GDD Organizer

[kaos78414]

I for some reason, have had a lot of trouble getting my GDD organized, and I've been wishing there was a program that does just that. But since my knowledge isn't in desktop application programming, I decided I'd make one in PHP and release the source here. Basically you'll just unzip the folder in your local public html folder, and go to the url, and bam! You'll have yourself an easy GDD editor. I'm about to get started on it. Let me know what kind of features you'd like to see.

I was going to do a simple folder type thing, and just have a button under each that says Add New Page. And maybe at the end a feature to convert it all to pdf. Also probably have a simple WYSIWYG editor, and top it off with some AJAX magic so everything happens seamlessly.

Sound like a good idea? I'm sure it could help some of you guys. (I was going to keep it all to myself but then I thought some others might need it as well)

[hallsofvallhalla]

I would definitely use it and to add to it I would build a site where the developer could place the GDD and show it publicly and/or hide it for certain users or himself for constant modification.

[kaos78414]

Well I wasn't planning on having any security features since I figured everyone would use it on localhost, but if enough people want that I'll definitely look into making a GDD-Sharing site

[Jackolantern]

Well I wasn't planning on having any security features since I figured everyone would use it on localhost, but if enough people want that I'll definitely look into making a GDD-Sharing site

Or if it could be set up to be a collaborative GDD-creation application, that would be neat. If it could be made to work like a light-weight CVS system, where a privileged group of people can edit the GDD, and edits cause back-ups of past versions to be stored and forks can be created, that would be absolutely awesome and you could probably actually get quite a few people using it.

[kaos78414]

Hmmm... Well we'll see where it goes. I wasn't planning on this being a full-scale project. Just something simple and fast for me to do in CodeIgniter, but we'll see. It definitely seems like there's an audience for a feature-rich GDD organizer.

I could always go open-source with it! Then you guys can make changes and we can see where it goes!

[Jackolantern]

I can understand if you didn't want to take this to a full-scale, multiple-month project, since it would probably not be as fun as making a game. But it would be neat and likely useful to a lot of people

[kaos78414]

Yeah, it's just I don't think I have the time to devote to it. Though I can definitely work on it in my spare time. I'm working on it right now in fact. Trying to figure out how I can make it to where you can make nested folders. *headache already* haha

[kaos78414]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwx5_QSoQrI[/youtube]

Here's a little teaser video. I've got subfolders working but currently it can only be one folder deep. I'm going to add a WYSIWYG editor for adding pages. I was also thinking of adding a dynamic form templating system that would allow you to more easily create templates for monsters (for your bestiary), or templates for items or anything else that you may need a lot of in your game.

I'm still working out the kinks of course, and it'll be a few weeks before a stable release. But I'll try to have an alpha ready by next friday.

[hallsofvallhalla]

looking good!

[kaos78414]

Got nested folders working, with unlimited depth!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjtkFqC9PGA[/youtube]

Now on the TODO list:
- Going to use TinyMCE as the WYSIWYG editor.
- Sticking with the almost 100% ajax style, going to add drag and drop to move files around.
- Need to fix the delete button to ask if you are sure if you want to delete that folder (currently it deletes all the files inside itself, including subfolders)

After that, I'll have an alpha ready!