Welcome to the official Mod DB blog. if it is information about ModDB.com and ramblings about mods in general that you are after - then you have come to the right place. Mod DB is a community run site, so our aim is to give you (our community) the power to influence the sites content and direction. That's why we have setup this blog so you know exactly what is going on behind the scenes. We highly recommend you watch this profile if you want to keep abreast of all changes affecting the Mod DB community. Also if you wish to write about the Mod DB on your own site or blog, you can download logos and other site images from our mediakit page.

Mod DB Store | Mod DB on Facebook | Mod DB on Youtube | Mod DB on Steam | Mod DB on Wikipedia | Mod DB on Twitter 

Report article Trac your game development

Mod DB launches its own wiki, bug / feature tracker, svn repository and milestones via Trac and may soon be able to help you do the same.

Posted by INtense! on May 8th, 2009 digg this super bookmark


Game development is a difficult beast at the best of times. Sharing ideas, files, code, tracking bugs, milestones and releases with people in your team across the world isn't easy. At Mod DB we believe Trac is a great solution for many of these problems, with its agile and best-practice focus. It rolls subversion a wiki and bug tracker into one to create a brilliant web-based management system for even the most complex projects. With Trac you can unify your teams development efforts and ensure everyone knows what everyone else is working on.

We have just launched our own Trac page for the Desura Web Engine (code that powers ModDB.com) and are now using it to document future site functionality (roadmap) and trac bugs and feature requests from staff and you our community. We highly encourage you to report bugs and feature requests here should you have something in mind. We also hope that via this page you can finally see what the future of ModDB.com holds.


Also whilst Sourceforge and Google Code exists for the open source world, no such site exists for the game development world. We believe trac is perfectly suited for game development with a wiki that allows you to document gameplay, embed concept images, code and link it through to bugs, etc. Because of this we are currently considering rolling this functionality out for development teams. You would have complete control, trac is linked into the ModDB user system and you can make access as private or public as you want. We can provide unlimited space, bandwidth and all the tools your team needs, so you can focus on the important stuff, getting your game built!

If this interests you please get in touch. At this stage the cost of rolling out a server makes this a difficult proposition, but if the interest is there and some are willing to pay we can definately make it happen.

Comments
Ennui
Ennui May 8 2009, 1:58am says:

That's pretty cool, I've never used Trac before, but it does get a bit harrowing having different software for wiki, bug tracking, SVN and so forth so I'll check it out :)

+3 votes     reply to comment
Crispy
Crispy May 11 2009, 5:24am replied:

I have, and Trac + SVN = awesome.

"[Trac] provides an interface to Subversion (or other version control systems), an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities.

Trac allows wiki markup in issue descriptions and commit messages, creating links and seamless references between bugs, tasks, changesets, files and wiki pages. A timeline shows all current and past project events in order, making the acquisition of an overview of the project and tracking progress very easy. The roadmap shows the road ahead, listing the upcoming milestones."

This is a really exciting announcement. Bravo ModDB! Bravo!

+1 vote     reply to comment
Tatsur0
Tatsur0 May 8 2009, 1:59am says:

Wow this is awesome :D If we weren't covered already, I'd definitely be interested as I can't imagine any team being able to get anything done otherwise.

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 8 2009, 2:56am says:

Whilst most teams may have SVN, a wiki or bug tracker, maintaining and hosting each individually is complicated and takes plenty of time. Herein lies the beauty of trac as it brings this functionality together and interlinks it all.

+3 votes     reply to comment
StaticAres
StaticAres May 8 2009, 3:36am says:

And, you (you = moddb owners) can easily expand it using the plugin system so it fits perfectly in the mod scene :D

+1 vote     reply to comment
metalspy
metalspy May 8 2009, 5:31am says:

I think this can make game development a little bit easier for some teams, it's a great idea.

+4 votes     reply to comment
Dan911
Dan911 May 8 2009, 9:50pm says:

PLEAESE to this, also a nice way for developers to share code, and keep track of bugs easier.

+2 votes     reply to comment
joure
joure May 8 2009, 10:15pm says:

wow, thanks for this feat, i'll deff gonna look into this and probably will use this. thanks moddb for giving this extra bit aiding modders.
Now this is truly something great for the comunity.

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 8 2009, 10:29pm replied:

We haven't rolled it out - we are currently awaiting the communities response and will consider our options once we hear from all of you

+1 vote     reply to comment
Craziestdan
Craziestdan May 9 2009, 6:00pm replied:

There doesn't seem to be a very large response on this page. But there's no doubt that every mod team will want this. You should advertise it on the front of moddb, in the headlines section so people see it better.

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 9 2009, 10:05pm replied:

I agree totally, it is functionality we absolutely want to roll out because we know teams will love it. Difficulty is its costs a lot of money and doesn't earn any (no ads etc) so am currently considering our options.

+1 vote     reply to comment
Crispy
Crispy May 11 2009, 5:28am replied:

Is there any way you could partially subsidise hosting to offer us cheap (but not free) hosting?

Or if not get together with some regional hosting providers and organise some sort of Moddb member fee in exchange for referrals?

+1 vote     reply to comment
Wiweeyum
Wiweeyum May 9 2009, 2:06am says:

This is the best idea you've had thus far. Unified tracking and hosting is one of the most overlooked parts of modding I believe, and this is a way to bring it all into one place. I give it two enthusiastic thumbs up.

+2 votes     reply to comment
SteveUK
SteveUK May 9 2009, 7:23am says:

I'd love to be able to have trac and other tools linked into Moddb, it's just depends on the costs that are attached to it.

I think mods that are using your modified version of trac should be able to link it to their mod's profile, so that people can report bugs and such straight from the mod's profile page. Integrating everything together should save mod developers time and effort which then can go into making the mod/game instead.

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 9 2009, 10:04pm replied:

well it is integrated into the login system so yeah they can. A link could also be added to the mods profile so this is definitely an option.

+1 vote     reply to comment
SteveUK
SteveUK May 10 2009, 11:20am replied:

I would definitely be interested if it was all linked, and not just by the login system. It also depends how much people will have to pay, which I assume will be subject to demand.

Not only will be it an excellent replacement for modcenter, you also have all the mod community there.

+1 vote     reply to comment
PytoX
PytoX May 9 2009, 6:28pm says:

This would be great as this is very useful.

+2 votes     reply to comment
CommanderNZ
CommanderNZ May 9 2009, 10:13pm says:

Sounds like it would be a good idea for teams out there that have a lot of staff. But I'm just a one man army so I would not benefit from this. :D

+1 vote     reply to comment
NullSoldier
NullSoldier May 10 2009, 12:23am says:

Trac is GREAT software we use it at work.

+1 vote     reply to comment
Otreum
Otreum May 10 2009, 2:07am says:

What a wonderfully thoughtful idea, I hope you guys go through with it.
I may have some desire to use it in the future.

+1 vote     reply to comment
Deathy
Deathy May 10 2009, 5:34am says:

Just wanted to respond to this quote:
"Also whilst Sourceforge and Google Code exists for the open source world, no such site exists for the game development world."

Ever heard of Modcenter.com ? :P

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 10 2009, 9:52am replied:

modcenter.com is closing

+1 vote     reply to comment
Zablar
Zablar May 10 2009, 7:03am says:

awsome!

+1 vote     reply to comment
EvilConker
EvilConker May 10 2009, 7:51am says:

Wow, I think a hundred developement teams will all rejoice samultaniusly when this is released.

+1 vote     reply to comment
Psycho_Sam
Psycho_Sam May 10 2009, 9:02am says:

Nice, so this will be some sort of Mantis come dotProject venture? We also used the ModCenter.com beta but it never really took off, due to various problems.

+1 vote     reply to comment
INtense!
INtense! May 10 2009, 11:37am replied:

I've used both mantis and trac, and well I find trac amazing. It really does precisely what you want and need as a team. increases productivty, documentation, bug fixing whilst decreasing the time this takes all in one hit

+1 vote     reply to comment
Crispy
Crispy May 26 2009, 8:29am replied:

Trac is more basic than Mantis for bugtracking, but not in a bad way. For a mod team Trac is the better of the two.

+1 vote     reply to comment
dremth
dremth May 10 2009, 10:41am says:

woah, this looks awesome! i can definitely see this increasing productivity

+1 vote     reply to comment
AntiSocialKindaGuy
AntiSocialKindaGuy May 10 2009, 11:42am says:

I'd definitely be interested in a ModDB SVN and Trac service should it get rolled out; they are incredibly useful tools that all mod teams should investigate.

I currently use OpenSVN and have previously used ModCenter - but I suspect ModDB might be able to solve the two problems of these services: ModCenter is painfully slow and OpenSVN has poor Trac setup functionality (half-complete commandline setup) and has downtime issues.

Cheers
Steve

+1 vote     reply to comment
ricecrispi
ricecrispi May 12 2009, 12:57pm says:

Great accomplishment for the ModDB team. Modders will be praising you guys for this feature in the future.

ModCenter is closing our site and I'm glad they are in the good hands of ModDB.

+2 votes     reply to comment
ben72227
ben72227 May 12 2009, 2:09pm says:

Sounds pretty cool! We'd be interested if it does get rolled out to the public.

+1 vote     reply to comment
[GSI]reboot
[GSI]reboot Jun 18 2009, 2:13pm says:

I'm extremely happy to see ModDB picking up on this. Congratulations Scott!!!

+1 vote     reply to comment
Weeblinator
Weeblinator Jun 28 2009, 6:53am says:

What a great idea!
It's highly possible that i will end up using this :)

+1 vote     reply to comment
Post a Comment

Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free) and do things you never thought possible.

Established
Feb 28, 2008
Privacy
Public
Subscription
Open to all members
Contact
Send Message
Email
Members Only
Membership
Join this group
Group Watch
Track this group
Bookmark
Digg Super bookmark
News
Browse
News
Report Abuse
Report article
Bookmark
Digg Super bookmark
Related Groups
ModBlog
ModBlog
Official group with 77 members