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- <title>Exmods | Introductions</title>
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- <h1>1 - Introductions</h1>
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- <div class="text-content">
- <p>
- <span class="tab"></span>
- They say its a right of passage for .NET developers to write their own blogging website application
- (maybe it should be "write of passage").
- But writing a webapp for a blog is a complete waste of time when all you need is a web server for serving static files, like Apache or nginx.
- If you want to be fancy, you can setup a cronjob to pull from a Git repository periodically so you can update files easily.
- Although I'm not a big fan of a lot of .NET technologies, so I might be a bit biased
- (imagine if Microsoft had contributed to Java instead of making their own version).
- But that's enough for my negative opinions on .NET, since it's actually a very powerful platform, despite it's shortcomings on most platforms.
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- <span class="tab"></span>
- Let me introduce myself.
- I'm NGnius (hahaha my dumb username finally paid off), or NG, and I'm the guy who runs this website that you're on right now.
- You know the web server setup I cheekily mentioned above?
- That's exactly how I configured this website.
- I also maintain quite a few mods on <a href="https://git.exmods.org">git.exmods.org</a>, with help from NorbiPeti.
- Together, we're the two main contributors to the
- <a href="https://git.exmods.org/modtainers/GamecraftModdingAPI">GamecraftModdingAPI</a>,
- the developer-friendly interface for mods to interact with Gamecraft.
- Before getting into modding, I played a lot of Robocraft (~1.5k hours)
- and wondered if there was something more productive I could use my time for.
- The answer came partially in the form of becoming a Robocraft moderator and almost an admin (am I allowed to tell that story?).
- Despite what people said about us moderators, we were a pretty good bunch.
- It's hard to have a perfect crew when everyone is a volunteer, so there were a couple of not-so-great mods during my time as a moderator.
- The good ones stuck around though, which is what really counts.
- I eventually quit because I wasn't playing Robocraft anymore, but I like to think I wasn't a not-so-great mod.
- By that time I knew that Gamecraft (then RobocraftX) was coming out soon, so I stuck around to see where that game would go.
- I was cautiously optimistic because I was around for CardLife and Robocraft Royale.
- When FreeJam stopped working on Robocraft to focus on Gamecraft, I knew Gamecraft was going to stick around for a while.
- I wanted to learn C#, the language most of Gamecraft is written in, for a project at work, so getting into modding seemed like a great way to learn.
- I ended up never actually using C# at work, but Gamecraft modding proved to be an interesting challenge so I didn't stop.
- Sometime in between my last day as a Robocraft moderator and the first Gamecraft mod, I went website domain shopping and got
- <a href="https://exmods.org">exmods.org</a> because I could use it for <i>Ex-mod</i>erator or Robocraft<i>X mod</i> stuff.
- Since the former idea was pretty pointless, I rented a couple of servers in a datacenter and spun up an Apache server and a Gitea server instance.
- The first server is still used to host the RobocraftX Save Manager update server, although I've stopped updating that program,
- but it now primarily hosts all of the Exmods websites.
- I guess that makes me the leader of Exmods, the first (and only) Gamecraft modding group.
- There's no reason to be concerned, since I know what I'm doing... I think.
- </p>
- <p>
- <span class="tab"></span>
- Let me introduce Exmods.
- If you've spent anytime in the Exmods community, you probably already know that Exmods is the Gamecraft modding group.
- We provide modding help and infrastructure to make it easier to create and install mods for Gamecraft.
- Exmods is completely independent from FreeJam and Gamecraft developers, so all of our mods are unofficial.
- These services are provided completely free-of-charge (well, for you -- I get charged every month for the servers).
- I don't ever want to make Exmods stuff cost money for others, mainly because this creates two problems without easy solutions.<br>
- <span class="tab"></span>1) A problem as old as the open-source idea itself: How do you make money off of open-source software?<br>
- <span class="tab"></span>2) A more personal problem: How do you justify collecting money you when you could pay for it by yourself?<br>
- <span class="tab"></span>(This doesn't mean devs shouldn't make paid mods -- if they can make it work, good for them!)
- </p>
- <p>
- <span class="tab"></span>
- There do actually exist solutions to the first problem, but they aren't great.
- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat">Red Hat</a> offers paid customer support,
- among other things, for open-source software but that can hurt user adoption when good installation instructions are behind a paywall.
- Similarly, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonical_(company)">Canonical</a>
- also offers paid customer support for open-source software that the company develops, but they also offer provisioning services,
- which could be adapted to my situation by charging developers for access to Exmods,
- an option that's bad for developer adoption and will result in lower user adoption.
- The solution to the second problem is for me to embrace capitalism in all its glory,
- but a lot of modern companies have shown how that goes, so I'd have to also give up some of my morals.
- Looking forward, the only scenario that would make me monetize Exmods would be if I ran out of money,
- and likely the monetization would be a Patreon link or something similar.
- That scenario is not impossible, since I only work four months a year;
- a 4-month summer job and then two 4-month university terms with expensive tuition.
- But it's still unlikely to happen, and won't get in the way of my other aspirations for Exmods.
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- On that note, where is Exmods heading?
- Would it surprise you to know that I actually have no big plan?
- I don't have a big plan, but I do have some smaller goals.
- Exmods is a hobby project, so these goals are pretty much guaranteed to change as my interests change.
- Primarily, I'd like to see the Gamecraft modding scene grow.
- As far as I know, at this moment there are exactly two Gamecraft modders in the world,
- with maybe a few more people who run modded Gamecraft clients.
- At the time of writing, there are a few more than 10 concurrent users playing Gamecraft right now.
- If both of us modders were playing right now, we wouldn't even make up 20% of Gamecraft players.
- That number is way too small.
- Community growth is a positive feedback loop (like social networks) if we can give it a shove to get it started.
- Equally, I'd like to make amazing Gamecraft mods.
- I'm a computer nerd and nothing makes me happy quite like writing code does...
- Maybe that's why I don't have a girlfriend.
- Seeing your own creation being used by others to create amazing things is something else.
- I've experienced a bit of that feeling while making <a href="https://git.exmods.org/NGnius/Pixi">Pixi</a>, and it's wonderful.
- My third goal is for Exmods to last.
- I often abandon projects soon after I've gotten them off the ground because I'm bored of them or nobody is using them.
- Lots of hobbyist programmers suffer from this, but I'm really trying to break the habit.
- To accomplish some parts of my goals, I'm starting this blog.
- </p>
- <p>
- <span class="tab"></span>
- So let me introduce this blog.
- My <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/NGniusness">YouTube channel</a> could help satisfy a lot of the goals I have for Exmods,
- but I like video editing a bit too much.
- I enjoy the whole video creation process, from script writing to recording to video editing,
- but that enjoyment comes at the cost of effort; it often takes me a couple of days to create a video.
- Unfortunately I rarely have 24+ hours to spare to create five minutes of content.
- This blog will allow me to offer more details and spend less time on delivery.
- This won't replace my videos, but it will supplement them.
- If I can come up with a good way to cut down the time to create videos, this blog may even go hand-in-hand with new videos.
- With a bit of luck, this will help keep me involved in Exmods as my interest inevitably waxes and wanes.
- The ease of creating blog posts will enable me to write about almost anything Exmods-related, which is something I can't do with videos.
- For example...<br>
- <span class="tab"></span>Ever wondered about the experience of modding an ECS-based game?
- Want to know what makes Gamecraft tick?
- What happened in the Gamecraft modding community last week?
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- That's it.
- That's what this blog is all about: an accessible outlet for me and Exmods.
- Hopefully somebody finds it interesting.
- </p>
- <h3>Welcome to the Exmods blog!</h3>
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