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Who Needs Direction?
OnlineCop
Member #7,919
October 2006
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EDIT:

Per Onewing's request, here are some of the important links for this thread:

Monday[1][2] can be found on SVN at http://svn.miquelfire.com/monday/ (thanks, MiquelFire[1][2][3] for the repo!).

Two project pages used to keep track of Monday's progress and design ideas are:

Monday will use the Lua[1] scripting language (current version: 5.1.4).

[center]=== ROLES AND ASSIGNMENTS ===[/center]

Matt Smith is our Evil Producer.
23yrold3yrold is our Team Leader.
Thomas Fjellstrom is the official Cat Herder.
Trezker is our Lead Programmer.
bamccaig has started to work on a developer console that may be incorporated into the Monday project to allow in-game edits.
alethiophile is Programmer #12.
Thomas Harte has offered support for "drawing TrueType fonts with OpenGL geometry".
decepto has offered support for sound design.
Pedro Avelar Gontijo has offered support for music (is this different from decepto's sound?).
relpatseht has offered even more manpower.
Paul Pridham has offered some sort of speech support. Cool.

To discuss this in an IRC channel, CGamesPlay has suggested using mibbit.com if you don't have a dedicated IRC program. Join us on the Freenode server in the #allegro channel. The #allegro-monday channel is often used as well for intense Monday-related discussions so as to not derail #allegro too badly.

Oh, and 23yrold3yrold says we haven't yet beaten the longest-running thread record yet...

...there may be more... I keep losing internet connection and want to get this posted.

This thread was started when I said:

I finished an internship at a game development company. Then I came back to the a.cc forums. I saw the TINS competition going on, and all the other projects that are actually getting done.

I think I've learned that, unless someone is keeping me motivated and giving me stuff to work on, I get overwhelmed and never finish a project.

So I'm wondering if there is a "group project"-style competition similar to TINS or SpeedHack?

The project may last about a week, and we'd post our game (as far as it's gotten) next Monday~ish (or a week from whenever the "group" gets organized). Work is totally "on your own schedule", and someone would be a project manager who ensures everything gets integrated and basically pieces together all the different parts of the game into the final version.

Any takers?

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
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That sounds interesting, actually. I think there are enough people around here these days who have enough programming and game design experience to do that.

It's just a matter of how many people you can get involved. Well count me in.

--
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OnlineCop
Member #7,919
October 2006
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Alright. First thing to do is determine the game type.

I've ALWAYS been a fan of RPGs, but I'm flexible.

Ideas anyone for this game? Moreover, GAME NAME ideas anyone?

alethiophile
Member #9,349
December 2007
avatar

I'm in.
Should try to make it more than your random TINS entry (though some were quite impressive!), since we have a week or however long to do it in, and more people. And it's hard to come up with a game name if we haven't decided on a genre/setting yet. I propose, however, that it be set in space.

--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
C++: An octopus made by nailing extra legs onto a dog.
I am the Lightning-Struck Penguin of Doom.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
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Surely if it's a competition or event, there is no single game name?

I'd be willing to take part, schedule allowing. Obviously team arranging on forums such as this is usually folly, but if it's explicitly a one week competition-type thing then I reckon it could work out.

Would we have a magic computer match us up into teams? If so, presumably it would do so through application of a matching algorithm based on our preferred development libraries and possibly environments?

23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
avatar

I would help with a group thing. I've learned that nothing of real note gets done solo, at least IMO. As long as I know the rest of the team is on the job; I think KQ has mostly hit the rocks. :(

--
Software Development == Church Development
Step 1. Build it.
Step 2. Pray.

CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
avatar

Nice idea. As long as it's not gonna be in the next month or so, count me in! (And as long as we won't run into problems like "no one to do the graphics", which is a project-killer. Unless the project doesn't have graphics of course :P)

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Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
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It's never going to work. And it's Monday. :P

CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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Most probably, but it doesn't hurt to try :P

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OnlineCop
Member #7,919
October 2006
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First of all, how do we set up coordinating our efforts? Say we have 4 programmers. Do we have someone here who knows how to set up a part-time, short-term repository that we can check in/out our changes? Or do we need to start PM'ing and emailing all ideas to "the head programmer" and let that person integrate everything?

alethiophile
Member #9,349
December 2007
avatar

Setup an SVN repo on some server? That makes the most sense, I think.

--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
C++: An octopus made by nailing extra legs onto a dog.
I am the Lightning-Struck Penguin of Doom.

23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
avatar

Quote:

It's never going to work. And it's Monday. :P

The fun question is, who's being sarcastic, and will the people who aren't figure it out? :)

--
Software Development == Church Development
Step 1. Build it.
Step 2. Pray.

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

Quote:

It's never going to work. And it's Monday. :P

Believe in hope Matthew! Believe in hope!

--
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OnlineCop
Member #7,919
October 2006
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So I've got these takers so far:

OnlineCop (me),
Mark Oates,
alethiophile,
Thomas Harte,
23yrold3yrold,
CursedTyrant

I have absolutely no idea how to set up any sort of SVN or CVS repo at all. Does someone here know how, and where we can host it for the next week (maybe a week-and-a-half for a long estimate)?

I don't really care if all of this code is 100% original, or if it's only 80% original (like reusing old and very efficient timer routines that's out on the wiki already, or whatever), so we can get started as soon as we come up with a depot for all of our code and graphics. Once the repo is setup, we can hammer out game ideas.

People reading this forum are welcome to submit suggestions! (Or would it be better to come up with the "this is the type of game we're making... NOW who's interested in being part of the group?" approach and choose candidates from people interested in the game?)

alethiophile
Member #9,349
December 2007
avatar

I know how to do an SVN repo, and AFAIK that's better than CVS. (I don't have any experience with CVS, just SVN.) As for where to host it, Tuxfamily (Google it) provides free hosting for projects under OSS licenses, but it's uncertain whether they would accept something like a game licensed OSS--there's some wording about "relating to the free software philosophy". I'm unsure about other services providing SVN hosting--I know there are others, but they all cost money. If it's only for a week, then it's barely possible that we could host it on one person's PC that isn't ever turned off. That's a problem, though, because most users' ISP contracts forbid them from running servers on their machines.

--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
C++: An octopus made by nailing extra legs onto a dog.
I am the Lightning-Struck Penguin of Doom.

OnlineCop
Member #7,919
October 2006
avatar

Everyone who's interested in this project, rank your top 3 game genre preferences.

Mine are:

1) RPGs
2) Puzzle (like Zep's Dreamland)
3) Action-Adventure (like Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana)

With this, we'll narrow down what we'll work on as a group and get started (with or without a repository, if necessary for a few days).

Mark Oates
Member #1,146
March 2001
avatar

See I'm thinking that we have several teams. ;)

--
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Trezker
Member #1,739
December 2001
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I think that instead of the group deciding what to make. Spin the Speedhack rule-o-matic.

23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
avatar

RPG is a likely-to-fail, Puzzle is too easy. Make it a platformer or adventure game or something.

--
Software Development == Church Development
Step 1. Build it.
Step 2. Pray.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
avatar

Quote:

First of all, how do we set up coordinating our efforts?

That's for each individual team to decide.

Quote:

RPG is a likely-to-fail, Puzzle is too easy. Make it a platformer or adventure game or something.

This should be for each team to decide.

23yrold3yrold
Member #1,134
March 2001
avatar

"Each" team? It's Monday; one team is optimistic. Let's not get silly here; start small.

--
Software Development == Church Development
Step 1. Build it.
Step 2. Pray.

amarillion
Member #940
January 2001
avatar

We did a team competition once with four teams. It was moderately successful, so it is possible.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
avatar

Quote:

"Each" team? It's Monday; one team is optimistic. Let's not get silly here; start small.

Well I'm really only interested in a proper event, and therefore in planning for an event. I have no faith whatsoever in the idea of us all just deciding we're going to be a team for a week and then actually doing it.

I'm aware that the event may not happen, but I thought that was the nature of the thing we are discussing.

Re: teams in general, the only time I've ever really been part of a "successful" team (i.e. one that completed a project) was doing the Allegro Skater demo game. I did the main game code alone for a concentrated period, the menuing system and script for creating the level with Blender were done by others; I just followed instructions to use the menuing system and provided a documentation of the ASCII-based level file format. So I guess the key, during the event, will be properly defining the boundaries between roles and how the different parts should slot together.

If anyone ends up on my team, I'm going to push for adoption of my event-based game framework*, which sits on SDL, SDL_mixer, SDL_image, FreeType and OpenGL (but obviously I won't go home and cry if it's rejected); can we have ChristmasHack-style rules that don't stipulate Allegro?

  • as used, in various states, in everything I've done since 2005.

Matthew Leverton
Supreme Loser
January 1999
avatar

It's already failing! 8-)

The only group decision should be to elect a team leader. Don't you see that any detail left to a group will never get decided? Letting the group pick the genre means five angry kids deciding to do their own thing since the group went against their desires to build a 3D Japanese cartoon porn puzzle soccer game.

The reason group projects work in the real world is because everybody is getting paid to listen to his or her employer.

Vanneto
Member #8,643
May 2007

Quote:

3D Japanese cartoon porn puzzle soccer game.

I think we have a genre!

In capitalist America bank robs you.



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