Hi,
I'm regarding the developement of OpenClonk since the openging of the forum and in the moment, we have the following Situation:
- 6 commits in the last week, 26 commits last month but 1300 commits in one year (http://hg.openclonk.org/openclonk/)
- Unfixed bugs like deleting files in Game Menu, Ringmenu, Walking to the border of the map etc.
- nearly no playable scenarios
- a lot of models made in the Art forum but only a few were really used
- a lot of ideas, but most of them forgotten
- a community that charges OC as "unclonky"
- disputable conditions for pushing a commit of someone who has no write access
- too much committers but no one reliable for some special thing
- (and a language that is not my mother tongue)
and some other things.
So I will ask: how will OC go on? Will there be a renaissance? Will there be some corrections in the view of some things or will it go on like it ever was?
What do you think is the future?
I'm regarding the developement of OpenClonk since the openging of the forum and in the moment, we have the following Situation:
- 6 commits in the last week, 26 commits last month but 1300 commits in one year (http://hg.openclonk.org/openclonk/)
- Unfixed bugs like deleting files in Game Menu, Ringmenu, Walking to the border of the map etc.
- nearly no playable scenarios
- a lot of models made in the Art forum but only a few were really used
- a lot of ideas, but most of them forgotten
- a community that charges OC as "unclonky"
- disputable conditions for pushing a commit of someone who has no write access
- too much committers but no one reliable for some special thing
- (and a language that is not my mother tongue)
and some other things.
So I will ask: how will OC go on? Will there be a renaissance? Will there be some corrections in the view of some things or will it go on like it ever was?
What do you think is the future?
You know, for an open-source project it's perfectly normal to work in bursts. When someone does something great, others jump the bandwagon and start contributing. This feeds back to build a giant motivation loop, until the local design space(s) are exhausted and activity dies down. Most likely also because people realize that they neglected other priorities in the meantime. And that's not even counting real-life time issues.
But going through some of your points:
As long as they complain, they care, and that's the important part. We can't be that far off.
I'm all for granting write access to whomever seems trustworthy enough. Distributed repositories would be great, but they seem to be even worse than in-repos branch management.
And yeah, we really should have some kind of explicit list of maintainers. For some cases, that's straightforward "who wrote it" - like that I'm obviously the one to ask about network issues or StdCompiler stuff. For others, it might get more complicated. But having newbies try-and-error their way through the engine isn't really what we want.
But going through some of your points:
> - a community that charges OC as "unclonky"
As long as they complain, they care, and that's the important part. We can't be that far off.
> - disputable conditions for pushing a commit of someone who has no write access
I'm all for granting write access to whomever seems trustworthy enough. Distributed repositories would be great, but they seem to be even worse than in-repos branch management.
> - too much committers but no one reliable for some special thing
And yeah, we really should have some kind of explicit list of maintainers. For some cases, that's straightforward "who wrote it" - like that I'm obviously the one to ask about network issues or StdCompiler stuff. For others, it might get more complicated. But having newbies try-and-error their way through the engine isn't really what we want.
Dead? We're summing up the game for a release. Instead of adding new stuff this is a time for bugfixes and adjusting current items. Of course, that's boring, so people aren't as motivated to do it.
Considering every previous game was a reincarnation of the previous, this is expected... is it the art style you're referring to?
Well, that's not especially true. Much of the 3D art we've created has been implemented. Things like animals (or other things which are to be used, just not added in game yet) haven't, because that's to be created for a future release.
>a community that charges OC as "unclonky"
Considering every previous game was a reincarnation of the previous, this is expected... is it the art style you're referring to?
>a lot of models made in the Art forum but only a few were really used
Well, that's not especially true. Much of the 3D art we've created has been implemented. Things like animals (or other things which are to be used, just not added in game yet) haven't, because that's to be created for a future release.
> Considering every previous game was a reincarnation of the previous, this is expected... is it the art style you're referring to?
There have been complaints in the German forums especially. However there also have been complaints when GWE introduced 32 bit graphics, when the Clonk's graphics were rendered instead of hand-drawn or when the fullscreen menu was introduced, but these things are accepted nowadays as well. I guess it's the same here. There will always be complaints when changing stuff. You can't just please everyone.
>is it the art style you're referring to?
for me, clonk is not a game, it's a game engine.
And for that reason, my possibilities in clonk are not limited but it's better, to keep an original graphic style in the "Objects" pack to not break with traditions. That can persuade the community better than some Peter Lustig like avatar with a shovel on his back.
I second what CK said. The graphics style from CE-CR was so different from Clonk4; saying the graphics style makes clonk less clonky isn't a valid argument.
>The graphics style from CE-CR was so different from Clonk4
but the clonk stayed a fat clumsy person with a <playercolor> shirt.
The only difference is that the clonk is rendered instead of drawn and the jump animation differs.
>but the clonk stayed a fat clumsy person with a <playercolor> shirt.
Yes, the clonk stayed the same, along with the rest of the game. With changes so dramatic in OpenClonk, can you really expect the cute looking unitard wearing clonk to stay the same? It would look terribly out of place with the graphics style.
Hm, has anybody tried to make the unitard look realistic? As if the Clonk was wearing fabric shirt and trousers of the same color, like an athlete might wear for team sports? The reasons athletes wear jerseys really do apply to Clonk. We actually might want to take an idea from common jerseys and have different colors for trousers and shirts.
As someone who has been on the Clonk team for something like 10 years, I can tell you: Relax. Things have been much worse and Clonk has managed to survive so far.
It's summer on the Northern hemisphere right now. People spend more of their energy outside, rather than coding and arguing about a video game.
Also, every major change so far has lead to a major outcry of "unclonky".
It's summer on the Northern hemisphere right now. People spend more of their energy outside, rather than coding and arguing about a video game.
Also, every major change so far has lead to a major outcry of "unclonky".
So true :D
There's a lack of coding during summer?!
There is a lack of inspiration :-)
Can we lock this topic? This is rubbish, really.
you want to lock the last active thread at this forum?
Alright, people, that's it. If we do not want to end up with this whole topic moved to the "Junk" section, better end this kind of discussion for good.
On behalf of at least half of the community I would venture to lock the topic. If anyone disagrees with this decision, sorry in advance.
On behalf of at least half of the community I would venture to lock the topic. If anyone disagrees with this decision, sorry in advance.
Powered by mwForum 2.29.7 © 1999-2015 Markus Wichitill