Showcase section on site?

[eigenbom]

I was asking around on Twitter about SFML-based games, and I think there are quite a few interesting-looking ones that would make a great little visual showcase for the website. Here's a few screenshots and links to the projects - the last one is from my own project, Moonman. (I also added them to the wiki/Projects.)

I think a good format would be the same layout as the front page, but instead have 3 games with images, a description of the game, and maybe a quote from the developer about SFML.

Thoughts?

http://www.pioneersgame.com/


http://vagantegame.com/


http://www.playcrea.com/


http://moonman.io

[eXpl0it3r]

Sounds good to me. So you'd only feature 3 games? Or draw 3 games from a pool randomly?

[eigenbom]

I think you'd just want to pick a good representative sample of about 3 or 4. It's more about answering the question "why kind of games can i (realistically) make with sfml" than "what are all the projects made with sfml".

The unity showcase has good examples: a short snippet of text, a screenshot or two, and a link. https://unity3d.com/showcase/gallery

Maybe this thread could be for potential projects, which are then voted on? Otherwise, maybe the main devs could choose one each?

[eXpl0it3r]

Well I just feel having only 3 or 4 projects picked would be unfair for other projects. As you see with the Unity Showcase and many other similar sites, they usually go for nothing or everything.

[eigenbom]

Well I just feel having only 3 or 4 projects picked would be unfair for other projects. As you see with the Unity Showcase and many other similar sites, they usually go for nothing or everything.

Oh I disagree. Here's some instances:

Unity: Probably millions of games made with unity but they feature about 100 on that main page.

Ogre3d show about 10 games or so, out of the many thousands of commercial games and otherwise: http://www.ogre3d.org/gallery

GLFW: Doesn't have a showcase section, but has a news feed which occasionally features games: http://www.glfw.org/The-Polynomial.html

SDL: Features projects on their front page https://www.libsdl.org/

The question of fairness is something I thought would come up, but this is about promoting SFML and its capabilities -- not promoting the games themselves. If someone gets annoyed because their game isn't shown in the showcase then they are missing the point.

I think the best way to do it would be for Laurent or whoever's mainly in charge these days to just select some from a pool.

[Elias Daler]

Agreed with eXpl0it3r.
Unity showcase section is good because it features one of the most known and technically impressive games made with it. So I think that the most popular/recognizable games should be on the page. There is also another category of games which are good to show: games that doesn't look very typical (not just 2d pixel art platformers).
SDL website shows two random games from the pool of games. This approach is good.

Quoting developers is a good idea, but the page would be too long. If each game has a specific page made about it, then it's okay (like on Unity website)

[Hiura]

SDL website shows two random games from the pool of games. This approach is good.

This is actually quite clever indeed.

[Nexus]

but this is about promoting SFML and its capabilities -- not promoting the games themselves. If someone gets annoyed because their game isn't shown in the showcase then they are missing the point.

It would obviously still promote the games.

There is also another category of games which are good to show: games that doesn't look very typical (not just 2d pixel art platformers).

I totally agree, we should show a wide possible range of genres. The indie scene is already quite flooded with pixel retro games, we shouldn't give the impression that SFML focuses mainly on such games. For example, Ovid the Owl, one of the earliest SFML games, is pretty unique in its graphics style. There are a ton of examples like this.

With some diversity, more people will find an art style that they can identify with. And it's also much more interesting if the page doesn't always look the same. We should however make sure that the changing games don't look like ads -- maybe switch once a day or so?

SDL website shows two random games from the pool of games. This approach is good.

Yes, I'd also go with that.

In case the pool tends to be very biased towards one genre, it would still be possible to let the random generator pick one of each genre... But I don't think that's necessary.

[eigenbom]

This all sounds great, glad you guys are up for it. We definitely want to show off different styles, I agree 100%.

On SDL: I refreshed the SDL page, I see they are from a pool, but the pool doesn't seem that big (maybe 20 games max?) They all seem like commercial games too, and the promotion image is not a screenshot. So I think in this sense it has a different agenda, it's saying "all these great games are made with SDL, you can trust that SDL is capable." Which is different than saying "here's some screenshots, you can make things like these."

So I guess there are two different angles this could be approached from. The good thing about the SDL way is it doesn't matter what style the game is, as they just show the promotion/cover image. It's the fact the game exists, and you can click the link and check it out, that is important there. So maybe we should approach this the same way?

Whatever you choose to do I think we all agree that it'll be nice to have a little section on the site to see some great things made with SFML.

[Tank]

What about combining the ideas?

Random picks are really great for showing all games and getting a nice mixture of a wider variety of games made with SFML.

But "editor's picks" are interesting as well, because they really show "outstanding" games made with SFML. Something that you don't want to miss showing to the interested audience.

So something like a big section similar to Unity with only 1-3 games, and below that some random picks that change with every request.

[Mario]

Yep, thought about something similar. Maybe some carousell with two or three games and a list under it (similar to the books list). Maybe even two lists, one with games, one with non-games (i.e. multimedia stuff)?

[Elias Daler]

Just found out about this site:

http://dev.sfmlprojects.org/games

It looks pretty damn good and may be used to showcase SFML games pretty well.

[Hapax]

I think a showcase of games/projects would make the site much more aethetically pleasing. Not sure how much is necessary but it's always a bonus, right?

I'm not too sure how many projects there are to showcase. You'd need enough to make even random selection worthwhile, let alone separating them into categories.

Just found out about this site:
http://dev.sfmlprojects.org/games

I thought that site had been discarded or given up on or something as there isn't a way to that part from the obvious home page but it's really up-to-date!

[eigenbom]

Just found out about this site:

http://dev.sfmlprojects.org/games

It looks pretty damn good and may be used to showcase SFML games pretty well.

Oh, that looks pretty neat. Would be good to just merge that games page into the main website and adapt the styling appropriately.

[Nexus]

eXpl0it3r maintains that page. Nice indeed, I didn't know he already put some projects online