generic font library rather than custom code (means unnecessary bloat but much more convenient so each player can use whatever fonts he has on his computer = no licensing issues for us).

EDIT: Going back to the blurb, get rid of all but the first sentence of para 3 and merge it to para 1 (para 2 is already removed). So currently my revision is:

Quote

Daimonin is a 2D isometric fantasy MMO. It has elements of traditional RPG genres such has hack'n'slash and rogue-like, but also has several unique features of its own. Daimonin has always been known for its close-knit community of friendly and supportive players. The game features a large, open world with intricate plot and numerous dungeons, quests, items, and monsters.

Daimonin has existed since 2001, surviving many ups and downs. The game is open-source and we're always looking for developers to help out. We also accept player-designed maps, artwork and music. Daimonin's mapmaker program is very easy to use and has many features to make the content-making process enjoyable and intuitive. [WHATEVER ABOUT PLAYER SUGGESTIONS HERE]

So this trims it right down.. Now perhaps add some new stuff/flesh it out a bit.

_people_

Yeah, the --addon stuff works fine, I only said to delete/move the files to get an idea of which files we have "free" versions of.

Shroud

Just going to give my 2 cents but is this intended to attract players? Cause I'd imagine that it should look a bit more like a sales pitch and a bit less like a documentary.

I'd assume that two things that should definitely be included is a goal (does daimonin have one? If not should it get one) and secondly the "exciting" way they'll realise it.

e.g. Aim to become the strongest in Daimonin! Smite your enemies with divine prayers! Wield destructive magic to annihilate your foes! Crush monsters with lethal weapons! Join the fight against Moroch today!

Admittedly my writing sucks (at least this late at night) but you can see how it's from player perspective. Presumably small download size would also appeal to people along with fact it's compatible with most systems and not cpu intensive.

I think that it could be beneficial to have a bit of a framework linked to recruitment in B6 so that what is produced would tie in to recruitment drive. For example what are hopes and dreams players should have and how they will achieve it. Ideally it should be possible for game not to be completed that also requires content to get trickier or caps to be a lot higher (or even harder to get to). Prestige titles could also be interesting so it gives goals to aim towards. I'm slightly going off topic but that's how I'd approach problem from a marketing perspective

petarkiller

Shroud i think that your idea about prestige titles, and the rest of course.

smacky

Prestige titles are already in there (that's how we get eg, Lord Michtoen and Clobber, Clobberer of VOLs). BUT essentially these should be really special achievements (so when Sir Petarkiller or Petarkiller the Dragon Smiter appears his title or epithet really means something, causing onlookers to oo! and ah! and Cutintwo to giggle girlishly). So we need toooo get the gameworld more complete before we allow this.

Shroud

I agree completely with what Smacky says there. In the end it's finding worthwhile challenges to gloat about that's where bottleneck lies

petarkiller

Hmm now that sounds nice, i'd prefer Petarkiller the dragon slayer

or Dragon slayer petarkiller

and it would be nice if there was a command for people to choose which title they want to use.
Example kill 5000 dragons to gain Dragon slayer title, and such.
and be able to change between old and new ones you get.
So that you could also see some requirements to get a title, some secret titles and such.

Author Topic: Daimonin summary for game listings (Read 6579 times)

_people_

Daimonin summary for game listings

clobber

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petarkiller

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smacky

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clobber

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petarkiller

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smacky

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Shroud

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petarkiller

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smacky

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Shroud

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petarkiller

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