ubuntu-gaming team mailing list archive

[Adam Portier <ajportier@xxxxxxxxx>]

This definitely sounds like a reasonable and well focused goal. I like the
LAN party / clanning idea to get the profile of FOSS gaming up. I would be
interested in a FOSS Ubuntu clan, in games like Nexuiz and BZFlag, although
I don't know if I have the time to set aside to running such a monster. I
will try poking my LoCo into running a lan or two (any Ubuntu-dc members on
here?).

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 5:13 PM, Khalid Rashid <khalid.rashid@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Greetings all! Be warned, large amount of incoming text :-]
>
> The team Ubuntu Gaming, right now its only current goal is to
> "activism/marketing effort to organize around and prioritize the biggest
> issues with FOSS gaming and how to address them". But that goal is a hard
> nut to crack, since FOSS gaming suffers from the symptom "having too much
> that provides too little" - in other words its lacking focus. While
> diversity is all good, problem is that we don't have a lot of focus that
> brings cutting-edge awe, like compiz is doing!
>
> First of all, we need to break down the current FOSS gaming into a few
> issues that needs to be adressed.
>
> 1. Development issues.
>
> This category is most relevant for the potential coders. Things such as
> what language/which libraries to use,where to find free resources and how
> easy it is to contribute to existing engines are questions that belongs
> here.
> Can we choose an engine to cover one of each genre (FPS, RTS/TBS, RPG, etc)
> that we promote and encourage contributions towards instead of letting
> developers creating yet another engine? Unification among developers could
> make existing FOSS engines on par with commercial ones. Do the existing
> engines have good documentation thats written in human language thats
> understandable by an outsider? Also, has anyone tried Blender3D after the
> apricot project and tested its new game engine capabilities?
>
> Regarding free resources, the freedesktop games team seems to have the free
> resources covered: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Games/Resources
>
>
> 2. Packaging & distrubution
> Can backports be done quick enough to get new versions out? is not, what is
> the obstacle? As an alternative, do we have a packager that can provide
> latest versions through a PPA?
>
>
> 3. community movement
> This area covers A. "multiplayer & clanship"  and B. "contributing artwork
> and modding the game", and IMO the most critical part of these mentioned
> issues. What good is a game engine without a community after all?
>
> 3A. This requires a clan movement, community servers and PPAs that provide
> the latest version if missing from backports. Do we have a server running
> 24/7? do we have enough gamers in each area (FPS/RTS etc) to justify a
> server for each game, or should the servers capacity be scheduled for
> example a game per week which is decided by voting? Can we have a mumble
> server so we can engage in VOIP coordination simultaniously? Another fun
> thing to consider is to see if other distros have a gaming team and see if
> they're interested in wars. What better could there be to fight for the
> honour of your distro? ;-)  Also, can Also LAN parties arranged by LoCos
> could be a fun way for gamers and indirectly a subtle way for people to get
> introduced into ubuntu.
>
> 3B. There is a lot of artists, writers out there that are *assets* to us,
> if we could just use make it easy for them! The most basic obstacle here is
> the documentation - is the game well documented from the devs? can the
> community fill in gaps or make the documentation easier to understand? Do
> the have the tools to put their ideas into mods? This point can make a
> single-player game infinitly more fun and a game so infinitly more varied
> (variety here is good!). Just look at epic and how longlived unreal
> tournament 2004 was thanks to modding - you could have melee battles with
> ChaosUT, you could be a pirate on hot-air balloons with airbuccaneers and
> shoot aliens with alienswarm. Its not necsecarly DirectX 10 effects that
> makes games fun, its the playability. Just look at roguelikes or simple
> games like world of goo.
>
> With a strong community, Ubuntu (and in turn, Linux and FOSS) with gain
> momentum in order to push it further and will make it possible to reach the
> goals of 4 and 5.
>
>
>  4. (depends on #3)Using Gaming as marketing asset
> Now this strongly depends on point 3, and for this we need shiny, fun
> games. Maybe even linux exclusive games, if we're feeling evil. Here is
> where LoCo arranged LAN parties can be of great help.
>
>
> 5.  (also dependent on #3) pushing the platform to get more games from
> companies. We have awesome support from nvidia and ATI too with their
> opensource drivers, we should companies that linux gaming is viable, and
> they should base on Ubuntu. Also the possibilities where they distribute
> demos or copies of their games on a CD which also acts as a LiveCD when
> inserted at boot eliminated all problems with incompabilities in the OS. The
> stronger the community is, the bigger the influence and weight our requests
> have on commercial game developers.
>
> Note that this point may not go with the teams pure FOSS philosophy. This
> might need to be worked on it on the side independently from the group,
> unless the group is ready to change its stand on that point.
>
>
>
> Since I think with this teams goal, our focus is on 3 & 4 (and 5 for those
> interested). Lets start with the basic stuff, do we have a community clan?
> ubuntu clan existed and died a while ago. Considering timezones the most
> sane idea would be having an american, european/african and asia/oceania
> clan - if enough people in those areas are interested. We need official clan
> leaders to step forward and gain a group to form a clan. Then the clan
> should provide means to play existing FOSS games and not to stick to one
> only. But to do that, there should be a server and means to install the
> latest version of a game ;-) But that is a later problem,I think the first
> step right now is to find willing clan leaders and clan members that will be
> organized and dedicatd to the motherla-,err, brother&sisterhood of ubuntu!
>
> Second is, what engines out there are easily modded? anyone with experience
> on this field that could enlighten us?
>
> What do you think people, does this sound like a feasible goal for the
> ubuntu gaming team?
>
>  *Khalid Rashid <khalid.rashid@xxxxxxxxx>* My PGP public key ID: BFC11F5F<http://keyserver.ubuntu.com:11371/pks/lookup?search=0xCC9370B757DE41F0A9B35496A8F1137DBFC11F5F>
>
>  *"In the middle of every difficulty
> lies opportunity."* -Albert Einstein
>
>
>
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-- 
Adam Portier