EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 November/EnigmA AMIGA RUN 02 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-11][Skylink CD].iso/earcd/program/amos/amoslist.lzh/AMOSLIST/[e-mail]_Fri Sep 1 09:26:36 1995.msg

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Date: Fri, 1 Sep 1995 13:14:40 +0200 (METDST)
From: Branko Collin <[e-mail]>
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To: Amos Discussion List <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Thanks
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On Thu, 31 Aug 1995, Eddie wrote:
>     This may sound a little crazy, BUT .........
>     I have this idea for a rather storming program concept!  Personally I
> don't have a great deal of time to spend on AMOS programming and, I susspect,
> neither do quite a few of you out there. So ..... why don't we all get
> together and come up with a good game concept, then assign little bits of it
> to everyone.  This would then allow us to produce a large game, quickly!
>     I know this is not going to be as easy as I've made it out to be - alot of
> managing would have to be done.  But people could be assigned tasks to their
> strengths etc.  We couls all uuencode our individual procs and mail them to
> whoever the central manager for the project will be then she/he can then put
> them together.

Damn. :-). You beat me to it. No, honest, if I had not been so busy the last
two weeks I would have suggested it already. My plan was the following:

In a little less than a year there will be Olympic games. Those of you
that owned 8-bit computers may remember the hugely succesful computer
games based on the Olympics. Usually they involved some 8 sports in which
you could compete against friends or the computer. These games were not
very complex. If they contained any scrolling it was sideways and on the
whole only a few sprites were moved and animated. Gameplay: wiggle the
joystick. Despite their simplicity they apparently involved a lot of
programming, animating and composing. I remember reading that large teams
worked on them.

Of course, that was their strength. Lots of programmers and artists got
assigned a relatively simple task that they could implement relatively
indepently.

If, say, we could gather about 20 programmers, we could make the biggest
Olympics based computer game ever!

The other reason why I had not proposed this yet (besides being busy) is
that my account at work expires at the end of the year. I'll still be
able to exchange email, but software will be a bit harder (yes, I know,
it's the ninetees, but I can't help it either).

So I propose:
-That the subscribers of the Amos discussion list form a group with the
purpose of having a computer game based on the 1996 Olympic Games of
Atlanta ready at the 1st of May 1996.
-That this group consists of at least a coordinator, a graphics artist, a
sound artist and several programmers.
-That the coordinator takes care of (or appoints a programmer to)
programming the main program.
-That the graphics artist develops guidelines for the looks of the
different modules.
-That the sound artist develops guidelines for the sound of the different
modules.
-That the programmers have a vote in making guidelines for the feel
(mostly the gameplay) of the modules.
-That the programmers develop the different modules.
-That the program contists of a main program that succesively calls the
game and other modules (start and end ceremonies, commercials, price
ceremonies, etc.)

I have been thinking a lot about this modular approach and it seems to be
the easiest for the programmers: this way they only have to 'obey' the
guidelines. This will eliminate a lot of the bugs expected from other
approaches. With a modular approach I mean this: All the modules and the
main program are separate, compiled Amos programs, only sharing one
graphics bank and one sound/music bank (and of course using proprietary
banks for each module).

Obviously this method has a few drawbacks. The first that springs to mind
is that with twenty expected modules the whole programme may be over 2
Meg! I do not think that at the moment this is a problem we should
concern ourselves with. There are undoubtedly methods with which we can
bring this back to a manageble amount.
Another problem is the communication between the modules. Although Amos
can start (execute) other programs, I have found as yet no way of testing
wether a program has ended or not. Also we need to find a safe way to
transfer scoring data to and from the main program (and/or to and from a
possible score keeping module).

Well, I'll wrap it up for now. Before you start commenting on my proposal
I would like to hear if the people that want to develop a game as Eddie
has proposed would like it to be this game. I feel that my game as I see
it has got a lot of potential but is still relatively easy to produce. In
the old days it was required that programmers came to work, but now with
Internet and all that one can start projects like this.
People might feel that this program will have no edge over the countless
other games that will undoubtedly be based on the next Olympics. If there
are enough programmers though (like my estimated 20), the sheer size will
be the thing we have going for us. Otherwise we can always come up with
something later. Classic Olympics for instance, set in ancient Greece
(the game might even be banned in some countries if we used the
traditional sportswear :-) ).

I really must stop talking now, because I could go on and on and on... I
am really interested to know what you all think about my (and Eddie's of
course) plan.

Oh, one last thing and then I will really shut up :-): If my proposal is
chosen as the 'joint game to be made' I will be happy to be coordinator
for the next few months. I will have to let go at a certain point, though.

...................................     Lots of people talking     ....
.       Branko Collin          .        Very few of them know         .
.                              .       That the soul of a woman       .
.   //  [e-mail]  .           Was created below          .
. \X/   [e-mail]         .                                      .
................................. Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused  ..