[prog] MMO Wograld Looking for GNU/linux developers

[Lori Nagel]

I know this list has some top quality programmers on it, as well as possibly  some relative newbies. If you are one of the best programmers to ever walk the face of the earth, this project probably would not interest you because it is to n00bish and amateur. However, considering that most projects never get a sourceforge site or a working compileable pre-alpha, I would say it is impressive.

    One thing that might interest you about the project however is that the lead designer(myself) is a woman.  Sure, it isn't the linux kernel, far from it, but linux news article after article bemoans the lack of good games in linux. Yes, we have wesnoth, dependency hunt, pingus, dependency hunt, gnome-stones, dependency hunt.  See what I mean. As far as games go, the whole philosophy of quality and meritocracy above all else needs to be rethought. How can you possibly put a level of "quality" on a piece of artwork that is supposed to evoke an emotional response, not nassessarly have the highest pixel count, or the most realistic 3d  modeling. 
    
    Finding people with even a remote understanding of things like gnu-autotools and version control who also share our philosophy of free software and user-centered has been a challenge, to say the least. I was hoping that perhaps someone here might have burning passion for games, and mmorpgs in particular. This designed to be more the standard fantasy rpg, way more standard than net hack.  It is going to be very much like Ultima Online (skill based, virtual world features) rather than other games. 
    
    With that here follows a post mostly following the format I was given on gamedev.net
    
Team Name - 
The Wograld Project Team

Project Name -  

Wograld

Brief Description - 


Project has been in production since 2006. The purpose is to develop a free software player-friendly game for GNU/Linux.  We want to make something similar to Ultima Online. (Skill system, no levels, virtual world aspects as well as pvp combat) 
This a multi-player online fantasy rpg.  Server size would ultimately depend on what bandwith could handle.  We should be able to get a lot more players than the crossfire code it is based on. The world lore encompasses four playable races, human, elf, undead and orc.  There are also nine stupidities. The stupidities are principles that the peoples of Wograld live by, but basically they are stupid. These stupidities are Masochism, Lust, Humiliation, Thievery, Skepticism, Indiscretion, Foolhardiness, Paranoia, and Vengeance. More about the races and the stupidities is explained on the website. www.wograld.org 


Target Aim -

Free Software Project

Compensation - 
There is no immediate monetary compensation, but everyone can have access to the source code whether you are on the project or not. Hopefully at some future date we may be able to sell premium services on paid servers, but if you are just doing this just to get paid don't waste your time. 

Technology - 

Programming:
- GCC
- gnu-autotools
- shell script
- CVS version control
-X11 libraries for User interface
- there is also a perl script but I don't think we will be doing much of that.
2D Sprite artwork
- GIMP
- .png files, compressed animation files
Music and sound 
- Rosegarden
- audacity
- .ogg not .mp3

The game is based on an already existing working code base known as crossfire on sourceforge. Massive changes will  need to be made such as a better user friendly interface, as well as numerous features that need to be added. (and things removed) 


Talent Needed - 
Programmers
.Must have at least 10 hours a week to spend on the project
.should not expect other team members to have to spoon feed them about things like autotools, version control etc.
.know the c programming language 
.No LUA will be allowed, don't add anything that makes the game another dependency hunt for users and developers. I don't care how "cool" a new language or library is, it is easy to lose intrest in games when you are spending all your time hunting for libraries. Any patch that adds to dependency hunt will not be accepted. 

Artists
.License artwork under the gnu/gpl or compatable license
.Don't copy work from other projects unless it is free licensed and modified to fit the game.
.Can do pixel art from a 45 degree isometric prospective

Musicians
.License music under gpl or compatable license
.Instrumental music fitting with game theme
.No screaming radio rock.
.provide source files in the form of musical notes

Quest/Script writers
.Must be willing to learn the yet to be determined scripting language
.Ideally also a programmer
.Sample of dialog/quest before  joining project
.All quests must fit the theme of the game ie no sci-fi quests in midevil fantasy land, no mentions of out of character type things. 


Team Structure - Its the cathedral not the bazaar (and that works better for games anyway) 

Lori Nagel (Jastiv) - Evil dictator no, really lead designer and project founder actually got the project up on sourceforge, added some new artwork, got the team together, did the website and game lore etc.
(gnurpgs, serpentshard) - Lead programmer. did most (all?) of the code not already in the crossfire engine, as well as also doing a bit of the new artwork.

(ritacon) - new project member (well, actually old project member) 



Website - 

www.wograld.org 
<a href="http://www.wograld.org/">Wograld</a>

Contacts - 

jastiv at yahoo dot com
you know what to do people

You may also email this list with your comments as I am subscribed to it, but not to the other linuxchix lists. 

irc Freenode nickname Jastiv, sometimes you can find me in the crossfire channel


Game design blog is here:   http://wogralddev.blogspot.com/


The blog contains a lot of wograld design information as well as insight into the struggles of starting a free software project.