[Game Websites] Building a game community.

[Sevg]

Ok this tutorial will guide you on making a website/forum or whatever you want, this is very usefull knowing that you will have a community of players.

In case you arrived here willing to know how to make a game with the engine, i suggest you read the pinned tutorials in the section, such as mapping/installing and else.

Good directory of starter tutorials (made by King Henry VI):
http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,30538.0.html

* * *

Ok, so you made a game, maybe not a really cool/original thing but it works, and you feel great, but now, you want people to come and try it out.

When you're making a serious game, you need a website, paid or not, but you NEED a website, so people can chat, request, suggest, and else..

Ok let's go to what you've come to

NOTE: This is a tutorial for those that doesn´t know how to make a website, or those that want an easier way to manage their site.

Ok, first thing we need is a host, there are millions and millions of free hosting service, normally, free hosts have around 250mb storage space, some goes up to 1gb, but i suggest you don't pick those.

A good list of web hosts (by DriftShot):
http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,33838.0.html

Same as Drift, i always pick byethost, i think it's the best one out there, the cons is that you can't register with a hotmail account (you were able until a month ago or so)

We got a host, woohoo, we are webmasters. Now what?

Second thing we have to do is install a CMS such as joomla, mambo, drupal and else. This tutorial will guide you in how to make a website with JOOMLA (Or well, mambo, they are almost the same thing)

* * *

Installing Joomla in you free byethost web:

1- Go to your adm panel, and look for the "Fantastico type installer" button.
2- Choose your domain (www.xxx.byethostxx.com)
3- Choose Joomla 1.5.7.
4- Go to your website and fill the installation form.

Wow, i got joomla, sweeeeeet now how the hell do i host my game community here?

Well, joomla is a good and easy-to-use Content Manager System (CMS), so it's not hard to learn how to use it.

You got the website, you got joomla, now you need to edit it:

1- Edit the menu components.
2- Edit the Sections/Categories.

Now, let's say you DON'T know how to edit those, well you can look on: forum.joomla.org, that shall be helpfull.

Well, we got a site, of course members can register, but where can they chat/suggest and else?.

-PART 2-

What we have now, is good to set news, articles and stuff of the game, now we need to install a forum, you have 2 choices:

1- Install Joomla Fireboard
2- Install an external forum (Such as PhpBB, Bv, etc)

I suggest you install fireboard, so when a player registers on the site, they are also registering to the forum, if you choose to install an external forum, they will have to make another acc.

-FIREBOARD INSTALL MINI GUIDE-

1- Download the latest version of it from the official joomla developing site.
2- Go to your joomla administration panel (normally www.yoursite.byethostxx.com/administrator) and look for the components dropdown menu.
3- Press on install/uninstall.
4- Upload the .rar .zip .tar .whatever file to the site (it automatically installs it)
5- Woohoo, new forum.

Now, let's take a break.. We got the site, installed joomla, edited it and made a forum, we now need to make a link to the forum, so make a new link in the mainmenu that gets you to the forum.

Now you have to edit the forum. Check again in the joomla official forum in case you need help.

* * *

I can't say rapidshare/megaupload/else arent helpfull, but what if you had a DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINK, woaah that would be great, but possible? Sure it is..

-PART 3-

PHOCA DOWNLOADS component for joomla is a very good thing you should have, it allows you to upload things on your site and users are able to download it.

Installation guide:
1- Download PhocaDownload for joomla.
2- Install it same as the fireboeard forum.
3- Voila.

Now you got the DD component, i suggest you upload the files via ftp for it, anyway, you can upload things just searching for the component in your joomla adm panel.

Now, you can upload your client/patches/stuff and users download it with a 1 click download, cool huh?, you can do a lot of things, if you want, you can make a menu link that takes you to a download directory, that shows you every file that can be downloaded, or you can just make an article with an specific link.

* * *

* * *

Ok i think that's all, your community can chat, download your client and much more, if you have any suggestion feel free to post it here, if you don't understand something, ask, english is not my fort.

Sorry for such an extensive tut  :P

[monowolf00]

It's good, and thanks for linking my tut. All I can suggest is use pictures.

–----------------------

Adding this to my list of tutorials. 11/30/08

[Sevg]

I shall make a new version, maybe tomorrow, thanks for the reply.

I'll make more tutorials as soon as i think something to help with lol

[LIlCheatah]

dude i get this at the final of "Joomla" thing…

YOU DO NOT FORGET THE FULL installation
MUST REMOVE
You can not go to the installation is removed. This is a safety feature of Joomla!.
Click here if the installation is removed.

[LIlCheatah]

ahh nvm ,, i solved problem at myself :cool:

[jedboy10]

just wanted to let you know they removed fireboard for security reasons

[monowolf00]

Hey man, you just did a 4-month necro, dont do it again.

[ddunit]

@King:

> Hey man, you just did a 4-month necro, dont do it again.

January, February, Marsh, April. Be more precise, he might not understand big words.

Anyway, seriously, read dates before you post T_T.

[BitLeopard]

Does this mean you still have to run the game server off of your computer? im in the process of moving my site off of a server onto a host site to increase access speed for site visitors etc but i dont know where i can move the game server or is it not possible?

[vrage]

let me add to this. If you want, you can have a DNS domain like .us.to, .uk.to
this isnt a redirect mind you. Find your host's nameservers, for byethost, its ns1.byethost.com
now go here: freedns.afraid.org, and register a DNS domain for free, set the type as NS, and set your nameserver to whatever.