We should advertise some more

[Darkhog]

I think we should do some more advertising both on gamedev-related sites and on pascal-programming ones like gamedev.net or Lazarus' site.

[Ñuño Martínez]

I'm planning to join to the Game Developers Refuge (gamedevelopersrefuge.org/). I think it's a great game developers community. Unfortunately, I'm not in the mood but I'm working on it. I hope I'm in the business soon because I have to start a job September 1st.

[SilverWarior]

I'm keeping the PGD site on top of Google results (except from my home computer I always visit PGD by first searcinh it on Google and then folowing the serch result link) :D

The best way for advertizing PGD is by making great games and showing all of those who say that you can't make good game with objective pascal that they are wrong.
Another good way is to make useful game development tutorials.
I have some of theese somewhere on my To-Do list but can't find them right now. WAAAAAAY to much stuff on my To-Do list ???

[Darkhog]

Well, original (DOS one) Jazz Jackrabbit was written in Turbo Pascal, so...

Anyway while making good games is good choice, we should also market site itself. I've spoke with few pascal programmers interested in game making and they didn't have a clue about this site.

[SilverWarior]

So how do you propose we do that?

[Darkhog]

I think posting informations about this site on gamedev/programming sites would be good start.

[SilverWarior]

By all means do post information about PGD on other gaming sites.
But don't be surprised if you manage to start a flame war about Objective Pascal not being fit for games. And until we have some nice game to show you will lose that flame war.
Wel we do have Projekt-W to show that you can make good games woth Objective Pascal. So you might atleast have som chances in winning the flame war.

I know I probably sound quite pesimistic about this but the reason for this is that in the past I lost a few flame wars which got started after me trying to advertize PGD site.

[Darkhog]

If you are going to start another f-war, you can remind haters that original Jazz Jackrabbit (DOS one) was written in Turbo Pascal (here's proof (https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Jackrabbit), sadly it is only Netherland wikipedia, on english one there's nothing about it), which as you know is Object Pascal's grandfather.

//edit: Also RPG Maker 2000 and 2003 were written in Delphi. You can tell this by inspecting their exe files with Resource Hacker. Those files have DFM forms which are characteristic of delphi apps. RMXP and newer were made with C++, but you don't have to tell them ;). Dunno about older RPG Makers, like 95 though.

[SilverWarior]

If you are going to start another f-war, you can remind haters that original Jazz Jackrabbit (DOS one) was written in Turbo Pascal

... and give them another reason to claim that Pascal is old and obsolete programin language. No thanks I'm smarter than that.
Yes a lot of older games were actually made with pascal but peple don't care to much for older games but for new ones instead.

[Darkhog]

Well, if commercial successful games (and classics, like JJ) and game making programs can be made with pascal/delphi, that says something.

What does it say, you ask? That it is possible to make game that works, doesn't lag and can be successful commercially. The only reason Pascal is being unpopular is... because Pascal is being unpopular. We need to convince more people to convert to Pascal.

Also after releasing Super Heli Land, I plan to work on full-fledged commercial indie platformer for which I have interesting marketing plan. I won't tell people it is being made using Pascal at first, I'll do that once it gets popular.

[Cybermonkey]

Haha, yes, that's it! At least all Game Maker games are using Pascal or better said a Pascal driven engine ...

[Darkhog]

Any proof GM was written in Pascal? I don't have time to google now, so please include proof so I won't make myself an idiot when saying that GM was written in Pascal.

[Cybermonkey]

If the gpwiki is right Gamemaker is made with Delphi. The MacOS port is done with Lazarus afaik. http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/Game_Engines

[laggyluk]

i think that proper way of advertasing our language of choice is making good stuff with it and showing it off to the world. Also sharing knowledge as when it comes to game dev, lack of pascal resources is not helping to attract people. As you know writing games is really complex stuff and I usually find my self reading tuts in c, c++ or even java when learning something new. Pascal resources are rarity now days.
still i think the pascal is slowly working it's way towards a grand comeback ;)

[WILL]

If you want to promote the Object Pascal language and it's other dialects then treat it just like any other speaking language. Show off the good stuff, all the tools and the game libraries that can be used. That's how you highlight the good points making it worth learning, knowing and using it for practical development.

There is no one single tool that is the end-all-be-all of the Object Pascal language nor is there a single library. With all the many platforms and hardware to support out there it's such a great thing that there is so many options that all do it differently. Some libraries may be a little better developed and put together than others, but it's all in how you use them as well.

Personally I also make a point to not oversell it and not to knock other programming languages. That kind of debate only cheapens your message and what the public reading your posts perception of you. There was a time however that I was not so level headed and unbiased, but those were lessons learned. ;)

A great way to promote new users is to link to us of course. Don't spam though please. :)

An even better way to promote the site is to give people something to read and sink their teeth into when they get here. That means news posts about important things like library releases, published games, translation projects and community events. And of course good articles on game development topics. (Please no more, this is how you use my library articles. That belongs in a tutorial in your own game library downloadables.)

[WILL]

Any proof GM was written in Pascal? Dominique Louis, co-founder of PGD helped them port it over to the Mac for the first time using Delphi and Lazarus. The source was in Object Pascal. :)

It was one of his last projects while still active in the PGD community. Sadly he never updated JEDI-SDL with better Mac supported headers. Though the older 1.x SDL isn't very nice on Mac post Mountain Lion release.

The source for the tools and interpriter themselves are written in Pascal, but the scripting language used by Game Maker is not.