Sharing images inside the Sharendipity community

We interact with lots of creative artists that have done some great work, and are looking for new opportunities to distribute their artwork. In many cases, they like the idea of participating in the Sharendipity ecosystem – particularly with the gamers – but lack the interest in creating authentic games themselves.

Since images can’t be shared directly from the website, it isn’t obvious how to get started. This post is intended to show you how you can share your images from within the Sharendipity editor.

Once they’ve been added, they will be accessible to everyone else within the Sharendipity community.

1. Login

Before you can share anything out to the community, you first need to login with your Sharendipity account. If you don’t yet have an account, you can create an account in a flash by clicking “Create an account” at the top of the page.

2. Launch the editor

The editor can be launched in one of two ways. You can either click the “Create Yor Own” button at the top of the games page or you can launch into it directly using the following URL:

http://games.sharendipity.com/create/

3. Open the asset manager

Once you are in the editor, you manage all Sharendipity assets through the asset manager. This interface provides access to the components local to your application as well as those shared out in the community. This is true for everything from game characters and web services, to artwork and sounds.

Each asset type filter provides a “New” button at the bottom of the asset manager dialog.

4. Select the “Images” filter

From inside the asset manager, select the “Community Assets” tab at the top and then hover over the type filter to select “Images”. In addition to filtering the search results to images, it always presents a new option at the bottom of the window to upload new images – “Upload Image…”

5. Upload your new image

When you click the “Upload Image…” button, an upload dialog will appear that prompts you for the location of the file. Click “Browse” and locate the image on your desktop, and click “Upload” to start the upload process.

6. Describe your image asset

Once the file has been streamed to the server, you will be prompted to describe the asset. The thumbnail should be pre-populated, but you should fill in a name, description, and tags that describe your asset and make it easy for others to find.

If your image is a tile used for animation, use the fields underneath the thumbnail to describe its layout.

Finally, you’ll need to decide whether to make your image public or not. If you do not check the “Visibility” box, the image will not appear in the search results for other Sharendipity users. And don’t worry, you can change this setting at any time after it has been saved.

Happy sharing!