I recommend the Glorious Trainwrecks site. Its focus is on very short-form games (quick sketches of ideas, and some would even say "joke" games - which is what I do there pretty much exclusively), and has basically canonized Klik n' Play. It's a light-hearted game-making site that I think is worth it for anyone to participate in, from novices to seasoned veterans.
The focus is simply on creating games and quick turnarounds, as opposed to aiming for perfection over a months-long development schedule. This way, everyone can be involved with minimal setup time and virtually no pressure to create awesome graphics or flawlessly-immersive storylines. Create a game, and let it go out into the world. If it sucks, no big deal...there's always the next Klik Jam.
I can easily see a partnership between GT and TDC, feeding off one anothers' strengths and making both better off. The weekly roundups here, for example, can feature folks two-hour creations. Plus, there would be more content generated for the GT Klik game jams.
(And all game creation tools are welcome, not just Klik Products)
Originally Posted by Phredreeke Downloaded games from that site... then I get error because I can't run 16-bit apps (got a 64-bit OS)
Fortunately, many others are solving the problem you mentioned...Much like TDC, they welcome pretty much any game-making tool for people to make games. Some of them are Flash apps or made in Unity or whatever, and don't require a download. It all depends on the game in particular.
If you really want to play some of the games made on KNP, then you could always bust out DOSBox.
The main reason why the site is dying, I think, is that the people who hang around TDC are good enough to be professional. Remember the days when TDC got flooded with complete shit games from people who were just starting out? Every few weeks, we'd get a kick-ass game from a master. And in between, we'd occupy ourselves with the garbage. (I would know - I submitted 100% garbage.) But it didn't matter. It was god damned fun to make games.
In addition to the problem mentioned above, there's the fact that the economy sucks, and fun, leisurely game making doesn't fit into most people's schedules. We want to make money. We NEED to make money.
The other problem is that there aren't really any kids who are into this kind of game making anymore. Fuck, I don't know very many kids who are interested in anything that's not celebrity tweet related. Maybe it's just my area/the kids I know, but they just don't seem to be very interested in stuff. Christ, when I was seven, I got into K&P. I joined the community when I was twelve.
I don't know. Maybe it's just run its course?
Edited by Retired Kliker Lazarus
Fine Garbage since 2003.
CURRENT PROJECT:
-Paying off a massive amount of debt in college loans.
-Working in television.
Seriously though. This place used to be a buzzing metropolis of fun times and occasionally mild retardation (the latter mostly on my part.) What the hell happened? Who is still around? I see Chris Street, Shab, Snerlin, and Phredeekee. Where is Hayo, Johnny Smeby, that guy who made Satan Sam, and so on and so forth?
Edited by Retired Kliker Lazarus
Fine Garbage since 2003.
CURRENT PROJECT:
-Paying off a massive amount of debt in college loans.
-Working in television.
Originally Posted by Ye Olde Lazarus The other problem is that there aren't really any kids who are into this kind of game making anymore. Fuck, I don't know very many kids who are interested in anything that's not celebrity tweet related. Maybe it's just my area/the kids I know, but they just don't seem to be very interested in stuff. Christ, when I was seven, I got into K&P. I joined the community when I was twelve.
There's plenty of them. They're just not using klik products. Klik has run its course. It's like VB or ASP, good product, but not good enough. It's slow. I mean, I can just whip out a decent combat engine that utilizes three dozen variables in Python in half a week, but it'd take me half a month to do it in MMF, because I won't be able to read my own code.
Kids these days make Game Maker games. GM was once a joke, but now it's more popular than klik, even used in educational institutions now.
And plus, unlike the good old days, it's really easy to learn C++ properly. Or python, or some other thing. Heck, Python is miles easier than either Lua or MMF. It's also pretty easy to get a platform library for most code.
And klikers just never moved past the amateur stage. There's just no teamwork. MMF is too buggy and clumsy to withstand massive projects. Open source or just building a better engine on top of a good engine never caught on. There's no klik games that are on the same level as other indie games.
Edited by Muz
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I am actually re-browsing this site for the first time in years. My story is similar to Ye Olde Lazarus, I started in 4th grade with Lucas Ahearn's (sp?) book, and from there went on to conquer all things klik. Looking back, I now can use pretty much any modern programming language (including non-languages like GMK), yet still dug up my old TGF2 install disks some months ago for some rapid prototyping work.
That is why TGF will always have its place: we used to have 1 hour competitions. You cannot do that with any other programming system (save for GM).
Anyway, I have started getting a touch nostalgic lately, and have been really working to track down and re-download the games that I used to love years ago. You know, the electroids (my fav klik series), the gunners, fish/spiderheads, a side scrolling Konami game in a 320x200 window with crazy bosses, this crazy tongue in cheek adventure platformer... (you see how hard this can get when you forget the game names)
I also had quite a few huge projects in the works using tricks that I had never released (nor seen anywhere else) at the time. Of course, it is all old hat now, but the stuff was crazy back then. I remember years ago on the CT forums when I introduced procedurally generated lightmaps using only TGF2 (no extensions), or even the 'demo mode' that eventually became baked in as a feature (I was on a roll haha).
Its unfortunate to see what the Klik community has become. Its like returning after a hurricane to see only ruins where your house was. You remember what was there and have tons of fantastic memories, but what is there now is only a shadow of what it once was
Sorry guys, I'm done. Just wanted to reminisce for a bit.
Hmm... I was thinking of making a new TDC site from scratch into PHP (since I work as a web designer now). New coat of paint would be fun, maybe even design it to more modern standards - SEO friendly stuff, more security, design it to fit ipads and ipods and TV screens, proper color scheme, CSS3, HTML5.
But yeah, time. And if I wanted to work on sites, I might as well on website tech like I'm getting paid to do.
I'll be happy to hold someone's hand through making a TDC site from scratch though. It could look better than Tigsource even
Edited by Muz
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.