Project announcement: Thicket


Humblebeaver

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Now that the Pyra is getting close to launch I wanted to show case something I've been working on in my spare time. It is a media delivery application for music and games using OpenSeed and API I've been developing for various game and non-game projects. When finished I hope to have a "pay what you want" styled store for those that download the content, and I am currently working with developers in the STEEM community (not Steam) to integrate blogging and other features to the platform. Below are some screenshots of the current desktop version's music area (it has the most content). It would need to have a more "game console" look and feel but I believe it could be a real boon for everyone involved. The entire software is written in Godot and will be open source.

Screenshot from 2019-09-17 09-42-25.png Screenshot from 2019-09-17 18-15-03.png Screenshot from 2019-09-11 19-13-20.png

The big picture plan for Thicket is to create yet another game store, but to target Godot and other opensource game engines while also utilizing decentralized technologies like ipfs to deliver the content.

But what do you guys think? Do you think the Pyra needs something like Thicket? What would you like to see as far as features are concerned?

Thoughts, questions, and opinions are always welcome.
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As "street cred" I was the one developing Zib / Effigy on the Pandora. Life got in the way at the time, but if you can find images of it it was pretty slick (I thought)
 
Not sure about the "game store" aspect. The DBP repo will probably be the place to get Pyra-specific software and I can't see there being enough content outside of that (judging by what was "commercial" on the Pandora) to support a fresh store. I could be wrong though.
 
I can see your point, however the feature is being added to the desktop version regardless, so removing it seems counter productive and if its there it may as well work. I personally haven't read any information about the software aspects of the Pyra which lead me to believe that we are getting a relatively stock version of Debian. But, if there is something beyond that It might be worth adding the ability to parse those and have Thicket install them for the user as well.
 
I nearly mentioned tying in to the dbp repo, but not sure how well that would fit in with your other store aspect.

Will it also work with local non-store content (ie, play your local mp3s, and launch non-Thicket games/apps)?
 
I nearly mentioned tying in to the dbp repo, but not sure how well that would fit in with your other store aspect.

Will it also work with local non-store content (ie, play your local mp3s, and launch non-Thicket games/apps)?

Ideally I'd like it to be THE interface for non-desktop use. So yeah local media would be a must. I don't know how hard it would be to truly integrate non Thicket apps and games, but displaying and launching them wouldn't be difficult.
 
Ideally I'd like it to be THE interface for non-desktop use.
Sounds like you're half trying to make a "Mini-Menu v2". Will you need to create a Thicket store account? and will you need to log in? Or will it operate anonymously? You will certainly need to cater for no internet access, but I can imagine some people not even wanting accounts. I'll be honest, I don't really get the STEEM and OpenSeed things?

I don't know how hard it would be to truly integrate non Thicket apps and games, but displaying and launching them wouldn't be difficult.
I wasn't really thinking to integrating them, but just displaying/launching them.

That said, I had been thinking about restarting my TournamentHub project, but I've been working ages on what should be a very simple artillery game, so something like TH is well beyond me at the minute. So if you wanted to let games actually integrate, you could offer them an API that uses their Thicket account to upload scores for the games to a leader board.
 
That said, I had been thinking about restarting my TournamentHub project, but I've been working ages on what should be a very simple artillery game, so something like TH is well beyond me at the minute. So if you wanted to let games actually integrate, you could offer them an API that uses their Thicket account to upload scores for the games to a leader board.

Already ahead of you. Leader-boards, user management, and saved games are features already in the project, along with achievement management and cross network chat. However, most of the API is still in flux, but I should be ready for early adopters by the time I get my Pyra.


Sounds like you're half trying to make a "Mini-Menu v2". Will you need to create a Thicket store account? and will you need to log in? Or will it operate anonymously? You will certainly need to cater for no internet access, but I can imagine some people not even wanting accounts. I'll be honest, I don't really get the STEEM and OpenSeed things?

Was Mini-Menu the interface on the Pandora?
Ultimately I'm just trying to scratch an itch I've had for a while. I'm a huge proponent of projects like the Pyra that are as open as possible and niche enough to make a mark. If Thicket helps sell even one Pyra, or helps a Indie Game developer or Musician find an audience it was a success.

On the matter of Logins:
As a developer in order to use the API you would need an account for security reasons if nothing else. User login would be optional, but for certain things it would be unavoidable (chat, cloud sync, the store, any social interactions).

On the matter of Internet Access:
Most if not all services will be asynchronous and any tutorials on setting up the API would be geared toward handling offline modes. Logins are also handled this way to minimize the frustration with those elements.

On the matter of STEEM and OpenSeed:

Steem is a blogging platform created some two years ago based on the idea of "Proof of Brain" as being a better method of content discovery and rewards. Integrating this blogging platform into the client for things like developer blogs would help break the discovery barrier for all parties involved and hopefully give the developer a little extra incentive to continue working on their project.

OpenSeed is the actual API where as Thicket is the front-end to those services. This way your game isn't tied to Thicket as a platform, but you can still benefit from the services provided by OpenSeed. Thicket's primary goal for now, will be to find feature parity with other softwares in its category like itch.io or Steam. The value add of using Thicket as a distribution platform would come from the social interactions as well as being discover-able in a cross platform way.

Further note on accounts and the whole diabolical plan:

OpenSeed and Thicket are FOSS projects with a strict mindset on user rights. As a organization (pending) there is a strict no ad, no user data selling principal that will be outlined in the EULA so that its binding for both developers and users. I personally detest the idea of needless logins, "cloud based" electron apps, and walled garden approaches. I appreciate the point of view of those that don't want to login or connect to any services. No one is forced to use any service they don't agree with, and no developer is required to use all the services that OpenSeed provides. So if you are only concerned about leader-boards you can have the user put in their name every time they upload their score, OR you can use the login services do it for you. As a quick example. However, I'm working with several like minded individuals on ways to create incentives for the developers (development funds, shared stake, etc.) so that even free (as in money) software that uses OpenSeed would find some sort of benefit from using it.
 
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Minimenu was one of the user interfaces that was installed on the Pandora, but I get the feeling that most people went for the full desktop experience after a little trial. The Pandora's repo is a website that hosts all freely available software and a little commercial cruft. You need to create a signin to comment or to rate anything, but anonymous downloads of the free apps are permitted. Later on a local app was created called PNDManager which was a collection of libs and things collated by bzar which showed you all the apps you have installed and what's on the repo (if you have internet access) and it would allow you to copy an API key from the website to the PND manager to let you comment and rate apps as you tested them out, but otherwise, seeing what you've got, what's on the repo, sorted alphabetically or by release date, and updating and downloading new apps all worked without any kind of sign-in. I'd like to be able to do all of that on the Pyra without having to release personally identifiable information (other than an IP address, which I can always bounce through a VPN or something).

Recording of high scores was handled through a different thing created by skeezix which the name of I forget currently (it was tied into the ROT competition, whatever that stood for). Most games take a three or five letter name especially if they're kind of retro (which a lot are), which you enter each time you achieve a recognised good score on the game's internal high score table, and that's used as all the personally identifiable information, but for games that do have scores but don't maintain their own high score table I guess it could help if that could be uplodaded to a leaderboard server automatically for us.
 
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