   Fallout-like 2D RPG engine recruiting engine, editor & gfx coders *updated 2006/20/5*
Team name:FIFE developing team.Project name:FIFE - Flexible Isometric Fallout(-like) Engine.Brief description:Just like the name of our project suggests we work on a new open source engine for isometric RPGs. The engine started as a Fallout-only project but we recognized very fast that it offers the potential to be used as a general 2d ISO engine for the development of cross platform RPGs.The engine supports the assets of the original Fallout games but it is also suitable for creating even totally new 2D RPGs. We are focusing on the creation of an engine itself but will bundle it with an example mod; so modders have a starting point to create their own games based on our engine. Since we do not focus on the creation of a complete game we will be working on comfortable and easy-to-use editing tools. Engine and editor are planned to run on all flavours of Linux, Win32 and MacOSX. The FIFE project is about 7 months in development now and we have released two public pre-alpha versions of the engine on sourceforge / freshmeat in January 2006.Target aim:Open source GPL v2.0; non-profitCompensation:We are confident that advanced coders will find it quite exciting to work on the creation and the designing of a whole engine with other experienced and passionate open source coders. But as we're a non-profit project the only thing we can provide is a way to express your love for open source software and the satisfying feeling to work on an ambitious project.Technology:Linux, Windows, MacOSXC++, Boost librarySDL, OpenGL (optional)Warning:It seems that we should have stated this earlier as a lot of coders seem to be overstrained with our style of coding. That is not meant to sound rude but the creation of a whole engine is a very complicated large-scale project that needs a different working approach compared to smaller projects. As our former lead coder heavily relied on advanced programming techniques we are searching for quite experienced C++ coders that are searching for a challenging project to work on. If you're not familiar with programming design patterns like the GoF singleton or the factory: this project is not for you.The best way to find out if you want to take the challenge, is to have a look at our current code base. You can either get the most recent code from our Subversion repository or download a fresh engine snapshot from our homepage (if you're not familiar with SVN yet or don't have the needed tools installed).SVN sourcecode checkout:Quote:svn co https://svn1.cvsdude.com/fife/engine/trunk/coreHTTP sourcecode download:FIFE 2006.1 src packageTalent needed:Engine core designer & coder - position(s) openOur former lead coder stepped down from his position because he felt burned out and wanted to focus on his real-life activities. After we had realized how problematic it is to heavily rely on a single person when it comes to the engine core design, we decided to search for 2-3 core developers instead of going for a single lead coder. We were able to fill one of the core coder positions with Phoku who does a great job improving the engine. However we don't want to end up with the same problems as before so we're still in the need to find one (or even better: two or more) engine core developer(s) to disburden Phoku and speed up the development. We build on the existing code so it is not comparable to starting a project from scratch. The project organization structure encompasses bi-weekly IRC meetings, a development wiki, a public Subversion sourcecode repository and a quite active mailing list, so we are just lacking developers to use this basis ;-)Advanced C++ skills and engine design knowledge are required for this position as you will need to make design decision about the architecture of the engine. Experience with SDL, OpenGL or QT would be really appreciated but isn't a must. It is far more important that we find someone who can invest a serious amount of time to improve the engine design and give the development a direction.Editor coder - position openWe have finally found an experienced developer who works on our editor FIFEdit now and redesigns it. In addition to this editor core coder we have another developer who is working on the editor and helps us to implement the designed features. However we're still searching for an additional editor developer who supports our two other editor coders with the implementation.The goal of the editor is to provide a modding tool that works very close together with the engine itself so we can ensure that there is no unneeded code duplication. We are using the open source cross platform RAD library Qt4.0 for the editor.The new editor core coder works on the basic concepts and also writes the technical design documents for the editor. You won't need to help out in this field by actively contributing to the design documents; however you should be able to understand the basic concepts of engine design.We're searching for experienced C++ developers which want to take the challenge and work in a growing ambitious team. No advanced engine design knowledge needed!You can find a first draft of the editor design document here:http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFEdit_Design_DocumentGFX / OpenGL coder - position openWe're searching for a gfx expert who can help us optimizing our renderers and works on all parts of gfx coding. As our coders are quite familar with SDL but only have a very basic OpenGL knowledge, your job will be to work on the OpenGL renderer most of the time.We're currently working on a concept for the lighting system of the engine; therefore knowledge in this special area of gfx coding would be highly appreciated. Your task would be to work out a concept for the mapview lighting that works with the SDL and the OpenGL renderbackend; we'll probably use different lighting concepts for each one as OpenGL gives you great possibilities to speed things up. Advanced OpenGL and decent C++ experience needed; no engine design knowledge required!Team structure:Phoku - engine core designer & coderstro - engine core designer & coderismarc - editor core designer & coderSkybound - XMLmaps & script integration developer - founding memberCheesesucker - editor developerRogerWilco - troubleshooter & sound developer - founding memberkefrens - gfx engine developerArron - win32 developerGIR - script integration developerchewie - mod developer & wiki maintainer - founding membermvBarracuda - project manager - founding memberMy job as project manager is to keep the team together and to ensure that the communication structure inside the team works so everyone enjoys working on the project. Among other things I'm responsible for the news updates @ FIFEngine.de and I organize our bi-weekly irc meetings.Website:HomepageDevelopment wikiGetting started guide for interested developersDoxygen code documentationDesign documentsCurrent release:FIFE 2006.1 pre-alpha Win32Contacts:IRC channel: irc2.beyondirc.net | port: 6662 | #fifeeMail: mvBarracuda@web.deicq: UIN -> 98600423Important:You can either use our free XMLmaps with the engine or access the original Fallout maps with it. If you want to use the Fallout maps you will need a legit copy of Fallout 1 or 2. The FO 1/2 maps are far more advanced compared to our own XMLmaps; basically we just set some placeholder textures on them to have something that lets you start the engine without having to own Fallout. So if you want to experience the full beauty: give the Fallout maps a go.To give you an impression about the status of the project we took sample screenshots of the current release (using the Fallout maps):Feedback:Feel free to add whatever feedback you like :-) Critics will help us to improve the project.[Edited by - mvBarracuda on May 20, 2006 5:46:04 AM]
  As always, just dropping in to give my support to this project.  They've been doing a great job, and I'm sure participation in this project would make a good portfolio piece for any programmers able to handle the task - if you think you might be able to do it, I'd highly encourage anyone to check it out.   ;  I continue to anticipate what comes out of this project. I hope that we can see a lot of unique and fun cross-platform iso RPGs in the next few years as a result of this engine. [smile] You guys also seem to be very well organized and coordianted, which I think is the reason that most of these types of projects fail.I checked out the code (from the doxygen documentation) and it is very easy to read/understand. Although there does seem to be a considerable lack of comments in the ~20 or so files I looked through. [sad] But keep up the good work! I hope you find someone well suited to your needs and your group. [grin]   ;Quote:Original post by RootsI checked out the code (from the doxygen documentation) and it is very easy to read/understand. Although there does seem to be a considerable lack of comments in the ~20 or so files I looked through. [sad] But keep up the good work! I hope you find someone well suited to your needs and your group. [grin]Thx for the kind words :-)I'm also following Hero of Allacrost as it seems to be a very promising RPG project. We know that the lack of documentation is a problem and we're working on it. The posted job of the "core designer & coder" is surely the most challenging position on the team but I encourage everyone to take a look at our code.Even if you think that your coding knowledge does not meet the requirements for this position that's no problem. We're still searching for developers who "just" want to work on specific small aspects instead of working on the engine core.Although we're still hoping that we can fill our core coder positions with the help of this post too. ;-)   ;  Okay, we kind of found our first new engine core coder :-)He's reworking the coding standards docs ATM and ensure that our future code (and the old one of course) will be better commented. We're trying to work out a solid feature list ATM to be able to improve our design document which is pretty much a draft and lacking in several aspects. As soon as the feature list is done and the design document rewritten, we'll work out a serious roadmap. I'm feeling that the project is now moving into the right direction but we'll definately need more experienced developers for the whole redesign process that takes place now.So we're still searching for additional engine core developers to have a stable  basis and don't depend on single persons anymore.   ;  Any coder worth his salt looking for a project should deffinatly give this one a shot. In my opinion, it looks like it has a ton of potential! I'd join you guys, but I'm C# and wound up with my own stuff at the moment.   ;Quote:Original post by mvBarracudaHe's reworking the coding standards docs ATM and ensure that our future code (and the old one of course) will be better commented. I'm not intending to make a shameless plug here, but you may wish to look at our code standard as a guide to reworking your old one. From what I've read, your code standard appears to be closely aligned with ours already. Ours is about 90-95% finalized I would say (we still need to add a section on Lua code style).Allacrost Code StandardI wish I could offer advice on how to ensure that your developers comment their code, but I can't think of anything. We've never had that problem because every developer understood the requirement to comment their code well from their first day, and habits are hard to break. [smile]Good to hear things are starting to turn in the right direction for you and your team.   ;Quote:Original post by RootsI wish I could offer advice on how to ensure that your developers comment their code, but I can't think of anything. We've never had that problem because every developer understood the requirement to comment their code well from their first day, and habits are hard to break. [smile]We had long IRC sessions in the days and I've expressed that commenting the current code is a must if we want to ease the contribution of new developers. The team agreed and we decided to start re-commenting the existing code repository. We've found an experienced core developer who helps us with this task and we hope to be able to finish this task in the next two weeks.We've realized that the project organisation was lacking in several aspects and agreed on a 3-step plan to overcome these problems:1. Create a complete feature list for the engine to ensure that the needed information is already written down for the later reworking of the design document. We've already started to do so and hope that the list is complete when the code documentation process has been finished so we can start working on the next step:http://wiki.fifengine.de/index.php?title=FIFE_feature_list2. Rework the design doc. The current version is pretty much a draft and missing important details to become really useful in the future development. Our new engine core coder will burden himself with this challenging task.3. Plan a roadmap and create milestones for future releases. After the design doc is ready we should be able to judge the priorities of each single feature and work out a roadmap that makes it easier to tackle more and more needed improvements from release to release.I've updated the thread with information about the editor core designer & coder position we try to fill. Your tasks will be similar to the engine core coders, in fact you'll work close together with them to ensure that engine and editor work together without too much hassle. Just take a look at the first post for more detailed information about the position.   ;  All three of those sound like great ideas. [smile]If you want to ease the orientation of new programmers, I highly recommend you make a "quick start" document like this:Allacrost Quick Start GuideAll of our programmers that joined after this document was available have said that it was incredibly helpful to them, and they were able to get up to speed with the existing code base very quickly. I really encourage you to put together something like this because its totally worth the effort. [wink];Quote:Original post by RootsIf you want to ease the orientation of new programmers, I highly recommend you make a "quick start" document like this:Allacrost Quick Start GuideI've read through it and this sounds like an excellent idea :-) I guess we don't have the time to put something together at the moment but after the the code annotation is finished and the design document is reworked, we'll look into writing  a quick start guide for coders.The engine core designer & coder as well as the editor positions are still open. We haven't given up the hope to find somebody for these jobs :-)