[projectx] Striker newsflash

[Ben C. <cro...@ne...>]

Comrades,

Well, while not much work has been done on Striker over the past week,
we're getting very close to a usable product (actually, it already *is*
usable, which is the point of this e-mail).  I decided to be a slacker and
postpone my homework for an hour while I made a mock game -- just a
tileset, map, and font.  The screenshot's attached (this is, hopefully,
some form of inspiration as to either the art or...uh...something else
;)).

So this isn't *entirely* pointless, let's get down to business.  First of
all, everyone needs to get Allegro installed on their home computers (if
this is impossible for one reason or another, please let me know).  This
way people will be able to run the test programs and get that gushy
feeling of "wow, we're actually *accomplishing* something!" ;)  Next, we
need to set up teams for real work on the game.  Here's a list of what
we'll need for now -- everyone needs to send a message to the list with
which team(s) they want to join.

Game team -- this one's in charge of everything nongeneric (i.e. the
gameplay itself, such as scoring, where and how baddies show up, what
kinds of weapons and such you have, how your attributes are done, etc.).
Right now it's all design, but pretty soon we'll move into code here (once
the scripting is in place).  This team is also in charge of moving the
players (input), keeping a constant frame rate, and all of the visual
"goodies" such as an opening menu, transitions, credits, help, and so on.

Scripting team -- this team is responsible for a) choosing a scripting
engine (Lua vs. SeeR), b) hooking that engine to Striker, c) hooking that
engine to the game itself, and d) making sure everyone who needs to know
how can write scripts.  Basically, you'll set up all the scripting stuff
and then write scripts like crazy to test things.  For example, we'll need
script functions to move the players, to play sounds and music, etc.

Graphics team -- art collection, really.  This isn't such a big deal yet
(though it's always nice to have decent art when working on a project),
but it will be later on.  The game itself is more important, so this can
wait.

Audio team -- sound effects and music.  This and graphics are just
"resource bags" -- they collect things we'll need.  That should be
obvious, I think. ;)

Networking team -- we'll need a networking class (a C++ class, that is)
that'll allow for flexible messaging.  The server will need to be written,
and this team will be in charge of writing the code to send out map chunks
(I'll explain later) and to keep everything in synchronization.

Testing team -- basically, play the game and make it crash.  Then submit
bug reports so we can fix it so it won't crash. ;)  Things that will need
to be tested are a) Striker (the tile engine), b) the gameplay code, c)
the networking code, and d) the scripts.  Testers will need to write gobs
of scripts to check everything out.  They'll also be giving feedback to
the game team on what works and what doesn't (in regards to both gameplay
and technical feasibility).


So, start posting and tell me which team(s) you want to be on.  You can be
on as many as you want, but let me warn you that less is better (having
everyone on every single team accomplishes nothing).  Right now there's no
limit, but if everyone starts signing up for everything, I'll have to cap
it off somewhere.  Without further ado, if you have *any* feedback, any
input of any sort, any ideas, please please PLEASE send them to the list.
If you don't, don't complain later on when the game isn't the way you
thought it would be (remember the Little Red Hen?). :)

Due to the programming contest, and the fact that it's only two weeks
away, those who are on the team won't be expected to get much done on
Project X during that fortnight.  But everyone else, at least try to get
*something* done that you can show (congrats to Tom for beating the
deadline).  Well, enough is enough -- adieu.

Later,
Ben

-- 
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort 
and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
  -- Martin Luther King, Jr.