Comments to Main Objects
Game
There's three descriptions for games included. The tag-line is a short one-liner describing the game to the point. This could be mandatory for new game entries. The description is the usual case, two to four paragraphs describing the basics of a game. And finally, the long description is for the people that really love a game and want to describe in deep detail the inner workings of it.
There's a compilation switch included. This is YES/NO and shall be switched to YES if the new game entry is - surprise - a compilation. According to our current state of discussion, only releases that include 1) no less than two games or 2) one game and no less than one significant add-on to it are allowed for their own compilation game entry. These rules exclude all these game releases with changing DLC's that plague us. If this switch is YES, the game entry won't be shown in game lists/searches.
There's an add-on switch included which shall be set if the new game entry is - surprise - an add-on. This switch can be set to two values: significant add-on or unsiginificant add-on. According to our current state of discussion, releases that require another game installed before they can be played shall be flagged this way. If a release can be played stand-alone, but also as an add-on to another game, this switch shall not be set. This switch will allow us to easily adjust our game lists / searches to exclude add-ons, significant or not. The significance of an add-on still needs to be discussed.
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- Original floppy release for DOS
- Enhanced CD release for Windows
- Censored German release for DOS
- Special Edition for Windows
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- To number 2) above: The enhanced CD release for Windows featured full digitized speech, remade intro and extro as well as additional in-game video sequences.
- To number 3) above: The German release of the game was severely changed due to German youth protection law. All human opposition within the game was replaced by robots who would not bleed and just disappear after destruction, corpses and much of the blood was removed from the level designs. But all female characters within this release are bare-breasted, though.
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- Original German floppy release for DOS
- Second edition of the German floppy release for DOS
- German compilation release for Windows within "Gold Games 4"
- English Steam release for Windows
- Flash release for Kongregate.com
- UK "Green Pepper" budget release for Windows
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- To number 2) above: The second edition of Germany's floppy release came with version 1.1 of the game included, featuring a slightly different front cover and a made-up manual. The registration card was left out, though, because no one registered the first time around.
- To number 5) above: When the game was released on Kongregate.com, it was adapted to Kongregate's framework. The in-game help was cut and replaced by the help on the website, a high-score list was added, and some achievements have been integrated:
- Kill one foe [Easy]
- Kill ten foes [Medium]
- Kill all foes [Hard]
- Donate money to the developers [Ultra]
The field "Compilation Mother Release" exists to connect the release of the compilation to its child releases under the individual games. It shall be filled when creating the child releases. We'll see if there's a better technical way to do this.
The field "Compilation Case Description" is an optional way to explain special compilation cases. Exemplary, it could be used to describe how to play the game '''Maniac Mansion''' from within '''Day of the Tentacle'''. This field shall be filled in with the mother release.the main objects of the data model