From: Gustavo S. B. <bar...@pr...> - 2010-09-08 02:57:41
|
On Tue, Sep 7, 2010 at 11:06 PM, Bruno Dilly <bd...@pr...> wrote: > On Mon, Sep 6, 2010 at 2:20 PM, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri > <bar...@pr...> wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> I'd like to call a request for comments on the idea of a day to unite >> and create some simplistic games and demo, the old-fashioned way. The >> purpose is to provide some real use for our EFL other than E17 also >> with a nice showcase to use later. >> >> = Introduction = >> >> The idea came up during my long away from computer period, where I had >> plenty of bus and plane times to think and reflect, analyse the >> current situation and the competition. >> >> I got an iPhone 3GS to investigate the competition and checking the >> most "bought" (paid AND free) applications they are basically very, >> very simple applications... some remembers me my young days where I >> did lots of demos in MS-DOS assembly. >> >> The list of applications varies a lot with time and world events, >> during the World Cup the clear winner were a vuvuzela that was a >> single button that played the annoying noise, and some more evolved >> variations that had animations or different sounds to choose. Another >> classic was iFart, in the similar way. Some use the >> accelerator/compass present in the device to simulate beer in a >> bottle, some are new versions of xbill that you kill ants or even >> explode bubble plastic nodes. These are very, very much like MS-DOS >> demos that we drawed some fancy graphics using int10 or played some >> music with pc-speaker... then nostalgia knocked the door and I >> remember how cool was to write these demos in 10 minutes or often 1 >> hour, often less... even when we had no frameworks and had to do our >> own line drawings! >> >> Other huge amount of apps are games. But not high performance 3D FPS, >> rather simplistic board games such as chess, tic tac toe, minesweeper, >> bejeweled, sudoku or very simplistic yet addictive "infinite" games >> like Dash!Dash!Pengy! >> (http://www.meridiande.com/big5/main/page_top.php?id=18&lang=tw&frame=game&gameid=31&noB=2, >> think about Atari's enduro with revamped graphics). Nostalgia hits >> back with a "WTF happened to software development? These are all 1-day >> coding games, few hundreds lines of code... yet we don't have them, >> and if people try to do then we end with unfinished monsters!" >> >> So the idea to call for a day to unite and have some fun doing these >> simplistic games in an old fashioned KISS way. Not doing frameworks, >> scalable, multiplayer, networked or nothing more than the game bare >> principles in the simplest and smallest way possible. Gosh, some >> developers can't code a simple tetris with a fixed amount of memory >> today, contrast that with people which wrote that in cheap hardware >> logic dozen years ago! >> >> = Proposal = >> >> 1. Create a wiki page with the ideas and hints, maybe enhance it later >> with tips and tricks on how to do the games: >> >> http://trac.enlightenment.org/e/wiki/KISS-DemosAndGames >> >> 2. Agree on a date and join IRC for that period. We don't need much, >> around 4 hours should be enough to get something out. >> >> 3. Review the developed code, suggesting changes to make them better. >> Commit the results to SVN. >> >> So what do you think? >> > > I'm totally in! > Maybe choosing a Saturday will make easier to get more people > involved, as it's more acceptable to be awake anytime (avoiding zone > differences issues)? > > And despite we don't need to worry about graphics at that moment, it > would be good to have contributions on this area later. Games with RGB > (red or green or blue) rectangles (aka rusty art movement) are OK to > start the development but won't be funny to play, and consequently > won't be attractive for developers, imho. > > So if you have artistic skills or designer employees, there is a > chance to contribute. ;) Well, the same way we contributed efenniht we could help with game graphics, maybe those could attract more interested people... and maybe it's less ambitions and we can finish on time (/me looks at tiago!) anyway, if you look at maemo games, those shipped by default, they were all quick work done at INdT, they look amazing and I guess they are the only piece that remain unchanged since first maemo device (Nokia 770). We could help the same way with these games. Last but not least, the code/dev proposal will happen on people's free time, so we cannot force designers... but we could try to engage them! You sit in the same office as Marina, maybe you can persuade her and with luck she could persuade some friends! -- Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri http://profusion.mobi embedded systems -------------------------------------- MSN: bar...@gm... Skype: gsbarbieri Mobile: +55 (19) 9225-2202 |