[Scummvm-devel] Out of This World / Another World?

Eugene Sandulenko sev at scummvm.org
Wed May 5 14:51:08 CEST 2004


Hi dev'ers.

Now it's my time to step in.

Yes, that was me who inquired project leaders, talked with cyx about
the matter and even mentioned it to some other developers in private
conversation. That wasn't strictly my idea to put RAW into ScummVM,
but I personally like it, and liked it even earlier, few month ago
when we spoke with aquadran about this game and his will to RE it.

First I have to admit that it was my fault that I didn't write here
first, as I play role of err.. spokesman of the AWE plugin. I didn't
do that for some reasons, though not sound, but they were in the
place.

I don't understand whole hysteria about the matter, especially that
some even non-developers say harsh words and give no reasons, just
feelings. We all are mature persons here and we do everything in our
free time with no force but our own intentions. So what's up?

Ok, let me start. First. Lack of discussion. Which engines have been
announced here before commit? I know I'm one of latter developers, but
Sword1, Kyra and SAGA popped up in my presence, and Sword2 and FOTAQ
not too much earlier. What I recall, only SAGA was announced (by me),
but nobody even cared to reply. I've had co-leaders' opinion before
the send, but nobody even told anything later. That's not an
accusation, things did work out by the time by means of #scummvm.

Another reason I didn't write to the devlist, is that prime goal of
that letter should be (by Ender's words) to inform Fingolfin, but I
sent him a letter and got a reply he already forwarded here. I was
kind of satisfied.

Why is it so? Our policy, both public and internal was (and I hope is)
following: Do it if you'll support it. Hence is Fingolfin's reply.

Next thing I would rant about it is this "Another World is not even
adventure". How is that? I'll cite random game descrption:

-- cut here ---
Out of This World" is an adventure game, where the adventuring element
is concealed behind what looks like a typical platform shooter. The
gameplay is based mainly on physical and environmental puzzles. Each
enemy requires a different strategy, and often there is only one way
to solve the problem.
-- cut here ---

I didn't find any gamelist site which doesn't connect AW/OW with
advenutre genre.

I know even some dev'ers don't like FT for its action sequences. I
know, there are boring mazes in Zak and ITE. There is fighting in
indy3 after all. Everybody among adventure games companies tried
almost every kind of gameplay. Tell me what you think about stupid box
moving and jumping in Sword3? They call that puzzles.

Some retired members even expressed an interesting idea (paraphrased):
'This is awful thing ScummVM now is. It should be split in
SimonRenewed, BASSImproved, FreedFOTAQ, BestSAGA and
NeoKyra. Otherwise I quit.' Excellent idea, so good that it worth door
slamming.

Joysticks were today's joke. What was that? Who said that? Why is it
needed? Gamepads are much better. Ah, we already have GP32 port
with joystick and Dreamcast with gamepad. Go get these and play Monkey
Island with joystick. Another World doesn't need this.

As of OSystem rewrite. Yes, that's true. I have an idea to add one
function to it, where AW will benefit. Add callback support for
resolution change request, so AW will switch to finer graphics instead
of turning scaler on. That's all. Ok, if someone ever will want to
revive OpenGL plugin, then another two methods should be implemented:
drawLine and drawPolygon, where ogl will accelerate. Nothing else. And
in fact, we already do use lines in SAGA, however for debug
reasons. It draws object areas. But all of this is completely
optional.

Two engine branches is another point. I'll cite cyx's words:

 <joostp> cyx: Further development from you will be on RAW and now
          'AWE'? 
 <cyx> joostp: for now, I plan to continue on my own as I already
       explained to _sev

And here is what did he have in mind:

cyx> I am ok with the merge as long as I don't have to work on the OSystem
cyx> port. With the little time I have, I prefer concentrating on the
cyx> items I planned.
cyx> 
cyx> > (b) would you like to continue work in ScummVM. I.e. one day you just
cyx> > will see all  your current work as ScummVM plugin, working as
cyx> > expected. And then you may, or may not work on it. We do all dirty
cyx> > work, and you continue RE'ing Another World.
cyx> 
cyx> As of now, I can't promise anything but yeah, of course, I am interested
cyx> in all derivated work :)

I don't see two branches here at all.

So, well, this is a bad addition. Some developers already expressed
that they don't like:

  o Full Throttle
  o Maniac Mansion
  o Inherit the Earth
  o Monkey Island 2
  o All Humongous Entertainment games (30 or so)
  o The Dig
  o Flight of the Amazon Queen
  o Beneath a Steel Sky

What should we do with these?

Why do we continue ScummVM development if there is dosbox? If you
don't like slowliness of the latter, buy better computer. Who need
this old adventure crap if there is Serious Sam 2 and Doom 3? Real men
play those games.


Dixi.
Eugene




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