hackerz-developer

[Hackerz-developer] Hello All!

[Steffen G. <gra...@ma...>]

Ok, so saying a little something about ourselves isn't a bad idea. My name is Steffen, and I'm a Master's Student in computer science preparing to graduate. I didn't start programming until about 7 years ago, but I've been a computer guy all my life. 

Java is my primary language, but I have some experience in numerous others including ObjC, Ruby/Rails, Perl, Prolog, Lisp, Pascal, Bash, PL/SQL -Oracle-, PHP, Cold Fusion, XML, WML, SOAP, AJAX/JavaScript, etc...

Hackerz has been an idea of mine since middle school but I lacked the programming skill and motivation until recently. If some of the existing code looks hacked and unplanned... It is. I wrote the first 4 releases of this game during an incredibly boring cryptography class I'm in this semester.

Now that people are actually interested in this (big surprise to me), I am forced to treat it like an actual software dev project, and not just a quick and dirty bit of fun to cure boredom. Please be patient with me as we go through the growing pains of re-writing some existing code to make it more flexible. 

All that being said, I have a particular vision for this game which you may or may not agree with. I would love to get your input on design directions, and I am pretty open minded to new ideas, but I would appreciate talking with you guys first before you decide to implement some wiz-bang nuts new feature. I want to be careful to stick to my vision and not get too side tracked, since many projects die in the water from trying to incorporate the kitchen sink along with everything else. 

You guys have been doing great work so far and have really kept me motivated, I look forward to checking things off the to-do list and watching this game come together. 

Re: [Hackerz-developer] Hello All!

[Pavan K. S. <pav...@gm...>]

I have started programming last year but I am good at it. Developing a
Hacking simulation has been my idea fro a long time but I didn't have
time to initiate the project. But now i got the initiation from you
guys so I will contribute to this project.


> All that being said, I have a particular vision for this game which you may or may not agree with. I would love to get your input on design directions, and I am pretty open minded to new ideas, but I would appreciate talking with you guys first before you decide to implement some wiz-bang nuts new feature. I want to be careful to stick to my vision and not get too side tracked, since many projects die in the water from trying to incorporate the kitchen sink along with everything else.
>

It would help us develop the game if you can explain your vision of
the gameplay in a brief message.

Currently,
I have changed all the data files required for the game into a new
folder name data.
It contains sub folders like fonts, sound etc..

I did this because i think this is tidier.

The next feature i will be implementing is 'rm' command. Is anyone
working on this ?

-pavan
PS: Please write a mesage about your vision.

Re: [Hackerz-developer] Hello All!

[Pavan K. S. <pav...@gm...>]

I will be checking the demos of both the games and try to get a feel of what
you are saying.
Meanwhile did u try to implement some function when the user presses tab
because I can't .
The keyEvent is unable to detect tab.

Please check it.

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 12:58 AM, Steffen Gates <gra...@ma...
> wrote:

> Yeah, since I am also a busy college student I might post 5 revisions in a
> day or not at all for 5 days, please be patient with me :D
>
> So, my vision. The best way I can explain it is this:
> Download and play the demos for Uplink and Hacker Evolution untold.
> My vision is a mix of some of the best features from both of these days,
> but with a deeper story and almost purely text based. Both of these games do
> things I like and dislike:
> Uplink is very arcade-y and uses almost all mouse commands. I like the look
> of it, but I don't care for so much mousing.
> Hacker Evolution is also somewhat arcade-y but makes extensive use of the
> command line. I like this!
>
> However, what I do not like is that it tries to be 'like' bash, but does
> not implement some of the most basic functions (command history, left/right
> cursor positioning for typo correction/modification/insertion, and the tab
> auto-complete is very broken).
>
> So my idea was this:
> Implement a game that has some of the fun game aspects of uplink (server
> lists, databases, security systems, etc...) but mix it with the command line
> style of hacker evolution, but with a full bash terminal simulation.
>
> When the terminal is complete, it should feel as if the user is actually
> using bash. The basic commands should all be there. Then, all of the
> additional tools will be implemented like programs that are run.  I want all
> of this to be simple enough that a user could figure it out rather fast
> without too much prior knowledge, but in effect, through a game they are
> actually learning bash. The primary difference of course will be the window
> layout which has a bit of flair, which is the point -- this is supposed to
> be a game and be a bit fun--.
>
> So to sum it up in a sentence, I want a Uplink/Hacker Evolution hybrid
> clone that has an 80's mainframe look and feel to it. The time period of the
> game is not important, originally I was thinking future tech with oldschool
> look (think retro futuristic), but then it occurred to me that this could
> just as easily take place in 1980 on arpanet with big mainframes. So, I
> don't as much about that as long as it fits.
>
> Most of this stuff will come across in the interface design (which is
> largely complete) and to a greater extent in the mission set (yet to be
> designed).
>
> Hope this clears it up! :D
>
> --Steffen
>