The Dink Network

D-Mod Check List

Description
This is a check list every d-mod author should run through before releasing a d-mod to the public.
Released:June 30th, 2002
File Size:0.00 KB
Downloads:39
Release Notes:v1.00
November 16th, 2013
v1.00
Score : 1.0 horrible
peasantmb.gif
yeoldetoast
Peasant They/Them Australia
LOOK UPON MY DEFORMED FACE! 
Seemingly almost all of the playable Dink modules come with a list in either the readme file or dmod.diz explaining things about it such as whether or not there is a new map file or if new scripts are present or if there's any nudity. I have never understood what the purpose of such a list is, as to see it I must download and install the archive in order to view the file containing the list, which means it won't influence my decision to download because I have already done so.

The information it contains such as the amount of nudity and swear words has never influenced my decision regarding whether or not I should press the "Play" button in DFarc either. It's not like I am going to decide against playing something if it is devoid of new MIDI files, nor will I hit the uninstall button if there are no new wav files, and I probably won't shriek with horror if there's no new Hard.dat either. The estimated time to finish is rarely right, and one can just save and resume later if they have to go out to dinner at a restaurant or similar.

The genesis of this useless drivel does not involve Jveenhof however, he merely perpetuated it. It appears to be the fault of RTSoft as they included it with The Search for Milli Vanilli as well as Mystery Island. It's also included with The Scar of David meaning that early D-Mod authors considered it a good thing to do. Obviously things were a lot different back then and nobody really knew what a D-Mod would consist of, but anyone who has been around in the last ten years generally expects a D-Mod to contain a new map file and some scripts at the very least meaning that the inclusion of such information is nothing more than an outlet for gloating (Hey I wrote 356 .c files for this thing!). Map screen, music and script counts don't indicate quality or longevity of the game and aren't much use to the end user.

Almost everything else in this file is now either outdated or simply useless information. This is not the author's fault as things were a little bit different at the time of upload, but even so the recommendations regarding testing, adding a readme and deleting unused resources are just so incredibly obvious things that I don't consider them useful. Making dir.ff and .d files is also no longer recommended as the bz2 file format of .DMOD packages provides better compression than either of those two, and it's unlikely that you've written anything particularly ground-breaking that requires protection. "Zipping it up" is simply not done and the inbuilt packager in DFarc is what's used now.

I gave this a one because the information regarding testing and deleting of files may be useful to someone, however for the rest I would recommend that you put important details such as whether or not your game may be finished in dmod.diz, with other information such as copyright status and development facts in a readme. If the user is really interested they can quite easily go and have a look for themselves to determine how many scripts and music files there are.