[OLPC-Games] Treenimation: help wanted

Edward Cherlin echerlin at gmail.com
Tue Feb 26 12:46:22 EST 2008


Copied to Bay Area Python Interest group. I'll talk to the Hip-Hop
Chess Federation, too, and to people I know in the game industry.

On Tue, Feb 26, 2008 at 7:09 AM, Mike Hahn <mike at treenimation.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>  As a newcomer to the Linux/Python world, I am seeking to team up with an
>  experienced Python programmer, preferably someone who knows Pygame. If
>  you're interested, please visit http://www.treenimation.net and click on
>  Help Wanted (under Miscellaneous). Treenimation is a software tool enabling
>  you to create multiplayer board games, features a built-in scripting
>  language called Treescript, and runs on both Windows and Linux platforms.
>
>  Regards,
>  Mike Hahn

The home page says , "Treenimation Builder (which is not yet
implemented) runs on both Windows and Linux." There seems to be a
problem with that statement.

The gamedemos page says, "All of the games except Scramble and Bridge
Deluxe demonstrate the user interface of a minimally coded (or
completely codeless) Treenimation board game. There is little or no
move validation (checking for illegal moves), no playing against the
computer, and of course these demos are not web-enabled (single
computer only). Both the Scramble and Bridge Deluxe demos have move
validation but no playing against the computer."

What would it take to implement collaboration in the Sugar manner, so
that two or more XO users can play a game together, with any number of
observers?

I would like to see implementations of African board games such as
owari and mlabalaba, Chinese/Korean/Japanese flower card (hanafuda)
games, and many others. There are lots of good ideas on the Games page
in the Wiki.

Is it possible in Treenimation and Treescript to implement the Superko
rule in some versions of go/weiqi/baduk, which forbids repetition of
an earlier board position? Can we create a UI that allows the user to
choose from the various rule options? Can Treenimation track previous
positions in chess, to implement the three repetitions rule for
claiming a draw? Or the rule against castling if either the King or
the Rook has previously moved?

Chess with move validation would be perfect for kriegspiel. This is
chess where the players see only their own pieces (fog of war), and
have to locate enemy pieces by attempting illegal moves. People don't
play kriegspiel over the board much, partly because it requires a
referee.

-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay


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