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Thread: PGD - Some thoughts about the future

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  1. #1
    PGD Staff code_glitch's Avatar
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    I think what user137 said about using given assets sounds like a good idea. Something like "heres a resource pack - go make" or "heres some code/script/thing - integrate/implement" could be quite fun as we'd get a lot of very similar but very different entries. As far as a community engine, I wouldn't be a main contributor (due to lack of skill and experience more than time) but would definitely be willing to help out.

    As for my experience in pascal - I learnt in pascal and sort of stuck with it and its derivatives ever since unless a project almost explicity required some other language (and I couldn't just write a .dll loader for a pascal program ).
    I once tried to change the world. But they wouldn't give me the source code. Damned evil cunning.

  2. #2
    PGD Community Manager AthenaOfDelphi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by code_glitch View Post
    due to lack of skill and experience more than time
    I think this sentiment may be felt many many of us (myself included). I look at some of the engines that people have produced (the one that springs to mind immediately is Phibermon's - sorry, I can't remember the name) and I feel like I'm some insignificant programming peon. Some of the stuff that has come out of some of the members here has been truly amazing.

    But... they started somewhere... and if they are willing to chip in, provide guidance, and just generally help, then well... we will all benefit and if you feel that you lack the skill at the start, being involved seems like a good way to change that.

    Improving my skills would be one thing I would definitely want out of participating in something like a community engine.
    :: AthenaOfDelphi :: My Blog :: My Software ::

  3. #3
    As for competitions - I think it would actually do more good, instead of launching our own, to encourage people to take part in other events. For example, there's yet another Ludum Dare this weekend - go and join! Maybe if your game is awesome enough, some people will actually grow curious as to how were you able to implement it in Pascal.
    Unfortunately I can't participate this time, since I have classes at my weekend uni.

    Either way, if organising game competitions, I think one week is best - longer than a single weekend, so you don't have to rush, yet short enough not to discourage with a vision of having to write a lot of code because people will expect a large game.
    I also think it could be interesting to have a non-gamedev contest - say, implement an algorithm, or maybe create some kind of game AI in .dll/.so which will then compete against each other. code_glitches ideas also seem interesting.

    As for a community project, I don't know how my experience will look compared to others, but it's sure worth a try. Could be a good opportunity to learn something new.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Super Vegeta View Post
    I also think it could be interesting to have a non-gamedev contest - say, implement an algorithm, or maybe create some kind of game AI in .dll/.so which will then compete against each other. code_glitches ideas also seem interesting.
    I was thinking about something similar but maybe not even in form of a competition.
    My idea is something like this:
    A comunity member creates a game related programming problem. For instance implementing some algorithm like you sad.
    Also this same comunity member provides a posible solution to that problem.
    The goal of the rest of the comunity is to go and try to provide as many different ways to solve the given problem.
    In the end we can compare the solution, discuss and find benefits/weakneses of each of the provided solutions and maybe even ways of how to improve them in the end.

    So what we would get from this is lots of different solutions (code snipects) which other pepole could use in their projects when needed. And since certain solution may not necessary the best solution for someone, pepole could go and chose that one solution which would be most suitable for them since they would have many ones to chose.
    At the same time this would provide some kind of a joint knowledge of the whole comunity in one place.
    Maybe some members might go even to the point of using that gathered knowledge and making a full blown tutorials out of it which would provide other members to gain that knowledge even more easily.

  5. #5
    Instead of make our own competitions, should be good if we compete more seriously in competitions like Ludum Dare and even Global Game Jam. This way we put more Pascal games in this compos that are dominated by new tools like unity, construct and javascript.
    We can compete to see who gets the better position for a Pascal game in the Ludum Dare.

    OBS - I'm still hard working in my pascal unfinishable game - almost finishing

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Rodrigo Robles View Post
    This way we put more Pascal games in this compos that are dominated by new tools like unity, construct and javascript.
    I think that the main problem is that we pascal developers have to do much more work to finish any of our entries into these competitions. That is mostly becouse there isn't any Unity like game engine for pascal.
    You see there is a big difference when creating a game with Unity worshop becouse unity has integrated resource managing, most comon algorithms etc. or when you have to go and implement all teese by yourself and thus write many thousands of lines of code.
    If I only check my code that I have written for ingame Supply and Demmand economic system I was working I see that it has over 100K lines of code and it is still not finished entirely.

    EDIT: Don't get me wrong I'm not discouraging anyone from participating in those compos. If I find out the theme of one of them to be interesting enough I also might go and try. But I do realize that I have much harder task at hand.
    Last edited by SilverWarior; 23-04-2014 at 07:50 PM.

  7. #7
    PGD Community Manager AthenaOfDelphi's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SilverWarior View Post
    I think that the main problem is that we pascal developers have to do much more work to finish any of our entries into these competitions. That is mostly becouse there isn't any Unity like game engine for pascal.
    You see there is a big difference when creating a game with Unity worshop becouse unity has integrated resource managing, most comon algorithms etc. or when you have to go and implement all teese by yourself and thus write many thousands of lines of code.
    If I only check my code that I have written for ingame Supply and Demmand economic system I was working I see that it has over 100K lines of code and it is still not finished entirely.
    This is one of the factors that kind of puts me off... you use Unity or some other engine of a similar ilk and you have a massive head start... but the rules do allow for the use of publicly available engines and libraries, so theoretically you could use any of the engines we currently have available... or if we create a community engine... that would be open source and from what I read of the rules, acceptable

    Get to that stage and we could get everyone who worked on the engine to crash the compy
    :: AthenaOfDelphi :: My Blog :: My Software ::

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by AthenaOfDelphi View Post
    Get to that stage and we could get everyone who worked on the engine to crash the compy
    You mean each of us go and creates its own entry so that even if our entries are not the best we still win becouse if being in great numbers.
    Dream come true!

  9. #9
    Funny coincidence, just few days ago I thought about returning to development "just for fun", and here we are - topic on PGD about something like resurrecting community, hmmm...

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Andru View Post
    Funny coincidence, just few days ago I thought about returning to development "just for fun"
    Does that maybe mean that you are concidering to resume working on ZenGL?

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