At 2:36 PM -0400 9/30/03, Lars Jensen wrote:
All true. This is why I like the idea of an open source or shareware game
framework. There is a LOT of code that needs to be designed & debugged to
make anything even semi-polished (not to mention updated to take advantage
of new RB features), and I'm not convinced that the bulk of it can't be
reused in an intelligent way.
I think some of it can, but probably not the bulk of it.
Actually those friends are usually the best motivator for me. When they stop
asking about a game, I lose interest...and what they usually want most is
net play and/or a good AI, neither of which is easy, especially for a
realtime game like Volley or Whiplash.
True, and of the two, I think AI is easier (but still not very easy).
But you will all be happy (or at least vaguely interested I hope) to know
that I am still thinking hard about Whiplash: fixing collision detection,
more kinds of levels, UDP net play, open source, etc.
Great! And don't forget shadows!
I didn't get much response from folks about open source RB projects. Should
I take that to mean they they don't work very well?
Not necessarily, but:
Aah...aah...aaaahh...CH<Offworld>OO !!
...is a good example of where it didn't. It wasn't my project, but I
ended up doing almost all the coding. It drew too much time away
from my own projects, and when I said enough was enough -- hoping
that somebody else would step forward and take it over -- nobody did.
An open source project only works if there is one person with both
the drive and the ability to do most of the coding himself, and the
Offworld project lacked such a person.
But still, the source is out there and anybody with an interest could
develop it further. Which brings me back to what I was going to
suggest for Whiplash (or any other RB game): if you reach a point
where you no longer have any interest in finishing it, please
consider making it open-source. I, for example, would probably add
shadows immediately and would probably even spend an evening or two
trying to develop an AI for it. Others might add other things. Or
maybe nobody would bother to do anything at all -- but if so, then
that's their fault, not yours!
Cheers,
- Joe
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| Joseph J. Strout REAL Software, Inc. |
| joe at realsoftware dot com http://www.realsoftware.com |
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