CCSF Day Thirteen

For this Saturday's treat the CCSF has the pleasure of interviewing nornagon about an exciting new uncoming website: The Creatures Community Development Network, run by nornagon and Pez.

Liam ~ What IS CCDevNet?

nornagon ~ Well, it stands for "Creatures Community Development Network", and that's just what it is - a (soon to be) huge resource of information and a place to chat or find help for Creatures developers of all shapes and sizes. I know it's not finished yet, but I sincerely intend that it won't be vaporware like so many other things have been - I have plenty of people to poke me to poke it.

Liam ~ What sort of features are we looking at?

nornagon ~ A lot of it is yet to be decided. However, one other feature we've got going is an articles system. Much like the CDN, the CCDN has to be full of information -- and we propose to get that information from the CC itself. Any user of the CCDN can submit an article (or a tutorial, or an editorial, or anything at all pertaining to Creatures development) and have it included in the CCDN's database. In this way, the CCDN is superior to the CDN, as it allows for content to be expanded on.

View the CCDN Preview Screenshot 1

The final format of the system is as yet unsure. We're debating over whether to have it wiki-style, and allow anyone to edit any article, or to have selected 'editors' that would moderate the changes. The current system that's been coded is that users submit articles and moderators read over them and edit where necessary. Finally, the moderator approves the article and it appears on the main page. After that, only moderators can edit the article.

Another feature we've not planned out fully is the projects section. What we want to do is provide a searchable database of developers and projects, so projects that need developers can find them and vice-versa. We haven't decided yet whether or not we're going to do a SourceForge-like thing and give each project its own subdomain, but we like that idea.

Liam ~ Wow, that sounds like it'll be extremely useful to us developers. Now, when can we expect this brilliant website?

nornagon ~ When it's done. Right now, I can't see a huge demand for this website -- as far as I can tell, the CC is still in the process of coming back from the dead, and developers certainly aren't as common as they used to be. I'll try to get it all done within the next couple of months, but I make you no promises.

View the CCDN Preview Screenshot 2

Liam ~ Great :) I've heard from assorted sources that CCDevNet will be the biggest thing since sliced bread..

nornagon ~ I certainly hope so :) Although, my sliced bread tends to be about 7cm×7cm×40cm or so.

Liam ~ Hehe. Now, the other website you will be unveiling this CCSF is a Creatures Community Project site. What exactly is that?

nornagon ~ That's not new at all - a fair few of you will remember a while back when I opened it, and then it went down with TNR (my old site - The Norn Rock). Now it's back.

For those of you that don't know, a CCP is a project that aims at procuring more developers. It's a project where everyone learns from everyone else, and the whole community collaborates to make a top-quality metaroom.

See in-site for details. :)

Liam ~ How exactly did the CCP come about?

nornagon ~ It was originally an idea of one edash, way back in 2001 (if I recall correctly) on the creaturescaves.com forums. I loved it and latched on, and became a manager of the project. However, the thing slowly died, and one of the major artists pulled out and refused to let anyone use the work he had created. The new project has terms that prevent this from happening -- all work produced is effectively released under the GPL.

The new site is an attempt to revive interest and get it off the ground once more.

Liam ~ We can only hope that it does! Thankyou for the interview, nornagon!

nornagon ~ Not a problem. :)

~~

Website Links:

If you want to take a peek at the to-be-released CCDN website,
you might want to wander over here.