HOW CAN WE HELP GEORGE in the game programming?

[Rick]

OK i just posted the same idea in a general topic, but i'm posting it again because i think very good things can spring out from here.

I think we can help george in PROGRAMMING the game and debugging if he publishes the flowchart of RTC in a separate board or webpage.

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Like the main routine (in pseudocode or flowchart-like), together with all the modules (units/objs) so we can get an idea of how to help him. This way we can cooperate in the designing of the program, brainstorming for the difficult parts of the implementation (like using an array instead of a tree or how do we optimize this module, etc)
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Because how it's done right now, is like a blackbox testing. Is this ok? No. Hhmmmm - tweaking .... now? Improved a bit, but still doesn't work. Hey how about this? hmmmmm (2 months later) didn't work.

Instead if the routines (either the source code for certain routines or just the main ideas) are published, we can contribute with some ideas, more efficient routines, what if someone can search in the web for a certain algorithm which could improve the game speed by 500%? One thing for sure. The game design would INDEED get accelerated.

This is done in scientific research labs in the world, and everyone is using the web for this (like new algorithms to decode DNA). Why not adopt the system for a computer game?

What do you say George?

[Rick]

For example, a forum of how the graphic display works (and of course, how it can be improved) would help a lot. George can tell us: OK i need a routine which displays this tile of the dungeon which is stored in a square matrix etc etc, and the return value would be a pointer etc.

Then if somebody gets it done, he just gives the code to George and ta-da!

[amaprotu]

This has been brought up before. This is George's pet project. He does not wish to release the source code in any manner now or in the foreseeable future.

With a program this small the amount of discussion and help you are offering is really over kill. By the time George adequitly explaines the graphics routine he needs, the input it takes and the results it gives he might as well have made the routine.

Even with that aside, this project is very nearly done. Text editing should be made available soon as far as I can tell and next comes the gaphical editor. Once the text editing is released anyone should be able to make an editor.

To that end I would like to post my own suggestion. George: before releasing a full editor program can you release a converter program that turns text files into the .rtc files? This way if others come up with a good text editor they can still release rtc files and not just text files. (It was my impression that this ability was to be included in the full editor, I may be wrong and this suggestion may already be what is intended....).

- Amaprotu

[Gambit37]

I agree, Amaprotu.

It's great that you have all this enthusiasm Rick, and it's well merited. For a different project with a different objective, what you suggest would be well received.

However, if you read the manual that ships with version twelve (or indeed the RTC pages on Raging Mole), you'll see that George states:
<blockquote><b><i>Quote:</i></b><hr> I started writing RTC to learn as I went along the basics of game programming and as such it is the first and only game I have ever written; please be tolerant with any bugs you find!<hr></blockquote>
George also states:
<blockquote><b><i>Quote:</i></b><hr> I hope this game brings as much pleasure to you as the enjoyment I had whilst writing it.<hr></blockquote>
Elsewhere on these forums George has also outlined many other aspects of why he does not wish to make any of this public, certainly not at least until version 1.0 is out of the door and the core game works flawlessly. Finding bugs and optimising code is part of the process of the game's development, and it's as much a part of George's learning process as any of the rest of it. Getting all of us to start contributing actual code samples for George is going to cause him many more problems in the long run, and it would ruin the personal aspect of his project.

I feel that George shares my view about the nature of these projects. For example, I am in the process of building a large Dungeon Master website that should be online by the end of this year. It's a massive project, and on this forum I have hinted a little here and there at it's development and what it will contain. As a result, I have had many offers of help from people who think that to give me assistance will enable the site to be on-line much sooner. That's not what it's about. I'm doing this because I want to, because it's a personal project that I have control over, that when I have finished I can sit back and be proud of the achievement, and say "Look at this; I did that." If anyone else gets any kind of enjoyment or satisfaction from visiting the website, well then that's a bonus...

[cowsmanaut]

an addition is that, George and I were part of the DM Clone Project. George was working with a team at that point and built new DM for working in that team. However as was the norm the members of the team found otherhtings and vanished. George and I were left.

It was at that point he decided to revive his RTC project he had been working on just for himself. I think he's realised that teams of regular joes come and go. You get a bunch of small contributions all of which expect credit and then the don't stick around.. then you need to explain all over again, all the details of the next eager soul.

so, It's also partly a case of "been there done that.. didn't like it much."

He's having fun and he's willing to share it with us. Nothing more. If you have suggestions or questions send them to him, but don't expect to get anything more than that. It's his project if someone wants something more they can always build one themselves.