Introductions.

[Ivan Safrin]

Hi everyone!

There seems to be quite a few people who joined this group. I am assuming that all of you are interested in helping develop Polycode, in which case, I want to say thank you and officially welcome you all to the project.

I would be interested to know who you all are and maybe get a sense of what your expertise areas are and just generally say hello.

There is currently no roadmap or any official milestones and the bug list on github is in terrible disarray (all things I am trying to clean up), so for now, if you would like to help with stuff, the best thing would be to just get familiar with Polycode itself.

Feel free to ask me any questions on this list (though please don't use this list for general help on using Polycode if you are not an interested developer; I try to answer general questions on the forums and on github).

Thank you!

- Ivan

[Richard Bown]

Hi Ivan,

I'll start! I'm interested in polycode because I'm attempting in some (much smaller) way to do something similar. My interest is primarily in the IDE UI and my own project (http://www.xyglo.com/friendlier/) is a gesture enabled 3D IDE for general as well as game/experience development. It's windows only in .NET/XNA for the moment. I'm playing around with many frameworks at the business end (app delivery side) while my IDE has of course its own modelling layer. I've also been having fun integrating the Kinect and the Leap to this to attempt something 'interesting' so you could say I'm more about UX than DSP. A lot of the concepts you're talking about with Polycode are familiar.

My background is in multiple languages and I've written quite a lot of C++ too having been involved in music software (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com and lately http://www.xyglo.com/rosegarden-for-windows/). I will try to have a look at polycode when I have some time and would really like to contribute in some small way if possible.

Best regards,
Richard Bown

[Alex "Ingshtrom" Hokanson]

Hello friends,

I am a young developer (23yo) with a love for video games.  I worked with Unity for about 6 months last year and tried to make a Metroid-type 2D game.  Since then, I have been experimenting with web technologies, Raspberry Pi, and Android.   I recently came back to TIGS after my game development hiatus and found some posts on Polycode.  It has always interested me as a game development platform and as an open source project (and community).

As for expertise, I would say my strong suite is in my urge for new things.  Since I am still young, I am looking for a language to call my home.  At work I use Javascript/C# and at home I have used Lua for MMO addons, among other languages that don't relate to Polycode as much.  I have messed around with C++ a little bit, but I would need to learn a lot more to be helpful as a C++ developer.  As I see myself now, I will begin familiarizing myself with Polycode with more immediate goals of writing documentation until my C++ skills are better.

-Ingshtrom

[Shial]

 Hey Ivan, Hey Guys,

I'm (22 year old) student from Poland exactly from Wroclaw University of Technology.

Parallel work as a game developer and study.
In work I'm creating games with Unity and  cocos2d.
I study computer science and in home I'm investigating new technologie.
My favorite programming language is C++ and I have almost all project made in C++

em oooo! and I got my own academic circle.
Best regards,
Szymon L.

 

[Michael Chung]

Hey guys!

I am a fresh graduate who is running a startup in stealth mode, and I have a passion for graphics.

I just loved the idea of poly code and always wanted to start working on a project like this in its infancy.

I worked on the rendering team that delivered Blackberry 10 Cascades Optimizations at Blackberry.

I will be spending most of my time learning the code base and fixing as many bugs as possible.

I am a seasoned c++ developer and I hope to work well with all of you!.

[Samuel Batista]

I'm an interface programmer working in the games industry in the US (Firaxis Games in MD). I have extensive experience using Lua and Actionscript and although my C++ is now rusty from working so much in script, that's where I started with my formal education. I'm an active contributor to the HaxeFlixel 2D engine, and I love being part of the open source movement. 

What attracted me to Polycode was the Lua based IDE, so I think I'll be interested in helping to develop and grow its feature set and keep it bug free. Currently I'm having trouble building the binary, but I already submitted an issue on github.

I'm also interested in the possibility of adding Kinect integration on Windows, since I have some cool ideas that make use of that device.

I'm also a bit of a critic and skeptic, but my intention is to get people to think about things, not to discourage or put someone down. If my tone comes across as a bit harsh, please forgive me, I'm just not very good at communicating in general :-P

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013 8:03:02 PM UTC-4, Ivan Safrin wrote:

[Isak Andersson]

Hey fellows!

I am an 18 year old guy who is currently studying my last month of school. I've been pretty much fully decided that I want to make games since I was around maybe 6 years or maybe even less. These last three years I've spent a tremendous amount of time learning about important areas of game development such as programming, 3d modeling, sound design and stuff like that.

I'm thinking of picking up Polycode as I found it to be a really interesting set of tools. Although incomplete it's really awesome to have an open source solution like this that we can use for rapid game development!

I am pretty proficient in a vast selection of programming and scripting (and markup and whatever) languages, including C++. I'm considering spending some time getting at least the basics of a 3d scene editor in to the IDE, but I would like to have some discussions about that which I think should take place in a another thread (which I'll open right after posting this!).

Looking forward to being a part of the project and seeing it evolve!

[thelas...@bravarianpawstudios.com]

Hello there!, 

Why Polycode? Well I was about to start my own game engine but I thought "sure there must be someone out there with a great game engine already". I find Polycode to be quite awesome. I mean, I love lua and ruby (ray/chingu/gosu/löve2d) but Polycode, to me, it's great and it will be even better. Plus it's open source!

I have this little company/project called Bravarian Paw Studios where I write stories and design games. I want to see them part of this reality. 

So I believe I've found a way to do it and Polycode is the answer.

Hope to be helpful to you guys,
Live long and prosper, 

@thelastinuit (aka Luis Cejudo)

[Ben Stanley]

Hello, My name is Ben Stanley - 

I am a 3D artist that is a heavy advocate of open source programs and toolsets.

I have recently discovered polycode via the Oculus Rift Forums :)

I do not know how to code however I love making outstanding art. :)

[Denis Ovod]

Hi Ivan, 

My name is Denis Ovod. I got plenty of gamedev exp esp in graphics and engine architecture/opt.

I pulled down master branch and fist I noticed - broken windows CMAKE build. (or atleast outdated BUILD.md).

I'll continue my investigation and will try contribute as much as possible.

Best regards,

Denis

[Roberto Amorim]

Hi Ivan,

My nome is Roberto, I'm 39 years old, and I've been a programmer for most of those years. I have some significant experience with C++ and Lua (but not with actual game development, alas), and I've been looking around for a good game engine I could use for a long-time project of mine - and then I found about Polycode, which is why I'm here.

My primary interest in Polycode is actually using it to develop my own game, but I'm pretty sure I'll need to modify, fix, or improve things in the Polycode base while I'm working on it, so I figured I should join the dev list to make sure I can "give back" whatever improvements/fixes I make. But I find it likely that I may get more involved with the engine itself after a while.

By the way, I have compiled the Polycode IDE successfully under Windows 7 (using Visual Studio 2010 Express SP1), and I have the release binaries uploaded to my Google Drive - so, if anyone is interested in those, please let me know and I'll share the file.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks, Ivan, for such a nice engine. I'm really impressed with what you have achieved with it and I look forward to using it a lot.

Regards,

Roberto

[Charles Wardlaw]

Hello there,

My first email seems to have been eaten, so I hope this one gets through!

I'm Charles, and I work in Toronto as a Character TD for TV and film. I spend my days working in Python (and C/C++ when necessary), although I also have experience with all of Unity's flavors of scripting, ActionScript, PHP, and the embedded scripting languages of a number of 3D packages.

I'm interested in Polycode for a game idea I have, and because I had started researching how to make an editor such as the one in the project, where Lua is used for scripting and objects in memory can be live updated.  I finally got everything built and running a day or so ago (thanks mcc!), and in playing with the demos I'm very excited for what's to come.  I'd really like to learn about how the Lua bindings work.

If I end up using Polycode for my project I might first focus on asset workflow, either adding exporters for Polycode 3D files to Maya or figuring out how to make assimp recognize .ma files (if that's legal). I'm also a Blenderhead (10 years now? I paid my bit for the open sourcing), and I know Cinema 4D, Modo, and some Houdini as well.

Thanks,

~ Charles

[Francisco Rojas]

Hi,

I'm Francisco, i have been developing games for about 6 years now for several platforms with different programming languages (C++, C#, Obj-C mainly) and different engines (Ogre, IndieLib, cocos-2dx, flash, etc). I've always wanted to write a game engine but it is too much work for only one person so i decided to contribute to one and finally i came across something i'm interested in.

I have experience programming graphics, gameplay and UI, but i can contribute to anything that can be written with C++.

Cheers.

[Benedict Hobart]

Hey all I'm Benny Hobart

I've developed game in my spare time while studying CS at Melbourne University, currently in my final year and looking to continue on into my masters. I have experience coding in C, C++, C#, Java, Python and Ruby. I have experience programming graphics, Physics, Input, Sockets, Files and gameplay. I Am really looking forward to contributing to this project for the foreseeable future!

[Joachim Meyer]

Hey Guys,

I'm a student and I work with C++ some years now. Polycode got my interest when the idea came up to create a game.
Until now I'm not that specialized to any areas - so I'll work on some points that I think they would be useful for Polycode in general and my applications specificly.

I enjoy your work and hope to be helpful myself,

Joachim

[Brett Chalupa]

Hi all,

My name is Brett! I am mostly a web application programmer (dealing with
back-end, font-end & data), but I have always had a passionate for video games.
I dabbled in game programming for about four years; however, I took a break for
the past two. I am deeply interested in helping out with Polycode and starting
to work on game development again.

Polycode seems like a solid choice for me for a few reasons:

- MIT license
- Lua and/or C++ is really appealing to me
- active GitHub project is quite nice, the project feels accessible

Some thoughts and suggestions:

- Create a Polycode GitHub organization with other repos in the org that contain
  tutorial and sample project code. (This makes it easier to find related repos,
  makes it feel more like a community IMHO.) I do not want this to come off as
  trying to take ownership away from Ivan, just a thought. :)
- Put the website as a repo on GitHub, makes it easy for anyone/everyone to
  contribute (I understand if this could be pain if the different parts of the
  website are built of different components, like the forums/docs/wiki.)
- Create a better README. The build file is great, but the README has such an
  important presence on a GitHub project. An awesome README with information
  surrounding the projects made with Polycode, some screenshots, how to get up
  and running, how to contribute, the license, etc. would all be awesome. I
  would be happy to help with this if there is no opposition to such a thing. :)

My C++ chops are not up to snuff, but that is something that I am interested in
improving. Who knows, maybe I can provide some value to the codebase. While I am
just digging into the project, I would like to help however I can. Thoughts of
how I can help:

- Help with the feedback I gave above of course!
- I could make some screencasts/video walkthroughs on using Polycode
- Writing docs is a great way to learn and get started
- Keeping the tutorials up to date

I look forward to doing whatever I can to help and making games with Polycode!
If there are immediate needs or big picture things on the horizon, point them
out and I will see what I can do.

Thank you,
Brett

On Tuesday, April 2, 2013 8:03:02 PM UTC-4, Ivan Safrin wrote:

[Alexey Shmalko]

Hi there,

My name is Alexey. I'm a young (18 years old) student at Kiev Polytechnic Institute. I study at University and work full time developing embedded OS. That's why I have a strong knowledge of C, C++, Assembly languages and all the stuff under the hood. Furthermore, I've programmed on a dozen of languages including lua, python, java etc.

I was also creating 3d models for year or two. However, I have no game development experience, so this is yet to learn.

I'm interested in Polycode mainly because I want to create a programming game using this engine. As long as project is pretty young, I expect to find and fix bugs and/or implement features. I suppose, that will be my primary way of contribution.

Best regards,

Alexey Shmalko