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[GlyphGryph]

Come a week and a half from now, I'm likely to be unemployed (again. The joys of contract work). I see this as an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while - get to work creating a web-based game closely closely mimicking LCS.

While I've got the technical chops to get it pretty close with the tech I've used before and enough time, this will also be an excuse for me to sink my teeth into HTML 5.

But I do have other obligations, and moreso than the tech I need more experience working on projects with others, so I'd much rather do this as part of a team than unilaterally. I'd also like the project to move a bit faster than one person can pull off. And I don't really have much experience with open source stuff or project management.

Left to my own devices, I'd probably end up doing the project with Rails/HTML5 stuff, but I'd honestly be okay with most anything.

Anyone interested?

[Rolan7]

Sounds fun.  I don't know how much help I'd be, since I've never tried Ruby before.  I do have some good PHP/MySQL experience, and my job involves obscure javascript.  Said job is what's preventing me from making headway on personal projects.  I was also pretty good with java - three years ago.

Basically, I'd like to help out, but I realistically can't promise anything.

[GlyphGryph]

Well, I'm halfway decent at PHP as well so we could do it in that, and javascript (which we will need) is definitely my weakness, so having someone to round that out would be nice.

The time thing though, thats always the real killer.

[Innominate]

May I ask how you intend to differentiate it from the current version of LCS? Will it be multiplayer, or peripherally multiplayer (like Spore taking designs from other singleplayer worlds to populate new ones you discover)? Will it take advantage of Ruby's greater flexbility to add better modding support (I don't know much about Ruby, but I assume there's some way to define code units to interact with the main program and link them dynamically)? Maybe everyone can wear funny hats?

[GlyphGryph]

While I have some ideas for improvement, but for now I was hoping for a mostly straight port at the get go, except with an improved/modified interface and management system and, obviously, the ability to log into and play your games from anywhere.

Maybe I should make a post about this down in Creative Projects as well...

[Yannanth]

.

[GlyphGryph]

Uh... why the random emphasis? It's kind of creepy...

[Yannanth]

.

[GlyphGryph]

Since this forum isn't frequented that often, should I post this in the "creative projects" forum as well? Or would that be a faux paus?

Also, what changes WOULD people like to see, if I were to change things?

[Jonathan S. Fox]

I only moderate the curses subforum, not creative projects, but it doesn't strike me as a faux pas to post there as well, since it's very on-topic in both places. You could do a courtesy link back to this thread and acknowledge also posting in Curses if you're worried about it.

The web game port sounds cool, but I'm not able to provide any help other than endorsing the idea as a good one.

[GlyphGryph]

Thanks. ^_^

I don't actually know if its okay with the terms of the license for the game though. I mean, I know the code of the game is open to modifying and stuff now, but I don't know if I'm just allowed to yank stuff and use it or what. I don't know if I'm allowed to accept donations at some point (though I'd probably send most of them to Toady), or anything really. I've sent Toady a message, and hopefully he responds soon.

But your endorsement of the idea as a good one means a lot to me.

Now, off to cross post!

[Alexhans]

The problem I see with an LCS port is that you'll have to dive into the messy LCS code to work out the mechanics.

I don't know how much experience do you have with the languages you plan to use but, depending on it, you might wanna test those with a really simple LCS mockup and go from there once you know what's the deal. 

Good luck.

Don't wait for assistance to start.  It's always better to show you're capable of doing something so as to really trigger interest.  I've used jquery here and there and have grown very fond of it and using jqueryUI seems like an interesting idea to create a pleasant experience.

[GlyphGryph]

Oh, I dont plan on waiting for assistance. Just giving people time to mull it over - I know until I have SOME sort of product people won't want to jump on. But I cant start until next week or the week after - then I'm really, hopefully, going to get rolling.

Also, I'm not sure if I'll be mirroring the LCS mechanics exactly, so much as come up with something similar, but I WILL have to probably dice into the code again (I've looked at it a bit, but not enough to actually figure much of it out)

[Jonathan S. Fox]

You can yank stuff from the source code, but any project you use that yanked stuff in must then be distributed for free under the GPL license, and you are required to release the source code for your project as well. You can still accept donations, but you can never charge people for the right to play the game.

[GlyphGryph]

Now, does that just cover the code, or does it cover the creative aspects as well?

For example, if the code is completely from scratch and I'm just mimicking the behaviours and language and trappings thereof, is that all still the same?

And how do I have to distribute it? Have a public repository somewhere? Be willing to distribute it manually upon request? So on and so forth.