Python Universe Builder "TWO"Terry Hancock. Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:28:24 GMT |
| After a fairly long hiatus, Terry Hancock and Gabriel Jagenstedt have started work on a major revision of the PUB Interactive Fiction Engine sources, which we're calling by the astonishingly original name of "PUB 2". Splitting the work into a separate package makes us a little more comfortable playing "fast and loose" with the codebase (but this is a refactoring, not a complete rewrite, of the original PUB). The new design will attempt to modernize the Python usage in PUB, provide better self-documentation, and generally be easier to work with, we hope. Some major focuses of the new branch include: internationalization/localization (I18n/L14n) of the parsed and generated text, using pyparsing (which is a fairly major undertaking for an IF engine, as you might imagine), a PyProtocols-based "component/interface architecture", and a "plugin model" for game extensions to obviously extensible elements such as verbs and nouns (and their components). Noun/verb checking -- what used to be done by "pre-checks" -- will mostly become interface checks in the new model, and more use will be made of Python's exception mechanism to deal with failed actions. The new version will add some dependencies (pyparsing and pyprotocols at least), and we'll be breaking off support for older python interpreters (probably v2.3+ or v2.4+ will be required now). There is obviously, going to be a lot of dust flying in the CVS. Other changes, we plan to discuss on the mailing list, so feel free to chime in with your wishlist. About PUB PUB or "Python Universe Builder" is an interactive fiction (IF) engine written in pure-python, which is used as a python module by game developers who want to create IF using Python. Python is an extremely easy language to learn, and its object-oriented nature makes it a natural fit for creating interactive fiction worlds. http://py-universe.sf.net (0 comments) |
1.0 Alpha 1 ReleasedTerry Hancock. Fri, 22 Nov 2002 06:54:08 GMT |
| Python Universe Builder, an interactive fiction module for Python, is now available as a proper python package with distutils installation, thanks to work by Lalo Martins. It is also compatible with Python 2.1 and 2.2 now, and has improved docstrings and resulting automatic API documentation. (0 comments) |
First Doc PassTerry Hancock. Tue, 21 May 2002 09:22:31 GMT |
| After a very long hiatus, I just finished going through the source and adding doc strings to all the classes, and a number of methods. This was also my first real review of the entire source code. PUB is surprisingly simple and small, actually. After doing this, it seems fairly clear to me that it will be possible to meet most of the original extension goals without having to make major changes. In particular, agent-based characters should be a snap to integrate, once a suitable agent is available. However, my most important immediate goals continue to be documentation. I'm going to try writing the "Drawing Room" example that was given for Inform (from "Through the Looking Glass"). This will be informative since I already went through the process of coding it in Inform. I am picking up where I left off -- I am a lot busier now, so I can't expect to keep any high rate of progress up, but I'm going to keep tinkering as time allows. The recent documentation changes are in the CVS -- I'll see about putting them into the website as well. -- Terry (0 comments) |
Website is Up!Terry Hancock. Tue, 03 Apr 2001 21:21:11 GMT |
| Well, PUB has now officially completed its move to Source Forge, as I have updated and posted the website here: http://py-universe.sourceforge.net/ (0 comments) |
Website, FTP Files AvailableTerry Hancock. Tue, 03 Apr 2001 21:29:32 GMT |
| The AutoManga website is now up, containing my "To-Do" list and progress on it as well as an automatically converted version of my design spec (still in progress). The CVS contains demonstration code for doing cel placement (rotation, scaling, and translation -- test-rotate.cpp) and palette-based lighting effects (lighting.cpp). The next step is creating a scheduler and demonstrating a hard-coded animation sequence. Once that works, we'll be migrating to embedding in a Python object model for further development. Lots of technical hurdles to get past, but it's coming along very nicely: http://automanga.sourceforge.net/ ftp://automanga.sourceforge.net/pub/automanga/ (Also see the CVS for lighting and other code). (0 comments) |
Light Princess 2008 HousecleaningTerry Hancock. Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:40:46 GMT |
| Well, this project seriously needs some love, but the good news is, I've found some time to give it some. I've fixed virtual broken hosting on our Narya Net site that provides the more dynamic aspects of the home page. There has also been some behind-the-scenes work on the project materials. Terry is learning Blender so we can create our own low-poly 3D character models (after much consideration we decided that full 2D animation was unlikely to happen, so we're going to be using a GL library to provide walk mode in Universe -- but that's old news). We also created some SVG art as a starting point for character avatars. These may just be "portraits" in an early version of this game. Most of the work has been in Python Universe Builder, but that'll have to go into the py-universe news. There's lots to do. I need to resolve the notices about licensing options, and decide how we can accept submissions for the project. But I'm back on the case for awhile. (0 comments) |
Universe Game Engine - TestsTerry Hancock. Wed, 17 Aug 2005 19:01:36 GMT |
| I just checked into the CVS a new module "universe" which is to become the game engine framework as described in http://light-princess.sf.net/Universe . Currently, this is just a set of functional unit tests (that is to say, they are "functional tests" of modules). There is obviously a lot left to do. However, the tests are not bad as a "keyboard banger" game, as one of our youngest testers has determined. The tested modules are "text.py" which does justified-text formatting, drop-shadows, and scrolling text, and "template.py" which defines the on-screen layout of the various modes ("Walk", "Talk", "Inventory", etc). The templates are implemented as objects collecting the appropriate pygame "Rect" objects. I'm continuing to work on an "image" module which will handle routine tasks like fitting an on-screen background image into the background. I must admit I'm not doing this in some kind of rigidly planned schedule, just working on what seem to be apparent needs. I got some help from Phil Hassey (very active pygame developer), who wrote the "pgu" utilities. I think this will be a suitable way to implement the "sentence builder" widget, and pgu routinely handles things like modal dialog boxes, so we can use those for game configuration settings (fullscreen/windowed, audio track volumes, animation and image processing quality, and whatever else seems to need configuration). (0 comments) |
Animatic 0.2aTerry Hancock. Sat, 06 Aug 2005 05:48:40 GMT |
| Well, David Tweet responding very quickly to that challenge! There is now a new version of the opening animatic with music scored for it by David. I also fixed a couple of things in the player, so the sound is a bit better. (0 comments) |
Opening Animatic and New WebsiteTerry Hancock. Fri, 05 Aug 2005 18:33:20 GMT |
| Wow! We've finally released something. Not much, but it's a start. The new file is a very early version of an animatic for the opening sequence of the game (an animatic is a kind of "moving storyboard", it doesn't represent the final animation quality, but indicates what is to be done). This represents two milestones for me -- one, I'm able to use pygame to manipulate multimedia files, and two, we have a better idea of how the intro will look, and especially the timing of it. This is just "part 1". "Part 2" will be a set of storyboards for a blender animation that will probably follow what you see here. We're still working on a concept and sketches for that part. This initial sequence is deliberately somewhat restricted 2D animation. It's meant to be similar to the "talk mode" interface you will encounter as you play the game. In both the opening sequence and during game play, I plan for the characters to be animated using SVG "digital cels" rather than the static images you see here. To view the animatic, you'll need PyGame, Python Imaging Library, and (of course) Python. PyGame will need to be fairly complete, as we use the mixer and font modules. The music (by David Tweet), is not really intended for this sequence, but just happens to be our one track so far. To play the animatic without this music track (e.g. if you wanted to come up with different music), you can edit "play.py" and set "MUSIC" to "0" instead of "1". The file is a pretty straightforward script (the animatic is hardly more than a slide-show), and you should easily be able to change the music by providing a different file to pygame.mixer.music.load(). Enjoy! We'll start working on the next part soon. -- Terry Hancock (0 comments) |
Light Princess Game project officially reoppened!Rosalyn Hunter. Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:01:25 GMT |
| Due to improvements in the quantity and quality of game engines, the continuing need for good Open Source games, and the birth of my daughter, we have officially reopened this game project. I would like to make a call for all people who are interested in adventure game development to join our project, and help us to actually finish it this time. We would also ask all former members to come back and tell us how you are doing. The project was closed primarily because no open source game engine existed in 2001 that could do what we needed doing. Now we are spoiled for choice. We need game developers, artists, actors, musicians, writers, graphic artists, and programmers to help us go from idea to fruition. We will also open this project to donations, so if you don't have time to give, you can give us money. We want to revive the story based adventure game genre. If you are excited by the possibility, please join our project, and our mailing list today. Thanks! Rosalyn (0 comments) |
March/April Update is Here!Terry Hancock. Tue, 03 Apr 2001 21:17:15 GMT |
| Well, we slipped a month on the website, but we've got several new people on board and there is now code being written on AutoManga (the animation engine for Light Princess). PUB (the game logic engine) now has its website up to date, and we are working on it as well. There is now a French language side to the Light Princess website, although we're still working on translations. The game design concept is firming up, and we have the pose references for designing the full-body character modelsheets. Check out the changes: http://light-princess.sourceforge.net/ http://light-princess.sourceforge.net/English/Updates/lp.news.2001.03.html http://automanga.sourceforge.net/ http://py-universe.sourceforge.net/ (0 comments) |
Engine Design SelectedTerry Hancock. Fri, 26 Jan 2001 20:27:04 GMT |
| We have decided on an engine design for "The Light Princess," and are now looking for Python developers to assist us in designing the finer details of the specification and implementing the design in Python. Please see http://light-princess.sourceforge.net/Developer/lp.automanga.html for information about the engine, and contact Terry Hancock mailto:hancock@earthlink.net if you are interested. (1 comments) |
New Character Art in GalleryTerry Hancock. Sun, 20 Aug 2000 18:10:36 GMT |
| We now have the first design concepts for the characters on the Gallery page: http://light-princess.sourceforge.net/lp.gallery.html , along with the earlier set sketches. We are just beginning to work on character designs, and this page will grow in the process. (0 comments) |
New Mailing List!Terry Hancock. Thu, 27 Jul 2000 20:27:22 GMT |
| The mailing list is up! Please join us at http://lists.sourceforge.net/mailman/listinfo/light-princess-main (or follow the mailing lists link on the summary page). (0 comments) |
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