Re: [kidsgames] Status

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Kidsgames Project Coordinator - Jeff Waddell wrote:

> I would like to know what everyone's current status is with this project,
> if they don't mind, for the purpose of moving us closer to our goals.

Well, I'm not sure you could describe the things I'm working on as being
"a part of" this project - but they are related largely to Kids Games - so
I'll give you a mini-update:


PrettyPoly -- A 3D modeller for Linux/Windows/Mac/whatever based on OpenGL
              and my PLIB 3D library.

  This is what I'm mainly working on now (probably 60% of my OpenSource
  effort) - and it's progressing quite nicely - although it's turning out
  to be much harder than I expected it to be.   It's hovering on the edge
  of becoming useable for actual modelling work.  There is no official
  release yet - but you can download it using CVS from
  http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net


Tux The Penguin - A Quest for Herring -- A search/explore/puzzle game in 3D

  Nothing whatever has changed in this game for over a year.
  The project is stalled because I need a better 3D modeller under Linux
  in order to make any progress - and I've already explained about PrettyPoly!
  The game is playable - but lacks 'enemy' creatures and 'puzzles' so only
  the very youngest games players find it interesting for any amount of time.
  This is going to be something really good - but not until PrettyPoly is done.
  You can get it from http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net


TuxKart -- A fun Go-Kart racing game.

  I like working on games - and I needed a break from PrettyPoly (which
  can be hard going at times) - so this was a *quick* 3D project that
  has turned out rather well.  It's a lot of fun to play and has attracted
  quite a bit of interest.  I have a friendly musician on the project who
  is composing new music at a frantic rate.  It's taking a tiny fraction
  of my time since it's basically "done".

  The cool thing that I want people to note is that TuxKart is only ~5,000
  lines of code because most of the work is done by the PLIB library.
  That's much less than many other games - and I'd like people to realise
  that writing a 3D game isn't really any more difficult than 2D games.

  Of course having an easy-to-use 3D modeller like PrettyPoly will greatly
  help.

  TuxKart is at http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net


PLIB -- A 3D support library.

  Since this is the underpinning of all three of the other projects (and
  about 100 other 3D applications out there in the world), it consumes
  about 30% of my free time on a continuous basis.  PLIB is getting
  wildly popular (more so than I can handle actually) - so I now have
  ~10 co-developers helping me out.  There are three commercial games
  using PLIB on the PlayStation-2 - this required me to (reluctantly)
  relax the LGPL license requirements to accomodate their needs. There
  was considerable debate as to whether that was a good idea - but I
  think the decision to do so was a good one - those users have
  contributed more significant (and more well thought out) patches than
  most PLIB users.  PLIB is at http://plib.sourceforge.net


Other stuff -- Historical, collections, silliness.

  I also maintain several historical documents (The Tux history page,
  The Teapot FAQ, collections of really BAD programming snippets and
  really sneaky/clever programming snippets.)

So, the plan is: Continue supporting PLIB, finish PrettyPoly, return
to my original goal to finish Tux - A Quest for Herring.

> On the subject of spawned games I would like to link to all these various
> projects that are affliated with kidsgames from kidsgames webpages in some
> way, yet I don't wish to appear that kidsgames is trying to somehow "take
> over" any of them.

Of course not.  You should make links to anything and everything that kids
might wish to refer to.

>  Would the author's of the games that would like us to
> link to their project pages...

Absolutely.  MORE LINKS == GOOD  - there is never (AFAIK) a reason to
turn down an offer of a link to ones site.  ESPECIALLY now that
'Google-like' search engines promote your site up the list of matches
on the basis of the number of links to your site.

> (I'm thinking primarily of funnelling
> developer/artist talent to you, not necessarily getting more "user's",
> if that makes any sense) please contact me either privately or on this
> list, indicating what would be of use to them.

Sure - please feel free to link to any or all of the URL's I posted above.

>  I  feel it would be really
> nice if kidsgames had some type of logo that author's could use to put on
> their site's to indicate that we are associated in some way.

I like that idea.

I have wondered if it would be a good idea to have a 'freeware' version of
the ESRB ratings system.  Rather than discuss that here - I'll start a
fresh thread.

> I know some people are disappointed at the apparent slow movement of
> kidsgames, I mean we are almost a year old and what working project can we
> point to and say it is because of us?  I don't know that we can claim
> any, yet we have caused some thought to be given to this issue and
> gathered many of the people who can contribute together, I hope this
> *will* prove to be a useful and worthwhile endeavor, remember that what
> we are trying to do is not particularly easy.  At least I assume that if
> it was it would already be done and we would not have the need to do it
> :)

I think kidsgames is a useful resource - but as soon as a game gets started,
it's bound to become it's own project...not directly a part of this mailing
list.  In fact, if people started a 'kidsgames' game and started discussing
it (in the detail that they'd need to) on this list, I'd find that very
annoying and 'off-topic'.

I think you should regard KidGames as a place for developers of kids games
to get together, share knowledge, bits of code, images, models, databases,
etc.  In a sense, all the games that members of this list are working on
are 'a part of' kidsgames.

I wouldn't be at all offended to see my two kiddy games presented under
the 'kidsgames' umbrella since they are projects started by a member of
the group (me!).

> I've recently subscribed to yet another list (home-ed) which is focused on
> Home Schooling.  I intend to bring a few of the people on that list into
> this project if they will come.  I've seen some interesting math games
> that *could* possibly be adapted to computer if we can entice these people
> to give us permission [and perhaps help] to use what they have created.

It would be interesting to see if those could be incorporated into
the framework of Tux-A Quest for Herring - it needs some 'puzzle' elements
and we could certainly spawn a 'Tux - A Quest for Numbers' version if
there are some interesting games to play that we could fit into a 3D
setup.
 
> I would like to produce a report/press release as to our project status
> as of 1 year to be posted on various linux news sites (such as
> linuxtoday.com and/or slashdot.org, others?)  Any suggestions on what
> would be useful to someone unfamiliar with the project appreciated.

That would be interesting.  I think you'd find it hard to get onto Slashdot,
they are getting so much news that you have to have done something rather
significant in order to make it into their headlines.

LinuxToday might take it though.
 
> If anyone has any suggestions for funding of hardware for various member's
> of this group to be better able to create these games, please share them.

I wish!

-- 
Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net>
              WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
              HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
              Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
                         http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
                         http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net


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