Interested in helping out an open source game project?

[RootsLINUX]

Pardon the shameless self-advertisement, but I wanted to first inform my fellow Ubuntu users about a game that I am working on (http://www.allacrost.org), and see if I can't get some people interested enough to help.


Game Name
Hero of Allacrost

Brief Description
Hero of Allacrost is a single-player, 2D RPG. The game is modeled after SNES-era RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, but we have implemented our own flair of modern features and graphics. We are a well-established project and have been around since June 2004.

Target Aim
Allacrost is cross-platform and is available on all flavors of Linux, Windows, Mac OSX, FreeBSD and whatever else we can get it to compile on in the future. It is also designed to support multiple languages, from English to Portugese to Japanese. We are aiming for as broad of a target audience as possible, and hope that people from all walks can enjoy this game. This game will be of special interest to those who favor a strong gameplay and story more than realistic 3D graphics and physics. Additionally, the game is not-for-profit and open-source, licensed under the GPL.

Compensation
Because we will not collect any revenue for this game, we cannot offer you financial compensation. However, all of the current staff are quite content with putting forth their efforts into what we believe will someday be a great game to share. Your full name will appear in the game credits.

Team Structure
Our team is composed of both "staff" and "contributors". The staff are the core group that drives development, coordinate efforts, and take responsibility for getting things done. Contributors, on the other hand, are people who simply help out with small tasks when they have the bandwidth and interest. Because we are an indie project that does not compensate financially, some staff may be on extended periods of down-time when they get busy with real-life. Thus, it is quite difficult to gauge how structured our team truly is, but as far as our staff goes we have about 10 active members at the moment, with another 8 or so on leave. See the list of game credits and also the peopled involved page on our wiki for more information.

As for myself, I am the founder and lead developer of Allacrost, and I've been working on it since June 2004. I have coded a large part of the engine myself and I also write the story that the game follows. I dabble in creating artwork from time to time as well.

Technology
We don't have any requirements for artists, musicians, or developers to use any specific tools, as long as it gets the job done. Our programming staff concurrently develop on Linux, Windows, and OS X and Hero of Allacrost presently runs on all three of these platforms. The game engine for Allacrost is written from scratch. Allacrost currently uses the following languages, libraries, and APIs:


Programming Language: C++
Scripting Lanuguage: Lua (and luabind for binding C++ and Lua together)
Low-level system library: SDL
Graphics rendering library: OpenGL
Image libraries: libpng, libjpeg
Audio library: SDL_mixer (to be replaced with OpenAL and libogg/libvorbis)
Text rendering library: SDL_ttf
GUI library (for map editor only): QT4


Links

Website - http://www.allacrost.org/
Wiki - http://wiki.allacrost.org/
Forums - http://www.allacrost.org/forum
IRC channel - #allacrost at irc.freenode.net
Bug Tracker - http://bugs.allacrost.org/ (we also use this for task management)
Sourceforge Project Page - http://sourceforge.net/projects/allacrost
Subversion Repository (web-browsable) - http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/allacrost/


Media

The Game Logo (http://www.allacrost.org/media/logos/allacrost_logo_medium.jpg)


Screenshots

The Title Screen (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_02a.jpg)
Map Exploration (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_02b.jpg)
Talking to a NPC (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_02c.jpg)
Fighting a Battle (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_02d.jpg)
Character Management (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_02e.jpg)


Character Portraits

#1 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/portrait_face_claudius.png)
#2 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/portrait_face_laila.png)
#3 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/portrait_face_marcus.png)
#4 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/portrait_face_vanica.png)


Game Graphics

Sprite Sheet #1 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/sprites_map_claudius.png)
Sprite Sheet #2 (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/sprites_map_laila.png)
Town Tile Set (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/tileset_harrvah_town.png)
Battle Portraits (http://www.allacrost.org/media/art/portrait_battle_claudius.png)


Music

Confrontation, our battle theme (http://www.allacrost.org/media/music/Confrontation.ogg)


Release

Demo 0.1.0, released October 2006 (http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Hero_of_Allacrost)


-------------------------------------------


As you can see, we've made pretty good progress and the game both looks and sounds pretty great so far. We're actually really close to getting a second version of our demo released, which is going to be better than the first by leaps and bounds. Our game engine (which is written completely from scratch) is finally maturing and our integrating scripting is beginning to be used more and more as well. But, our progress in the coding region has been not so good lately, so I'm hoping we can get some more people willing to help us out.

Like many of you here, I'm disappointed with the spare amount of games available on Linux, which is the major reason why I started the Allacrost project in the first place. I am hoping that the code in this game can be reused by others to help expedite the creation of more open source games. I'm pretty proud of our engine, and our code is very well documented so its not too difficult to figure out how it works. I've taken a look at the code of a couple other open source games and it was so sloppy and undocumented that I just didn't even want to bother with it. We could also use a helping hand in various areas of development. If you're interested in helping out, you can fill out an application here (http://www.allacrost.org/?q=node/24). (We try to keep our development door only half-open, because too many cooks in the kitchen leads to disaster in a project like this).


We'd need some programmers who can make some serious contributions. We keep an ad-hoc "to-do" list in our wiki right here (http://allacrost.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Coding_Needs), and also have an active bug tracker (http://bugs.allacrost.org/), so that can give you an idea of where we need help. The game's editor needs the most work at the moment.

We have code documentation on our wiki that could really use a face lift (unfortunately, our programming team is already too busy just from working on the code). If you're wanting to learn how our code works (and help us out at the same time), or if you don't have a lot of coding experience, this might be something you'd be interested in.

Committed artists are always difficult to find and keep, so we are always in need of more artists on our team. The artwork has always lagged behind the other areas of development. Even if you think your artwork isn't up to par with what we have, don't worry. We help our new artists learn how to make art this good. :)

Our website (http://www.allacrost.org/) (which uses Drupal) needs a lot of work, as several things are broken as a result of our slick looking theme. We'd also like to add several features to the site.


Phew. Well, please share your comments/opinions/questions in this thread. I'd love to have some discussion in here about the game with interested parties. Thanks for reading. :)

[hikaricore]

Making a quick post on UGA about this and linking to this thread. ^_^

[RootsLINUX]

Wow, thanks! That banner you made looks really nice too. :)

[Artificial Intelligence]

I'll put an installation guide together for ubuntu-users (for the demo 1 release).

[hikaricore]

Wow, thanks! That banner you made looks really nice too. :)


Np, and I'm glad you like the banner.

AI floggs me if I don't make good banners, and aside from that you folks had enough good quality images scattered about your site for me to create my vision. :)

[Artificial Intelligence]

Aye, Hika gets beaten by an ugly stick :popcorn:




Hero of Allacrost Installation guide added to our Game Installation guides; http://gaming.gwos.org/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.70

[RootsLINUX]

Install guide looks great AI. :) One thing: for the launcher icon you may want to use this instead:

http://cia.vc/images/db/37/3.png

That's our official large icon logo.

[Artificial Intelligence]

okay thanks, will change it.

[slayerboy]

Awesome game...can't wait to see it develop into something really unique. Attacking different parts of the body is what already sets this game apart from all other rpgs i've played!

Awesome how-to on the UGA too!

[RootsLINUX]

Awesome game...can't wait to see it develop into something really unique. Attacking different parts of the body is what already sets this game apart from all other rpgs i've played!

Thanks for the compliment, I can't wait to play the game too. :lolflag:


You might be interesting to know that the multiple attack points feature is an idea that I came up with when I was 13 years old and wanted to become a game designer someday (I'm 24 now). The main plot of the story (a young knight given the quest to find the legendary hero to save the world) was also something I thought of when I was 13. I still have the original notebook where I wrote these ideas down. :)

[nanotube]

You might be interesting to know that the multiple attack points feature is an idea that I came up with when I was 13 years old and wanted to become a game designer someday (I'm 24 now). The main plot of the story (a young knight given the quest to find the legendary hero to save the world) was also something I thought of when I was 13. I still have the original notebook where I wrote these ideas down. :)

hehe, nice! :)

[RootsLINUX]

We released some new screenshots this morning, to soon be followed by a much improved demo of the game. Thumbnails are below; click them to view the full image. We hope you like what you see. :mrgreen:

http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03a_thumb_large.jpg (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03a.jpg) http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03b_thumb_large.jpg (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03b.jpg) http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03c_thumb_large.jpg (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03c.jpg) http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03d_thumb_large.jpg (http://www.allacrost.org/media/screenshots/screen_03d.jpg)

[Artificial Intelligence]

Very nice :)

Can you PM me when a next release is commin up, so I can add it to UGA?

[RootsLINUX]

Sure thing. I'll PM you when we have it uploaded on sourceforge (and we'll probably have Debian packages available at the same time as well).

[hikaricore]

Awesome ^_^

Were you folks able to get any more help on the project after posting?

[RootsLINUX]

No, unfortunately we didn't receive any offers to help. :( We'll be going on a serious recruitment run after we get this demo released though, so I'm sure we'll be able to pick up a few people.

[WarLocke]

Very cool. I would love to play this game. I think you have the beginnings a popular open-source game. :)

I would help out if I could, but school and life prevents me. Keep up the good work, tho!

[Nehvrook]

I'm really looking forward to trying this game out. I might wait for the next demo before I give it a go, depending on how long that is away (Do you have any more specific info on when it'll be available?)

I'd also like to help, but I'm not good with code, I'm not an artist and don't think I can really bring much to the team, so I'll just have to stick with supporting the game by playing it :P

EDIT: Hi, I downloaded the demo, and started compiling so that I could get it running. But this is the first time I've ever compiled anything. Using the HOWTO on compiling I got the the point of doing a ./configure and it tells me it can't find "GL Library" I managed to sudo apt-get install all the other packages the readme said I needed. But I don't know what to do with this GL Library as it doesn't seem to be a package available to install. Can anyone help me?
(I assume it has something to do with OpenGL but I assumed all that was working because I have World of Warcraft running fine through Wine)

[stuffradio]

from the screenshots it looks nice!

It kind of makes me want to try and help out in development, but I don't really know c++ *sigh*

[RootsLINUX]

I'm really looking forward to trying this game out. I might wait for the next demo before I give it a go, depending on how long that is away (Do you have any more specific info on when it'll be available?)


We try not to set specific dates for releases in advance, because the rate of development is perpetually unpredictable. Its very difficult managing a project where one day person X can be producing a ton of code and the next day they have a family emergency and will be MIA for two weeks. That's why we're trying to get more people involved in development, because too often we are reliant on a single person in a given area of code, and when they stop working we're all held back as a result.


EDIT: Hi, I downloaded the demo, and started compiling so that I could get it running. But this is the first time I've ever compiled anything. Using the HOWTO on compiling I got the the point of doing a ./configure and it tells me it can't find "GL Library" I managed to sudo apt-get install all the other packages the readme said I needed. But I don't know what to do with this GL Library as it doesn't seem to be a package available to install. Can anyone help me?
(I assume it has something to do with OpenGL but I assumed all that was working because I have World of Warcraft running fine through Wine)

Probably better to ask on our forums than here (I don't check this thread very often). But you probably just need the glx-dev (development) package or something since you're compiling the game from scratch. We do have a debian package of the first demo available. Go to the main website, click the "Download" tab, and it will explain to you how to retrieve and install the Debian/Ubuntu package. Should be much easier for you that way. :)

[RootsLINUX]

The demo is finally out! :popcorn: Head over to our website to try it out (I'm not sure if our Debian packages are updated yet though).

http://www.allacrost.org/

[hikaricore]

The Debian packages are not compatible with Ubuntu 7.04 The Feisty Fawn. >.<

Gamers interested in playing the new version will either have to compile it themselves, or wait until someone packages it properly for Ubuntu.

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of allacrost-demo:
allacrost-demo depends on libc6 (>= 2.5-5); however:
Version of libc6 on system is 2.5-0ubuntu14.
allacrost-demo depends on libgcc1 (>= 1:4.2-20070516); however:
Version of libgcc1 on system is 1:4.1.2-0ubuntu4.
allacrost-demo depends on libstdc++6 (>= 4.2-20070516); however:
Version of libstdc++6 on system is 4.1.2-0ubuntu4.

[RootsLINUX]

Yeah, it has something to do with luabind and libc version incompatibilities between Debian and Ubuntu, apparently. Reference this thread: http://www.allacrost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1734

[RootsLINUX]

Until someone makes an Ubuntu package for this latest release, you can try installing from source. I do half of my development for Allacrost on my Ubuntu laptop, so I know that its possible. :) The only library dependency you probably won't be able to meet through apt-get is the Luabind library, so you'll have to download that and install it from source. I have written instructions for how to do that here: http://www.allacrost.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1433


BTW: If anyone is working on an Ubuntu package for Allacrost, please let me know. You'll need to package Luabind too to get an Allacrost package, but I found a link to someone who claims to have made a working Luabind Ubuntu package already here: http://www.nabble.com/Ubuntu-package-t3442023.html

[hikaricore]

I just built a checkinstall package on feisty. lol

I can't test it until I get home from work but if it runs I may as well link it up here. ^_^

[RootsLINUX]

Our Debian packager just informed me that he also build a Debian etch package in addition to the unstable one, and that one may work for Ubuntu Feisty:

http://allacrost.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Installation_Instructions#Debian


(I haven't upgraded to Feisty yet, so I can't check). If someone could check this package and report back to us on whether it works for them or not, I'd appreciate it. :)

[hikaricore]

Well it installs.. kinda. Then happily segfaults.

I think it may be just me, I remember having to do a colour hack in the code somewhere because of my nvidia card when the last demo came out.

[RootsLINUX]

That color hack should have been fixed in this latest release. At least, during beta testing we had no complaints about it and this is the first time I've heard the game instantly seg faulting for anyone. :(

[darksong]

for me - i can only get to the menu - no mouse, can't select any of the options with the keyboard.