Thanks for your feedback, verzulsan. Giving positive feedback is easy. Giving negative feedback is much harder. Let me address the points that you bring up.
First, I'll acknowledge, the forums are not super active. I wish they were, but they aren't. The truth is, the forums are basically a byproduct of the tutorials. My focus is, and always has been on the tutorials. The problem was, I got a lot of emails from people asking for help on specific things about a game they were making. I tried to help where I could, but I simply don't have the time to answer every email. So since Wikidot made it so easy to throw up a forum, I did it, hoping that if I didn't have the time to answer a question, people could ask it in the forum, and maybe someone else would be able to field a question or two. And I've seen that exact same thing happen, multiple times. So the forum isn't completely dead, nor is it a complete waste.
The forum has a couple of issues. First, people tend to ask questions that are along the lines of "How do you make a space simulator game?" where the topic is so incredibly huge that no one has the time to really answer it, because it would mean writing an entire book. Or you get things on the opposite end of the spectrum, where people say, "I'm making a game with X, Y, Z, and P, and if you do Q, then S and T happen. How do I get that to work?" With a question like this, it is so incredibly specific that no one else has done it before, and no one knows how to answer it. And if they did, it wouldn't ever be helpful to anyone else who comes along, simply because it only pertains to a very specific situation.
Third, and probably most important, for the most part, when a person comes along and sees this site, they come here, learn what they can, and then move on to make awesome games. Once they know everything this site has to offer, there's not a lot of motivation to visit the site every day. People come back every month or two to check for new things. Because of this, there are beginners asking questions in the forum, and very few experts to try to answer their questions. So some of the questions stay unanswered. Having said that, I want to point out that there is definitely a small handful of people here who are experts, or at least, no longer beginners, who do answer questions. And I'm incredibly glad that they are here! I can't tell them "thank you" enough. Also, even in a really active forum, there are still questions that go unanswered. There's no getting around that entirely.
Having said all of that, I'd love to see the forums be more active and more helpful. I have lots of ideas for how to keep people coming back for more. It's just a matter of time before I get those in place, and that will make a big difference.
Now. On to your concern about collision detection tutorials.
I agree, they'd be helpful to lots of people. You're not the only, nor the first person to bring that up. I've got it on my list of things to do, so you'll definitely want to check back later, when I get them up. I've made these tutorials in order of priority. Every game needs 2D graphics or 3D graphics. Every game needs sound. So I created those tutorials long before collision detection. Not every game needs collision detection, so it has a lower priority.
The other thing about collision detection is that everyone has their own needs for it. Some people need bounding spheres, others need bounding boxes, and others need pixel perfect collision detection, while others still need highly optimized collision detection because they have thousands of objects colliding. Unlike drawing sprites in 2D, there's not a one-size-fits-all solution, so it makes writing tutorials for that category harder, and less meaningful, because it applies to fewer people.
Having said all of that, collision detection tutorials are coming. So don't worry. They'll be here soon enough. My first priority is to make a set of tutorials that show you how to make a complete game from scratch. I've just had way too many people asking for that to ignore it. After that, barring any change in priorities, collision detection will probably be next.
Lastly, let me address your concerns about the site "disappearing" or having it get "emptier by time".
This site has had about 5% monthly growth every single month since it was first started. Every day I have thousands of visitors coming to this site, and it continues to grow higher and higher. This site isn't going to disappear any time soon. So don't worry about that. As the site gets more popular, I've seen a higher number of people in the forums asking questions, and a higher number of people answering questions. This site gets better and better by the day, so don't be concerned about it going away.
Stick with me. I promise you'll be glad you did.
