One More Block

It seems to me that no much is happening on this forum anymore.... does anyone have something to say about this? I enjoy this forum and don't want it to die.

A few times people have brought this up, often ending in arguments. Regardless, I will be doing my best to speak respectfully, avoid speaking in absolution and close-mindedness, as I hope everyone else will be as well.

I entirely agree that activity has decreased significantly. This of course is disheartening or saddening for those hoping to lead large projects or rally major followings behind specific events or media. I cannot help my tendency to stay optimistic and offer that we've formed a small gathering of users who are interested in one another. Which is why I tend to doubt revamps, revisions or reconstructions are needed to fix this issue, which I am more than happy to accept disagreements against and I am not opposed to changing my opinion at all!

I think it is mainly a conflict of time, schedules, interest and activity. If the community wants, I suppose we could look into advertising Atmosphir on indiegame blogs and garner attention that way-- it depends on who exactly we decide we want to entice or facilitate

I think the issue with the threads previously is that it was just complaining, whereas we should use this thread to come up with ideas to boost activity. Personally I agree that we need to advertise, and try and get back in contact with halsey.

StreetLights wrote:contact with halsey.

Yes please, but I think you would probably have to convince him somehow that monetizing this game is pretty difficult at this point.

Phantomboy wrote: I think it is mainly a conflict of time, schedules, interest and activity.

This.
I guess a lot of members left because they didn't share a common interest anymore. The thing is, you need a couple members to be active at the same time for a community to be active. You can't just say "I'm gonna be more active on here now", you need someone to communicate with.

SO ANYWAY I LIKE HOW THIS FORUM IS ALWAYS INACTIVE UNTIL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE HAVE TO YELL AT SOMEONE THAT IT'S NOT INACTIVE

Wait, we're not doing that?

Wow. I'm impressed.

Miniike wrote:SO ANYWAY I LIKE HOW THIS FORUM IS ALWAYS INACTIVE UNTIL A BUNCH OF PEOPLE HAVE TO YELL AT SOMEONE THAT IT'S NOT INACTIVE

Wait, we're not doing that?

Wow. I'm impressed.

I guess we're improving

There's been a lot of activity on OneMoreSkype lately.

Honestly i think that's the problem. Too many people are starting discussions there.

StreetLights wrote:Honestly i think that's the problem. Too many people are starting discussions there.

I agree.

I'm not going to kill the skype chat just for that reason though, but we should use that for asking people about things OTHER than omb, and keep atmopshir/omb related stuff here.

Honestly, I really don't see a difference between now and LAST November. These small niche forums have never exactly been famous for bursting at the seams with posts.

On a general level, the active users here are still getting on here regularly. Not as much they could've in 2012 or 2013 I'd wager, but they still have a presence here. The biggest issue is a lack of advertising, which I agree should probably be fixed.

ElectroYoshi wrote:The biggest issue is a lack of advertising, which I agree should probably be fixed.

lets start a riot facebook page or something like that and we could like post shit we made in atmosphir/on the omb server to attract people to play and stuff. instagram also suffices and it's really easy too

An interesting idea, but maybe we should start a bit smaller than that. Perhaps talk about it on another forum or something first?

Phantomboy wrote: If the community wants, I suppose we could look into advertising Atmosphir on indiegame blogs and garner attention that way-- it depends on who exactly we decide we want to entice or facilitate

I do always bring this up whenever this happens. I also keep saying this: We have a game that works, we have a niche market we can fill (make-your-own-game games), we have no interest in and no reason to make it not-free. We have everything we need except the community.

If we could get even one decently sized indiegame news blog to talk about how some people have revived this, that'd be great publicity.

One thing that needs to happen though, is better curation of what levels are shown when you first load atmosphir. Rather than just displaying the LOTDs (since that died), mark a whole bunch as XP levels and promote them to the front page. Preferably the ones that have some effort put in. Then our newbies will see those levels first, rather than the "DEFEAT THE BOSS!!!!!!" default skybox 10 second muka-filled levels that are made by the people who actually still use atmosphir.

Baufritz wrote:Yes please, but I think you would probably have to convince him somehow that monetizing this game is pretty difficult at this point.

Halsey isn't stupid, he isn't going to think that one of his failed investments is worth investing in again, especially in this state.

matthewbny wrote:lets start a riot facebook page or something like that and we could like post shit we made in atmosphir/on the omb server to attract people to play and stuff. instagram also suffices and it's really easy too

thats what this forum is supposed to be. If you move to facebook or instagram, well, you're making it much harder to start and have discussions for one, and this community is still just one person pissing in a sea of piss. If people were looking for Atmosphir, they'd google atmosphir, not facebook search it. As far as I know, when you google 'Atmosphir', you get pointed to OMB and the atmosphir download. Evidently, that isn't working for us.

Anuke wrote:There's been a lot of activity on OneMoreSkype lately.

Another problem is elitism. Right now you have an exclusive club that you have to get into through referral by an existing member (stupid way of looking at it, but it's true). This is where all the discussion takes place. This is not good. Back on Atmosphir, the IRC used to be this 'exclusive club'. Except it wasn't exclusive, as there was a big fat link to it on the top of the page. There still is, infact. The issue of 'well people aren't always in the chat yadda yadda' can be fixed by, ykno, idling in the chat. Stay in the chat at all times, pop in and check it every hour or whatever and you won't miss any hot new topics. That or come up with some sort of chatroom system that isnt invite only. A shoutbox?

Baufritz wrote: I guess a lot of members left because they didn't share a common interest anymore. The thing is, you need a couple members to be active at the same time for a community to be active. You can't just say "I'm gonna be more active on here now", you need someone to communicate with.

some of the old guard (link and zetta for example) who would've been active on the forums aren't active because their sense of humour rubs against you guys's sense of humour. Other people like Yanahma don't give a fuck about you guys, and people like Colinnn or whoever have actually been getting on with their own lives.
We can't keep this community active by holding onto those who used to play atmosphir, because right now that's just you guys - and you guys don't play atmosphir.

If we want this forum to get more popular, you gotta put work in. Either play the game and promote your levels and get the word out about atmosphir, or endure this for another few months, maybe a year. The alternative is to repurpose the forum into a general forum, but that's a surefire way to make it deader than dead. Nobody wants to join a forum for everything when they can join a forum for just their interests.

tl;dr less secret clubs more level designing

matthewbny wrote:lets start a riot Facebook page or something like that and we could like post shit we made in Atmosphir or on the OneMoreBlock server to attract people to play and stuff. Instagram also suffices and it's really easy too

ElectroYoshi wrote:An interesting idea, but maybe we should start a bit smaller than that. Perhaps talk about it on another forum or something first?

I personally enjoy the idea of an Instagram or Facebook page for OMB (Mainly because I'm most active on Insta right now, and Facebook isn't too far behind either). We need to make it the right way though, and would have to have a specific mod team for it (I.E: People who will normally update the thing).

In edition to social network sites, I do stand with ElectroYoshi that we need to advertise on another forum. The only problem is which forums to choose. We'd have to look very far for other niche forums, and indie forums as well.

papaya wrote: 1) We have a game that works, we have a niche market we can fill (make-your-own-game games), we have no interest in and no reason to make it not-free. We have everything we need except the community.

2) If we could get even one decently sized indiegame news blog to talk about how some people have revived this, that'd be great publicity.

3) If you move to Facebook or Instagram, well, you're making it much harder to start and have discussions for one, and this community is still just one person pissing in a sea of piss. If people were looking for Atmosphir, they'd Google Atmosphir, not Facebook search it.

4) Another problem is elitism. Right now you have an exclusive club that you have to get into through referral by an existing member (stupid way of looking at it, but it's true). This is where all the discussion takes place. This is not good. Perhaps there should be a shoutbox?

1) I completely agree with this statement. We need a strong community for this game that is very well playable and fun, but we need to find the right people to be in this community. And by right people, I mean people who actually want/would enjoy being involved. People who like this niche genre of game.

2) I also recommend the idea of getting ourselves on an indie news blog! We should further discuss how we would get on one of these, but it would be great, nevertheless.

3) Well that's a common misconception, but as an active Instagram user, I find that it's social network features work much like a forum. They have the base "programmed" features (like post photos), and then the features created by the community (like TBHs and other Insta games, as well as shoutouts). In any case, we could find very unique people on Insta to join the community, many of which are amateur photographers and artists. I think it would be a very innovative approach.

4) There needs to be an alternative to the Skype group, but we would need active users on it. Right now there just aren't enough individuals to keep a chat board alive. Personally, I think a shoutbox would be a wonderful thing to include, but only if we get more users on the site.

I think the Facebook page idea in particular is a really good idea - even if people aren't directly searching it, our own friends and acquaintances can stumble across it through proxy, which frankly is a pretty good way to get people interested.
There's just the problem of somebody maintaining it, and updating frequently.

I'm not very familiar with Instagram, but from the general demographic of people I see using, it's certainly a viable opportunity.

Furthermore, come the end of November I'll have much more free time, as exams will be over, and summer break will start for me. I don't know how that collates with you guys, but if you need someone with nothing to do to maintain something, or create some sort of content, I have around 6 weeks of free time to contribute.

Right now I suppose is the most difficult time - we need levels to attract players, and we need players to build levels. It's a bit of a cycle, frankly, and it's gonna be difficult to break.

I suggest we start with the Facebook page/Instagram thingymajig.

Another suggestion I have is perhaps we spruce up the Atmosphir link a little? Give the download it's own page, make a cute little graphic or something, perhaps we could make an introductory video?
I suggest not using one of the official Atmosphir videos simply because times have changed, and it may give off the impression that we're a company, rather than a group of ex-community members who got nostalgic and decided to do a thing.

Also, recall the target demographic of Atmosphir itself - I joined the community when I was around 12/13, and continued designing until I was around 15. 12-15 is pretty much our target age demographic, if we're looking for new players. I imagine the bulk of people interested in Atmosphir as it is would be within that demographic, give or take a year or two. There of course would be others, but there'd be a majority.

Of course, we're all a bit older than that now. Most of us have moved on from simple game design - if we haven't taken it a step further, we've branched out into different areas and ways of doing so.
We have to be careful not to 'scare' new users away, simply because we're older.

What I suggest is perhaps a 'Old Gold' section of the forum for older members of the community, and ex-players of Atmosphir, to talk exclusively with other 'Old Gold' members. We can keep our elitism there, I suppose.

I just think we've got to remember the demographic Atmosphir will primarily attract.

I really like the idea of a download page and link on the main forum page, perhaps with a video of some sort

totaldile wrote:What I suggest is perhaps a 'Old Gold' section of the forum for older members of the community, and ex-players of Atmosphir, to talk exclusively with other 'Old Gold' members. We can keep our elitism there, I suppose.

I just think we've got to remember the demographic Atmosphir will primarily attract.

I recently happened upon the topics within Xenforo to create sub-section of the forum which only a selected user group is able to view-- essentially that is how the moderator section is set up. I suppose we created a "Beta-Tester" Section, if the community balloons to a size which necessitates it.

totaldile wrote:Also, recall the target demographic of Atmosphir itself - I joined the community when I was around 12/13, and continued designing until I was around 15. 12-15 is pretty much our target age demographic, if we're looking for new players. I imagine the bulk of people interested in Atmosphir as it is would be within that demographic, give or take a year or two. There of course would be others, but there'd be a majority.

While I do agree with what you're saying here, it also gets me wondering: How might we find people specifically in this age range to market to? I say this because sharing it with people we know in person is not really an option. The fact that I myself am in the 11th grade prevents me from having any real interaction with anyone below the age of 16, and considering that the vast majority of us are in either college or the later years of high school, I kinda feel like I'm not alone there. It's easy to advertise on sites that pertain to games in general, because they're about... well, games in general. But gaming sites that are primarily visited by people between 12-15? Those are harder to come by.

I dunno. Just my two cents.

could find some popular youtuber willing to give it a go