ID:2154899
 
Not Feasible
Applies to:Dream Maker
Status: Not Feasible

Implementing this feature is not possible now or in the foreseeable future
Dream Maker has some excellent draws for new developers: First that it has such great support for easily making multiplayer, and second that it is free. These are excellent draws, and I think what BYOND offers should be a really great draw for new developers. However, there are a few features that may make BYOND more accessible to new developers. Perhaps the most important would be to offer features that make it possible to make games in Dream Maker without even coding.

I know, it sounds crazy at first, since the Dream Maker language is about coding! But if we look at the competition of game making software, we'll notice a few examples of gaining new developers by offering non-coding options. For example, RPG Maker goes on about how you won't have to code, and provides a lot of options for people who don't dare try to code. Also, Game Maker talks about their drag and drop options for non-coders. In this way, new developers are drawn to these tools, prior to learning to code much, but then as they learn to code, they are able to expand their game.

I remember when I began using Dream Maker for my project Lost Legends, back in the day. My two teammates, McKathlin and Shadrack, had little knowledge of coding. McKathlin began learning, but Shadrack hardly dared to touch the code. Yet Shadrack added as much as he could while avoiding coding. The example of my own team shows how non-coding options can be a big draw for a development team, even when 2/3 of the team codes, because 1/3 wants to contribute without coding.

How can we better include non-coding game developers?
- Perhaps we could include a code generator. This could allow the player to still start with a blank slate, and not bog down the game with unused code. However, it could provide some basic code for implementing certain types of games, with a certain set of mobs or such.
- We could add "events" similar to RPG Maker or Wolf RPG Editor, and the events could have certain options that they allow. In fact, this might work with a code generator: The code generator could ask which events you want to be able to create, and then those would appear as mobs (with basic icons and all) that could be simply placed on the map.
- Making it possible for the player to view the map even when the code has errors would be a good change, too, I think. This would be more friendly to non-coders. We could still have errors prevent run-time.

There is a good chance that some of my suggestions above just aren't feasible, but I thought I would suggest them anyway. Appealing to non-coders would be a big change for BYOND, but one that may actually lead to more budding developers learning to code in the DM language. Right now, BYOND has amazing appeal for beginning developers by offering so much multiplayer support, easy to learn coding, and being free. If BYOND can offer more support for non-coders to be able to make games, too, that could grow the user base for BYOND software and lead to some great games.
If I could add onto this, I've also noticed that software like Dragon ( http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm ) and other speech recognition programs are beginning to gain traction. I mentioned that to say, not only do people like having drag and drop options at their disposal, but they also enjoy just being able to speak to their computers and not have to use their hands at all.

So we could go a step further with this. After implementing drag and drop, follow that up with making Dream Maker able to recognize voice commands. For instance, a user could plug in their microphone and say "create new icon file named 'Player1'", and then the file would just appear. Instead of the user having to take their hand, grip their mouse, shove their cursor all the way up to the very top of the screen, click on a drop down menu and select "compile", they can just say "compile" and it compiles.
We could go another step further with this and you could get in with Google and connect Dream Maker to Deep Mind, where it will learn how to autonomously make anime games with dynamically generated p-bags.

EmpirezTeam wrote:
Instead of the user having to take their hand, grip their mouse, shove their cursor all the way up to the very top of the screen, click on a drop down menu and select "compile", they can just say "compile" and it compiles.

Ctrl+K
In response to EmpirezTeam
For instance, a user could plug in their microphone and say "create new icon file named 'Player1'", and then the file would just appear.
I feel like you could already have Dragon do that.

As for programming with voice, that sounds pretty interesting. It might help people end up with actually readable code instead of code with a bunch of nonsense abbreviations or single letter identifiers. I've never actually had much luck reading code out loud in a way that makes sense to anyone listening, though, unless I take a step back and explain the semantics rather than the literal syntax.
Nadrew resolved issue (Not Feasible)
In response to Hiead
Hiead wrote:
We could go another step further with this and you could get in with Google and connect Dream Maker to Deep Mind, where it will learn how to autonomously make anime games with dynamically generated p-bags.

Thanks for mentioning Deep Mind. I had not heard of it until now. The artificial intelligence prospect is definitely an interesting one but we should take this one step at a time. AI can come after voice recognition and drag and drop.

Ctrl+K

That requires hitting two keys at the same time and not everyone has the dexterity required to do that.

By the way, is the "not feasible" referring to just the OP's suggestions or does it also include the dynamic pbags and voice recognition suggestions as well?
Ctrl+R you plebs, it asks to compile AND runs the game ;)