PR for STK

[antoine]

Hello STK team,

I've been following your development for years now and every so often download the game. I'm enjoying the gameplay and the new adventure mode. Would like help publicizing the project. With the gameplay maturing now I think it would be great time to attract more texture artists, sfx artists, musicians, animators, and modelers. I am interested in publicizing on sites that have talent, but might not know about STK.

Please let me know and then we could talk about maybe a general art style that you'd like to see for the 1.0 release. What things need the most work? The sky and some of the background don't look cartoonish, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

[Totoplus62]

I don't know... maybe an AI for arenas ? I'm sure this is very hard to create

[bonifarz]

First, I have not seen an official wish-list topic, so maybe this place is not too bad for that.
Second, I think STK is quite well polished by now and the milestones give a clear idea of what is planned.

However, one point that is related to the leading post here and I find missing in the milestones page is voice acting. We have heard some samples in the cinematic scenes introduced with STK 0.8, which turned out quite nice, but that is not my point here. I think a fun racer like this one would really benefit from some voice acting for sounds played while racing, e.g. some giggling or mean laughter when hitting someone with a pie. The generic "eww" we hear when driving on bubble gum is another good example. Of course, getting some decent voice acting done for all of the characters is a big task, and I guess it is difficult to find artists willing to help with that.

[Arthur]

Voice acting is a topic I'm highly interested in as well, and hope to contribute to. Main problem besides getting it done is doubt in own abilities.

[Totoplus62]

voice acting

I prepared a topic for that one week ago ^^ but i did not post it yet, i was waiting for people who have holidays right now. So when everyone will be there i will post this.
I've also another feature almost done but i will wait also a bit

[antoine]

There is a moddb entry for STK, but it hasn't been updated since Dec 2008. Does anyone have access to this page or should I create a new one? I would like to be the maintainer of it. I will upload the blog posts, screenshots, videos, reviews, etc. I can also give access to other members from the community in case I disappear this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

EDIT
Just made a new page. I will see if it gets accepted or not due to the it being a duplicate.

[Auria]

Besides voice acting, I think we could get help with completing a good kart set (karts like Pidgin, Nolok, Suzanne or Emule are excellent for instance, so it would be good if all karts could be brought to this level). Several tracks could still use improvements to look better (note that while we aim for a cartoonish feeling, we are not going for a cell-shading type game either). And regarding coding we have several tasks, like AIs for non-racing game modes, networking, scripting support.

[antoine]

Can you list some tracks that particularly need attention?

[kosmi]

Besides voice acting, I think we could get help with completing a good kart set (karts like Pidgin, Nolok, Suzanne or Emule are excellent for instance, so it would be good if all karts could be brought to this level).

Yeah so named: adiumy, elephpant. hexley. konqi. mozilla. tux and wilber. All those needed improvments, i also like to make bigger those little ones .

And someone to reblend olivermath, so i would not have issuses with lighting and there we go .

[antoine]

Great work.
You (or maybe a moderator) should put this in the contributions section.

[antoine]

Here is the new moddb page. http://www.moddb.com/games/supertuxkart I need to make a new page for the STK team, so right now it says developer "toine" which is egregious. I have to wait until next Saturday before I can post links on the forums. I am going to start a recruit thread on Saturday in the forums. If the developers would like anything specific, please let me know. I am also trying to get STK on Desura.

If you're a fan of STK, consider writing a review on Cnet's Download.com page for STK http://download.cnet.com/SuperTuxKart/3 ... ag=mncol;1

[ctdabomb]

well that's cool. we are #50 in moddb's top 100 games!

[antoine]

Feed me interesting screenshots and I'll combine those with those articles and resources for developing STK as features and news updates to keep our presence up for at least a couple months.

[heyda]

Promoting STK is IMHO a good idea, as (at least for me) it's a very good to play game, that shows that linux gaming doesn't have to be boring but can have it's own flavour of fun (see characters ).

But what to is essential, is to define, who you wan't to attract to join this community?

• developers
• designers
• players
• money

This will allow you to pick the right channels and to send out the right messages (who should do what and why)

[ctdabomb]

@antoine: If you need or want any help with this, let me know. I'd love to help promote this.(maybe you should try hanging out on IRC also? #stk)

you mention recruitment threads in the Moddb forum. that sounds good and maybe something also in the jobs section?

the things you should advertise for are:
developers:
*AI for battles
*online mode
*3rd main developer
modellers:
*tracks
*karts
2Dartist:(not as important as the first 2)
*textures
*new skins
*skies
*icons
and/or stuff from here http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Todo and http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Milestones

[S@f]

Good work antoine, the moddb page is very fine

[heyda]

For Devs I would recommend to make use of social networks etc. and look for language specific fans. Maybe asking at similar games (tuxracer, speed dreams, ...) for exchanging knowledge?

For Designers, you could start an article at http://www.blenderart.org (they are allways looking for fresh content) or create an VideoTutorial on how Blender3D experienced designers can start a level and reuse existing resources. Another idea: http://opengameart.org http://blendpolis.de http://www.blenderartists.org

For the big online mode, I suggest to collect money for a code sprint? http://freedomsponsors.org would be an idea, or just do it on your own and please support Bitcoin

But my final suggest is, to be specific, if you start communication outside. So not "we are looking for devs", but "we are looking for 2 C devs, that would help us on driver #AI and #network playing". The reason is quiet simple: Say I would be the perfect person that would match, and I'm potentially interested, how can I trigger on your news and why exactly should I join your team and not spend my time and skills to a "competitor"? (and yes, this is the best case, usually you need to explain what STK is and why currently you lack of staff )

(but just my 50cents )

P.S: This page would need updated screenshots as well: http://www.holarse-linuxgaming.de/wiki/supertuxkart #1 source for german FLOSS gamer

[ctdabomb]

that Cnet page is kind of outdated/wrong

[antoine]

Cnet page is kind of broken/wrong.

What can we do to fix it? Does the person who registered it still have access to the account? I would love to replace that picture with something recent. Could we register a new page?

[antoine]

Cnet page is kind of outdated/wrong.

What can we do to fix it? Does the person who registered it still have access to the account? I would love to replace that picture with something recent. Could we register a new page?

P.S: This page would need updated screenshots as well: http://www.holarse-linuxgaming.de/wiki/supertuxkart #1 source for german FLOSS gamer

Any German speakers willing to do that?

[antoine]

@heyda

Lots of good ideas. I actually put a post on blenderartists facebook page yesterday, but it looked like it got buried quickly. I would really like to get a competition going on their site.

I will work on an updated todo that tries to combine all variants. Then people can look it over and let me know where priorities should go. I have been emailing people in the art community.

I am interested in building a PR team. I can handle English language stuff with the help of one or two other people (ctdabomb, glad to have your help). Let's try to recruit someone for each language we support (priority to languages with many speakers). This would involve updating websites that host a download of STK. In the future when making a game trailer or a video explaining features, we could upload the video without text or spoken audio, but with a script. Then people who have basic video editing skills and a microphone can translate into specific languages. Just explain what you are showing is the English version, but that the game's available in xyz language.

[xeno74]

For Devs I would recommend to make use of social networks etc. and look for language specific fans.

SuperTuxKart on Facebook

SuperTuxKart on Twitter

[heyda]

With language specific I was more on the code side, than the country side
So if somebody lurks for C informations on stackoverflow or slashdot or reddit. Maybe using #C or #C++ will help on Twitter and it works quit similar on identica or diaspora. Last one I could do, if you create a Call for participation landing page in the wiki

@heyda

Lots of good ideas. I actually put a post on blenderartists facebook page yesterday, but it looked like it got buried quickly. I would really like to get a competition going on their site.

Sounds interesting Im ok, if we collect money for a bounty (maybe a 3D print of the track/car or of the model of the STK medals)

@heyda
I am interested in building a PR team. I can handle English language stuff with the help of one or two other people (ctdabomb, glad to have your help). Let's try to recruit someone for each language we support (priority to languages with many speakers). This would involve updating websites that host a download of STK. In the future when making a game trailer or a video explaining features, we could upload the video without text or spoken audio, but with a script. Then people who have basic video editing skills and a microphone can translate into specific languages. Just explain what you are showing is the English version, but that the game's available in xyz language.

Sounds intersting (I'm currently in the german OSM PR team, but lacking of time), anyway if I could help just give me a ping and I will see

[ctdabomb]

I think that this was mentioned al ready and talked about ion IRC, but the BlenderArt magazine is looking for stuff to publish http://www.blendernation.com/2013/01/08 ... gazine-41/ this would be a great place to get the track tutorial published.

another great thing to do, would be to make a video tutorial for tracks(and karts?)

We should have a Wiki page for this sort of stuff?

[Totoplus62]

Feed me interesting screenshots and I'll combine those with those articles and resources for developing STK as features and news updates to keep our presence up for at least a couple months.

ok