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GDevelop Season of Docs

Season of Docs is an initiative to bring the open source and technical writer communities together. In 2019, for the first edition, GDevelop was one of the project to take part into it.

GDevelop is an open-source game development software allowing anyone to create games. What makes GDevelop unique and so easy to use are the events. Events are a powerful way to express the logic of your game, without having to learn a programming language. Want to give it a try? Try the online version or download the full software!

Tens of thousands of users are creating games with GDevelop each month. Many users are discovering game creation for the first time. Others are more experienced users creating impressive games with the engine.

Ideas for the 2021 edition

Danger

This section is a work in progress, as Season of Docs 2021 is not yet announced.

Tip

Those ideas are not exhaustive. Feel free to suggest your own idea! Or combine ideas into your own.

Design the optimal learning experience for beginners 🤓

  • Assess the quality of the pages to get started with GDevelop, as well as the most read articles, then design and (re)write the pages to give the new users an optimal experience.
  • The recommended read for beginners is currently to start on this page.
  • GDevelop is all about being accessible to everyone... so the onboarding process is hugely important!

Your input will be appreciated about what could be written, re-written, and what could be integrated to the software. The mentors and open-source contributors will be able to make links to your pages directly from the app.

A tutorial about making custom behaviors in GDevelop

  • Write a new step-by-step tutorial explaining how to make a "behavior". What's a behavior? It's a way to create new logic for game objects! There is a page already about it, but it's quite basic.
  • Behaviors are important in GDevelop because they allow to quickly prototype and give ability to objects. As part of this new tutorial, you can create your own behaviors, using the easy-to-learn events system that is used in GDevelop.

This project is a good way to learn more about game making!

Improved wiki pages 📚

  • Improve the existing documentation by checking that every object, event, behavior is covered by the documentation and improve each page with new examples, links and explanations.
  • See the objects, behaviors, events and all other features pages.
  • These pages will be very useful as the software has "Help" links, inside the editor, for all features. Users will be able to learn more about any feature by clicking on Help.

A brand new tutorial 🚀

  • Write a new step-by-step tutorial explaining how to create a game. We have two complete tutorials on the wiki already, but they are fairly basic.
  • See one of the existing tutorials as an example.
  • The theme of the game can be anything that sounds interesting: space shooter, endless running game, castlevania-like, beat'em up etc... Mentors will help you get started with the software and the game making.

It will be important to find a fairly small game so that a tutorial can cover it from start to finish - but it needs to look good and be interesting (there are asset packs on websites like itch.io or opengameart.org that we can use)!

Improved extension developer guide

  • Extensions are an important part of GDevelop. They provide the most features that users use in their games. Improve the documentation on GitHub to explain how to create a new extension for the software.
  • Also see this wiki page. This will help encourage new people to contribute to the game engine.

Documentation and tutorial for publishing games on various platforms 🌍

  • Create more documentation about publishing games on marketplaces, gaming websites and app stores. This is a very important topic. Users like to create games, but a game is not finished if it's not published!
  • There is already some documentation on the wiki, but more step-by-step tutorials and detailed explanations about marketplaces (Kongregate, Itch.io, Facebook Instant Games...) or app stores would be very useful!

These articles/documentation can even be tightly integrated into the GDevelop app itself. Mentors will be able to do updates in GDevelop.

Result of the 2020 and 2019 edition

The 2020 edition had Deniz Karakay and David Turnbull as technical writers. Deniz made a new tutorial explaining how to make a Space Shooter game. David reworked many pages of the documentation and rewrote the platformer tutorial. See their reports here.

The 2019 edition resulted in the writing of a new tutorial. Thanks to the technical writer, End3r, and to everyone that submitted a proposal!

About GDevelop open-source project, organization and mentors

GDevelop repository is available on GitHub. You can also browse the website to learn more about the software and download it.

📣 Participation in Season of Docs 2019 was announced on Twitter (2019 edition too on Twitter and Facebook).

👋 Mentors will be 4ian, Bouh and Blurymind. 4ian is the original author of GDevelop and Bouh and Blurymind are active contributors to the software. You'll also get support from other members of the community on the forum or the Discord!

I'm interested! How do we get started?

Read the page for Technical Writer on Google Season of Docs. After the exploration phase, finishing on June 9, 2020, official applications can be submitted.

If you have a specific question, feel free to reach out to 4ian (find my email on my GitHub page, send me a DM on the forum or send me a Tweet).

Thanks for considering helping GDevelop! ❤️

Frequently asked questions

Is it possible for me to contribute to GDevelop in Google Season of Docs given that I don’t have any prior experience in coding or technical writing but have used GDevelop in the past?

Yes! You'll get familiar with GDevelop as you use it before the project officially starts. There is notably a period for this in August that is called "community bonding".

How should I express my interest in contributing towards a project and whom should I express it towards?

Submit an official application! Find the link here: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-guide Please contact us (find the email on the organizations list on GSoD website) to discuss more in details your project idea.

What should be in the proposal? What is the format of the proposal?

First, read the guide here: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/tech-writer-application-hints

  • A bit of information about your experience and who you are. Tell us if you have experience with GDevelop (existing tutorials, games, etc...) or game development in general :)
  • Description of what you want to do, why it's interesting, what you will include, etc...
  • The GDevelop project for GSoD will surely be standard-length.
  • No particular format - you are the technical writer, so it's up to you to judge what's best :)

Will there be enough help given that I will be contributing towards the documentation rather than the project?

Absolutely, documentation is key for GDevelop, so the authors/maintainers of the software will be able to support you and will communicate regularly with the technical writer to help.

How many technical writers will be able to participate?

Unfortunately, only 1. Note that participating in tutorials and the documentation is already possible! If you create an account on the wiki, you can edit existing pages to improve them or create new pages for tutorials.

What does GDevelop need?

Make yourself an idea by browsing the wiki, the tutorials, try GDevelop and think about what project you think is the most impactful. Feel free to reach out to discuss more in details your project idea!

What specific skills are you searching for, for technical writers?

Programming skills are not required (Season of Docs is not about programming, but about writing documentation). You'll need:

  • Perfect ability to write English in a readable manner without mistakes
  • Autonomy
  • Good interactions with the game making community (GDevelop or the broader game development community)

It's even better if you:

  • Have some game creation skills (with or without GDevelop) - will be important for example to create a new, interesting tutorial.
  • Know well GDevelop - at least make sure to be familiar with the main concepts of the editor.

Can you guide me toward what I should exactly include in the proposal?

No :) As a technical writer, it's up to you to make your mind around the GDevelop ecosystem and existing documentation, and, according to your own ideas, describe what you think would be best to do. 👍 Feel free to reach out to discuss more about your project and ideas if you have something specific in mind!