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Project Specific Discussion => SMEE / BABS / Shiny Sword Discussion => Topic started by: Devlyn on August 23, 2012, 10:28:42 am



Title: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 23, 2012, 10:28:42 am
Hi all,

As a few of you may have noticed, I put up a download link for the source code here:
http://ccs.chem.ucl.ac.uk/~derek/BABS3-alpha.rar

it's very unpolished, but I think a lot of essential gameplay is in there and it is already well into a playable state. In addition, there are a lot of features in the game and the toolkit which are not entirely visible yet to the player/developers (e.g. detailed tactical mechanisms in combat, dialogue generation based on reputation and personality, and various undocumented map editing controls).

I have this code base, an already fairly-detailed background campaign, and the full intention to throw this project into an accelerator.

I also have some financial funds to speed up development where this could be effective, although we can boot up a kickstarter project if we want to get more serious with it all.

I started this project in 1999, it's now 2012 and there's still so much room for a proper in-depth RPG that punishes your mind in tactical combat and drowns your soul in ridiculously assertive RPG dialogues. Music is/will be simple and catchy, graphics will be basic and to-the-point, and all focus goes to the gameplay.

And the final product will be completely open-source with optional donations for those who wish to support it.

Now I can do this alone, but I'll probably be done by 2025 or so, so why not gang up and hammer this out collaboratively?

At the moment I don't even care how you want to contribute to the project, as you will have relevant skills if you can read this post and play the demo. All I want to know is whether your want to be part of a to be formed development team for BABS, how many hours you are willing to invest in this endeavour, and what you would like to get out of it for yourself.

The first point is obvious. As for the second point, I'll need an honest estimate there. Regarding the last point, it is also important to be frank there: are you seeking to learn skills, just to be part of a large development effort, or would you like to make money out of it somehow as well?

More people = more momentum = faster development = better game!

So.... who's in?


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 23, 2012, 02:04:52 pm
Anything in particular you're looking for? My Java is rather rusty, but I can work on minor things (cleaning up code etc). I could probably help with graphics, if you don't mind crappy pixel art ;) The majority of my work these days is web development, so any website stuff is right up my alley.

Also: do you mind if I stick BABS3 in the downloads section and post about it (and this) on the homepage? Might get more attention that way.


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 23, 2012, 07:29:30 pm
No problem. Feel free to post it (it is an alpha release though) and also to plug my recruitment advert for developers in one way or another.

As for whether I am looking for anything in particular... yes, people who would enjoy being part of the team and contributing to BABS in the way they enjoy most. I can almost certainly think up a useful task for the project regardless of what you enjoy doing.

- If you enjoy pixel art.... well, the options are obvious there.
- If you enjoy brushing up your JAVA... there are a variety of engine aspects that could use a boost or good fix. And also there is a huge variety, ranging from making small, straightforward isolated tools to refactoring huge parts of the code base.
- And if you enjoy both brushing up your JAVA and making pixel art... well, I've still been meaning to build an assisted sprite builder for the game, where you throw in a template sprite type, a bunch of parameters and *poof* a fully animated walkmap sprite comes out ;).

There's a lot more where that came from... basically the idea is: if you tell me what you would enjoy doing, then I'll think of a bunch of appropriate tasks that will propel the project further. :)

Oh, and if it turns out that some parts of the game lag enormously behind others in development because nobody enjoys doing something in particular... then I also have ways to resolve that. I could either do some backfilling if needed or we can just throw a few pounds at it and order a commissioned work or two :).

One last thing: I do also of course need to know how much time your are reasonably willing/able to spend on BABS, otherwise I can't propose you any appropriately sized tasks ;).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 23, 2012, 08:21:52 pm
Things are pretty busy here right now, but I can probably dedicate an hour a night to Shiny Sword work. Maybe more, maybe less, depending on work load.

I think I'd be happier working on the guts, so perhaps a good first task for me would be to sort out loading property files on Linux ;) Do you want to set up a repository for sourcecode?


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 23, 2012, 09:10:27 pm
That would be awesome yes :). I can then develop from many more places as well.

the property file stuff sounds like a good place to start... quite essential if you prefer developing on Linux anyway :).

I'll probably go for a guts-based task list myself for the time being :).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 23, 2012, 09:43:56 pm
No worries, I'll set up something this weekend. Would you prefer Git or Subversion?


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 24, 2012, 06:10:13 am
I personally have experience with Mercurial or Subversion, but git is also good for me.

Feel free to pick your favorite! :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 24, 2012, 12:14:52 pm
Cool - I'll set it up this weekend when I move servers :) In the meantime, if you have a list of tasks that need doing I can start setting aside some time :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 24, 2012, 03:32:12 pm
Hey Ty,

Here's a lit of open issues that may connect to what you like to do. Feel free to pick whatever you prefer to do:

1. Getting SMEE and ShinySword to run under Linux.
2. Fix the roofswitching bug. (solved now!!!)
3. Draw battle backgrounds for indoor/sewers.
4. Fix the shopping system and/or set up a character equipping system that works on the walk maps.
4. Higher resolution walkmap sprites for Chris and Moshtar.
5. Construct walkmap sprites and battle animations for new baddies. Relevant baddies for the near future may include:
- the Sork
Sorks are stocky humanoids who stand about 6'5" to 7' tall. They usually wear very little clothing and tend to have a relatively light skin, with older specimen having blisters on their shoulders as well as some other places. Sorks do not have hair, and their eye color is often either yellow or red. Their ears are relatively large. Sorks are desert dwellers who tend to flock around water sources. They form tribes of roughly 20 specimen, and usually move to a different location at the end of summer.
- the Zratix (could have multiple on one tile)
Zratixes are tiny-sized flies which can shoort rays through their mouths.
- the Sabre Wasp
Sabre Wasps are thick-skinned wasps which can obtain a length of up 3' (95cm). They have a large solid stinger attached to their beak, which they use to inflict damage or pry loose objects. In combat, Sabre Wasps are very apt at performing disarm attacks. When a Sabre Wasp hits it choose to forego two points of damage and perform a disarm instead.
6. Construct walkmap sprites and battle animations for one or two additional good guys, e.g.:
- SLV-66
Slave 66 is someone who slightly stciks out in the crowd of slave living in Azrat. He is a tall man walking proudly and straight and he seems not to fit in with the other slaves. Slave 66 feels he was born to lead the slaves elsewhere, he feels very strongly about this. He chooses to keep his head shaved, although he is not bold. He has brown eyes. Except for his air of confidence he does not stand out too much between the other slaves. He still has the raggedly looks of someone who has to work too long and too long every day. SLV-66, like all Shimbazi, has his name tattood on his forehead like a license plate. Also, he has minimal clothing and no equipment.
- Zyco
Zyco is a 2m00 tall minotaur, has black hair, and dresses in a dark gray cloak. He is a City Druid: someone who knows the ins and outs of Azrat, and usually steers clear of major action. However, we could introduce him as a party member in some of the more dramatic battles :).
- I'm open to any other character suggestions. Feel free to suggest anything and I'll let you know if we need to adjust anything to make it fit in the setting :).


If you need more ideas, let me know! :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 27, 2012, 11:07:39 am
Just a small notice here. I just resolved the roofswitching bug :).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 27, 2012, 02:54:02 pm
Awesome :) I've created a subversion repository, so I'll PM you the access details once the server move goes through completely.


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 27, 2012, 07:23:27 pm
Works great for me. Thanks! :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 27, 2012, 07:29:34 pm
All right! I'll try and get the Linux version up and running tonight :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 27, 2012, 07:38:15 pm
Niice :). I just noticed that the shop system magically fixed itself. It's still wholly at half resolution though, and the interface is a bit simple too. I'll see if I can tweak it a litte :).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 03:12:36 am
So apparently my Java is rustier than I thought ;)

I'm currently working on switching from Java property files to JSON, which should get rid of the line-ending problems on Linux. The basic idea is to move things from the "gamefiles" (and related) directories and into a custom directory per game. It currently looks like this:

Code:
*stories
** shiny_sword
*** story.json -- Basic info and locations of images etc
*** classes.json
*** events.json
*** items.json
*** monsters.json
*** organisations.json
*** parties.json
*** shops.json
My aim is to have everything Shiny Sword related stored in a single place, so people can clone it and distribute their own BABS based stories a little easier. Given my Java skills it might take a while ;)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 28, 2012, 06:55:42 am
I'm just checking the json standard and I can see how that may take a while. Do you know what the symptoms exactly are of the line-ending problem on Linux?

We may be able to solve this without converting entirely to json, as it's a lengthier format for those who wish to write scripts and dialogues? However, the json can still be extremely handy for some other things anyway (.e.g. making a new and more open map format).

Either way, I'll try to minimize the expansion of properties files while you're doing this...


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 28, 2012, 07:20:38 am
The weird thing is that I have run SMEE and Shiny_Sword on Linux in the distant past, so I'm not sure what changed (more) recently.

Note, the distant past here means 9 years ago(!).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 11:39:06 am
json.org makes it look scarier than it is ;) I'm not a huge fan of it, but I figured using something that's pretty standard would make writing third-party tools easier :)

Having said all that, I've figured out the file problem and committed a fix, so property files are fine for now ;)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 12:07:02 pm
Made a couple of other fixes, so everything runs on Linux. The intro frame is causing a bit of trouble (the window is 0x0 pixels), but hitting the skip key a few times brings up the map and then you can play. I'll take a look at that today.


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 28, 2012, 01:14:50 pm
Awesome! That'll save us a lot of time :). Shall I keep developing in Windows while you use Linux? That way we have a bit of a perpetual cross-platform check?

I'll see if I have some time to do some more additions tonight. :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 01:54:24 pm
Yep, that's cool with me. I think it was only the "\\" in paths that was causing problems, so most things should work on Linux now :)

I've also added a TODO file to try and keep me more organized ;)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 28, 2012, 05:05:00 pm
Awesome. Did you put the TODO file on the SVN as well? It can be handy for me too ;).

I wonder if we are able to find extra developers somehow but if not, I'm sure we can make useful progress either way and release quite a neat version quite soon :).


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Ty on August 28, 2012, 05:49:04 pm
Yep, it's under svn as "TODO.org" - it's just plain text :) I think as long as we do a little bit every now and then it'll get finished :)


Title: Re: Gathering Developers for BABS
Post by: Devlyn on August 29, 2012, 11:54:52 am
Agreed :). I actually find it a nice work-stress relieving activity, as it's so easy to make measurable progress with this (unlike my science career at times :P).