As you may or may not be aware, my 'Alternative Game Libraries' forum and Kylotan's 'Scripting Languages and Mods' forum, were recently merged to form this new 'APIs and Tools' forum, at our request. The merger was largely for organisational purposes, since there was always a good deal of overlap in the purpose of the two forums, but both forums were also pretty low traffic - and we'd like to remedy that, in so far as we can.

One of the ways I'd like to promote forum traffic is to make relevant information easier and quicker to access. So inspired by Sneftel's long-ago initiative over in Cell Phones and PDAs, I'd like to solicit your suggestions on what information should appear in the new forum FAQ...

There are several existing sources of information I can draw on while drafting the FAQ, though the continued relevance/accuracy of those sources may be at issue:

• The old Scripting Languages and Mods FAQ.
  
• Kylotan's comprehensive List of Game Development Libraries.
  
• The detailed-but-woefully-incomplete *unofficial* FAQ from Alternative Game Libraries.
  

But I'd rather hear from you, what information do you think should be in the FAQ? Should we be going for comprehensive list of every alternative, as we have in the past, or try and provide detailed guidance on a few good/popular approaches? Should we guide people directly to each API/tool's own forums, or try and keep them here? Should we guide beginners towards particular choices, or try and force them into their own choices? If the former, then what should those particular choices be?

Some FAQ use cases, in no particular order; specific portions of the discussion could be factored out, for example "how do I make .3ds models" from modding specific games.

I want to mod/edit levels for popular game or game family X.

- How customizable is X? What can I change?

- What tools can I use?

- Where are the relevant file formats documented?

I intend to use popular platform/library/tool/language X.

- What tools are compatible or suitable for use with X?

- Is it a good idea to use X to do Y? If not, how can I adjust the plan? (in a FAQ, the advice will have to be about adjusting tool selection, not about adjusting game design.)

- What are the main alternatives to X, particularly more "advanced" ones?

- What are the good books, tutorials and articles, and other useful resources to learn X?

- What are the auxiliary tools, IDE plugins etc. to use X

I plan to make a so-and-so game.

- What tools are suitable for my requirements?