[Scummvm-devel] Engine development/inclusion

Adrian Frühwirth scummvm-devel at bonki.net
Fri Feb 2 20:28:35 CET 2018


Hi everybody,

the following question popped up on IRC yesterday:

--- snip ---
<LubomirR> Hi everybody. I have a question regarding new engines.
Does the game have to be available in the English language to be accepted? I
don't see such requirement in "HOWTO-Engine_Inclusion", but asking just in case.
<LubomirR> We've been reverse engineering Mutation of JB (available in Slovak,
German and maybe Polish too) and we're thinking about adding support to ScummVM,
so that's why I am asking.
--- snip ---

Being the new guy I have been been skimming through the -devel archives during
the last couple of days and stumbled across the following mail from Eugene
(2016-07-18):

> [...]
> The current rules for the engines to be included are becoming the following:
>
>   1. Any ScummVM developer or person vouched by at least one ScummVM
>   developer is welcomed to develop their engines in-tree.
>   2. That means, that even the half-baked engines or starting ones are OK
>   to be merged or even started right in the tree.
>   3. The engine inclusion is announced on the scummvm-devel (if developed
>   from the scratch) or passed as a PR with 2 weeks provided for any
>   objections or comments.
>   4. However, if the engine is not yet complete, and the author is not
>   active for 6 months or more, or when the engine is not being developed for
>   12 months or more, the engine could be removed from the tree. Most probably
>   we will create 'scummvm-attic' repository, which will be synced with the
>   main tree right before the removal of such engine.
>
> This hopefully will make the ScummVM development more vivid and pronounced,
> the engines will benefit from the buildbot, and the porters could try the
> new engines earlier on their platforms.
>
> [...]
>
> To sum up:
>
>   - Now the engine development is welcomed to be in-tree as early as the
>   engine author wants (with the requirement to be active).
>   - The ScummVM scope includes RPGs.
>
> As a side note, the official scope description of the project will be
> adjusted once we announce support for our first RPG engine.
> [...]

Is this still current project policy? If so, I propose that we update the wiki
(HOWTO-Engine_Inclusion) rather sooner than later. The current page is based on
a much older mailing list discussion and has not been updated since 2011.
I see no good reason to keep outdated information in the wiki on purpose if, in
reality, our approach and policy is a different one now. If there is information
on the wiki (like there is now), new engine developers are going to look there
and assume the information is up-to-date and correct, not the mailing list archive.

With regards to the IRC question, what is the current stance on including games
which were never released in English? If there is a rule (unspoken or not) it
might be wise to mention this on said page as well.
Personally, I see no reason why we would be against including such engines but I
understand that, from a quality control point of view (especially when it comes
to possibly translating a game), it might be desirable that there be existing
team members who are proficient in at least one of the game's original languages.

-Adrian



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