[Scummvm-devel] Removing igor

Max Horn max at quendi.de
Wed Nov 11 01:05:26 CET 2009


Am 11.11.2009 um 00:40 schrieb Travis Howell:

> Max Horn wrote:
>> But in the case of "igor", I wonder about the status of the engine: I
>> do not see it listed in NEWS, and its wiki page says it is  
>> incomplete.
>> The last real commit to it (not counting cleanups, adapting it to API
>> changes etc.) was on 2007-11-30.
>>
>> Since there has been no actual development on this engine for almost
>> two full years, I propose to remove it from trunk Dec 1st (2 years
>> after the last commit), unless somebody shows clear evidence that  
>> work
>> on this engine will resume till then.
>
> The Igor game engine allows the demos to be completed, although there
> has been no progress on the full version.

Exactly. An engine which only allows playing a demo is not useful in  
my eyes. It's just not enough.

>
> The game data and logic is hard coded, which makes further progress  
> more
> difficult. The English versions are difficult to find for sale too,
> especially the CD release.

So it's even an obscure game and difficult to work on? So it's even  
more unlikely that anybody will pick up work on it? Yet more reasons  
in my eyes to remove it. :)

>
> The Igor game engine should be kept, since the game demos are  
> supported,
> and the existing code would be wasted.

The existing code would still remain in our repository, and be  
accessible should somebody wish to revive the update. However, we  
would not waste any further engine on maintaining an otherwise dead  
engine. Nor would we give outsiders the impression that full igor  
support was there or was pending.


In summary, I still believe we should remove igor, since:
* there has be no progress on it in two years
* the engine only supports a demo
* it is very difficult to add full support for this game
* the game is very obscure and hard to obtain
* due to the hard coded logic, there is no synergy to be hoped for  
which would allow playing further games in the future
* the existing source code would still be in SVN and thus not be lost,  
should anybody wish to resume work on it in the future
* due to the hardcoded nature of the game, it is not even clear  
whether the existing support for the demo version would be  
particularly helpful when adding support for the full game.
* we don't waste efforts on maintaining an otherwise dead engine


Cheers,
Max




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