Posted by aaron on March 8, 2011 at 4:30am
If you're in Chicago this week, make sure to come to the OSGameCon 2011 BOF planned for Thursday afternoon at 2:15, in the Colorado room! We're going to work out the details for the First Annual Drupal Open Source Game Contest! If you can't come, then make sure you let your thoughts known here.
http://chicago2011.drupal.org/conference/bof/drupal-games-osgamecon-2011
Comments
great idea
This will give a push for people to finally get those game projects done!
The BOF just finished - was a
The BOF just finished - was a great start.
One question that didn't get asked: where will these games be staged or coded?
Is putting in-progress/in-development code in a d.o sandbox or module considered "releasing it"? My general feeling is "no" because the content of the game - the images, the data, etc. - would likely not be included in git, and there's no public marketing or "ready to install!" going on with in-development code. If it IS considered a "release", then we'd be looking at having all the code in a local/private VCS (or none at all) until the actual time of judging.
What is required for judging? A workable game online (where a judge can click click click), a workable codebase (which a judge would have to install/support/pre-fill with data)? One of? Both of?
Can we use drupal gardens for
Can we use drupal gardens for this?
I don't know much about
I don't know much about Drupal Gardens - it allows you to deploy your own custom code?
I have no qualms, at all, about /where/ a game is deployed, as long as it's up for the entire judging period and isn't publicly available in a playable state (save for private beta testing, of course) before said period starts. What we might need to decide is: is "just code" a "playable state"? If it is, we can't use public code repositories (like d.o) during development.
I don't know either
I was hoping someone more familiar with Drupal Gardens would be able to say more. I thought of this only because Acquia was running a promotion to get a free site on Drupal Gardens. It seemed like a good Drupal sandbox for the games, as long as they were hidden from the public, of course.
I'll look into it and let you know what the limitations are.
I'm assuming, no, based on
I'm assuming, no, based on their FAQ: "Can I use my own theme? ... So while you can't upload an existing theme …" I would guess that if one can't upload a theme, one can't also upload custom modules. I suspect one could make some hypertext games using prebuilt modules (treasure hunt, choose your own adventures, etc.), but I'm not entirely sure how one would "release" the "source code" to such a beast, since it'd "just" be a configuration of existing modules and nodes/content.
I'm glad you're asking the
I'm glad you're asking the hard questions. I agree that putting in-progress/in-dev code in a d.o repository is not considered "releasing it" for the same reasons you state.
For judging, I'd say both should be required, although I would leave it to judges how to judge; some people may be more interested in a game's playability, whereas others might be more interested in how it's done. And I wouldn't expect everyone to have to be qualified to offer "drupal tough love" on a module in order to judge it.
Basically, we should do what's most fun for people, if we want this to succeed.
Aaron Winborn
Drupal Multimedia (my book, available now!)
AaronWinborn.com
Advomatic
This is great!
Not being at DrupalCon means I had no idea this was going on so thank you, Aaron, for posting it here.
This is really exciting stuff! I was hoping to undertake a similar game project, built entirely in Drupal, for fun this year & now I see there's a competition. How cool is that?
Thank you for the link to the site, Aaron. I couldn't find a link to signup for a newsletter or something similar in order to stay connected, though. Is it simply enough to follow the "Games" group as I've been doing all along?
Thx again, Aaron. This is great (did I say that already?)!!
Miguel Hernandez - www.migshouse.com
Founder & CEO - The OpenMindz Group
Writer- Linux Journal & TechZulu
For now, yep - keep following
For now, yep - keep following the Games group and you'll stay up to date on everything relevant.