[Kde-games-devel] Re: KDE games strategy

[Matt Williams]

On 26 July 2011 16:40, Inge Wallin <inge at lysator.liu.se> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Now that I am the new maintainer of KReversi (again), I thought it would be a
> good time to discuss the strategy behind the games.  I know that this has
> changed slightly over time, but as far as I understand, these are the general
> ideas behind the module:
>
> 1. The KDE Games are more of little past times than serious games.
>
> For example, KReversi is not the application to go to if you want a serious
> game of reversi, neither is KFourInLine or Bovo.  Knight may be the exception
> here, but I'm not sure. But none of the games are very big or complex or take
> very long.
>
> 2. Graphics is an important part of the game play experience.
>
> During the last few years, much energy have been put into making the games
> look good and feel good.  Personally, I can feel that this has been done to
> the point of missing other aspects of the games but of course what the
> developers are interested in gets done so no real complaints here.
>
> 3. Network play is not very important.
>
> Ok, this may not be true, but if we check which of the KDE games are actually
> network aware, we find very few. In particular, none of the games can connect
> to any of the servers that do exist out in the world.
>
> Is the above correct?
>
> If so, I think we have a nice platform for discussing where we want to go from
> here.  I am aware that not all dreams may become reality, but I think that if
> we want to reinvigorate the KDE Games we need to have a clear vision.

I would agree that this is the idea behind the module. Anything more
than a small 'time-wasting' game is better suited for Extragear. I
agree that having a tight focus helps us to excel in areas where we
can without getting distracted.

> I do have a few ideas to kick off the discussion:
>
> * Improve the AI's for the games that have one.
> This is where my own programming strength lies, and I think I can at least
> spice up KReversi, Bovo and KFourInLine. I would love to create games like
> Lines of Action and Amazons and it shouldn't be too difficult given that I
> already have AI's lying around for them, and creating new boards should be
> simple.  But should I?

Good idea. I've still got some ideas for improving the AI in KSquares.

> * Improve network awareness
> This looks like a no-brainer, but yet it hasn't happened for a long time.  Is
> it perhaps outside of the (unwritten) KDE Games strategy?
>
> * Improve the separation of engine and UI so that we can create new UI's for
> smartphones, tablets and other form factors.

I'm one of the lucky recipients of the Nokia N950 and one of my plans
for it is to test KDE games on the small form factor. My first step
will be writing a QML frontend to KSquares.

> I think it would be good if we could have a thread here for a few days and
> then meet up at the Desktop Summit for a BoF.  I also think it would be very
> good if we could document the general strategy behind the KDE Games module.

Unfortunately I won't be at the DS due to a friend's wedding in
Stockholm and a holiday surrounding it. A Games BoF (even if informal)
would help a lot in this area I think. The one we had in Belgium a few
years ago was very useful.

-- 
Matt Williams
http://milliams.com