This is the current list of community entries for the first Pokitto Magazine (title pending). These are all currently taken from The contributor Questionnaire
@drummyfish An article, probably about licensing and free culture concepts.
If I have missed anyone, no worries, just reply/edit this post and we will have it updated.
This list will be updated as more members commit to or drop a commitment for a contribution. Just a note that these articles are not expected to be gigantic and long. Even just a few paragraphs on anything one would like to share would be awesome! A quick note on some tricks you’ve learned in programming or game dev, a small tutorial on how you do a certain task. What kind of tools you enjoy using. There is even room to submit cool Pokitto/game dev related artwork, comics, or jokes.
The deadline we have set is looking like June 15th. This is about a little over 4 weeks from today, which I believe is plenty of time to contribute to the first exciting Pokitto Magazine
I might need some kind of questionnaire about what i should be talking about exactly. Maybe it should be kept short and sweet and just focus on one aspect. Like for example, the importance of abstraction in pixel art when creating tiles that are really small like 8x8. You need to make sure the idea is clear without having real details. So picking the right colours and use well known shapes can help get the idea thru. Maybe could use an upcoming game I am working on to add supporting images. Will need to check with my partner @Shdwwzrd if he’s ok with that. Don’t want to spoil the game too much.
And I am super busy so I don’t know when I will have time to do all this
If there is a ton of content you’d like to share, how about breaking it out into a series? Art and design with Vampirics Then you can do smaller articles that won’t take too long, and are focused on very specific details :)?
I thought that was exactly what I was saying lol
I just don’t feel like I should be the only one commiting to that section as I am far from being an expert at it. If I were I’d be working on commercial games instead of graphic design on practice cups and plates in real life.
Come on, just copy-paste from the forum posts It does not need to be a long article. How about an entry level quide: “Getting started with using templates?”. Simple and easy. That way you could (supposedly) reach more audience that with the forum post.
As there are currently no much articles for the non-experienced coder on the list, I will now start writing the “Getting Started with Python Editor” article.
Amazing cover Is the magazine gonna be free-licensed? CC-BY-SA maybe? I’d like to add it to my free literature collection. I am also thinking about maybe contributing an article, probably about licensing and free culture concepts.
It makes sense to include software and image licencing because that has an obvious tangible effect on Pokitto games,
but I’m not so sure about ‘free culture’, that seems to me to be going off on a bit of a tangent.
Disappointingly there’s only been a handful of those.
I don’t know why it is, but not as many people seem to ask me questions here.
Also, if it was going to be a literal copy-paste then you wouldn’t actually need my involvement.
Like I said once before, how much is ‘entry level’?
How much do people actually want to know?
Just how to use std::min, std::array?
How to write a template?
How templates actually work?
Added “Bicycle Speedometer” to the list, even if @jpfli has not promised anything. Note that there need not to be much text: just pictures, schematics, a code clip, and few words about the project would be good too.
Either there are just not enough developers in the forum, or most of them are skilled ones, and used to resolve problems by themselves. In the latter case we should do something to attract more beginners here.
One suggestion is that the article would answer to these questions:
What is a template? When it is useful? Why I should use it instead of macros?
All the solutions I can think of are library related.
The problem with these two questions is that they’re vague.
The answer to “What is a template?” could be a vague overview of what a template is,
or it could mean an in depth explanation of how templates work.
Just like if you ask “What is a function?”, I could explain at an abstract level “A process or computation that can be repeated and may or may not accept inputs or return outputs”, or the low-level, by explaining about the stack and argument passing.
As for “When is it useful?”, that depends if you’re looking at it from the point of view of someone using templates or writing templates.
Also it has the same problem with asking “When is a function useful?” or “When is a variable useful?”,
the clearest and most direct answer isn’t necessarily useful to a beginner (e.g. “variables are useful when you need to store a value somewhere”, “functions are useful when you need to define a process or computation that will be used more than once”).
95% of the time the answer to “why should I use X instead of macros” is “macros are evil” followed by a long list of all the flaws with macros. :P
Certainly, this topic should be explained from beginners point of view. Some practical examples could be helpful. While it could be something like the Min() or Max() function, which already exist, but even better if there is something the coder could immediately implement his/her own code and that way getting started using (i.e. implementing) templates.
I would prefer instructions on how to make own templated functions etc. over using library provided ones, but that is just me.
: submission is in.
It does not need to be a long article. How about an entry level quide: “Getting started with using templates?”. Simple and easy. That way you could (supposedly) reach more audience that with the forum post.