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Mon Mar 24 06:29:06 EDT 2008


is to bring standard board/card games to the OLPC, with a few modified<br>
features that utilize the unique XO hardware and mesh network system,<br>
as well as have some kind of educational element, be it in teaching<br>
the game itself, or in terms of being written using very scalable OO<br>
code.<br>
<br>
What I am a bit unclear about is what exactly is unique about the<br>
project: many of these games are already available in python and<br>
pygame (which from what I have been able to tell is the main/preferred<br>
game development API), so just getting the games up and running would<br>
probably be more of a porting job than anything else, with the<br>
additional features such as added network communication and game<br>
recording/playback perhaps, along with any additional AI.<br>
<br>
This leads me to wonder what the central aspect of this project is:<br>
- Is it simply getting a whole bunch of games up and running? (from<br>
reading through the <a href="mailto:games at lists.laptop.org">games at lists.laptop.org</a> archives that doesn&#39;t sound<br>
to be right)<br>
- Is the more important element being the creation of a more general<br>
&quot;framework&quot;, and if so, how general would really be useful? From<br>
personal experience programming games in Java, a too-vague top-down<br>
approach really doesn&#39;t help anyone, and even similar games quickly<br>
resist useful OO structure. &nbsp;Realistically, creating such a framework<br>
would not obviously make future game development of anything other<br>
than relatively minor rules variations &quot;easy&quot;. &nbsp;This is not to say<br>
that it can&#39;t be done, I am just wondering if the idea could be<br>
clarified a bit more.<br>
- The other issue that I was wondering about was who is the future<br>
game development targeted to? Future dedicated developers, or the XO<br>
recipients themselves? I ask this b/c, again, from experience, I<br>
taught myself to program while sitting in math class and messing<br>
around with the games on my TI-83+. &nbsp;The BASIC language and<br>
straightforward syntax really got me excited about being able to write<br>
my own games, and if that is the primary aim of the project, then<br>
perhaps this game framework would be part of a larger project of<br>
creating a very simple programming development (a la BASIC), and these<br>
games would serve as full-fledged examples to play around with and<br>
modify.<br>
<br>
I apologize for the long-windedness, I have simply given this project<br>
a lot of thought, and I was hoping to get a bit more direction before<br>
submitting my proposal.<br>
<br>
Thanks for your help.<br>
<br>
-Ben C<br>
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