I've been curious for a long time on what makes FLOSS games fail in the areas of User Experience/Interface (UX, UI) and graphics, visual coherency, why they push second hand gfx next to ace grade gfx. In my search for an answer I decided to start a project of my own to gather some first hand experience.

The aim for this project will be to collect as much content as possible for a small and simple game, at the same time; avoid neglection of any UI or UX related issue. No need for ace grade gfx just visual coherency. To be able to finish this project in a reasonable time frame, I first decided on what type of game and which kind of theme it would have. My decision is based on personal preferences what kind of "simple" game would I enjoy? It feel down to a Tactical Role-Playing Game in a fantasy setting, like Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis, Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. Mind you, I'm only gathering content for it no code what so ever, that is for a willing developer to do if he or she find the time and will to do so.

I here give to you the mockup game;

Realp - Book of Tiny Bits

In my own estimation I already got enough game content to be able to make a game mechanics test. And this in a very short timespan. The question now is what do lead developers and project leaders miss when they do the same job. My answers at this moment would be; Time to communicate (beside the obvious; connections)  here are some questions I find important:

• How does your contributor work?
• What does he or she need, to do the things you want to be done?
• Are the contributor able to work independently or does he/she need continuous guidance?
  • If so how could you remedy that?

Don't mind the 2D, it will be in 3D as might be seen in the SVN. The 2D images everywhere, is my way of communication with contributors, in this case tidbit the 3D modeller.

How did/do I go about this project?

Well to know what content you need you must decide on a couple of things, some of them I already told you about (What kind of game). To list some of these decisions, here are some of the features I have in mind;

• Procedural map generation
• Movement by points of interest
• In-game scripting of unit behaviours

These help me understand what is needed; Without them I would miss much of the small things. So I actually think of this 'media pack' as a full game, that way I hope it will be much easier to adopt the media to other projects too.

For those who want a preview you can head over to the SVN and look at some odds and oddities pasted there. In short I'm going for a "full" media pack, doing all content that would be needed for a game

More to come soon.

Head over and fill in the survey now

(I helped in a small part by creating the coin in the artwork at freegamer.)

We don't even make it easy to create the spark of a jaded plastic toy either. No, we make bad choices over and over again, cramping out the life-force of contributors. Forcing the entry level of contribution sky high just due to one of the contributors being very good and the rest just 'willing to help'. The problem here is not that the general Joe can't accomplish the level of skilled contributions as that of the sole contributor-god. No the problem is that we don't harness the creativity of that sole good contributor, and help him help the others to do great contributions.

I was browsing a forum the other day and noticed a "graphics needed" thread, being me I was drawn to it like a moth to light. But reading the thread got me just annoyed and irritated.

figure 1 - Example of a photo, a illustation and a 3D render, all are objects.

In this particular case they needed images for objects that was in the inventory of a container/vessel, call it inventory. Immediately I think RPG style icons, ok size, easy to eye and place for other elements to use needed space. But no here we got full 512x512 px images, all in different forms; 3D renders, photos, Illustrations (see figure 1) - you might now be thinking "good they accept any kind, many contributors" which might be true. Now think of the 'quantity or quality' question; is it better to have a 'sea of shit' or a 'pond of gold'? To me the answer is easy: I want a lake of brass.

For being a graphic designer it's not really the flashy elements that makes me accept a product, I can well settle with a not so super designed thing, as long as the style is coherent.

Regulations is good for all

How would a smart graphic project manager go about asking the community for this? Well I got a couple of ideas to solve this kind of issue. First, decide on what kind of images you accept - the more who are able to contribute to this the merrier, but don't go overboard. Second, decide on a size for the images - in this case i would go for a max size of 128x128 px as that is a standard large icon size, could go down to 22x22px to you then just need a bit more skill to make it look good. Third, do a template, make them all fit together on some way, be it background, shape or another but for the love of milk don't let them be all and every kind.

It's currently in the planning stage and that is fine by me, I like to see how new projects grow and fall. Not saying this will fail, I have all confidence in Barra's ability to make this float. What I really want to say is: "Now is the time to jump in!" as in this stage your thoughts will have a chance of greater impact, as when this is in a move it will be a lot harder to make changes.

Skills I think would be really useful  at the moment are:

• Drawing - concept art and doodles
• Pen and Paper RPG experience - Creating a good gaming world (rule-set)
• Simple 3D artists - Fast models for rendering 2D graphic

So if you are interested you should jump in the IRC channel #parpg at freenode or the forum and write an introduction.

'Shared Worlds' might be a different thing to different people, but here it's all about sharing assets, history (I won't say story) and contributors.

There are some obvious problem with making/creating this 'shared world' without thinking; here I list the things that pops out of my mind:

• A lot of effort before anyone use it, if any will - wasted time for all
• Hard for people to contribute to a world that is "non-existent"  no boundaries will lead to a unattractive bloated world
• Willing contributors without a common goal, leads to endless discussion

How can we remedy these problems before they occur?

There are some as easy solutions as there are problems; One is to use a pre-existent world, from let's say a game that is FOSS and don't have any connection to a closed/owned world, the bigger the game is the better. A problem here could be current lead manager not agreeing with this idea, to me that hangs on communication. So go out and find one for us!

Another way would be to set out from the real world, and adding some spice to it. Imagine technology advances stooped in the early 1920, Titanic (still a boat) got to it's destination, the Eiffel tower got blown away by gnomes who suddenly appeared from below.. (this could go on). But this 'solution' only solves the number two problem listed. On the other hand it will solve any legal harassment, depending in what we spice it up with. Any thoughts on this is greatly appreciated!

A way to simply solve the last of my listed problems is to get hold of a strong willed lead, someone or someones who can hold fast to a vision, pure blood into that, and make other people interested/fascinated. Is there a better way to make all who want to contribute, work toward a similar of not same goal?

Similar project that already are out in the wild got meantioned

They don't really cut the cake but they are worth research: Biggest and best of the mentions comes first Angels Fall First (AFF) - To me it is Star Wars and Star Trek sans aliens and Hollywood cliche, to bad this is not truly open for us. Second is the Tux world - to me this hardly even makes it to this list as it is somewhat lacking in ingredients, even white the aid of freedroid.

I almost forgot, go post your thoughts on the fgd forum too!

• Get games
• Contribute
• Develop games

A Kitchen and Sink system to most of us, but that depends on how it is made.

Personally I want to make it easier for non-devs to contribute stuff like: sounds, 3D models and other non code stuff. Something else then SVN, git, bazaar and other similar system, which is both hard to use for most people not doing code, and a bit too official. And let's face it, they were not meant to manage the assets of games.

I would like to see a system that could handle feedback and gallery like features, and do this in a simple way. This is not what theAnicentGoat aims for at the moment, but I think it could be integrated in his Steam like idea.

The idea outlined by TheAincentGoat is more about making use of the community.

Building a community that is not aimed at one specific game, that could make contribution more common. If we find the way to make it easy. There are a couple of things beside registering to a forum, learning how to use a Revision Control system and becoming best friends with the project lead/developer, that hinders contribution as it is now. Minimising the fear of rejection and making it easy to test ones contribution is also of importance.

All these things is already possible, but it is far from working in a good way. How to solve this is what the current discussion is about, join in at IRC freenode #freegamer or in the forums.

Game developing with m64

m64 aka the inside man, is writing a very interesting blog, he talks at large about most things that is interesting according to me.  In this post he talks at large about one very interesting topic "shared worlds",  and in a way it go along similar lines that I have previously explored. I have long been thinking about why the Open Source Gaming Scene have not come up with anything like Firefox and Open Office. And just like m64 writes it's about projects aiming at big commercial style games that needs loads of assets from 3D models to music. And with that the painful realization that there are not enough good artists around the FOSS scene.

I also think he have hit the nail on this one too, creating a universe/world that many different games can use. The trick here is to make project leaders and developers understand that you can tweak the shared objects individually to archive the glorious 'unique'-stamp that they all seam to stick too. If you are interested in this please by all mean head over to m64's blog and read up.

Sindwiller – the space captain or space simulator man, on how to make a (space-sim) game fun.

Another interesting blog that recently surfaced from the FGD-forum is Sindwillers rgame blog, if you want to make a space-sim game that will be fun and not like the other ones already around, I think you better have to read some of what he have to say about these kind of games. Or better up head over to the IRC channel #freegamer at freenode and hit him hard.

Timong – Dev turned composer, money raiser

Here is a real gem, Pal Zoltan Illes (sounds like a composer right?) have released his second jcrpg soundtrack. Which to my ears sounds truly fantastic in a game like jcrpg. If he manage to get the donations in he will even drop the nc part in the creative commons license which will turn this cool soundtrack very free.

Head over and donate or just listen to the fine tunes.