[Kde-games-devel] KDE 4.3 import plans: Vencedor, kggzcore, kggzlib

[Josef Spillner]

Hello,

those of you on IRC have probably seen that despite slow progress, there is 
now a generic multiplayer client/game launcher available under the new name 
"Vencedor" [0] (no K in the name!) as a replacement for the old KDE3-based 
KGGZ application. It is a very tiny application, about 95% of its codebase is 
encapsulated in the kggzlib widget library [1].
Vencedor has an optional dependency on Lokarest [2] for "social network" 
integration so that players can synchronise their habits with a web portal, of 
course restricted by privacy settings [3].

Furthermore, connecting to GGZ from within the games without the need for a 
launcher has been accomplished through the kggzcore library. Therefore, if you 
want to play online, there are now several possibilities:
- Select "Connect..." from within the game
- Launch the game from within Vencedor
- Launch the game from Plasma-KGGZ, which is a rather special tool which I 
don't intend to import into kdegames, but it's still rather cool
- Launch the game from online game browsers like Friedrich's networkkio system 
or dedicated browsers of running games
- Initiate a game from IM/chat clients

My plan is to import kggzcore into libkdegames, merge kggzlib into the 
existing and nearly-empty kggzgames, and move Vencedor into kdereview so it 
can be included as a kdegames application into 4.3. Better icons, larger 
toolbar buttons and all the usual kdegames stuff is on the way already.

A real blocker is still the rather limited KChat(Base) widget we have in 
libkdegames. Our inqiries with the Kopete people to share more advanced chat 
widgets have not really been successful. We could contact other chat client 
developers (e.g. Quassel), or alternatively merge the old KGGZ chat widget 
which has history, nickname autocompletion etc.

Comments?

Josef

[0] http://www.ggzgamingzone.org/clients/kde4/
[1] http://svn.ggzgamingzone.org/trac.cgi/browser/trunk/kde-
center/kggzlib/README.kggzlib
[2] http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/LokaRest
[3] http://svn.ggzgamingzone.org/trac.cgi/browser/trunk/kde-
center/vencedor/social-gaming.txt