Hello community,
Today I'm making another post to update you guys on my plans for the site as of now. As for the website, I'll be learning to deal with things myself on the web side and Yuko will be helping me along the way. This will cause any unnecessary setbacks later. The future of "Eclipse" can be a bright one, but I believe the vision below is the way to do so.
"Eclipse" will become a platform for developers and overall content creators. We're also changing the name to BitRocket, the idea behind BitRocket is that "Innovation starts at a low level, but your ideas can ascend to a higher place." That's my own simple reasoning behind choosing that name, however, it was suggested to me I did not come up with it. I hope that you guys will get past the name to read the next portion.
BitRocket simply aims to be a platform for people who aspire to be game developers, designers and content creators. Hopefully it will be a place where you can share resources, communicate with other members to create projects together as well as a place where you can have your projects shared in the spotlight. To understand BitRocket you have to understand the past of Eclipse. Eclipse has always been a relaxed environment where creators with ideas could attempt to make those ideas a reality. Here at Eclipse for a long time people have shared their ideas, experience and have grown with the site. A lot of people moved on past the site because simply it was at a point where they could gain nothing more from it, this is no single person's fault, but we've fallen apart as a communtiy and literally are at the lowest point in the history of the site besides when it probably first began.
Now that you have an idea of where Eclipse currently stand, I'll explain my plan to move it past that. I'll start by saying I'm truly grateful for the dedicated members of the community, a lot of you have contributed to what this site is today, I joined here as a member myself aspiring to be a game developer many years ago. Truth be told, Eclipse's software has not been capable of doing that, but it has always been a great stepping stone.
I plan to continue to have it be a stepping stone, but I want to also promote our members projects. I'd like to have an software that's more up to date, but in all honesty every engine will be allowed use here at Eclipse and we'll welcome all sites that are creating engines..our aim as BitRocket is no longer to compete with those sites, in fact it's not to compete with anyone at all (not anymore) put simply I want a fun community and something I can say that I'm proud of, hopefully the staff and members will be able to say the same. That they're proud of what they were able to create or contribute.
My focus is no longer to create a shiny new engine, chances are for the site I'll use an pre-existing open source one and try to polish it up and still credit the original creators of that engine. So I guess if you've read this far, you're asking...well what will the point of BitRocket be? I mentioned earlier that we'll be trying to make it a platform, I meant exactly that. We'll be a platform that offers tools and opportunities to have your project reach a larger audience. Now you're asking how that will be possible when we don't have much to start from?
After I do release the new website I personally will be marketing the site as much as possible and reaching out to every single connection I have from streamers to other sites similiar as well as partners. BitRocket will have a section that puts games in the spotlight that apply to have their game put there, this will include creating prize driven competitions to draw crowds to the site. There will be no cost involved in this.
I'm aware that the idea isn't fully put together and needs a lot of work, but I'm thinking about steps in the future as well and I'm trying to plan accordingly. As of right now though, I'm trying to take it one step at a time, that simply starts with launching the new website and getting another engine. I'll try to update the community as often as possible. So I'm moving on to a few last notes, besides promoting projects we'll also try to promote streamers and content creators on our social media outlets once they've been launched and we've gained stability.
Here are some future problems I expect to run into and how I plan to handle them if they occour:
The website growing larger than I'm capable of managing. This will call for more ranks to be created that are specific to certain areas, including a support team...a team that approves game applications based on experienced developers or as close as possible.
Website costs:
I will either depend on the community at this point, I don't plan to profit from this idea so if it turns out well I believe the communtiy will be supportive. If worse comes to shove at this point we'll start thinking of alternatives that can produce revenue, but do not make members feel uncomftorable or interfere with the atmoshphere of the community.
People thinking that I'm a dictator based on decisions:
I'll establish a system where trusted staff members are on a board (not like a business) but the board will help vote on decisions for the site that can GREATLY impact it negatively or positively. This will stop me from having the power alone to destroy the site with biased decisions.
Members afraid of abuse due to the past: We're creating strict guidelines about how staff will handle situations. This will also come to voting in the end. Staff will build a case against a members before that member can be banned. A staff members would need to have evidence against the member which goes against the rules and guidelines of the site, but to make it even more comftorable that staff members will need to present it to the other staff (Being the staff that handle member altercations or general forum disruption, not every staff member) then they will need x amount of votes passed in order to carry out the ban. The ban will still need to follow the guidelines, ex. Members broke x rule which is punishable by x amount day ban. The only time voting will not be needed is when a staff members mutes a member, they will however need to provide proof within the log. I and the other managers will keep a eye on these logs in case any disputes are made.
This protects the member and the staff. Feel free to add suggestions. That's all I have for you guys, just know that I'm working on getting things in order. It wont happen overnight as I'm now learning web development myself to better manage the website, but be patient with me.
- Link