Better way to announce new releases of AGS (Editor & Engine)?

Started by Crimson Wizard, Sun 12/06/2016 13:57:29

Previous topic - Next topic

Crimson Wizard

I was worrying that knowing about new AGS (Editor) release may be a bit tricky for a person who visits the website. They need to either check "Download AGS" section, where the version is displayed in a very small font, and may not be noticed at the first glance, or login to forums and check whether there is a new topic in the "AGS Engine & Editor Releases".

Would that be possible to add an actual "News" section to the website to post announcements about new releases with links to forum thread (and maybe something else, like AGS Awards, or what you find appropriate)?

CaptainD

Or maybe in the Games section a "New Releases" or "Recent Releases" along with the existing "Pick of the Month", "Showcase" and "AGS Awards" sections?
 

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: CaptainD on Sun 12/06/2016 14:47:53
Or maybe in the Games section a "New Releases" or "Recent Releases" along with the existing "Pick of the Month", "Showcase" and "AGS Awards" sections?
Games section? I am speaking of AGS Editor & Engine releases.

Fixed the topic title to prevent confusion.

cat

There is a "Recent News" box on the AGS main page that shows news from December 2014 :-\. Maybe you can add the releases there instead?

Crimson Wizard


CaptainD

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 12/06/2016 15:11:43
Quote from: CaptainD on Sun 12/06/2016 14:47:53
Or maybe in the Games section a "New Releases" or "Recent Releases" along with the existing "Pick of the Month", "Showcase" and "AGS Awards" sections?
Games section? I am speaking of AGS Editor & Engine releases.

Fixed the topic title to prevent confusion.

Sorry yeah, my mistake. :-[
 

AGA

CJ used to announce major releases on the forums.  But I'm not involved enough in it to keep up to date.  I'll see if I can get you set up to update that stuff.

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: AGA on Sun 12/06/2016 18:09:38
CJ used to announce major releases on the forums.  But I'm not involved enough in it to keep up to date.  I'll see if I can get you set up to update that stuff.

Maybe I am asking for something excessive? I do not know what is other people's opinion on this.
I noticed that many other projects use homepage to display release news, it is usually first thing you see when open their site.

Danvzare

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 12/06/2016 18:17:15
Quote from: AGA on Sun 12/06/2016 18:09:38
CJ used to announce major releases on the forums.  But I'm not involved enough in it to keep up to date.  I'll see if I can get you set up to update that stuff.

Maybe I am asking for something excessive? I do not know what is other people's opinion on this.
I noticed that many other projects use homepage to display release news, it is usually first thing you see when open their site.
To be honest, I'm surprised that new releases aren't announced on the main website.
It's quite hard for someone who doesn't frequent the forum to find out if a new version has been released. So if it was possible to update the news on the main website, that would be brilliant. At least, in my opinion.

Cassiebsg

I'm guessing that people that use the forum, will go strait to the forum (think the top "banner" where the Awards and Mittens is displayed, would be a nice place to put it... just not as big at it currently is). On the site, yes as well. People that come from the "outside" world will land there first, and it can be a bit of a puzzle in it self to find the relevant download info.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Crimson Wizard

#10
I would like to ask about following change to the download page.

I think there may be 3 versions the people may be interested in: latest stable version, previous stable version (if they are not ready to move to newer one, but still may check if any patches are released for previous one), and upcoming alpha/beta.
Additionally, since there is a build server now, we may provide a link to "nightly" version download (unguaranteed to work version for those who like to test experimental stuff).

EDIT: This is an example why we really need beta link on homepage: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=53816.0
This is becoming a real issue!

I am not sure how it may be better to arrange this on the webpage, but I can suggest following:

At clear sight:
* A big download button to get newest version of AGS.
* A smaller download button to get the latest patch of the previous version.
Near each of those two buttons - links to ZIP archives, main and no-mp3 one; possibly, under "More >>>" "spoiler tag".

Under the "Other downloads >>>" "spoiler tag":
* A link to the version in development (visible only if the first alpha/beta was released) - this link will probably lead to related forum topic.
* A link to nightly builds - probably should lead to forum topic explaining how to get ones.
* Links to very old versions of AGS. BTW I proposed to reference AGS Archives here instead of keeping 3 particular versions, as soon as AGSA will have old AGS download page ready again.

Under "Source code >>>":
* A link to repository.

Under "AGS Addons >>>"
* A link to modules & plugins.


I would appreciate very very much if there was some runnable script or other mechanism that would allow me to change actual links without having to ask site admins all the time. (I have already told this to AGA in PM, now waiting for his decision)

AGA

Sounds like a decent plan.  I'll take a look once I've recovered from my return from Mittens (hopefully tomorrow).

AGA

Okay, I've changed the AGS releases page to hopefully match what you were looking for.  Version numbers and URLs will now also be drawn from the XML file you'll find in the releases folder (which you can edit whenever you upload a new version).  I've put in what might be correct data, but I'd recommend you double check it.  Let me know if there's something you think needs to be tweaked.

Crimson Wizard

Hey, just tested this (was fixing couple of links), and this is working! Thanks a lot.

Crimson Wizard

AGA, the download page does not assume an option that there is no version in development yet (or no discussion thread yet). I tried to comment "development_version_number" and "development_version_thread" out, but the page still displays following paragraph:

QuoteOn this AGS forums thread you can find releases of the latest version of AGS in development (). These are not guaranteed to be stable, and should not necessarily be used yet on game projects.

The link is leading to http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/.

Crimson Wizard

Would it be okay to give Alan Drake permissions to post Draconian Edition on the "Releases" board?

I am concerned about ways to let people know that this is "custom" version that has different ways of development and support. Would simply noting these facts in the thread itself be enough? Or maybe create another subboard ("Custom versions")? (can make forum bit messier).

cat

What about prefixing those thread titles with [Custom] or [Unofficial] ?

Danvzare


selmiak

what about [merge it into the main branch already, man]

Crimson Wizard

#19
Quote from: selmiak on Thu 08/12/2016 13:46:05
what about [merge it into the main branch already, man]
Merge what exactly? Is it good? is it working? was it tested? Is it compatible with the main branch?
If Alan will make a pull request, I will be able to at least review the changes and see if they may be merged without breaking anything. Otherwise I would have to go and research everything he did in his branch myself, distinguish the changes and work them into the branch. And I do not have time for that.

selmiak




Alan v.Drake

It's unclear who owns bigbluecup.org now. Probably some random domain seller loanshark :~(

- Alan

Crimson Wizard

Quote from: Alan v.Drake on Mon 23/10/2017 17:50:09
It's unclear who owns bigbluecup.org now. Probably some random domain seller loanshark :~(

That is a different address, org, not com. It was where our build server was located.
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=52581.0

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk