[Scummvm-devel] Engine development/inclusion

[Paul Gilbert]

My understanding of the requirements is that it's perfectly fine for the
game to be non-english. After all, further work could see any foreign
language strings either wrapped in the translation macro or put in a data
file with the eventual creation of an English translation for it is as
well. What isn't allowed is for the engine source itself to be in
non-English. One of the group requirements is for engine source to be
easily maintainable, and having method, variable, and/or comments in
foreign languages makes it hard to do so.

DreamMaster.


On Fri, Feb 2, 2018 at 2:28 PM, Adrian Frühwirth <scummvm-devel at bonki.net>
wrote:

> 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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>
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