OpenRA

I've got a nightshift so I took the liberty to write a news item. Feel free to comment on whatever. If we can polish it into something excellent I can start posting it tomorrow night.

> **A new OpenRA release is available!**

The legendary Command & Conquer games are back, and they're better than ever! OpenRA is an Open Source project to recreate the classic C&C titles with modern RTS gameplay, balanced units and much more.

* It's FREE and Open Source
* Mods: Dune2000, Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert (trailer)
* Play Missions, Skirmish, against friends or join the 24/7 multiplayer action
* Create your own maps with the MapEditor
* Build a mod with the versatile OpenRA engine, or try other's like Tiberian Sun
* Watch the pro's on Livestreams & Casts
* Windows, Mac and Linux supported

Download the latest release at www.OpenRA.net or join us at r/OpenRA!

Which on Reddit looks like this:

Love this design. Has aspects that made Red Alert appeal to me, that gritty old-school almost gloomy picture. Just in my opinion the font used for OpenRA and "free and open source" seem out of place. Maybe something closer to the original box font

I tried to use "C&C Red Alert INET" font but I couldn´t with Photoshop CS6, I don´t know why since it goes well with Illustrator and Word

Like it too, but... it really would need some support to tell more abour OpenRA. Guess it also really depends on what kind of image you design: a stand alone image, or an image that supports explaining text on a forumthread. In the last case the current images are good (perhaps with another font, how about Nevis?).

If you guys could also design a standalone image that still has the cleanliness of these images, but also conveys all (or the most important) information, then that be great!

Of course, this one is only an ad sketch I made (you can see some little mistakes in the ad) and I was planning to make atleast one for all the mods - some players only come to try one or two mods, I think- (Soviet tank for RA mod; GDI tank for TD and something for Dune). Maybe i´ll try changing the font to "News 706 Bold" https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/news-706/bold/ because it´s pretty similar to the font used in front page

about the name openra itself and the logo, which pretty much sounds and looks like red alert ( Suprised ), i think it isnt the best choice, since this project already contains 3 mods and hopefully 2 more in the future. its maybe worth thinking about something that covers all the mods.

Yeah, I´m brainstorming it to capture all emotions

Did you design that tesla tank by yourself?

Nope, I actually recycled that tesla tank from the Red Alert Retaliation intro for PSX (ahh my childhood) as you can see it here, it´s the same model. I used mirror, some HD background, a tree, and special lighting to make it more Red Alert-ish. GG.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-DAoK20ViQ

squirrel wrote: [...]
and I was planning to make atleast one for all the mods - some players only come to try one or two mods, I think- (Soviet tank for RA mod; GDI tank for TD and something for Dune).
[...]

What about sandworms for dune? I think they are pretty characteristic for it.

@SoScared & @Norman :

i think its really important to refer specific to "OpenRA" .... not just simply CnC or Open Sourced ... because we do actually have competition ... more or less (if you can call "download the original none-opensource-glitchy-unbalanced cnc products" a competition)

but there are other serious open-source projects for the cnc-franchise ... which could start eating from the same pie as we do ...

so its important to direct every potential player to "OpenRA"

because

OpenRA is open source

OpenRA has all the CnC you need and more

and just showing only the logo wont do anything ... we have to write down "OpenRA" on all the screenshots

and one of the most important points is ... we dont just give the people a better cnc/ra/d2k/ts ... we give them a tool to make their own cnc / rts

OpenRA is a construction kit for your own RTS games

SoScared wrote: <trailer image>

This is a screenshot of the intro of my next trailer. I could go in my editor and change the text and add whatever information we'd want. I'd probably have to shade out the cutscene frames a bit since OpenRA currently isn't complete on the campaigns, perhaps overwrite text on these areas.

Could you please change this to say "Open Source" (dropping the d)? "Open Sourced" generally means releasing the source code from something that was previously closed source, which makes it sound that OpenRA is a modified version of the original game, and not built from scratch as an open source project.

Is there anything I can improve on the posted text? (the moddingpart for instance?) Is the introductional text accurate and comprehensive? If not I'll start posting it a couple times tonight.

A couple of points

• There shouldn't be an apostrophy in other's, (or alternatively move it after the s) and its not a great idea to mention TS there since we don't make it (easily) available for people to try.
• 24/7 -> more like 16/7, based on our player stat graphs.
• We support FreeBSD too!

I edited your suggestions, except for the 16/7 24/7 sounds better and well at some point we'll get there.

BTW if someone is willing to make a subreddit ad for r/OpenRA... size: 300x250. For more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditads (see the right side explaining the details af the ad)

Sleipnir wrote: Could you please change this to say "Open Source" (dropping the d)? "Open Sourced" generally means releasing the source code from something that was previously closed source, which makes it sound that OpenRA is a modified version of the original game, and not built from scratch as an open source project.

The text will progress like this: Westwood Studios - Remade - Modified - Open Sourced in rapid pregression, and 'OpenRA' appears as the final title to conclude everything. No worries. The video will hint to it all coming out of the process of the Remake. In any case I'll run it by you and the crew before I finalize anything.

noobmapmaker wrote: BTW if someone is willing to make a subreddit ad for r/OpenRA... size: 300x250. For more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditads (see the right side explaining the details af the ad)

I spoke to AgressivePanda on gamereplays.org (artist) and he said he'd be willing to help you with some graphics stuff! Make an account and give him a PM - http://www.gamereplays.org/community/in ... ser=219973

If you have a great replay and pay the GeneralsGentlemen 10 $ they will cast it: https://www.patreon.com/generalsgentlemen?ty=h

SoScared wrote:

noobmapmaker wrote: BTW if someone is willing to make a subreddit ad for r/OpenRA... size: 300x250. For more info: https://www.reddit.com/r/subredditads (see the right side explaining the details af the ad)

I spoke to AgressivePanda on gamereplays.org (artist) and he said he'd be willing to help you with some graphics stuff! Make an account and give him a PM - http://www.gamereplays.org/community/in ... ser=219973

I've sent him a message!

Edited in Cmd Matt's suggestion into the OP.

To everyone: help me out by making a list of 10-20 of the biggest gameforums (or big forums with gaming section) from your country/language.
Just paste the URLs of the forum in notepad or something and once your done send it to me. I'll add it to the spreadsheet and over time post about OpenRA on those forums. It takes only 30 mins or so to collect a list and you help me alot!

Here's the google spreadsheet where I collect all those links. See the Gamingportalstab: I've mailed 30+ websites to have OpenRA listed on their site, so your work will not be in vain, I will post on those forums!

So you guys run adverts on OpenRA, if not then that should be one of your main selling points. If I seen an advert that said free to play, without adverts I would be all for it!

Also I made one for you guys, what do you think of the overall concept? I plan to change the text and add in the 'Visit OpenRA.net' at the bottom. Aswell as making the screenshot in the background a little brighter.



I've done alot of work on Kanes Wrath and other images in the past tell me if you think you could find something you like and I could do a similar thing with this. http://www.gamereplays.org/community/in ... pic=966831

I especially like the star!

Have to go and will be away for 2/3 days. Also will do some rebuilding on our house for a couple days after so won't be online alot this upcoming week. Hope others give feedback and help constructing an awesome subreddit-ad.

I really appreciate all the work you've done on these marketing threads so far nmm, it's priceless. Have a good week!

Aggr3ss1vePanda wrote: Also I made one for you guys, what do you think of the overall concept? I plan to change the text and add in the 'Visit OpenRA.net' at the bottom. Aswell as making the screenshot in the background a little brighter.

Love the concept! The message on top is perfect, I hope you meant to change the style and not the words. Looking forward to the next image.