SWFt - Game Framework ... Part 2

[Michael Cann]

Hi Guys!

I know I havent posted for a while about SWFt. I have been busy at work getting ready for the release of our first game also I have another project I am working on (that uses RL) that is starting to come together and I promised myself I would spend some more time on that.

So I am hoping to pickup SWFt again now and take it to the next level, however I have some points to discuss first.

1. License

I mentioned in the other (beasty) thread that the nasty license issue is all sorted and the project is free to be totally open source without my employers restrictions :) I hope I havent annoyed everyone too much with that whole palaver and hope that you can forgive me!

2. Mailing List

I am extremely concious about spamming this list with posts that aren't strictly related to RL and although Joel and others have said its fine to post I still worry about filling up peoples inboxes with mails they don't really care about. Also I have been receiving questions and suggestions off-list which I think would be better answered being posted to a larger group in a threaded manner.

So for these reasons I have setup the SWFt Framework google group: http://groups.google.com/group/swft-framework for discussions related to the project. I have currently set it so that anyone can join, should it spam up however ill change it.

3. Direction

This one is abit tricky for me as im not sure exactly how to phrase it. When I originally mailed Stray with my idea for the project I was just expecting a little advice on whether it would even be possible to make a RL based game framework. Since then however, with all the excellent discussions and contributions from everyone, im wondering which direction this project should go in. 

Should it just be a very light weight set of classes like RL, that indicate how the game should be wired up, or should it be more like PBE / Flixel / FlashPunk and provide a full-blown suite of engine functionality? The problem with being very lightweight is that it is difficult to provide examples of how the framework should be used without some sort of game engine there to power them.

Joel mentioned something the other day that got me thinking.. I wonder if its possible to have SWFt as a lightweight framework, then have adaptors that allow it to plug into some of the popular game engines out there such as PBE / Flixel etc. This would mean all the heavyweight game-related stuff could be carried out by those engines leaving Swft to concentrate on a small knot of functionality. This would mean there is less code to develop and maintain. It also would reduce the learning curve for people already familiar with the existing engines. It's just a thought however, im not even sure its possible, as there are likely too many fundamental differences.

4. Logo

Lastly, I asked our very talented artist at work for a favour, to see if he could bash out a quick logo for the project. He did one and knocked out a few variations, which do you like?

Cheers,  

--
Mike Cann
http://www.mikecann.co.uk/
http://www.artificialgames.co.uk/

[Michael Cann]

Oh BTW, if you cant see that mail (no HTML email), the images are here too: http://swft-framework.googlegroups.com/web/swft_logos.png?gsc=deBI0wsAAABpfdbRpdNYTr6bDAD0_qYA

[Shaun Smith]

The logos look cool - hard to pick a favourite though! Haven't had much time to think about SWFt myself, but have joined the new discussion group and look forward to seeing things progress :)

<swft_logos_smaller.png>

Cheers,  

--
Mike Cann
http://www.mikecann.co.uk/
http://www.artificialgames.co.uk/

--
Mike Cann
http://www.mikecann.co.uk/
http://www.artificialgames.co.uk/

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[eidiot]

I like the first one :)

2010/6/12 Shaun Smith <dar...@gmail.com>

[Neil Manuell]

why choose one, they are all essentially variations on a theme, and having a collection ensures that any one displaying a badge can choose the one that goes best with their site

[Neil Manuell]

re direction.

I think joel def has the idea.

A light weight toolkit as the core is the thing, as they can be mixed and matched with other libs, and gives flexibility. It also keeps it agile, as you'll be working for a simple low featured first release, that can be built up by the community.