New shmup-programming site

I'm working on a new site that will be up tomorrow. It'll be www.shmup-dev.com and it'll be focused on the development of shooter games of all types. Basically just going to be a place where we can all discuss splines, movements, and other things related to building shooters. It'll be a mix of freeware and shareware developers that get together and discuss topics and ideas about building shooters, etc. I'm a great shooter fan and I love to talk about shooters, and methods people use, and everything. It's more of a niche site then a general site such as this one, and just something anyone who wants to take part to stop by and visit a couple minutes a day or so.

I'd like to get some moderators for it, and because I haven't built it yet, I was wondering if anyone could share their ideas on what categories we should have for it, etc. Also, if anyone wants to recommend the best forum type, (phpbb? vbulletin?) then please feel free to offer suggestions. I'm open to anyone in being a moderator.

I use phpbb for my forums and have been very happy with it. You just need to be sure to have the latest patches installed, there were some bad security flaws for a while. Also there are some good tips in the phpbb formums for handling spam bots. I've implemented some of these and they are very effective, although I still get some spam registrations. I make them reply to a message before activaing the account though so usually they never get a chance to post becuase the email addresses they give are bogus.

hmm I always preferred 'em to m but I guess you've got the domain now. Sounds interesting as I like shooters too, see my Jewel of Orion game (not musch too it really but it's playable).

Hey Scott, I've used the phpbb before (modded it alot) on some previous sites of mine in the past. I'm lucky it never got defaced, because updates were a pain to install when it was modded the way it was.

What categories would you recommend?

I have:
General Chat - Should I have a General Chat?
Game Development - Talk about programming
Resource Development - Talk about music, sound, graphics
Game Chat - Where we talk about our favorite shooters

Well these may not be good categories but some topics I would like to see are:

Sprite Pooling - efficient reuse of sprites
Path Management - Splines, etc.
Classics - dicussing the classic shooters and how they are implemented, for instance understanding the wave mechanics of Galaxian enemies
Playability - how to turn an OK game into a really fun game via play mechanics
Games Options - what should be included for players to change the behavior of a game
Members Games - An area for people to create threads for discussing their games and how they might be improved
Frameworks - provide and area for poeple to post frameworks for shooter games and/or useful code snippets.

Thanks alot Scott, I will use your topics instead of mine! (I like them more than mine)

Also,
Which BB system would you use other than phpbb? I'd like something similar to phpbb but not as popular.

I'm not really familiar with anything other than phpbb from a forum management perspective. I've heard good things about YaBB (http://www.yabbforum.com/).

The Java Gaming forum (http://192.18.37.44/forums/index.php) uses Simple Machines Forum (http://www.simplemachines.org/). You should have a look at this forum as it has many categories and topics.

oh, and have a place to discuss AI. :)

go here: http://www.opensourcecms.com/

on the left menu expand the "forums" folder and check them all out. SMF is pretty nice... so is phpbb... vbulletin is the best though, but you'll pay around 85 dollars for a license that only lasts a year. tss.

I am going to use SMF (Simple Machines) it is really what I'm looking for because it has the same ease of use as phpBB but it's not as popular.

I was wondering if anyone wanted to offer a nifty logo that says "SHmUP DEV" (or is it ShmUp, or SHMUP, ?) for the website. Thanks!

Also, I have the site processed already, but I wont install anything yet until the DNS is set up correctly.

How about this:

- transparent png

- transparent gif

- white

- black

- blue

Love the idea. I will be a regular cos its the type of classic game I love the most.

Wish there were more of them about and cant wait to get my hands on the ones for the DS.

Wow Scott those are impressive!!

hey this is what I'm using:
http://turkish.doom9.org/smftheme/index.php?theme=5

See if you could make a good logo to replace this:


Thanks alot!!!

I can't wait until I get the site up and running, should be tomorrow morning (EST)

SMF is a great forum system, one I've used quite a bit.

Stick with the older non-beta release. You can do without beta software on a production site :)

Are you having a front-end for the site? I can recommend SubDreamer http://www.subdreamer.com/

get the Lite version (it's free). It integrates with the forum so you only have to log in once and you can have front-page news items appearing in the forum.

It really is the mutt's proverbials :)

**EDIT** BTW, I love shooters :D

Scott, very cool. Sorry I should have specified. I'd like it to look less retro and more futuristic because I'm trying to show that Shmups aren't dead in the picture, or old either. Like shmups are new and awesome, and pay homage to the ones being made more recently. Less Retro, more modern :)

Although what do you guys think? Do you think that it would get more hits with a retro style? I might use that, but what would be best for most shooter-fans / shooter devs?

Well I'm off on vacation for the next 10 days or so, so good luck with this. If I get too bored maybe I'll stop back by and throw together some other images. :)

Very cool :) I'll be keeping my eye out and will use the best image possible!! Thanks, I am going to get it started tomorrow, I'm really excited about it! Also, if you would like to be a moderator let me know.

If anyone woudl like to contribute art from their game to be part of the collage scott is building please us know. I think that its very inspiring to see the new screenshots of other shooters.

heres one i did:

Diablo: That is a nice logo.
Very clean, subtle, and cool. Not too distracting, either, making it good for web sites. Colours could be easily changed, too... I assume.

yer - i might change the main texts colour grad - i dont like the bottom of it.

Edit changed:

Love it Diablo! Looks very good :)

Sounds like a great idea for a website. I will be sure to pay it a vist. I have always mwaned to do a shooter at some point, maybe this will give the the kick I need.
Cheers

Website Launched! I'm still experimenting with its look and feel, please let me know what you think should be done in regards to the look of it!

it dont seem to want to activate me..

:( sob.

I activated you Yavin!! :D

thanks m8.. posted in your new thread before i saw this so please ignore it.