[Tankdev]Learning Group Project

[Gillius <gi...@ma...>]

OK me and Chuck were at the meeting tonight, and we were discussing plans 
for the learning group.

Those of you who were there last Wednesday know that I wanted to start 
working on a learning group project in person with a group of people 
physically in one place, thinking maybe that would be good for us if we all 
got started together.

Unlike EGS Tank, we are actually going to do this project, so it is really 
going to happen, even if it is just me and Chuck.  We are going to do a 
small spaceship racing project.  We can use simple Newtonian physics, and 
reuse quite a bit of code from previous projects.

I would like to get a lab for this, with a projector, but that may not work 
out :\.  I know someone on Wednesday came with a laptop -- if I could get a 
laptop I can at least get a projector if we can't get a lab with a computer 
for everyone.

I suspect that we can finish the first part of this "project" in 2 to 8 
hours, probably more like 4-6.  The game in its initial stage will consist 
of 3 images and 4 objects, basic physics and basic collisions on a single 
screen.  We have lots of ideas of how to expand the idea...  What we want 
to do is get Chuck, I, and maybe 1 or 2 other guys from the learning team 
to meet up and work on this in one or two sessions and finish the first 
stage of it, and during Winter quarter, find everyone in the group and in 
the club who wants to attent the "lecture(s)" about the game, and we will 
leave points to allow people to do some simple expansions on the game, for 
example some ideas:

Add checkpoints, so the game knows if you are cheating or not (the initial 
implementation will have no enforcement of any game rules).
Add a sound to the ships as they fly around.
Add particles coming out of the ship's engines ("thrust" particles).
Add more than 2 players, and/or make a player a network player.
Make the game take up more than one screen, so that there exists some 
scrolling.
Add stars and/or nebulae to the background to make it interesting.
Upgrade the shitty-arse graphics me and Chuck will be making.
Add the ability for the ships to shoot the other ship(s).

We may have people in the learning group work on this, and have them 
explain how it works to the group, stuff like that we will start Winter 
quarter, but until next quarter we will work on the framework and very 
basic play of it.  If you are on the learning team and want to participate 
in the initial writing, please say so, we will try to meet in the next week 
;).

Jason