Archive:CisLunarFreighter

File:CisLunarFreighter opening menu draft1.jpg

Expanding thumbnail screenshot

This page is to collect and organize information regarding the Wikiversity learning project CisLunarFreighter.

CisLunarFreighter is a game being produced by participants at Wikiversity to get direct hands on experience with developing computer games. Using open source tools to the extent possible, participants using a variety of resources will produce a stellar educational game.

Project pages are easily tagged by placing a category link, "[[Category:CisLunarFreighter]]", at the bottom of the page. This makes a list of project pages easily accessible at the bottom of each tagged page. Please help by tagging new pages with the cisLunarFreighter category as explained at Help:Category and Intermediate Wikiversity. Please also use subpages for content related to this project.

Goals

Have fun
Performing production tasks and whilst learning
Learn from mistakes
Create multiple player interactivity
Create client/server applets for CisLunarFreighter as well as a standalone application
Create an interface to other games with compatible communication format, and/or setup multi-user co-residency (API?)

Project plan

In work in small pieces around Wikiversity learning trails. Perhaps a couple of entrepreneurs or other project leader types will tackle a draft schedule or work breakdown structure soon.

Project contents

Terran, Lunar, Asteroid, or Saturn Pirate Base

/Pilot cockpit screen/

Mini Map Radar Overview, Cockpit Menu, Headsup Communicator

Game design

What do we want from the game? Preliminaries are In progress, please join in somewhere.

Configuration management

This needs some study and work defining useful methods. Many of our learners and participants have little or no experience with automated configuration management and tracking tools such as subversion, Ant or others.

Requirements

Fairly standard hardware will be required. The game will be able to run smoothly on older systems, and also be able to be flashy on high-end systems.

Gameplay requirements

An overview of major requirements:

Entertaining - the game should be fun.
Social - Interaction with other people via
1. Chat - most mud environments allow this
2. Email - useful or not?
3. Game consequences - makes the game more interesting
Educational - Players should learning something
1. Expose users to some science, engineering, and operations concepts
2. Math practice
3. Reading around the web
4. Use of open source tools for modification and extensibility
5. Software design and coding techniques

Storyboards and case studies for play scenarios

Please provide on Wikiversity or in open document format.

Brainstorming

In progress, please join in somewhere.

Developing game scripts and menu and game play scenarios

Software development plan

We plan to use free open source tools to the greatest extent possible to produce data and software that is free redistributable and fully modifiable by anyone who wishes to do so. A former game producer has quite a bit of existing proprietary graphics models which we have now confirmed may be at least partially translated into open source blender files. It remains to be seen the accuracy and usefulness of the translation process. At this time we intend to develop in java with a deployment plan built around an adequate performance MUD server (even if must use different language) and java clients and game servers. Obviously this plan needs a great deal of research, thinking and augmentation before it can be considered a useable draft.

Tasks

Let's brainstorm tasks:

Create and finalize preliminary specifications
Create concept art based on specifications (or use concept art to help guide specifications)
Decide what sort of subsystems are to be used...
Based on the subsystems (game engine, etc) start creating the art
Maybe start a connected project on Sourceforge or Freshmeat to have SVN support

Scripts

In progress, please join in somewhere along the learning trails. Add links to your stories and scripts below to solicit review from dropins or regulars. Stories and scripts may be in industry standard format or informal. Either place them in wikimedia files or pdfs published through the Wikimedia server:

/Splashscreen scripts/

Potential Java pieces needing evaluation

Editor's note: Move this section to an introduction to initial evaluation and results they grow. Mirwin 20:00, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

We may be able to use these as components or examples to learn applicable technique in Java environment:

gazelle - Fundamentally an animation tool. Plays .avi and .mov animation files under JMF (Java Media Framework libary from SUN) Also, of possible interest to graphics artists or perhaps even programming with SVG. Will it work with older .avi and .mov file???? A lot of older graphics laying around if we can convince people to free them once they are finished with traditional commercial life cycle.

Download links are broke, could be vaporware.

xine - GPL'ed media player
mPlayer - This seems like overkill for a small project but if we could add borders consistent with a view screen and our GUI appearance (providing appropriate credits in our credits file obviously) could we use this to keep our coding requirements down? Trading bulk for development effort ... or is there a good player in a Sun Library somewhere we can just call? Can we find out from reading mplayers code?
jslibs - "General-purpose native libraries for SpiderMonkey, Mozilla's JavaScript engine."
Ajax3d - 3D engine for Javascript, using <canvas> tags for output.
/Phase transition scripts/

Specifications

What should the user experience be like?

An overview of the game's major requirements:

Entertainment -- should be fun.
Social -- Interaction with other people via
- Chat -- most mud environments allow this
- Email -- useful or not?
- Game consequences -- makes the game more interesting
Educational - Exposure to some science, engineering, and operations concepts
- Math practice
- Reading around the web
- Use of open source tools for modding
- Software design and coding techniques

Hardware requirements

The game client and server should run on any adequate performance desktop. It is not intended as a primary focus to meet the needs of the emerging hand-held computing and communications markets.

Game testing

This will have to be done by the developers until we get enough of a game up and running to attract alpha and beta player/testers.

We might get some help from other Wikiversity participants at other Wikiversity course participant's pages.

Game materials distribution

Has begun on an adhoc basis. Longterm we intend to setup a SourceForge project to backup and distribute at least the stable releases of the open source materials on demand 24/7.

Active participants

Participants willing to coordinate, consult and/or kibitz reqarding questions:

Mirwin 05:07, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
...

External links

ORBITER
Planets 3D - OpenGL Solar system sim

Creative materials

In this project we wish to use materials free as in beer as well as licensing so we have simple distribution to anyone who wishes to download from Sourceforge or receive source or executable from other sources.

Applicable tutorials

The following online tutorials demonstrate useful game programming techniques.

Writing a Space Invaders game in Java