I’ve just read the official blog post about this. I guess it doesn’t come as much as a surprise given how quiet things have been around here recently, and it is totally understandable. As someone who has recently started building a large, professional project that’s been on the drawing board for quite a while, it is a bit of a disappointment though! Although everything works right now, there were some items from the recent roadmaps that I was really hoping were going to see the light of day soon (I understand that there was never a guarantee). Part of me is now wishing I’d gone with my original instinct and built my own platform…[li]
Anyway, I was just wondering how other creators felt about this?
I’ve seen (and played) some pretty fun and interesting games on it already. It’s definitely enough as it stands for certain types of games. Perhaps it needs more for other types of games - but … as it has been has been enough.
No creator here, though. Merely appreciator.
Edit: I mean - it’s a pity and all. But - I don’t think it means interesting games cannot be created. Perhaps the boundaries may force people to be more imaginative in how to work around them, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. (But not excluding the fact that in some cases it might be.)
I should stop typing. I’m probably drunk.
General post intent: :-( but optimistic :-) edited by babelfishwars on 10/10/2013
[color=#009900]Hanon: no; but if you provide some CC-licensed art in the same style and of similar quality, we’d be happy to upload it. Alternatively if you want to pay Paul’s day rate, let’s talk. But we can’t afford to provide any more art for free, especially with the art appetite that Sunless Sea has.[/color]
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[/color][color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]And that’s really the whole story. We stepped away from SN literally because if we had kept the team on it, we would have gone out of business.[/color]
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[color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]At this point, folks, it’s over to you. 85% of the original roadmap is complete, and SN has way, way more features than Fallen London did in 2010. (Lots of FL would be sooo much better if we’d had linked events or rich quality effects. Man.) If we saw SN revenue or recruitment increase tenfold - and one FL-level success would be enough to do that - then you had better believe we’d be back. A year of our lives went into this thing. We laid off three people when it didn’t work out. Absent that, we don’t have any other options, and we wanted to be open and honest about that.[/color][li] edited by Alexis on 10/11/2013
[color=#009900](I know someone will ask about c[/color][color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]ustom art, so let me extend the offer I’ve made in the past - if anyone has icons they’d like uploaded for a specific world, then as long as it’s at least a dozen, we’ll do a back-door upload.)[/color][li]
I’d just like to say that A: your openness about Failbetter’s inner workings is admirable, even when it’s sad news, and B: I hope that extending into more traditional gaming with Sunless Sea will be very successful (as I suspect it will!)
Aye, StoryNexus is an awesome tool, and I’m having a lot of fun using it. It’s also surprisingly flexible - there’s not much I wanted to do that I’ve found I couldn’t do with a bit of creativity and lateral thinking. Speaking of projects to match FL… well, I hope I’m working on that project! I’m fairly confident, as I can work on it pretty much full time, I have an illustrator and I own a digital marketing agency (kinda helps with these things). But that said, you still have to hit a chord with people to get up to that level of success, and I think that’s more luck than science…[li]
It would also be interesting to do an in-depth constructive analysis as to why FL has been so much more successful than any other game built with SN. I must admit I’m guilty hear too! I dread to think of how much Nex I’ve spent in it, whereas I’m yet to spend any in another SN game…
[quote=Alexis Kennedy]What size and format should art icons be?
[color=#009900]Well, on balance, probably the same size and format as all the other StoryNexus art icons. :)[/color][/quote]I see at least three sizes used for each of the icons. Maybe you need all of them; maybe you just need the biggest one. In the latter case, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if the "master" copy were larger than any of the versions we can see.
Also, the icons supplied with StoryNexus are monochrome with transparency, whereas the custom ones in Below are full-colour. I guess you’d accept either type, but that isn’t a complete given.
So it would be nice if - in due course - you’d confirm the spec, to help us avoid wasting our time or money. (Edit to add: and indeed wasting your time and money sending unsuitable artwork back.) edited by Richard on 10/12/2013
[color=#009900]Monochrome with transparency, the same as the other StoryNexus art icons, all three sizes if you want all three sizes, not all three sizes if you don’t intend to use them at a given size.[/color][li]
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[color=#009900]And, you’re welcome.[/color]
Well…jumping into a random game and pulling the images out so I can examine them… They seem to be PNG files. A full card size says 100x130. The slightly smaller size for a major lateral says 40x52. A teeny one next to a circumstance also says 40x52. The teeny ones in the skill challenge bars also say 100x130.
In a branch, the biggest one in the root is 100x130. The slightly smaller ones in choice branches also say 100x130.
So it looks like Storynexus is scaling two different sizes for several different things. Any idea what the third one might possibly be Richard?
Alexis - do you genuinely not know, or is it a design doc secret? Sorry to be pushy on this, but as Richard said and you and Paul probably understand, having us guess at the exact ratio and taking a chance of the art being squashed and unsuitable doesn’t seem like a good use of FB time since you’re kind enough to do this for us.
[color=#009900]It’s not any kind of secret, but off the top of my head I’ve no idea, and the way I would find out is literally to go and right-click - inspect in Chrome. I could ask Paul but it’s the weekend.[/color]
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[color=#009900]And honestly, I don’t want to post half a spec on a community thread when it’s all theoretical. If you line up an illustrator or designer, get 'em to mail us and talk it through and we can suggest best approaches. If you find a suitable resource of existing CC images, ask us if they’ll suit. [/color]
[quote=Hanon Ondricek]Well…jumping into a random game and pulling the images out so I can examine them… They seem to be PNG files. A full card size says 100x130. The slightly smaller size for a major lateral says 40x52. A teeny one next to a circumstance also says 40x52. The teeny ones in the skill challenge bars also say 100x130.
In a branch, the biggest one in the root is 100x130. The slightly smaller ones in choice branches also say 100x130.
So it looks like Storynexus is scaling two different sizes for several different things. Any idea what the third one might possibly be Richard?
Alexis - do you genuinely not know, or is it a design doc secret? Sorry to be pushy on this, but as Richard said and you and Paul probably understand, having us guess at the exact ratio and taking a chance of the art being squashed and unsuitable doesn’t seem like a good use of FB time since you’re kind enough to do this for us.[/quote]
Here, just as an experiment is my attempt at “corridorsquare” as a 100x130 PNG file. You may all heartily chuckle at my illustration skills, I am no Paul Arendt, and by no means do I mean for this to be the actual icon. Is this the type of thing that would work? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/205336175/corridorsquare.png
[quote=Hanon Ondricek]Here, just as an experiment is my attempt at "corridorsquare" as a 100x130 PNG file. You may all heartily chuckle at my illustration skills, I am no Paul Arendt, and by no means do I mean for this to be the actual icon. Is this the type of thing that would work? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/205336175/corridorsquare.png[/quote]
[color=#009900]I guess so? If you want to check out how it looks in SN, save an HTML file locally or have a play, or use something like Chrome’s inspect | edit attribute.[/color][li]
The ones I think would work awesomely - they are not as detailed as Mr. Arendt, but they use the same silhouette kind of style that everything else does: http://game-icons.net These are apparently CC 3.0 (must credit author, but otherwise free)… Would it be okay to reach out to this person to see if he’d be amenable to his icons being featured in StoryNexus for no fee but credit?
[color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]To be used and featured for credit in your world specifically, sure! Not for SN generally - they’re very visually different.[/color]
Actually - probably better to perhaps just direct authors to this site and let them give you the set they need with the requirement they credit the site. My brain was just working overtime. Thanks.
[color=#009900]Okay! We’ve talked all this over at Failbetter Central and we have some unexpected good news for you.[li][/color]
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[color=#009900]- we’re adding the ability to use externally hosted art assets (‘hotlink’) as SN icons. This means you’ll be able to host your own images on a site elsewhere and use them in SN without uploading them. It also means you can use someone else’s images, with their permission - our standard IP and takedown policies will apply here.[/color]
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[color=#009900]- we’re also adding the ability to add custom CSS to a world. We’ll add a line to the ToS prohibiting removal of the SN promo bar, and any other abuse that CSS editing may permit, but it’ll give you much more detailed control over the look and feel of a world, if you want to get your hands dirty.[/color]
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[color=#009900]These should go live some time next week, at which point we’ll update the documentation to match.[/color]
Wow, this looks great! Since I’ve figured out how to put in off-site hosted music and some pictures inline with the text, this actually makes StoryNexus quite flexible! Thank you FB![li] edited by HanonO on 10/17/2013