I've been thinking about updating the name of the Lemma Soft forums. They started out as a little place to discuss ToL and English ren'ai games. Then Ren'Py and Shoujo Attack! came along. That was followed by a flood of original English-language visual novels.
Because the community this forum represents has expanded so much beyond just Lemma Soft fans, I was thinking it might be a good idea to change the name to reflect that. Something like "Lemma Soft Ren'ai Game Development Forum". I'm not entirely opposed to dropping "Lemma Soft" from the name, but many people refer to this place as the Lemmasoft board already, and it is my baby ^_^;
A new name could help to tell people what this place is about and also give Ren'Py a spot of greater prominence since it's about game development mostly. What do you all think? Does anyone have any suggestions?
Okay... If you must change it, my tip is "The Lemma Soft & Ren'Py Forums"
- First, keep the Lemma Soft title. I've kept ATP, although it means "Anime Text Page". It's a piece of history.
- By including Ren'Py I think the contribution of Ren'Py and the status as an official forum is dignified as well.
I agree the forum is mostly about game development, but IMO it's not necessary to include "game development" or "ren'ai" in the name.
One step in generalizing the forum would probably be somehow treating the LS games equally as any other games, with their places in the Finished games or Game-Makers' corner respectively (technically, Hanafudaclub is a demo).
Because the LS games have more than one thread, maybe each completed game could also have multiple threads. This would also make it easier to discuss spoilers or walkthroughs or similar.
Also, the game-makers corner could be split into announcements (for specific projects), and general questions. Maybe. With "Announcments and Demos" we could have an overview of what's currently in the works, while general game-dev talk would probably be used for general questions. It would bring it closer to Ren'Py tech talk, even though IMO the two should not be merged.
The one problem with this is that we have several non-LS, non-Ren'Py games. (We have RPG maker, Flash, IdolType, and whatever was used to make Black Pencil et al.)
Supporting creators since 2004 (When was the last time you backed up your game?)
Yes, but everyone knows the LS forums is home to many ren'ai game-makers... or don't they?
As for the title then, if you want to include LS, then, Ren'Py should also be in the title, given that it's so tightly integrated now. And that's already a long name. Adding Gamedev or renai, OELVN or similar would make it very confusing...
I think keeping Lemma Soft as part of the name is a good idea...but at the same time the forums deal with so many different games now, not just LS games.
If you do change it, will you just change the name, and keep everything the way it is now? Or will you revamp everything? Keeping in mind that I don't know webpage construction and maintainence at all, would this be a massive undertaking, or would it require just a few *tweaks*?
I like your inital suggestion, BL, by the way...Lemma Soft Renai Game Development Forum does have a nice ring to it. I also agree with mikey's suggestion to keep Lemma Soft as part of the title. While the forums have expanded beyond Lemma Soft games, they are still there, and you are still making them.
A friend is one that walks in when the world walks out.
To tell you the truth, once I've realized that bishoujo.us, renaigames.net, renai.us, etc, etc, are essentially the same lot. And they all point to Lemmasoft forums and Ren'py.
There is no issue imho
Registering all the possible domain names was more effective than google bombing. I just had to be linked to one of them (and it was not a google link, but a direct link), then I discovered all the others.
Everything points to Lemma Soft forums, its best to keep it that way. Theres already enough confusion and redundancy in the websites as they are.
Last edited by DaFool on Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
well, if you do change the name, I'm going to have to do a bit of post updating on a few other forums...
...especially if "Lemma Soft" is dropped from the title.
eclispe wrote:Btw, with the new name change, does that mean it'll get a new title banner? Maybe several members can make one and it can be toggled between them...
you mean like in my sig? (I have more messages in that one, but I think they're kinda inappropriate for this forum to begin with, and there is the off-chance some kid might waltz in here. besides, I think there's enough "in-jokes" to explain in the pics as it is)
Does anyone have any suggestions?
