Community Project Mark 562 - Game Direction Vote (v2)

Business and Project Management Discussions Community & Volunteer Projects
#61

I’m too scared to start a thread in case that implies responsibility for the project. I simply don’t have the time to put in right now.

However, a possible breakdown of technical components:

  • Solid terrain: representation (2.5D or 3D), generation, physics
  • Fluids (rivers oceans etc): particle model, physics
  • Plants: sun/soil/growth/harvesting cycle
  • Creatures: attributes, reproduction, behaviour
  • Weather: model (automata, rules etc)

And importantly, an infrastructure that lets components interact so as to make it a living world, and a sandbox.

Jono.

#62

The original idea of the sandbox game was more along the lines of Harvest Moon and/or Animal Crossing.

Writing the spec doesn’t mean you have to take responsibility for the project or even that everyone will jump on and build it. You do take responsibility for writing the initial spec, taking the flak (which no doubt with fly) and updating it with respect to what people think. I’m mostly pushing having all 3 spec written because people generally seem to find it hard to back something they don’t have more detail on. If it happens that we end up making 3 games with people from one project to another as they see fit so be it!

Kev

#63

Yeah, not sure I can handle the flak either :wink:

As for being Harvest Moon style, to me that just means having fun rounding up creatures into pens; keeping them fed, watered, and sheltered; and making/adding stuff to your home. That’s what I had in mind when breaking it into those technical components. Well, a dozen people voted for it so perhaps one of them who actually has the balls and a vision can take control instead. =)

#64

I voted for it.

I suppose I can write up the spec later tonight. I didn’t volunteer because I figured whoever proposed it in the first place would want to.

#65

There are some more options in the wikipedia article, like FedoraHosted.org (has svn, mercurial and git. Also Trac and a wiki), BitBucket.org or even Assembla.com.

Don’t know about distributed VCS because of lacking tool integration. NetBeans Mercurial support is pretty good, dunno about Eclipse, but the Mercurial plugin seems to be around some time at least. The Git plugins for both IDEs seem just too young. I think tool support should be as seamless as possible, so SVN (or Mercurial) may be the way to go (for starters).

#66

Thanks Demonpants, much appreciated. I think Orangy and Woogley were interested in the idea before but I know for one OT is on holiday at the moment.

In the news:

  • Demon pants takes on c), the last of the specs, for the Havest Moon/Animal Crossing inspired sandbox game. Nice one!

Kev

PS. I promise I’ll stop doing that now :wink:

#67

Looking at the ‘spec’'s it seems the WHISKY syndrome (Why isn’t someone “koding” yet?) has struck. Also it might be wise to separate goals - short term goals(first mile stone) and general direction, as with any project in general ‘general direction’ can make quite some turns as the project moves on. Also I see a lot of goals leaning on content as opposed to technology - as I asked before in this thread has our focus shifted here?

It’s weird that Chris hasn’t chipped in his thoughts yet, esp since www.java-gaming.org/Mark562/wiki sounds like the most logical place. esp since he can hook up the forum with the wiki to share accounts.

//edit

there’s also http://kenai.com btw, I’m still temped to test drive jazz but I rather not add additional risk to the problem.

#68

Looking at the specs threads appears to be quite a lot of detail on what people are thinking about, hopefully this means it’s easier to vote now. However, it really does look like there could be three independent projects kicking off - so, could I request one thing. If you voted for a particular project, and you’re interested in getting involved even in a small way, please post on the related spec thread - first to let them know you’re interested, but secondly to make sure you’re being heard with respect to ideas.

It looks like we’re starting to see some key members for each team (and even the beginnings of a plan in the Space Trader thread!).

In other news, do we have some common wiki space yet? While it might end up being 3 different projects in the work I think it’d be generally better if we still stuck together as a whole so we can cross pollinate ideas for common issues.

Cheers,

Kev

#69

I set up a WiKi for the projects. I am still working on the front page, but I thought i would let you know so no one else has to do it.

http://javagaming.wikidot.com/

They also have forum usage on there, so once any projects are decided the forum could be over there.

#70

Ah, I thought Mr_Light was doing that sort of thing. Have you already set up an alternative Mr_Light, or should we go with this one?

Kev

#71

No I was holding back as I expected Chris to indicate that he would set it up here or let hell free over first. - I didn’t account for him not replying at all.

I still favor kenai as that would keep the source repo, issue tracker and wiki together, though I certainly don’t have any authority on deciding against using http://javagaming.wikidot.com/

#72

Ok, since you get in first if you still think kenai is the best option when you read this could you set up an account there and let us know. I don’t think Chris has time at the moment so I guess we’re on our own. I do think it’s really important to keep everything in one place.

I do worry as soon as it moves off these forums though the interest is going to die off, simply because it’s not as easy to access. Fingers cross it doesn’t huh?

Kev

#73

No problem. I forgot that it was mentioned earlier.

#74

thats ok.

hmm kenai has a gmail like (well when it was starting off… ) invitation system(for creating projects). Perhaps thats not the solution (for us) either

#75

Ok, then looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_hosting_facilities GoogleCode, SourceForge or Launchpad look like the best bets.

Kev

#76

Opting for launchpad though it uses bazaar Git -> Mercurial -> Bazaar

It does seem to have an eclipse plugin just not sure how mature it is. Unless someone has an objection against it…

#77

Do you want to use the WiKi I set up?

#78

Sourceforge too slow. Launchpad no wiki. Google code no mailing list. Launchpad if we use Captainjester’s wiki?? (my not that very informed gut feeling is google though)

#79

http://groups.google.com/

#80

Any thoughts about http://fedorahosted.org?