Lemma Soft Forums

There's a new blog update here. In summary these are the points it covers:

• Account System Restored. The re-write of the site has now surpassed where it initially was and accounts are now back. There's also been some minor re-design of the account layout, and I've made some mock-ups for parts of the site which aren't fully implemented yet such as account inboxes and settings.
• Alt-Accounts Will Be Supported. You'll be able to have a second sub-account that's separate and has its own handle, display name, avatar, settings, talent profiles, assets, etc. It will still use the same email address and password and both sub-accounts will be easy to switch between.
• Modes (e.g., the talent DB, asset store, your account) now keep track of their state. In short this means the modes can make more intelligent decisions about things like what columns to collapse when there's not enough space, allows them to remember where you were when you leave and come back, and allows you to link directly to things like searches. While some of these things already worked the state code allows this stuff to happen automatically without me having to hard-code everything.
• Column Bug Fix. There was a timing-related bug when the columns expand that could lead to the UI initialising too early and rendering it useless. The column code has since been significantly improved and this bug is no longer an issue.

Looks fantastic! Reserved my handle.

Just reserved my handle. Hoping for the best!

really cool! I'll reserve my handle as a writer (I think you said writers would be a thing on there). I'm excited to see it when it's finished and full of artists

I had some trouble reserving my handle on Safari.

When I view the site from Safari (ver. 10.1.2), I only see the header (StoryDev logo, Talent, About, FAQ, Mailing List) and the Search, Results and Profile columns. The links to the FAQ and About sections don't go anywhere, but the search function works.

Everything seems to work fine on Firefox, though.

I'm not sure if these are known bugs, but wanted to let you know if this was an issue you weren't aware of.

I reserved my handle last month when I saw posts about this site floating around on twitter!

Just curious, but is there an ETA for when Story Devs will be up & running and ready for people like us to use it?

Oof, this is a really neat idea and I'm excited! I already reserved my handle for writing/graphic design.

I tried to reserve a handle, currently waiting for the confirmation mail.
I'm excited for the launch!

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Scribbles wrote:(I think you said writers would be a thing on there)

Yep, pretty much any skillset related to a visual novel will be able to be chosen once the site is finished.

puppetbomb wrote:I'm not sure if these are known bugs, but wanted to let you know if this was an issue you weren't aware of.

Ah, thanks for letting me know about these, I appreciate it I didn't know that happened on Safari, though that particular version of the site hasn't be tested against Safari since I didn't have access to it at the time.

sasquatchii wrote:Just curious, but is there an ETA for when Story Devs will be up & running and ready for people like us to use it?

Yes — 6 months ago! Every time I try to estimate when any aspect of it will be done I'm completely off so I've stopped estimating haha. What I can say is that my current goal is to update the demo available at http://www.storydevs.com and replace it with something that works on mobile, is more intuitive, and that has a working account system. Most of that is already working on my side

FluffyCakeFactory wrote:I tried to reserve a handle, currently waiting for the confirmation mail.
I'm excited for the launch!

Yeah, the mail server can take a while to send out the email, so it may take 5 - 20 minutes. Also, there was some changes to the mail server recently that may make it end up in spam. (And thanks for your interest!)

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Also, there's a new blog post going over some recent GUI improvements to the site. (This post has actually been done and sitting in drafts for a few days because I've been sick but... here it is!)
Summary of improvements:

• Account lists actually expand and are animated so that the sub-list's appearance isn't sudden and disorienting. (See gif above).
• Column headers now change with the column body so that you have tools that match the column type.
• Code for column headers can now be specified at the top of a column's file making them easier to edit. This isn't a user-facing benefit but... it's nice for me...
• Loading animation is now more subtle. The flash-y animation with the diagonal stripes sliding past looked cool but it took too long for one cycle of it to complete. It was jarring if you have a fast connection and only ever see the first fraction of it.

I still haven't received an email. I checked out the spam folder but nothing... I used a gmail address if that helps? And I tried to use the same username I use here.

@FluffyCakeFactory: I see your handle in the database and the email is logged as being sent out... I'm not sure what happened. I've manually marked you as confirmed. Sorry about the inconvenience and thanks for letting me know It might be worth adding support@storydevs.com to your contacts to make sure future emails from that address get through.

@Tempus: Thank you for doing it manually & sorry for causing you trouble. I will add the address to my cotancts! Let's hope the next mails will come through.

So I have been working on the site the past few months, I've just forgotten to keep this thread updated. The most recent post is about figuring out my process for creating vector graphics for the site's icons.

I'm probably not going to update this thread anymore because it's really tedious to format posts and embed images on LSF. Half my update-related images/gifs are wider than 800px so unless I recreate them (which for older images isn't even possible since the site has changed since) I literally can't embed them. Maybe I'll just bump it with links to posts and a short one-line description.

If you want to follow allow with the progress of the site there's a lot of places:

• Twitter
• Tumblr
• Discord
• Patreon — from now on this will have the same content as the Tumblr. It's also under my real name.

There's been some updates since I last shared progress here so... here they are!

• Thoughts On Community & Culture
  This is a post I've been writing on and off for a few months, reflecting on the ways communities tend to develop, what values StoryDevs has, and some proposed guidelines that might help it stick to those values. Opening section of the post is pictured below.
  
  

• New Sections Of The Site
  There's been some partially-functional additions to the site in the form of the forums and the library. One of those is the library, which is pictured below. The goals and design are explained in the linked post.
  
  

• Roadmap + Text Editor WIP
  Latest post that outlines a basic roadmap for StoryDevs over the next few months, with the aim of reaching a closed beta stage. Also looks at some WIP on a custom text editor. Below is a gif of a custom text selection effect I created.
  
  

If you like what I'm doing with the site there's a Patreon here. It's hard to find time to work on it so any contribution (or sharing of it) is appreciated!

There seems to be an issue with people not receiving their confirmation emails when reserving handles which I'm looking into now. Thanks to everyone who's let me know!

Your reservations are still being processed it's just the email itself isn't being sent out. I'll re-send them once it's fixed.