Introduction to 'Game of the Month'

[grumbel]

Game of the Month

Game of the Month (short: GotM) is meant as a project to improve existing free games and to bring them to a playable state or to provide more levels, better polished graphics, sounds and similar things. GotM isn't meant as award or a similar thing, its meant first and for most as a meating point for developers which have some spare time and are now searching for a project to help on. Once a project has been GotM and developers spend some time polishing and finishing it, it should of course end up in a playable release, so players should profit of course from this project. A discussion on GotM is available at the happypenguin forums http://www.happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1156.

How does it work?

So how does GotM work? It basically works like this, every month we will pick up a number of game proposals and let a vote on the proposal happen at happypenguin.org. Once the vote has ended the proposal with the most votes will be worked on. Only projects with a detailed and completable Todo will be allowed, this should ensure that the game could reach a playable state within one month and that only games are allowed to be voted for that have already a Todo, so that no time is wasted on discussion about what should be done an how. It is also possible to include not-yet-written games in the vote, given that the Todo is detailed enough and the game simple enough to be finished in one month (ie this might only work for small puzzle games and such). For each proposal it should also be made sure that there is at least one person that knows enough about the game to be worked on to answer questions and coordinate development.

What should be in the Todo?

The Todo should be reasonably complete and shouldn't let open a lot of questions. So creating a Todo really involves to get into a deeper touch with a game, ie. checkout what the level format is capable of, if there exist an editor or export scripts for other applications, whats missing gameplay wise, what art is needed, how many levels are needed, etc. The more complete the Todo is the better, so if you can include information on what size the graphics have to be, what format and colordepth are needed and similar things that would already save quite a bit of time for the rest of the GotM people. So the more 'howto' style information is in the todo or available elsewhere for a game, the easier it will be to create content. Beside the howto style content, it of course should also include detailed information of what work should actually be getting done in the GotM time, ie. what kind of story should surround the gameplay, what style and theme of graphics are needed, what gameplay elements are missing, etc. The Todo should basically guide the way from the current state of the project into a fully playable state. An important part is that the game should be completable in a single month, so no huge gameplay or code changes are allowed if it is clear that they won't make it into the timeframe. Always remember that the goal is to get something done, not to create the lengthiest game ever, so it is always preferable to make a short game, than to not get it done at all in the timeframe. Since not everybody on the GotM will be familar with the game that the Todo is about, it is also important to document the current gameplay, include screenshots, story snipest und Co. After reading the Todo one should actually be able to produce content for the game. Now a short summary of the above:

* include a detailed description of the current state of the game, screenshots and similar thing so that people can get familar with the game, without spending hours playing it
* include specs on what formats are needed for the art, what applications can be used to create levels, etc.
* include examples on how to actually create new art and levels for the game and how to include it
* list the missing parts of the game, list the number of levels and style of the graphics that is needed and currently missing
* give an timeframe in which the work should be completable

Who is involved in GotM?

GotM is meant mainly as a community driven project, so basically you should be involved. When you are good at graphics, music or creating sound effects try to browse the Todo of the current GotM and see what you can do. If you have a project or know an abondoned one that you want to see progress on, write a detailed Todo and submit it to the GotM mailinglist.

Candidates for GotM

The following list are possible candidates for GotM, ie they are not playable currently or have serious other problems, but are not very far from being playable and the problems should be fixable in not to much time either. Feel free to suggest other games that fits into this scheme.

Invasion - Battle of Survival
* http://www.nongnu.org/stratagus-bos/

Robovasion
* http://www.nongnu.org/robovasion/

TuxRacer/PenguinRacer
* http://www.penguinracer.org">
* http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net/

Possible Worlds
* http://possibleworlds.sourceforge.net/

Liquid War
* http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/

Tuxkart
* http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net/

Tux - A Quest for Herring
* http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net/

TORCS
* http://www.torcs.org

netPanzer
* http://netpanzer.berlios.de/

[Woad_Warrior]

How about parsec? http://sourceforge.net/projects/openparsec/
It's a great cross-platform space combat simulator that could definitly use internet capabilities and an AI to practice against. (i believe both are in their "todo list) It would be a shame for a game with this much potential to languish.

[Sepht]

Propositions need to be started as a new topic, I have 1 thing to add though, proposals need to inculde links to a site(if there is one) and a link for the source and/or binaries, a ToDo link is also a pretty important requirement. A description of a goal and or people needed would help.
Just my thoughts

[SomeNick]

Astroseries is a FREE Realtime Strategy videogame for PC, set in a futuristic era. Currently it has been built using the older FreeCraft 1.18 game engine. It is totally playable and can be downloaded at http://www.astroseries.com There plenty of information may also be found about Astroseries, as well as a forum where people may answer or discuss about bugs, solutions or just plain comments. The game is fully playable but I have personally considered getting it exported into Stratagus , which is a much more newer version of FreeCraft. You may also find files and information about Astroseries by searching "astroseries" in sourceforge.net

I never did a single change to the FreeCraft engine's source code as such, but I about edited everything else to shape the game as it is (graphics, .ccl files, unit definitions, campaigns, etc). I repeat, it is already playable, but getting it into Stratagus will make it more stable, solid, and could probably have a lot better multiplayer options, and possible some neat extra stuff.

I made all the graphics myself but anyone is welcome to add better graphics. Remember, however, graphics must still represent what they are. For example, the Nagoran Warrior has obviously cat like aspect about their face, etc, so I hope Nagoran Warriors in the future will NOT look like lizards or anything, but feline like, as they are today.

No units shall be removed nor eliminated from the game. But new ones may be added, if wished. How these new units would be? Left up to the imagination of anyone helping in Astroseries. New units not really required, they are just optional.

For more information about Astroseries, visit: http://www.astroseries.com

(The Game is known as Astroseries RTS)

For more information abous Stratagus, visit: http://www.stratagus.org

By the way, greetings to mr-russ and company, who keep making a good work fo FreeCraft/Stratagus :-)

-SomeNick

[SomeNick]

Astroseries RTS is currently available only for MS Windows (98 and newer). However, the source code of FreeCraft (the engine) may also be found in that site (don't ask me how to compile it, I have not tried to do so yet, in fact I added the source code after I did all else). Another solution, if you want to run it on Linux, is to get FreeCraft 1.18 for Linux. I believe replacing the binaries should be enough to get the game going. As I said earlier, I did not make any changes to the engine itself, so a Linux version of FreeCraft 1.18 should get you going. Might release a Linux version of it also when I get some time (sadly I study and work and I don't have all the time in the world to give it just to Astroseries... my creation :P).

I *think* mr-russ from Stratagus has a Linux version of Astroseries, but I am NOT sure.

Same would apply for MAC OS, but I really don't know.

Well, this is it.

-SomeNick

[SomeNick]

Also thanks to C Ratchet for letting me know of this place. :-)

Astroseries: http://www.astroseries.com

(more info in previous 2 posts, if not read yet).

[Sepht]

Are there any Administrators around who wouldn't mind fusing those 3 posts above into 1 post and make a new topic for a formal proposal for this guys project?

[sbaker]

So when does voting take place?

[Sepht]

When the previous months project is declared complete. The leader of last months project(grumbel) will throw the propositions into a poll and we will vote, its usally about 1 week of voting and then its done. So its grumbel's call.

[mitto_mors]

I propose that Glest be GOTM, i have played some of the other candidates but Glest seems to be my fav game atm...and that includes my comercial games. I love the graphics, gameplay, originality and the ease of modding and customising the game.

I do think that Glest should be a contender in GOTM.

hope you guy's agree, cyas.
_________________
Mitto Omnis Hostis Ad Mors

[Drahcir]

[charlieg]

I think that mitto_mars misunderstands the purpose of GotM.

It is a slightly misleading title. Perhaps it should be changed to 'Developer Focus' and have GotM instead be a title for a game to highlight each month.

[conso]

Since I've not heared of a new game of the month for a long period of time. Is the project dead? Is it an organisatorial problem or is there simply a lack of interest?

[shevegen]

Maybe project of the month is a too small period.

Lets face it... making a good game is not easy. It takes time.

If we do a "game of the month", we will usually only
reward small games...

I would instead make it "game of the quartal"
this way we have 3 months to shape and improve and assess...

[Coz]

It's named game of the month, but if needed, 3 months or maybe more can be taken.

The purpose is not to make a game incredibly good: just to improve one of the many unfinished games that are not actively developed to a playable state, and afterwards, that some people keep developing the project.

And the problem is lack of man power. If enough people are willing to help, it can be done, but unless it's people that are not actively developing another game, you are just slowing the development of another game to finish another.