Libre games jam - a proposal

[Paul Sutton]

Hi all

Following on from the thread

LibreJam - FSF* should host a Libre Game development tournament!

I think the general consensus is, that this is a good idea.   The 
question is, how do we pull this off.

Firstly I appreciate the tech team are busy :)

I would suggest putting together some infrastructure first, so that 
maybe there is a specific mailing list for this project.

We need to work out what the aims are,  so lets say we want to take 
someone (any age) who is using scratch, they want to either

1. Write their own games
2. Help maintain / contribute to existing free software games

We need to try and help them along that path.

Assuming people are pretty good with Scratch,  then we can take that as 
a starting point.

1. I think a general rule is that you should let the project dictate 
what you use. So by that python, love2d, etc are good for 2d games, 
where as GoDot, castle engines are designed for 3d games.

I don't think 3d games in python would work.

Making games

2.  Help people learn the basics, so find some tutorials to teach 
writing games in python for example

http://inventwithpython.com/#scratch

is perhaps a good starting point.


Contributing to games

Start simple,  Rocks n diamonds I think is free software, just that some 
level sets are not.   This is fine just install the free level sets.

Start by making levels and contributing them back to the project. This 
is not about self promotion but I have made lots of videos on this topic.

https://personaljournal.ca/rocksanddiamonds/

So hopefully they are helpful,  ideally you need someone who you can 
meet face to face to test them,  make sure they are playable,  identify 
any major problems (just as you would with writing / testing software).

This also teaches collaboration,  if rename levels in such a way when 
uploaded to git repository they all sit nicely together.  This can be 
done if you create levels 1-10 in the game and someone else creates 
levels 11-20,   when merged you end up with 20 levels.

What you also learn here is collaboration, communication team work etc

Contributing to games 2

Perhaps a step up from the above is to make mods for Minetest, again 
lots of info on this, so it is a case of finding a team to you.

I have tried to collate information in to a blog post

https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/minetest-foss-minecraft-clone

I appreciate that I have used the term FOSS which is depreciated, it is 
a blog post, can be reposted with a better title / content.

Writing 2d games is then perhaps the next step
then creating levels for 3d games (say assault cube) can we write mods 
for the game, if so how.

Finally then move on to 3d games (if people want to),  perhaps a step 
before that is to cover programs such as blender to learn about 3d 
graphics, lighting, etc and using x,y,z axis

We have all the free software tools we need for this

git/gitlab
etherpads
bigbluebutton / jitsi
IRC, mailing lists
We could use a shared nextcloud for the rocksndiamonds levels, and other 
resources.   If people are not very confident with git. (Lets not put 
barriers in place) bend any barriers, so that eventually people can be 
confident with tools like git.

Perhaps make lots of use of Decentralised platforms too (helps to 
promote) for example mastodon, peertube etc.

If people see positive activity on these platforms it encourages their use.

I think suggesting people create a specific e-mail for lists using for 
example disroot (which then gives you other tools like nextcloud,  pads 
etc) or protonmail also helps keep your game creation activities 
seperate, it also means your normal inbox doesn't get swamped with 
messages.

People such as the https://techlearningcollective.com/ who did a talk at 
Libreplanet,  could also be promoted to provide some of the training.

Perhaps set up the infrastructure, then launch the idea at LibrePlanet, 
 so we can get people on board, to help at least, then figure out what 
we are able to teach people to get them started.

Hardware such as the Raspberry Pi may not be fully RYF BUT it is very 
popular, very common and the support structure is there,   this is 
important if things go wrong they can usually find someone locally who 
can help.    The RYF issue becomes a talking / education point at least.

Just a few thoughts


Paul



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Paul Sutton, Cert Cont Sci (Open)
https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/
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