How to join BGA developer team?

Is this right for me

Before joining please consider if this is right for you, it is right if

• You like board games and programming and you think it would be a good hobby
• You really want to fix some bugs in already published games
• You want to create a game from public domain (e.g. chinese checkers, bridge, etc.)
• You were hired or persuaded by somebody else to create game adaptation on bga

On the other hand

• If you think you can implement any of the games from top 100 on BGG. We checked and we don't have license, and if we do, it's already implemented or under way.
• If you are an amateur game designer and you think you can play test a game on BGA platform, it's not a right place, players here like known games. Digital adaptations are very expensive (or time consuming) it won't be worth the effort.
• If you trying to use this platform for something which is not a board game adaptation (e.g. video game, online skill test, etc.). It won't be allowed.
• You are a student who just took first your programming course and think it's a good way to practice web skills. BGA Studio is not an easy framework to use, see skill set below.
• If you think you can make make a lot of money of it, it's not going to happen. But recently it has been increase in demand for paid work, so it is possible to make SOME money this way.

Requires skills for BGA studio projects:

• If you are an experienced software developer you can goto next section
• If you are not an experienced developer or not a developer
  • You are required to know or learn 5 languages: JavaScript, PHP, SQL, HTML and CSS
  • You need to know the basics of object oriented programming, web development and database development
  • You need to know how to setup and use development tools and setup remote file synchronization
  • You need to know how to use image manipulation software (e.g. Paint.net, Gimp, Photoshop, etc.)
• If you don't have the skills above however there is new feature, called Studio Sandbox! The only language is required there is JavaScript. Check this out http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!sandbox

As voluteer developer for BGA, what is expected from me?

• Nothing really is expected (but on the other hand do not expect much from anybody else)
• If you manage to get you game across finish line (i.e. published) it is generally expected that you will also fix the bugs, but if you cannot - nobody can force you to do anything (but they may take down the game if maintainer cannot be found)
• The code you wrote will remain with bga and they can do whatever they want with it (but you can also do whatever you want with your own copy)
• There is documentation, forum and chat with other developers available to help

What do I get out of it?

• It is fun to develop a game. And you do it all by yourself!!!
• You can greatly improve you web development skills in ancient web technology and dealing with tiny databases
• You can talk directly to game publisher and game designers of you favorite game and even play with them!
• Eventually you will become famous (in small circles of bga players who read credits)

How to create BGA Studio development account

Registering on BGA Studio is simple and automatic from:

http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com

To register, you must agree with BGA Terms & Conditions for developers. It's very light, so as to get to the fun part faster.\\\\

During registration if you will get a database error that user already exists ignore it.

Once registered, you will get by email

• one login / password to access files through SFTP
• one login / password to access the database (for your games in progress)
• ten logins with numeric suffixes from 0 to 9 and a common simple password to test games on the studio website while developing.

If you did not get email, search for "Welcome on BGA Studio" in your email client (just like that), it sometimes ends up in junk folder.

If you cannot find it, and you use some weird proprietary email address, it possible that your mail server denies emails from bga, in this case write to studio@boardgamearena.com and specify login name your have chosen (if they don't reply in 3 days post message on the forum). Don't attempt to register again with same email, it likely will fail again. But if you have standard email such as gmail, yahoo, outlook use it instead.

Ok, I registered, how to start?

Then... well that's all, you can start!

See Great, I'm in! ... How should I start?