The Shining Source

Just pondering on Tatakai and other things. Then I thought, would people go for a programming model of Tatakai ? Are there many programmers out there who would find a Tatakai DLL useful ?

Imagine writing your game...

Tatakai.NewMap(30, 30)
Tatakai.LoadMap("map03.map")
Tatakai.AddPlayer("Steve the Slayer", 2, 4)

I'm wondering about rewriting Tatakai with a cool object model to compile a DLL. This will allow the Tatakai objects to be hooked to custom display, input and sound interfaces, so you could program your own game and leave all the game engine stuff to the Tatakai.DLL ??!!

Comments ? Suggestions ??

Though before you start, I do develop components for a living - I'm interested in who would find this useful, if at all.

It's more likely not work, because everyone has different needs and methods in programming. These method may be useful only in a limited scale.
Take the .AddPlayer for instance. It requires to use Your engine, in other words. This serves as an engine rather than a library. This reminds me the Verge.

What language are you using to write it? Is it platform independent? Most important issue, is it open source?

Personally I think such a thing wouldn't serve a lot of use, until there's more interest in developing customized Tatakai games.

It's best to first develop and optimize the kit to the point where it is really popular and often-used before enhancing the distribution capabilities imho.

I'm using VB (OK yeah not the best choice), so I'd be writing a Windows DLL. I'm quite adept at component design and I generally program components as proper toolkits for programmers to use, which would allow programmers acess to based classes like a map, a sprite etc.
This means that other programmers can write any program, and use whichever bits suited their tastes, so the end prodcut wouldn't resemble Tatakai in the least.
Consider it an analogue to the standard ActiveX controls; buttons, textboxes etc. - the Tatakai components would be simple enough to use as you please, but have innate but broad behaviours built in to provide basic functionality. you end up with an entire SHF-style programming model to pick & choose from.

From the initial copy of Tatakai functionality into the components, I can add more varied examples of game engine functionality to allow users even more choice. Definitely something to contribute to, and if .NET were used, then there would be no fixed language to the components.

Still feeling impassive ??

Hmm... well, if it only takes a small amount of work, then the pro's definately outweigh the con of a slightly release date.

But a full rewrite doesn't exactly sound like that. Not that I think it's a bad idea (on the contrary), but I experienced that developers generally become a lot less passionate about their projects if they restart from scratch without having released something significant before doing so (although I guess you had something along those lines with the private releases).

On a final note, watch out for the "choice" trap (so to speak). More choice within an engine often leads to more complexity, which may lead to a steeper learning curve for users.

Just my 2 cents .

I would agree with Develyn - I mean why to do all the work if there is nobody wanting to use it? If you wanna do it for yourself (like more training or stuff) then you'll do it anyway so don't take my opionion to serious  

Well, thats why I posted - to see if anyone was interested. I guess not, so I'll stick to adding to the current system.
I guess I've been reading too many Microsoft API articles at work...
"The new, revolutionary programming model for ~"

And thanks for all the 2 cents worth, I've now got enough to buy a small Caribbean island. I'll send you all a postcard ={D>

You're welcome dude .

I think the release of Shining Force GBA temporarily dipped the fangaming scene, as many are checking out that game at the moment.

It would explain the dip in recent releases somewhat.