Plan for Chris Cole

Monster Studios announces the Attack of the '80s Clones community project, the continuing Reaction Engine SDK IRC Chat Series, and the community mailing lists.

Monster Studios is making some great progress with its community project Attack of the '80s Clones and the next build of the Reaction Engine SDK. There are lots of exciting things happening around the Reaction Engine SDK community including the continuing Reaction Engine SDK IRC Chat Series.


Attack of the '80s Clones
Monster Studios formally announces the formation of the Attack of the '80s Clones community project. Attack is a suite of ten 1980s styled arcade games following the lead of the classics like Space Invaders, Defender, Dig Dug, Asteroids, etc.

Monster Studios is producing and directing the project. As such, they will provide a unifying art direction, all art and audio assets, project management, and a marketing vehicle to get the game out there. Monster Studios is also offering 5% of the net profits for each game modules. In other words... it behooves you to write more than one game module.

The game is being written by community members using the current version of the Reaction Engine SDK. I've put together a small Attack SDK to help get programmers up and running quickly.

Attack of the '80s Clones has a secondary goal of fostering the Reaction Engine SDK community. Monster Studios wants the project to be transparent so that the community will work together to make this little game fun to play. All source code for the project will be made publicly available in a Mod SDK*, which will be included in the games release. So if players want to see how we wrote something or if they think they can improve on our design, we're encouraging them to dive into the code and mod away!

Right now Monster Studios is looking for a few dedicated folks to finish out the few remaining game modules. Maybe you're on summer break, or have a couple of extra weeks to kill during the dog-days-of-summer. Attack of the '80s Clones is a great way to put something meaningful on you're resume.

So if you're interested in joining the team, Monster Studios is accepting "resumes", and we use that term lightly. Drop us a line at: ChrisMCole@Yahoo.Com. (Yeah! Yeah! I need to get our mail server back up!)

If you'd like to learn more about the project, go to the IRC channel (described below). Feel free to ask questions, it's usually got a few Monster Minions hanging out in it.

Attack of the '80s Clones will be published on GarageGames and should be released in mid September. I'll keep the GarageGames community up-to-date on the project's progress.


Reaction Engine SDK IRC Chat Series Continues...
We had another great chat last Sunday. There was a lot of good conversation about The GUI system. We discussed its use, its power, and its simplicity. We also delved into what could be done to make it better, easier, and how to lower the barrier to entry for beginner programmers.

The real issue with The GUI system involves the somewhat cryptic movie scripts. These scripts are very powerful, with the ability to nest movies inside movies inside movies. It was universally suggested that a very easy moviemaker editor be constructed to let artist quickly and easily build movies (and menus).

Our conclusions were strategic. First we're going to add the scripting layer. This will probably be Python. Next we'll map the current movie system through the scripting layer. Then finally a GDI standalone moviemaker editor will be written. Only a subset of the full power of the movie system will be available in the editor, however, it will expose the movie script as a text file so advanced scripts can be made (and tested).

What, When, Where?
This week's chat will be Sunday June 15 at 4PM PDT (7PM Eastern Time). Our general topic will be a combination on Collisions & Borders and Sound & Music.

The Collision & Border system is a jewel in the rough. There is an incredible amount of power in this system, however it is incomplete. This system was written for Chain Reaction and as such I never implemented the plane construct. Likewise the border system uses a very simple ring data structure, which becomes inadequate when adding the plane. I'd love to finish this system off, but I'm just so swamped that I don't have time.

Sound & Music is an API I created to layer DirectSound. Now that the port to Linux and Mac is underway, I need to isolate the DirectSound layer and setup for OpenAL. This really shouldn't be too much work, but, before I get started, are there features you'd like to see added or massaged to the API?

IRC Channel Specifics
If you are unfamiliar with chats, there is an IRC channel setup on the MGONetwork. Most people use mIRC as their IRC client. If you don't have one already setup you can get a preconfigured one at www.mgonetwork.com/dl.php?id=6.
Network: www.maxgaming.net
Port: 6667
Channel: #Reaction-Engine

I think these chats are going very well. People are bringing good questions, opinions and feedback. Keep it coming.

Mailing Lists
The mailing lists are up and running now. I sent out our first newsletter last week. I'll try to release newsletter about every two weeks. Everyone is welcome to subscribe to the Reaction Engine SDK General Discussion Mailing List.

The second mailing list is dedicated for developing the RE SDK. You must obtain permission to join this mailing list. The best way to get on the developers mailing list is to hang out in the #Reaction-Engine IRC channel and let it be known that you'd like to help out with adding some features.

OK I'm Done!
That's about all I have to say this week. I'm excited about the next couple of months for Monster Studios and I'd like you all to join me on the adventure. I'm hoping to see you at the next IRC chat this Sunday.

Chris Cole
Master Monster
Monster Studios, LLC


*Source code for the Attack of the '80s Clones project does not include the source or binaries for the Reaction Engine SDK. In other words, we're not giving away the farm here! ;)