[Kde-games-devel] Help wanted: 2D ISO (Fallout-like) engine searching for Qt4 map editor developer

[Martin Vohland]

Team name:
FIFE developing team.

Project name:
FIFE - Flexible Isometric Fallout(-like) Engine.

Brief description:
Just like the name of our project suggests we work on a new open source 
framework for isometric games. The engine started as a Fallout-only 
project but we recognized very fast that it offers the potential to be 
used as a general 2d ISO framework for the development of cross platform 
games.

The engine supports the assets of the original Fallout games but it is 
also suitable for creating even totally new 2D games. We are focusing on 
the creation of an engine itself but will bundle it with an example mod; 
so modders have a starting point to create their own games based on our 
engine.

Since we do not focus on the creation of a complete game we will be 
working on comfortable and easy-to-use editing tools. Engine and editor 
are planned to run on all flavours of Linux, Win32 and MacOSX.

The FIFE project is over 12 months in development now and we have 
released three public pre-alpha versions of the engine on sourceforge / 
freshmeat in January and May 2006. Another release is planned for the 
end of the year coming with the first version of our editor tool.

Target aim:
Open source GPL v2.0; non-profit

Compensation:
We are confident that advanced coders will find it quite exciting to 
work on the creation and the designing of a whole engine with other 
experienced and passionate open source coders. But as we're a non-profit 
project the only thing we can provide is a way to express your love for 
open source software and the satisfying feeling to work on an ambitious 
project.

Technology:
Linux, Windows, MacOSX
C++, Boost library
SDL, OpenGL (optional)
Qt4 for the editor

SVN Sourcecode checkout: Engine
svn co https://svn1.cvsdude.com/fife/engine/trunk/core

SVN Sourcecode checkout: Editor
svn co https://svn1.cvsdude.com/fife/engine/trunk/fifedit

We are searching for:
Qt4 map editor developer
We had already found a developer for our map editor; he did even create 
design documents for it. Unfortunately he's quite busy at work currently 
so he can't invest much time into the project anymore. The first task 
for the editor developer would be to evaluate the current editor design 
documents and to decide which parts of them can be used and which ones 
need to be redesigned.

You can find them here:
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Design_Document
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Functionality
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Structure

The goal is to create a map editor that is based on QT4 to create maps 
for FIFE. Major parts of the needed code are already implemented in the 
engine itself; this way we can reduce the amount of code to maintain. 
We'll simply link against our static engine library and "just" the 
editor specific features need to be written from scratch.

Planned tasks:
1. Evaluate the editor design documents.
2. Decide which parts can be reused and which ones need redesigning.
3. Integrate the engine into the editor. E.g. we to get the editor 
working together with our SDL / OpenGL render backends; otherwhise we 
would need to write an extra QT render backend for the editor. We 
already tried that in the past but the results weren't satisfying 
performance-wise, even on modern system. Another problem would be code 
duplication because a QT render backend would mean more code to maintain 
and it would needed to be kept up to date with the other backends. So we 
think "embedding" the SDL / OpenGL backends is the better way to go.

The best way to decide if this project is your cup of tea is to check 
out the "getting started"-guide and take a look at your current code base.
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Getting_started
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Subversion_repositor

Team structure:
Phoku - engine core designer & coder
Zahlman - engine core coder
Shadowdancer - engine core coder
Chris - engine core freelancer
Inverse - gfx coder
ismarc - editor core designer & coder (inactive)
Cheesesucker - editor coder
Skybound - XMLmaps & script integration developer
RogerWilco - sound engine developer
IFooBar - MSVC 2005 porter
chewie - lua scripter / mod developer
mvBarracuda - project manager

My job as project manager is to keep the team together and to ensure 
that the communication structure inside the team works so everyone 
enjoys working on the project. Among other things I'm the official 
development wiki maintainer and take care of official and experimental 
Win32 builds of the engine.

Website:
http://www.fifengine.de >> Homepage
http://wiki.fifengine.de >> Development wiki
http://mirror1.cvsdude.com/trac/fife/engine/blog >> Development blog
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Getting_started >> Getting 
started guide for interested developers
http://docs.fifengine.de >> Doxygen code documentation
http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=Category:Design_Documents >> 
Design documents

Current release:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/fife/FIFE_2006.1_src.tar.bz2?download 
 >> FIFE 2006.1 pre-alpha sources
Linux users better get the code from because we added a fair share of 
new code since our last official release.

Contacts:
IRC channel: http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=IRC
eMail: mvBarracuda at web.de
icq: UIN -> 98600423

Important:
You can either use our free XMLmaps with the engine or access the 
original Fallout maps with it. If you want to use the Fallout maps you 
will need a legit copy of Fallout 1 or 2. The FO 1/2 maps are far more 
advanced compared to our own XMLmaps; basically we just set some 
placeholder textures on them to have something that lets you start the 
engine without having to own Fallout. So if you want to experience the 
full beauty: give the Fallout maps a go.

To give you an impression about the status of the project we took sample 
screenshots of the current release (using the Fallout maps):

Fallout 2 map featuring our first walking player character:
http://members.fifengine.de/skybound/screenshot_walking.jpg

A very early version of FIFEdit, later abandoned:
http://screens.fifengine.de/editor_002.jpghttp://screens.fifengine.de/editor_002_t.jpg

One of our XML maps:
http://screens.fifengine.de/2006.1.001.jpghttp://screens.fifengine.de/2006.1.001_t.jpg

FIFE can handle different resolutions in spite of the original Fallout 
engine:
http://screens.fifengine.de/pre-alpha_002.jpghttp://screens.fifengine.de/pre-alpha_002_t.jpg

The OpenGL render backend supports alphablending:
http://screens.fifengine.de/prototype1_015.jpghttp://screens.fifengine.de/prototype1_015_t.jpg

Feedback:
Feel free to add whatever feedback you like :-) Critics will help us to 
improve the project.
<cid:part1.02050705.09070609 at web.de>