design versus coding

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

I've got a copy of Microsoft Project if you need it.

[Velociryx]

Yep....that has been the topic of a great many e-mails between Cathy, Ramses and myself. What to do, how long will it take, and how do we know if we're really "getting there?"

We decided that one year would be our timeframe to get the free version out the door. Of course, we're not going to push ourselves to death to make that happen, but we settled on it as a good target. If it takes longer than that to get it right, then we'll simply take the extra time. I would rather see us delayed by a couple months (or longer) and get it right, than to rush something out the door that makes us appear sloppy.

Milestones: This is the single most important thing, IMO. And our first milestone is v0.1, currently in production. We developed a minimum subset of rules that, once put together in code, would make an extremely basic version of the game playable from start to finish. Hand in hand with that (coding and art milestone) is getting all the infrastructure in place to support our efforts. This falls to the writing crew, and we've seen steady signs of progress there (just today, Ram announced the completion of another segment of code), and we've met our other milestones by getting the Candle'Bre website up and running, a forum presence, and we're getting the beginnings of the Candle'Bre bible (fiction that provides us with the game's background)--I've been a bit of a slacker in that regard tho....hate to say it but I'm something of the stick in the mud there....the backstory is taking me a bit longer than I anticipated to fully flesh out!

Other milestone achievements have been an increasingly detailed map, courtesy of Cyclotron7, and we're getting closer to having our terrain tile set thanks to Cathy (the drafts I've seen thus far look....simply awesome!)

Mind you, this first iteration of the game we're building together won't be fancy....most of the features won't even be included, but you will be able to bring up a game, and be IN Candle'Bre, competing for control of the Kingdom.

Once we get that out and are testing it, the next group of milestones will be laid out and we'll race ahead for them (we've already been discussing what those will be, but have not made them public yet....keeping everybody focused on the first stuff first).

So far, we're on track and on time!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Og, I might just take you up on that! Mail me, bro!

-=Vel=-

[Velociryx]

Now I think I'm beginning to see a connection here! Skanky....are those Spearmen in Civ3 (the ones that bust up those tanks) YOURS?

-=Vel=-

[Skanky Burns]

I wish I could take credit, but alas. Although great minds do think alike.
Hi Soren

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Chowlett
I'm in agreement here with most of what has been said - I see the need for a contract - not for myself, I expect nothing from this project as I'm having a great time and doing really very little towards it's advancement

that's almost exactly what i was going to post here about my own involvement.

A contract for the people who are doing the actual work on this project seems kind of distasteful at first (feels like it goes against the free-spirited friends-together atmosphere of the project), but sadly i suspect it is neccessary.
It will only be a rubber-stamp of what has already been privately agreed, though ... although that's an important step.

[Velociryx]

Well....keep 'em in mind as potential recruits!

-=Vel=-

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Skanky Burns
It can't hurt my chances that half the coding team belong to the Skanky Mafia.... nor the fact that I'm writing the combat engine...

Just you? What happened to the army of veteran programmers?

[Solver]

I wonder, I must be sick . My problem is, I just like to code - for the sake of it .

[Skanky Burns]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Just you? What happened to the army of veteran programmers?

Theres still the army of veteran programmers, but they're working on th other parts of the game. So I get the combat engine all to myself!

(Shame its open-source, cuz then they will discover any built-in cheats too)

[TCO]

why open source?

I've heard that CBR will be open source. Now I now that it is very trendy and PC PC (get it hahaha) to be in favor of open source. But let me challenge you to re-examine this shibeloth. IF the project is eventualy going to be commercial (after the demonstration version) what do you gain from free-release?

There is also the issue of cheats. Making it free release makes it easier for the player to see AI cheats or to exploit AI subroutines.

[Spaced Cowboy]

good, maybe they'll write a better ai, maybe they'll be able to mod without a glitch.

[Velociryx]

One more quick reply before heading off to lay down (cold meds and muscle relaxers for a SORE back make an intriguing combination).

The open source debate was actually the first substantial issue we tackled in the old Portal Forums, and at the outset, I was HIGHLY skeptical of the whole thing. One of the chief advangtages that kept being brought to the fore was the fact that we had access to public libraries of code, but my thinking was that, since so much of the game was original thinking, we would not be able to gain much from that.

The other reason that kept being offered up though, was much, MUCH more compelling in my mind's eye.

Lots of interest, and lots of eyeballs.

The fact that we're doing it in Java AND that it's open source rings both of the major bells over at slashdot, and slashdot sees a whole heckuva lot of traffic....when they endorse something, it generally sees a huge surge in activity. Likewise, the folks at sourceforge are understandably avid supporters of Open Source projects. Our goal is to use our position as an open source game (free release) to "be seen" by a whole lot of eyeballs (and wouldn't you know it, but the in-game documentation will point the way back to 'poly! ), get people talking about the game in large number, and then, when we're ready, button up the code, take it commercial, and see where she takes us.

Essentially then, it's all about eyeballs, and we've got three different "legs" in that equation: 'Poly, Slashdot, and SourceForge.

-=Vel=-
(who has become an Open Source convert, and avid supporter!)

[Spaced Cowboy]

Yeah, and I'm working on the spam part of the program, I mean the aI.

R:PM

[TCO]

But if you have open source...you have a substantial piracy risk.

How do you "button it up" after it's unbottoned. The user changes will all be in the open arena also. You will have 20 different versions of the game floating around the net. And no one will need to buy your product. They'll just use the free ones on the net.