Notepad or Tickbox-List Sidebar (Developer Notes)

[BubbleMatrix82]

Description of the Feature:

• Type yourself a note (or your team) to keep on the right side of the editor to remind you what you were doing or what's the "to do list" for that session.
• First time opened projects could use this space to remind designers/developers/casuals to do the basics (Change character names, build out a town, make a dungeon, create the Rainbow Sword, etc)

Code for Implementation:
I have no code for implementation as I have no coding experience, at all. I can read it in most cases, I just can't write it.

Mockups:
I don't think a mockup is needed, there's not much to explain, just use the right side of the screen to have a checklist. If you need examples of what checklists look like I can find one, but it's pretty standard for organization planning.

Why is this feature good?
This feature is great because of the following:

• Because most people have serious cases of ADHD and only make it worse by getting too zealous with their projects, so a little redirection is good.
• Great to leave yourself reminders of what needs to be done still so you can sleep at night.

Possible issues with this feature?
Issues that might arise from this feature:

• Some users won't like it so a Disable Sidebar option would need to be implemented.
• People might not like being bossed around by the past version of themselves from 3 days ago, so I can see people being defiant and wishing they never typed stuff when they are feeling inspired to do something else (human problems).
• Might look ugly on 4:3 screen resolutions since not everyone uses laptops or monitors from the 21st century when 16:9 became the standard.

Extended possibilities with this feature?
How else a sidebar could be used:

• Put a timer in there to limit how much time is spent in RPG Makers so you don't lose valuable "time to cook dinner or else I'm going to need to eat McDonald's" time.
• Put a picture there, like your character's portrait, so you can remember who the character is when you try to type as them in a conversation.
• Enable or disable music from the database (not from Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, etc) so you can listen to the music and get a feel for the atmosphere.
• Variables or Switches call menu to look at the list and remember what they do or which ones are used.
• Second screen support!!!!! Make the editor more usable when it finds a second display, like being able to keep the database open while doing map edits! Oh and the TDL or dev notes.
• Other information as needed - comment your ideas below after you vote.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Please see the "Extended possibilities with this feature" section before voting. The idea of this change is to better utilize the 16:9 screen size resolution to track your to do list. It also proposes having the application to be second monitor aware so we can have menus open on another screen without it locking us to that menu and out of the editor. The focus then would be based on.LeftMouseClick() instead of a persistent window.

 

[bgillisp]

Will work for huge monitors, not for small monitors. And not everyone has 16:9 monitors. But...could be useful? Kind of like an extended version of the notes section, but universal for the editor? Is that what you are thinking of?

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Will work for huge monitors, not for small monitors. And not everyone has 16:9 monitors. But...could be useful? Kind of like an extended version of the notes section, but universal for the editor? Is that what you are thinking of?

Exactly. The idea is, anyone who uses an old 720 x 480 monitor needs to upgrade past the 90's finally. Yes, not everyone has 16:9 monitors and the feature would look like garbage on a 4:3 single monitor, but being able to open a sidebar (should you have the real estate) to organize your work or organize your thoughts would be GREAT!

And for those people who have dual/triple monitors, just expand the editor to be able to use all monitor space available! Can you imagine how great it would be to have the script editor, the database, the variable editor, the switch editor, and the gui editor all open simultaneously?

 

[bgillisp]

Laptops. Might not be an option on those. And you lose some users when you say just upgrade. But I see what you mean with the idea.

I would just suggest we modify it so that you can choose whether to have it open or not, and choose where to place it. That way you can put it behind the editor if you wish, or you can put it to the side. Would replace my word document I use for this right now.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Nearly all of my suggestions should have an on/off switch. Like I've found in my week here, no one here wants change, even if the change would help bring in new customers and help drive prices down for future updates. They just want the same editor/engine but with very specific/narrow upgrades. So yes, all changes should have an on/off switch that is an "opt out" in the settings menu (have it enabled by default for the casuals who don't know it's there).

 

[ashikai]

Ehh I dunno. Most of the options you suggested are all doable with other workflow/task software that I think most people use ANYWAY. Like I use OneNote or Keep for my notes (depending on what they are) and it's easy to toggle back and forth and enter stuff in there and more useful too since I can cloud sync it between machines. Second screen support is the only item I think would be inherently useful for MV specifically, and that's covered in another thread.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Ehh I dunno. Most of the options you suggested are all doable with other workflow/task software that I think most people use ANYWAY. Like I use OneNote or Keep for my notes (depending on what they are) and it's easy to toggle back and forth and enter stuff in there and more useful too since I can cloud sync it between machines. Second screen support is the only item I think would be inherently useful for MV specifically, and that's covered in another thread.

Never assume that the end user is organized and OCD. Give them the tools or else they will frustrate themselves and blame the tool. Again, the point of a tool is to be a good tool, not merely "exist" and then expect the person to "git gud".

While I agree that Evernote, OneNote, Dropbox, and many other tools are more useful; you have to understand that not everyone is going to eat/sleep/play to make a RPG. We want to make this as user-friendly for the casuals as possible.

 

[ashikai]

@BubbleMatrix82 I hardly think that using workflow and task management software is considered the trait of someone who's organized or OCD. People each have their own methodology for getting work done. Some people work well with timers, others work well with checklists, and so on, but I really don't think this is something mission critical to the engine itself because time management is SUCH a general skill and applies to pretty much every aspect of life.

Also, Archeia has on many occasions stated that there's a very limited budget for improvements to the editor, and I'm therefore of the mindset that we need to go for improvements that will bring about the greatest amount of change. I really don't think this is it.

That's my opinion and the reason I voted against this improvement.

 

[mlogan]

I voted yes for this because I think it would actually be really useful. However, I'm sick of your comments that we don't "really" want anything to change - you keep dragging it into every topic you post in and it's just stupid. Stop it.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

@BubbleMatrix82 I hardly think that using workflow and task management software is considered the trait of someone who's organized or OCD. People each have their own methodology for getting work done. Some people work well with timers, others work well with checklists, and so on, but I really don't think this is something mission critical to the engine itself because time management is SUCH a general skill and applies to pretty much every aspect of life.

Also, Archeia has on many occasions stated that there's a very limited budget for improvements to the editor, and I'm therefore of the mindset that we need to go for improvements that will bring about the greatest amount of change. I really don't think this is it.

That's my opinion and the reason I voted against this improvement.

Have you ever considered that if we make this engine better for all people that there will be more buyers and a bigger budget?

Make an editor/engine for ALL users, you get more customers. Get more customers, get more money. Yes, more money more problems, but at least the excuse that it is a low budget company couldn't be used any more.

You'd be surprised how paying attention to your low tech customer can really help an engine like this. I'd even argue that it's the high tech customer that isn't paying much to Degica since they are going to contract the work out to private indie artists (like observed on these forums).

@mlogan
Thanks for the yes vote. I don't care if you're sick of my comments; I came here to change minds and turn heads, not gain your acceptance or approval. Just think of the end user and ignore my subjective comments.

 

[mlogan]

No, I won't ignore your subjective comments. In another thread you claim you are not picking fights with people but with ideas. That's bull. You have come in with an attitude of wanting to fight - your initial topic where you claim we are intentionally ignoring you shows that. If you merely wanted to fight "ideas" you should be able to discuss them without flinging accusations about members here - whether it's assumptions about people's income as artists, whether it's that my profile picture is intentionally a troll face, or making assumptions that we don't really want to improve the editor or that we have some dumbass "political" motivations as you perceive them - YOU are the one coming in here with your attitude and refusing to listen to other peoples' ideas and experience.

So if you really and truly want to make a difference with the engine, do it in a way that people will want to hear what you have to say - stop making absurd personal accusations towards everyone, stop making up statistics you know nothing about, stop going off your "instincts about the users".

At risk of turning yet another one of your posts into a bunch of drama, I am stepping away from this. But realize that people will take you more seriously if you present your ideas in a respectful manner instead of being so antagonistic and insulting to everyone.

 

[ashikai]

@BubbleMatrix82 I said "limited" budget, not low. But I think the more important point here is, "will this item drive more sales for the engine" and I still think the answer is no. You're definitely entitled to think that it will, but I'm highly skeptical. The software sales game is really tricky, especially these days with the app-style mindset. I think it's amazing that we're getting updates and improvements at all tbh, especially for free! But this isn't really the place to argue sales, that should really be another thread in another place.
I'll leave it at that because we're off topic enough as it is.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

Apparently no one thinks this feature has value to anyone in the world. Voting no with no explanation is dumb.

 

[bgillisp]

Maybe not. You just have to remember that sometimes the most vocal voters are those who vote NO or YES to everything, regardless of reason. I've seen it where people give 5's of 5's to everything, with no thought into it, and 1's of 5's to everything with no thought into it. I once had someone actually tell me to take your best and worst feedback and chuck them both in the trash, as the truth is probably in the middle.

In fact, this is probably why Steam greenlight goes for total YES votes, not YES vs NO (or so I heard...I'll admit my stat here is 2nd hand, so if anyone can confirm with proof I'd appreciate it). We don't know if they will do the same here or not.

Just look at it this way. If you release a game you can't say that you can't vote yes/no on whether others should buy it without feedback. You can prefer it, but you can't say that. Doing so will flag you as resistant to feedback and on Steam that is great way to get blacklisted as a developer real fast by your buyers (I've seen this happen on some Greenlight submissions on Steam). So consider this practice for when you release a game if nothing else.

PS: If it makes you feel better, I did vote YES.

 

[RetroBoy]

When I was developing my game (I still am but the system is built, working on art and implementation now) I wrote (276 pages) outside of the editor. In addition to that pretty much every 2nd or 3rd notebox has NPC dialog in it relating to an item or status to remind me to place those NPCs somewhere in the early game. Because Tutorials are for chumps.

I mention this because the "Hardest" part of the entire Dev Process was balancing and noting everything. And whereas I find the notebox's extremely helpful and I would have gone mad trying to keep track of them otherwise. I'd love if they were bigger. I've seen pictures of folks with bigger ones via lunatic mode or something but I have no idea how to get into that or expand the box. So I am guessing most folks don't either.

So, the idea of a way to better organize and a clearer formatting space for notes is certainly a nice option. However, I voted "Yes, but not important" on this one. It would certainly be an improvement I would appreciate but its not one I need (or needed).

That said, the ability to go through after I am done and delete all the unused junk with a simple click without being scared of deleting stuff like my custom DMG formula would be really nice. There is really no reason that my Amnesia State needs to have stuff like (see below) in the note section of each skill and state.

"A BARBARIAN once headbutted me in the face and I forgot who I was. I couldn't use any of my skills!"

"AMNESIACS come in here ALL the time. Some remember more about their past than others."

"I bet when my memories return I am going to be a GREAT HERO!"

"Most of these guys are losers that bumped their head, but we like to let them dream."

I feel like that might be slowing things down for me a little. So, the remote notes and checklist feature could certainly be a useful tool.

 

[Archeia]

I'm going to be one of those, yes but not important. It's not because I think it's a bad idea or just, meh. But it's more like, if in terms of priority, I think other features deserves the Yes more and would help distinguish QoL features (Quality of Life) from Important features.

 

[BubbleMatrix82]

I still think the dual monitor support is slick though.