Re: [kidsgames] Generic adventure game engine

[Christopher Sawtell <csawtell@xtra.co.nz>]

On Tue, 18 Jul 2000, Terry Hancock wrote:
> If you don't mind blowing $10 you can get the Humongous 
> Entertainment Collection CD (which has "Putt-Putt Goes to the Parade",
> "Putt-putt goes to the Moon", and "Fatty Bear's Birthday Surprise" on
> one CD).  I found a bunch of these at our local OfficeMax.

And just in what way would blowing the $10 benfit _me and mine_ as opposed to
the Humongous shareholders and emplyees?

> Just a philosophical opinion:
> I think games of this nature are very much like books or television
> shows, and that they fall very naturally into the closed-source
> economics model.  Of all the classes of software, this is the
> one I really don't mind being closed source and proprietary.

> In fact, I would argue that if a generic graphic adventure game
> engine (especially one compatible with industry standard APIs)
> were to be developed, it would be good to release it under the
> LGPL or other license that allows the games written with it
> to be proprietary.  This might encourage adventure games to be
> written for Linux, since there would be an economic payback.

For me anyway this is essential. Personally I feel I have done my bit for the
goodness of my soul and the free software movement as opposed to filling of my
pocket. :-)

It's necessary to take very great care to ensure that the game engine is
completely de-coupled from the content.

> (And having a free (LGPL) engine might encourage development in the face
> of overwhelming Windows dominance in this area). 
> 
> I notice that Linux free software games tend to have a very
> different sort of nature -- they seem to have weak story or
> character, with a more complete and open game play. They are
> designed to be _games_ proper, rather than puzzle/stories like
> the commercial adventure games.
One must remember that the whole idea behind the design of all commercial
"software for children" is not necessarily that the product should be
informative, educative, or even entertaining for the child, but should be
appealling to the average adult who has both a target child as the proposed
user, and the money to buy the product. It just so happens that a very large
proportion of adults ( including teachers ) have a poor appreciation of the 
intellectual ability of most children, thus there is a veritable flood of
product which seems to be targeted at the very lowest common denominator.

> While I can admire this type of game for its own qualities,
> I always really liked the story-type adventure games, and I
> wish there were more available for Linux.  Indeed, if there
> are in fact ANY games like this for Linux I'd like to find
> them! 
There aren't any! We have to write them.

> The problem would seem to be that the talented people
> needed to create the content for these games are not 
> motivated to work on free software, and would much rather
> get a regular pay check (after all, they could always be
> working for Saturday morning TV).

I'm sure you are correct in this.

Let's put our collective mind into gear and try hard to come up with:-
a) the `educactional purpose' ( if any ) of the exercise.
b) the target audience for the project.

Only then can we think about the story-line and get an indication as to
what the supporting software/hardware has to be able to provide. Only once this
has been determined then we can create the needed software.

My own feeling is that possibly one of the best souces of software could well be
the existing WWW technologies, which by and large have the advantage of being
some of the most portable prducts ever created. One must remember that for a
product on disk we don't have the speed limitations of the telephone line.
This "Linux Game Thing" has to be able to work in some way - even if badly - on
the monopolist's apology of an O/S for the purpose of demonstration if nothing
else.

> Well I may have exposed my extreme ignorance about this subject, but
> that's okay, maybe you'll teach me better. :)
That makes two of us!

-- 
Sincerely etc.,

 NAME       Christopher Sawtell 
 CELL PHONE 021 257 4451
 ICQ UIN    45863470
 EMAIL       csawtell @ xtra . co . nz
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