Community tutorials/videos collaboration

Collaborate
#1

Hi! :wink:

As a result of Defold Popularity thread I thought we could start a community driven project to help Defold reach broader audience! :smiley: I made some shy attempts there, so here’s the brave one! :smiley:

The main reason for this is that I don’t want to add tasks for Björn and Matthias, as they have already a lot to do and this is surely something we could do, with no deadlines and no hurry.

I think (and it is supported by many examples) that people who already worked with another engine would not likely switch to Defold, if they are glued to the current one. But if they do so, the learning should be very understandable for them as they know many core concepts. So they need just a “switch” tutorials, which I don’t entirely know how to do, because I was not working long enough with say Unity or Godot to have a mature, love/hate relationship with them and know exactly what veterans would look for from their perspective.

So after separating it, another group are indiedevs that are starting the journey and could use Defold without any prejudices. They need a special care. They are looking for examples and how to do certain things, because they don’t have a proper gamedev knowledge on even how to search for gamedev related texts. They search “how to make lights”, not “how to write a fragment shader to blend textures from two render targers”.

:mailbox_with_mail: Invitation

So I would like to invite you to collaborate on a new page, tutorial series or even video series about how to start working with Defold - that could be affordable to all newcomers.

Everyone can add whatever you would like to - scripts, ideas, corrections, translations, assets, screenshots, gifs (yes, I think that we should prepare some visually attractive gifs to use on website as it is more compelling than pics).

I started with Editor Overview and Defold Building Blocks explanation, here:

And first question:
What do you think about this kind of video background? (WIP)

com-resize%20(8)
ezgif.com-resize (8).gif1021×523 6.91 MB

12 Likes
#2

I love your initiative! :clap::grin:
About the gif I think it looks really good! That’s the way to go!

This is an example of how google makes short video tutorials of flutter’s widgets (I really like this model and it’s super intuitive)

4 Likes
#3

:heart:

I love this initiative and it is something we encourage. I mentioned that we are thinking about how to restructure the learn section and one thing I like to do is highlight community created content more and integrate it with the rest of the learning materials.

7 Likes
#4

I love the style of Google animations! Here’s another version for explaining what Game Object is:

Honeycam%202021-02-25%2009-49-35
Honeycam 2021-02-25 09-49-35.gif2552×1318 624 KB

Also, updates were added to the first tutorial in the document above, if some of you would like to review it and eventually comment if something is wrong, please do so :wink: Especially a part about comparing to Unity, Unreal and Godot’s building blocks.

7 Likes
#5

I can help with “template” for tutorials, like intros\outros something like this (like in google short tutorials above). So all videos will be in the same style and will look nicer. Unfortunately I won’t probably have time to do tutorials themselves.

5 Likes
#6

That would be great! Any help is precious! :heart:

Also, the background color should now match Defold website’s bg color (rgb 30,34,38 ?):

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image.png755×508 30.7 KB

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#7

We can also use these colors. I think they will look great in intros with these lines.

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image.png1833×684 59.4 KB

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#8

That is even a better idea! It has more vital energy than grey bg! But then, the content should be on more toned bg, what do you think?

I am using Eye Dropper to check colors, but maybe @britzl you can provide correct pallete?

Also, maybe we can get the assets from here in higher resolution or is it like this in original?

Blue bg: rgb(26,112,235)
Blue strip: rgb(15,157,231)
Orange strip: rgb(255,106,36)

2 Likes
#9

I think grey bg for “learning” part and these colors for text\intros\outros\cards etc.

1 Like
#10

" You can enhance Game Objects with Components like Sprites, Sound, Tilemaps, Collisions, Scripts and others that all have unique properties and are all explained in detail further."

Honeycam%202021-02-25%2015-31-46
Honeycam 2021-02-25 15-31-46.gif2552×1318 113 KB

Any thoughts about easy to understand at the first sight classification of components? What else? I don’t want to show all at all (maybe only in a glimpse) as they will all be explained later

2 Likes
#11

I believe that image is an svg so you should be able to get the exact colors from the image:

https://www.defold.com/images/BG-stripes-left.svg

I was hoping that we had them as SVGs in the editor source code, but it seems like 64px is the largest:

2 Likes
#12

Some more animations and progress:

Honeycam%202021-02-26%2023-07-00
Honeycam 2021-02-26 23-07-00.gif1827×1024 1.17 MB

Honeycam%202021-02-26%2023-08-32
Honeycam 2021-02-26 23-08-32.gif2343×1292 5.8 MB

Honeycam%202021-02-26%2022-36-47
Honeycam 2021-02-26 22-36-47.gif1827×1024 9.57 MB

Feedback appreciated! :smiley:

9 Likes
#13

Animations are nice, but i think that on second gif it wil be faster just outline all elements, without additional animations and reveals. Yes, it looks better but will take more time which can be spend somewhere else)

3 Likes
#14

Hi folks. Recently I started a collaboration project with another user from this forum. We were very motivated at first but after a week he realized he actually wasn’t that passionate about the type of game we had decided to make, so we stop working on it. 2 days later he also tells me he is switching engines, because he finds Defold difficult to learn.

I think before starting to make new tutorials and learning resources, maybe we should first ask newcomers about their experience, make a poll to find out whats hindering their learning process.
Is the problem a lack of resources, or is it that those resources are hard to find? What is missing? Are there any problems with the format, or the quality of existing tutorials? Anybody creating tutorials voluntarily are of course free to do whatever they want, but it would probably be very helpful to know what Defold rookies actually need/want.

Anybody whos been around the forum frequently has seen tons of very basic questions, and the answers are very often in a few other forum threads, and usually even in the docs themselves. I think this shows that learning resources might not be actually the problem, but their accesibility.
Something that I’ve been thinking would be helpful is some kind of “map” that indicates what specific learning resources are recommended before trying to create each type of games. For example, a new user wants to create an 8bit platformer, he can look at the map and find which particular tutorials will help him advance through that path. Basically make some well categorised index that provides guidance depending on your goals.

7 Likes
#15

I like this idea very much.

4 Likes
#16

I’ve added such Chapter (Tutorials / Learning map) in here and it surely something to consider :wink: I’m focusing on completing the first one tutorial about basics and building blocks now, so if you have some ideas for the map, please note them there :wink:
You could also start creating such map and we will be improving it over the time.

I am seeing it in the end as a visually attractive map with roads and branches that starts with basics, like adding sprites and ends with though topics like adding post-process effects or so :wink: Of course, each stop is a link

3 Likes
#17

Well as I’ve said, I’ve been thinking about this topic, I just don’t feel I’m experienced enough with Defold to actively participate in this project :sweat_smile:

The challenge making that kind of “map” is that, first of all, most “lessons” or knowledge for many things will be required for many different types of games, not just 1 of them, so thinking of that as a 2D map would lead to a messy web of interconnected links. Second, another problem with these things is that the better and more complete they get, the more daunting they look to newcomers.

1 Like
#18

“You” is definitely plural here, so don’t worry @Pinchazumos :wink:

We just need to start with something and then iterate over it :wink:

2 Likes