[H-GEN] Interest in a Linux game

[Chris Ryan]

Nickolas Kwiatkowski wrote:
> 
[snip]
> One idea would be to port an existing game to linux, a candidate that I
> would recommend would be Descent I & II. The code is freely available for
> such purposes as long and the data files (except shareware levels) are not
> distributed.

This type of game has been done (Quake is similar).

> The best thing about Descent is that noone that I am aware of has ported
> it to linux and it would be a good exercise in building the skills
> required for a full, unique game.
> 
> Alternate, would be to approach some like Blizzard and ask to port
> Starcraft to linux (Ummm, may be not ;).

License and legal issues, no doubt.
 
> > You may also want to look at what resources you do have available.  In
> > general
> > Linux/Unix games have suffered from poor graphics.  Do you have the
> > necessary talent available to overcome this?
> 
> In a private e-mail to David, I mentioned that I have a good graphic
> artist willing to contributed and know of a composer who has work upon
> games music before.

That's a useful start.  At least there's some talent out there willing
to do this - from what I saw in another post...
 
> > Depending on any Real Time issues, Java could be the language of choice
> > for this project.  It's portable, easy to use, has good network
> > capabilities,
> > has a reasonable graphics API and is steadily improving.
> 
> I like java as a language, and it may be useful for games programming if
> the heavy graphics routines are off loaded into a library. A good choice
> in that regard would be the OpenGL interface for java, which is very
> similar to the forth coming Java 1.2 3D API from Sun.

So long as the graphics programming is down in an extensible manner to
allow for java/graphics/hardware improvements over time, then no worries.
OpenGL seems to have a lot of support - not that I've truly investigated
the area...

> > Games always seem to be better if there's a multiplayer aspect.
> 
> Agreed, probably why there are so many "battle.net"s springing up.
> But good AI's would also add a interesting aspect. IMHO, I haven't really
> see/played against any really intelligent AI, and would like to produce a
> game with an asshole of an AI ;)

:-)  Since you can't always play multiplayer, there must be AI's available
to challenge.  Creating these could be quite interesting.  If the game is
designed right, these AIs should be able to be 'plug-n-play', so anybody
can write new/different AIs to emphasize different aspects.  It just 
requires defining a comprehensive interface/API for AIs/users.

> > Civ II
> > Ultimate Race Pro  (Car racing game)
> > SW Rebellion
> 
> Personally I would like something along the lines of Starcraft, but bigger ;)

It's probably easier to design/create a RTS than a strategy game like Civ.
What I'd like is to be able to better control the 'time' variable in those
damn games - instead of always 1 to 1 time, let me slow it down (obviously for
singleplayer, although it may work in multiplayer if all agree) to get use
to the game, etc.
 
> As before, porting an existing game may be a good place to start. Less
> design effort required and a good way to aquire skills,

However finding a game where legal/licence issues aren't a problem would
be interesting...

--
Chris Ryan
cryan at plugged.net.au