   | |  | | ![]() Personally, I think the best way start with this project is not to present ideas, but to start to get serious. Peek was right: Twilight isn't going anywhere until people start to get organized. The project needs a team, and that team is going to need a leader; a dictator who isn't afraid to make though decisions, and stand by those no matter what.
Further, laymen like myself need to be kept out of the development process; of course the team should listen to the community, but it should not be run by it. In the end, it is the team (and foremost, the Dictator)that has to decide what is right and wrong for this project, and while the community can and should propose and suggest, it should not control anything in any real manner.
The members of the team, meanwhile, would have to get dedicated to the project; each must have a job to do, and if the person cannot do his job, or do it sufficiently, he would need to be kicked out. It sounds brutal, and it is, but I believe it is only way for Twilight to ever become more than glorified "future Noctis ideas" thread.
The question is not wether or not this community should do it, but wether or not it can.
I know for a fact that nothing as orderly as a game can be created out of chaos; and letting the comunity take care of every decision is chaos. It is simply physics: if we keep inserting entropy, entropy is what we are going to get. Without order, no work will get done, while too much order isn't good either.
It is time to decide if we are really going to do this; because as it is now, I highly doubt we are ever going to see anything practical arise from the Twilight Project. Sure, we might get a few loosely-tied proof-of-concept demonstrations and tests and whatnot, but I don't think we will get a full fledged gaming experience any time soon. | |  | |  |
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| written by Ferinex on Jan 03, 2009 16:21 |
 | |  | | ![]() You forget that this project is more of something that Alex can point to to take the pressure off of himself, than something that may actually be completed in the next decade 
Also, when I read the title of this thread, I thought you were talking about the book ;-;. I think we need a new name.
On Topic Edit:
I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before, and the decision was that this needs to be taken less seriously, with no 'leader'. People are free to program for it when/if they want, and drop the source here. The only constraint was that it be programmed in C/C++ using the Irrlicht engine. Over time, as if pieces start building up, someone places them together and you have our very own Frankenstein's Monster. | |  | |  |
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 | |  | | ![]()  | Ferinex said: | | Also, when I read the title of this thread, I thought you were talking about the book ;-;. I think we need a new name. |
Oops, changing now. 
 | Ferinex said: | On Topic Edit:
I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before, and the decision was that this needs to be taken less seriously, with no 'leader'. People are free to program for it when/if they want, and drop the source here. The only constraint was that it be programmed in C/C++ using the Irrlicht engine. Over time, as if pieces start building up, someone places them together and you have our very own Frankenstein's Monster. |
Yes, we have had it before, and I guess it is right that way. I was just a bit put off by the fact that it has gone nearly a year, and we have rather little to show for it. Thanks for reminding me what it is really all about, anyway. Still would be nice to see some development now and again. | |  | |  |
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| written by Tom on Jan 04, 2009 06:10 |
 | |  | | ![]() One problem may be that no one has the time to take on such a dictatorial role, and there aren't enough programmers who have time to do serious work on this. Until there is, progress using that model won't be possible, and we'll have to rely on bits and pieces contributed during free time.
I wish I could help, but my CS classes are totally useless in this regard... | |  | |  |
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| written by Trad.a on Jan 04, 2009 21:37 |
 | |  | | ![]() Well put, Gazer. You wrote what we are all thinking, no qualms about it. Perhaps we should officially get a list of those coders willing to do work on this. Then, find a leader and a direction who can start everybody up on some tasks.
So who is willing and able among us? | |  | |  |
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  | |  | | ![]() | Stargazer said: | | The members of the team, meanwhile, would have to get dedicated to the project; each must have a job to do, and if the person cannot do his job, or do it sufficiently, he would need to be kicked out. It sounds brutal, and it is, but I believe it is only way for Twilight to ever become more than glorified "future Noctis ideas" thread. |
As was mentioned, the problem with running the development of a freeware title as though it were a commercial project is that it can remove any fun from the process, and eventually break down into everyone having negative feelings toward one another. Since no one's getting paid, there's little motivation to continue work on a project when no one's having fun or appreciating each other's work.
One problem that I think has stalled development is that of having too many rules and regulations before any significant coding has even had a chance to start. For instance, having strict formatting rules is likely to deter more people from the project than having code that's inconsistent and a little difficult to read. Parts of the code can always be rewritten or reformatted later, once there's a significant portion of the project in place. Likewise, suggestions such as having all programming built around a scripting language just complicate development, and deter even more developers from submitting any code.
I imagine that at some point, someone will get the time to put together a basic working engine, off which more can be built. A lot of us have our own unrelated projects to work on though so it won't necessarily be right away. It's good to at least continue discussion of the project though, so that it stays active in everyone's mind. | |  | |  |
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| written by Ferinex on Jan 05, 2009 01:22 |
| | | | ![]() Do we have a specific algorithm in mind for generating the galaxy?
I could probably do that <_< | | | | |
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└> last changed by Ferinex on January 05, 2009 at 04:01
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| written by Yayo on Jan 05, 2009 01:23 |
| | | | ![]() I agree with cryo.
and about peek, he has been very annoying in many ways. >: P
y. | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() | Ferinex said: | | Do we have a specific algorithm in mind for generatng the galaxy? |
I actually thought of something a couple weeks back that might potentially work extremely well. I was going to test a prototype of it in Lino, but was busy with Christmas and didn't have a chance to get to it. Now, the last few days, I've been working on something largely unrelated to this site, so I still haven't managed to get to it. Maybe later this week I'll be able to test it out though. | | | | |
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| written by Megagun on Jan 05, 2009 09:24 |
| | | | ![]() | Cryoburner said: | | Now, the last few days, I've been working on something largely unrelated to this site, |
Scorched Earth 3000, finally!!!  | | | | |
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| written by Ees33 on Jan 06, 2009 01:43 |
| | | | | Stargazer said: | | Further, laymen like myself need to be kept out of the development process; of course the team should listen to the community, but it should not be run by it. |
What do you mean by a "layman", anyway, wouldn't this team be comprised of some people selected from the community? | | | | |
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 | |  | | ![]() | Ees33 said: | | Stargazer said: | | Further, laymen like myself need to be kept out of the development process; of course the team should listen to the community, but it should not be run by it. |
What do you mean by a "layman", anyway, wouldn't this team be comprised of some people selected from the community? |
By layman, I mean people like me, who can't code our way out of a paper bag. I imagine the team would primarily need programmers, and probably also modellers, and/or sound-creators. Laymen who can't do any of those things (like me, yes) might be useful at the end, when it comes to late beta testing and documentation, but before that time, we would just be standing in the way.
But as has been said: this isn't the type of community which can organize like that; so the original idea of letting people work with whatever they want, and hope it is possible to piece it all together is our best hope for getting anything out of the project. To me, it sounds like it is going to be a rather messy collection in the end, but I guess we will see. Maybe. | |  | |  |
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| | | | ![]() | Cryoburner said: | | I actually thought of something a couple weeks back that might potentially work extremely well. I was going to test a prototype of it in Lino, but was busy with Christmas and didn't have a chance to get to it. Now, the last few days, I've been working on something largely unrelated to this site, so I still haven't managed to get to it. Maybe later this week I'll be able to test it out though. |
Bump. Prototype? : P | | | | |
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| | | | ![]() The problem with using lino for multi-developer projects is that it isn't as modular as oo-languages, and so few people can work on it at a time. | | | | |
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| written by Megagun on Jan 19, 2009 07:48 |
| | | | ![]() | Hello!  said: | | Cryoburner said: | | I actually thought of something a couple weeks back that might potentially work extremely well. I was going to test a prototype of it in Lino, but was busy with Christmas and didn't have a chance to get to it. Now, the last few days, I've been working on something largely unrelated to this site, so I still haven't managed to get to it. Maybe later this week I'll be able to test it out though. |
Bump. Prototype? : P |
After Scorched Earth 3000. | | | | |
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