Community Party Game?

[Alex.]

How about we all join efforts to create a GP32x party game? (games like the ones in Quiest's Minigame Project, only the games would be played in series, one after the other)

They could be created in any language, and would be separate files. They would all be called through a shell script. We could all agree on a standard for saving score and progress files, so that it would be easy to keep track of everything.

I think this could be a fun side project for many of us, and it could become a great thing as time goes on and more games are made and added to the mix.

This is obviously just a brief idea, no real plan or design. Discuss!

 

[PokeParadox]

My friend should be getting his GP2X soon, and actually we were discussing some sort of micro/mini game project.

I think you have the right sort of idea... it could have a frontend that reads an info file, image file and can launch the games. You have certainly have me thinking about this a bit more...

 

[purple_goat]

but doesn't ruckage code in fenix?
can you switch langs mid game?

 

[PokeParadox]

The points is that it might be possible to do this in such a way that the language doesn't matter... The problem is that several run-times would have to be used etc...

 

[Ravnos]

If you're going to do a "party game" you should also have a multiplayer element to the game, now that the cradle is out. TV-out + multiple USB controllers = fun times????

 

[purple_goat]

If you're going to do a "party game" you should also have a multiplayer element to the game, now that the cradle is out. TV-out + multiple USB controllers = fun times????

tho bob is out!?


also: we need characters like mario party (how about the penguins?)

 

[Alex.]

Well, we only need ONE copy of each runtime... the most popular ones are Fenix and Java. I'm pretty sure we can have a script partytime.gpe that has something like:

CODE
#!/bin/sh

./game1/game.gpe
sync
./game2/game2.gpe
sync

cd /usr/gp2x/
exec /usr/gp2x/gp2xmenu


Running partytime.gpe would run all the games in order. The games would be quick 1-minute bursts with very simple rules.

Of course we could get fancy and make a neat front-end that reads progress from standard progress file recognized and written to by all games, and provide with the ability to start from either the beginning or from the last completed game.

 

[Nagelfar]

I have thinking about that for quite some time and also already started to design a framework so it would be easy to write games as sort of plug ins but abandoned the project after seeing how much "love" Java was getting here.
I'd love to see something like but don't go for many different runtimes. First of all, some people don't manage to install ONE runtime, let alone TWO or more. Also the syncing and scores and everything would be too tough to keep track of :-/

 

[Alex.]

I have thinking about that for quite some time and also already started to design a framework so it would be easy to write games as sort of plug ins but abandoned the project after seeing how much "love" Java was getting here.
I'd love to see something like but don't go for many different runtimes. First of all, some people don't manage to install ONE runtime, let alone TWO or more. Also the syncing and scores and everything would be too tough to keep track of :-/

We could release a complete SD package that you extract to the root of the card and keep things simple and universal for everyone.

Keeping track of scores across programs written in different languages should not be hard, we could write them as standard text files, no weird structures or anything else that could cause inter-language problems. There would be one launcher which could get the info of what games are available from a text file, and save the current game you're at.

We just have to start simple, and later build fancy things few will use, like bob multiplayer.

 

[Nagelfar]

I have thinking about that for quite some time and also already started to design a framework so it would be easy to write games as sort of plug ins but abandoned the project after seeing how much "love" Java was getting here.
I'd love to see something like but don't go for many different runtimes. First of all, some people don't manage to install ONE runtime, let alone TWO or more. Also the syncing and scores and everything would be too tough to keep track of :-/

We could release a complete SD package that you extract to the root of the card and keep things simple and universal for everyone.

Keeping track of scores across programs written in different languages should not be hard, we could write them as standard text files, no weird structures or anything else that could cause inter-language problems. There would be one launcher which could get the info of what games are available from a text file, and save the current game you're at.

We just have to start simple, and later build fancy things few will use, like bob multiplayer.

Forget it, as soons as there is a runtime involved people get picky. Score Handling would work in theory but be quite complicated imo nonetheless. Also if you took for example C, Fenix and JAVA there would be quite some (unnecessary) loading time :-/

 

[ruckage]

You're being very negative Nagelfar. I think as long as the runtime is actually included everyone is happy and yes there may be some extra load time though to be honest it wouldn't be too much. Scoring between the different apps could be problematic, though I'm sure it could be worked out. The only other alternative is to say it all has to be coded in one particular language but then you would instantly lose lots of possible devs as most ( myself included) want to stick to the language of their choice.

 

[PokeParadox]

Not only that but it can be all modular based. If someone really can't be bothered to use a certain runtime, then those games will not be available. I don't see the runtimes as too much of a problem

 

[mac-10]

I really like the idea.

As for the runtimes unfortunaly I can not be much help.
But I maybe able to help with the persistent data file and
contribute a game

Just a thought about the runtime issues

I do not know a lot about shell script so if I am way off I apologise but could a shell script be written to execute a gpe written in a particular runtime say fenix if the gpe create an exception and exits then we write into a config file indicating that fenix is not available. The same could be done for each run time you wish to incorporate. Then menu system could then read from this file and only display mini games that have the relevant run time. the run time check would only have to run the once, no need to run it if there is all ready a config file present.

I would love to get involved with this project so if anything I can do to help just let me know.

Mac

 

[Quiest]

This is such a great idea. I`m in. Excellent do do some starting stuff with C++/SDL... now I need to think of an idea or two ^^

And all this runtime talks is bullshit. There would be an extra Fenix one and Java one, and thats it... people, get over this nonsense of being picky when it comes to runtimes.


BTW, this reminds me a lot of Teh Forum Game from the Click-Community. Excellent minigame collection

 

[purple_goat]

This is such a great idea. I`m in. Excellent do do some starting stuff with C++/SDL... now I need to think of an idea or two ^^

And all this runtime talks is bullshit. There would be an extra Fenix one and Java one, and thats it... people, get over this nonsense of being picky when it comes to runtimes.

BTW, this reminds me a lot of Teh Forum Game from the Click-Community. Excellent minigame collection


oh teh noes! (sorry, I have been wanting to say that )
does this mean that I can't play the game if I don't have java running?

 

[PokeParadox]

Not really. if you didn't put the Java runtime on your SD, it would just mean that you wouldn't be able to play any Java mini/micro games. Since this is a collaboration, the entire project would be made up of different games, some written in C/C++, some in Fenix and some in Java.
If we do this thing correctly we can simply check if the runtimes are available and see what games you CAN play. and the mini games could be downloaded as separate modules if we stick to a standard.

 

[ruckage]

Again none of this is necessary if its simply done as one big package. No need to download the runtimes as they would be included. I can't see why it would be done any other way. Ok you save a bit of space on the sd card and make the download smaller but you also make it more difficult for the end user who just wants to download and play without searching for extra files and making sure they are in the correct place.
I don't think anyone really cares whether a game uses a runtime or not. What they care about is when it becomes a chore trying to get a game running because all the necessary files aren't included.

 

[purple_goat]

Again none of this is necessary if its simply done as one big package. No need to download the runtimes as they would be included. I can't see why it would be done any other way. Ok you save a bit of space on the sd card and make the download smaller but you also make it more difficult for the end user who just wants to download and play without searching for extra files and making sure they are in the correct place.
I don't think anyone really cares whether a game uses a runtime or not. What they care about is when it becomes a chore trying to get a game running because all the necessary files aren't included.

AMEN!

ruckage for guru campaign starts NOW!

 

[Nagelfar]

No need to download the runtimes as they would be included.

Then you got people bitching that still don't have broadband.

And no, I'm not being negative I'm just trying to point out potential problems because I would hate to see such an intersting project go to waste.

 

[ruckage]

No need to download the runtimes as they would be included.

Then you got people bitching that still don't have broadband.

And no, I'm not being negative I'm just trying to point out potential problems because I would hate to see such an intersting project go to waste.


While I can see your point, download size isn't such an issue anymore as broadband is becoming so common place. At the end of the day someone will always moan about something - I just think a lot more people would moan if its made more difficult to setup than necessary. It would actually be interesting to know the percentage of people who are using Broadband now, maybe we should do a poll.
On a totally different subject does anyone think it would be a good idea to have language options for such a project as it's an international community and I'm sure English isn't everyones native tongue. Would be a fairly minimal ammount of extra work as the games will most likely be quite simple without the need for vast ammounts of translated text - really just a screen explaining what to do for each game.