[Kde-games-devel] Questions about including a new game

[Ian Wadham]

On 22/02/2012, at 5:16 AM, Jakob Gruber wrote:

> On 02/21/2012 03:30 AM, Ian Wadham wrote:
>> 
>> @Jakob: The Wikipedia example builds a clearer second copy of the pictogram
>> at top left.  I think that is a nice feature.
> 
> I think so too, however I've been reluctant to use it while the puzzles
> are all randomly generated and aren't nice to look at.

Just a thought … as a source of inspiration, you might be able to use icons, sprites
and pixmaps from KDE and its games, blown up to show the pixels.  Also, the
KTuberling (potato guy) game has a lot of small graphics objects in it.

>> Long story short: it is not enough to have an idea for a new KDE Game.  You
>> need to be prepared to stay around and look after it for a few years …  Nobody
>> else is going to.
> 
> I'm prepared to maintain the game in the long-run. I've been working
> picmi since around 2 years, in which it's undergone 2 transitions (from
> SDL to SFML and finally to QGraphicsScene).

Heh! Heh! So you are familiar with what is meant by "maintenance" in this
neck of the woods…

>> That said, if we like the look of your game and your code and it meets some
>> standard KDE requirements, there is a process for introducing it into KDE,
>> starting at a place in the repository called "playground", where it can be 
>> developed but not released and other people can try it out.  When ready,
>> it can move to another place called "review" and finally into KDE Games
>> "trunk", from which it can be released next time there is a KDE release.
> 
> Thanks for the quick overview.

I am sorry if I was rather brusque about this, but I thought I should "tell it
like it is".  KDE-ising an application can be a lot of work, perhaps almost
as much as writing the original app.

> I'm assuming you didn't get a chance to
> look at it? For convenience, here's a quick oneliner to clone, compile
> and execute the game:
> 
> git clone git://github.com/schuay/picmi-rewrite.git && pushd
> picmi-rewrite && make && build/picmi && pops

Thanks, Jakob.  You're right: I haven't had much time the last few days,
but maybe today …

> You mentioned standard KDE
> requirements, are these documented somewhere?

Yes. There are several tutorials, howtos and policies in techbase.kde.org
and it might be a good idea to browse community.kde.org first.  There are
standard requirements re main window, menus, documentation of your game,
documentation of API (doxygen), translation of strings (i18n), storing and finding
data and graphics files, remembering previous setup (KConfigGroup), artwork,
your own app's settings, keyboard setup, schedules,  feature lists, committing code,
help menu … and on and on.

Re libkdegames you will need KStandardGameAction (standard menus and icons
for Hint, Solve, Pause, etc.).  You might also need KGameRenderer if you have
a lot of graphics and themes, but perhaps not.  SVG files can be slow to load
and render or re-render if the main window gets resized.  If so, KGameRenderer
makes caching of already-rendered graphics automatic, making the game much
faster.

Last but not least, I suggest reading the code of an existing not-too-large game,
such as KDiamond, to find out what the various files are, what they do and how
they work together.  See http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/KDE/kdegames/ for a list
of games and code to browse through.  You can also see what's in playground
at http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/playground/games/ …  Some of it has been there
a looonnnnngggg time.

All the best, Ian W.