[Scummvm-devel] GSoC application

Fri Feb 19 12:19:32 CET 2016

Hello

Sorry for not replying earlier, I was away on a business trip.

I am also supporting the notion of expanding towards RPG games. We already
have support for some RPG games, which shared code with adventure game
engines (Lands of Lore, Eye of the Beholder 1+2, Elvira 1+2, Waxworks,
Quest for Glory 1-3, to name a few). Also, a lot of the newly-added WAGE
games are RPGs. RPG games also have similar properties as adventure games
(like interaction with characters and solving puzzles), although they have
more fight-oriented functionality included (skills, stats, weapons, monster
fighting etc).

This is not the same as 2.5D / 3D games: a lot of RPG games were using a 2D
engine (like Lands of Lore, for example), so we won't need to perform any
significant changes to OSystem itself, like what was done with ResidualVM.

Thus, I am all for expanding our target games to include RPG games as well,
either in a new spinoff project (RogueVM), or as part of ScummVM itself.

I don't believe that expanding our target will be like shooting ourselves
in the foot. A project has a vision, a target and people who are interested
in working for that vision. We have developers in ScummVM who have worked
for both adventure games and RPG games (wjp, fuzzie, kirben, athrxx,
m_kiewitz, dreammaster and myself, to name a few). We also have sources for
RPG games, that people can work on.

So, I believe that adding 2D RPG-oriented engines as a GSoC task could
potentially attract more students, who are interested in RPGs, therefore,
it's a good move.

Last but not least, a spinoff project like RogueVM would be nice, but
perhaps it would be good if we get to vote in order to expand the scope of
ScummVM to also target 2D point'n'click RPG games. There, I said it :)

Regards
Filippos

On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 2:23 PM, Peter Bozsó <uruk at scummvm.org> wrote:

> Hey all! :)
>
> First of all I am absolutely for RogueVM and it's branching off of
> ScummVM. I think it's a great project and a it'd pretty attractive thing
> for GSoC students.
> I am also volunteering this year as a mentor for this
> <http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/GSoC_Ideas_2016#Cloud_integration> task
> that I added myself to the list. (Also I'll be only available three
> days/week and only a couple of hours during those days, so it'd be very
> good if someone could co-mentor that task besides me!)
>
> Cheers,
> Peter
>
> On 18 February 2016 at 07:22, Arnaud Boutonné <strangerke at scummvm.org>
> wrote:
>
>> To answer to Tobia's remarks
>>
>> 2 years ago, we decided to make for the first time a proposal for
>> ResidualVM, with ScummVM vouching their application. Google failed
>> ResidualVM's proposal, and asked us to turn ScummVM into a GSoC umbrella
>> and take them on our side. We did that, and it worked really well.
>>
>> Last year, at Fosdem, I talked to Googlers who said it was the good way
>> to proceed and ... we were failed nevertheless, but our application and
>> structure wasn't pointed as a reason of this failure.
>>
>> This year, we talked again to Googlers at Fosdem, and they encouraged us
>> to keep working in the same direction, and to be ambitious in order to be
>> outstanding.
>> What we are proposing this year is a wider umbrella (with a small growth,
>> under control), which is something that Google encourages. We are also
>> proposing a coherent growth, involving some team members.
>> And finally we could be proposing to students nothing less than being at
>> the origin of something different, which could be helpful to keep them in
>> the community afterwards.
>>
>> All in all, with that approach, I think this would increase our chances
>> to be accepted.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Arnaud
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 1:31 AM, D G Turner <d.g.turner at ntlworld.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Miguel,
>>>   Thanks for the point, but there is significant overlap between the
>>>   ScummVM and GemRB developers, including wjp who raised this
>>>   question so we are aware of it and would mainly be talking to
>>>   ourselves :)
>>>
>>>   GemRB is intended to reimplement the Bioware Infinity Engine and
>>>   thus is not really applicable to other RPGs which have vastly
>>>   differing internal engine designs.
>>>
>>>   While it is possible that the GemRB could be integrated in future
>>>   as an engine within RogueVM / ScummVM, this doesn't really have any
>>>   bearing on the current point at hand.
>>> Thanks,
>>> David Turner
>>>
>>> P.S. A general +1 from me to merging the RogueVM and other RPG engines
>>>      into ScummVM.
>>>
>>> On 17/02/16 23:47, Miguel de Dios Matias wrote:
>>> > Don't reinvent the wheel.
>>> >
>>> > There is a engine reimplementation of popular RPGs such as Baldurs
>>> > Gate I and II. It is a mature project but it is growing slow.
>>> >
>>> > https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb
>>> >
>>> > is not it better a meeting with the people of GemRB for to merge into
>>> ScummVM?
>>> >
>>> > Regards.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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