A couple of days have passed since eight students found out they will be hacking on Thousand Parsec as part of Google Summer of Code 2008. All have come to Thousand Parsec IRC channel to say Hi in and all of them posted their introductions to Thousand Parsec Development mailing list. Each and every student now also has a spot on the web where they will blog about their experiences and progress.

I’ve created a Thousand Parsec Blog on Blogger which links to all the blogs of our students. The page will also serve as the blog for everyone who would like to write about Thousand Parsec but doesn’t feel like setting up his or her own blog just for that. So, if you are interested to see what we at Thousand Parsec are up to this summer, this is the place to start. Of course we will also make sure that feeds from our blogs are aggregated on Planet SoC. You will then be able to see all GSoC posts from our blogs in one place and add the feed to your favourite feed reader.

Tags: games, game, gaming, gamedev, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc, open source, free software

A couple of hours ago Google published the final list of 1125 students who will be working on free and open source projects as part of Google Summer of Code 2008 program. This year 8 students will work with us at Thousand Parsec project. This is twice the number of students we had last year. Here’s what they will be working on this summer:

• 3D Client for Thousand Parsec - Blog - Eugene Tan Jie Ming
• Tigris and Euprhates Ruleset Adaptation - Blog - Dustin E. White
• Genetic Conquest: An AI Client for Thousand Parsec (RFTS ruleset) - Blog - Victor Ivri
• DroneSec: A simple, one hour game for tpserver-py - Blog - Juan Lafont
• A Modified Risk ruleset for the Thousand Parsec C++ server - Blog - Ryan Neufeld
• Remote Server Configuration Protocol and Single-Player Mode - Blog - Aaron Mavrinac
• AI for RFTS - Blog - Vincent Verhoeven
• Schemepy - Blog - Chiyuan Zhang

You can be sure that all of us, students and mentors, will do our very best to complete these projects successfully. Exciting months for open source 4X games are ahead of us. I hope you look forward to the results as much as we at Thousand Parsec do.

Tags: games, game, gaming, gamedev, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc, open source, free software

Parsek is a KDE 4 client for turn-based strategy games where your goal is to build a space empire. These games are known as 4X games (from four primary goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate). Specifically, Parsek is a client for games created using Thousand Parsec framework.

I’ve started working on Parsek a little more then a year ago. It was one of my ways of learning Qt and KDE programming. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to work on Parsek since then. Well yesterday I’ve imported Parsek into KDE’s Subversion repository, into playground/games/parsek.

Parsek can’t be used to actually play games yet. It can connect to the server, download properties of objects in a Universe and display objects in a simple tree and it can download the messages and display them in a simple table. Two of the main things to be done before Parsek is usable is to make it possible to view and add orders to objects and to display a nice map of the Universe. Anyways, here is how Parsek currently looks like:

If you find this interesting and would like to help in any way, you are more than welcome. The basic instructions on how to compile Parsek are on its Wiki page.

Yesterday I have also been browsing through the history of posts on Planet KDE and I found a post about lack of user research by Celeste Paul. She also put together a user research template which I will try to fill out as soon as possible and will then put it into Wiki and in plain text form also into the Parsek’s source code folder.

Tags: games, gaming, strategy games, 4x games, kde, kde4, free software, open source

Google has just published the list of accepted mentoring organizations for Google Summer of Code 2008 and it is great to see that Thousand Parsec has made it once again. We must be doing something right

So, if you are into turn-based 4X space strategy games and would like to help in game development, this is your chance. Take a look at our Google Summer of Code and Ideas for Programmers pages and get involved. There is even US$ 4500 to encourage you to take that step into the world of open source software programming.

Interested students now have about a week to get to know us better. You can chat with us on IRC (Freenode network, #tp channel) or write to our development mailing list. After that, starting from March 24 and ending April 7, student applications must be submitted. I’m looking forward to be a mentor again.

UPDATE: Student application deadline has been extended to Monday, April 7th.

Tags: games, game, gaming, gamedev, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc, open source, free software

Great news for all fans of turn-based 4X strategy games set in space. We (well mainly Tim Ansell with help from Nathan Partlan) at Thousand Parsec project have released a new version of the free and open source wxPython based client for playing Thousand Parsec games. There is a lot of new features, the client looks better and it is easier to use. Translation of the client is now possible and I have already translated it into Slovenian language. Remember, translation is a great way to easily help the project. Of course a lot of bugs have been fixed and the new version should work much better on Mac OS X. Be sure to read the full announcement for version 0.3.0 to see the entire changelog and download links. This is also the very first time we provide our own package repositories (currently only for Ubunutu and Debian Linux). We will try to set up repositories for other Linux distributions in the future. I already started to work on packages for Mandriva Linux. Maybe they will even be included in Mandriva 2008 Spring. Now let’s get playing and let’s see who will be the one to conquer the universe.

Tags: games, gaming, game, 4x games, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, wxpython, python, wxwidgets, free software, open source

I just got an e-mail with some great news. It looks like I am among the lucky ones who are selected to receive a grant under the Qtopia Greenphone Innovation Grant program. This means that I will soon get a full Greenphone mobile phone SDK, with the phone itself, connector cables and development tools. Greenphone is one of those mobile phones of the new generation which are based on an open platform. Another well known example from the new generation is OpenMoko. Apple iPhone on the other hand still belongs to the old closed platform generation.

And why will I get Greenphone? Well it looks like judges from Trolltech found my proposal for a new mobile phone application interesting. In this rather short time (submission deadline is October 31) I will try to create a free and open source mobile phone client for playing turn-based 4X space strategy games which are based on servers and the protocol of Thousand Parsec project. A C++ library for the protocol is already available and I hope I’ll be able to reuse it as much as possible. If all goes well most of the work will involve the user interface and use of the C++ protocol library. The work will also be of use with my other project, which is to create a game client for KDE 4 desktop, which heavily uses Qt toolkit and framework, which is very similar to Qtopia used on the mobile phone and other mobile devices.

Can’t wait until postman brings me the package. In the meantime I should start reading more about Qtopia development. I also need to come up with a name for the game and the way a user would interact with it. Any suggestions are welcome.

Tags: greenphone, qtopia, trolltech, mobiles, mobile phones, gsm, mobile devices, programming, linux, 4x, games

One of my favourite films of all time is Das Boot. It’s a story about a German World War II submarine U-96 and its crew embarking on a dangerous mission. Submarines also fascinate me in general. When younger I’ve often played submarine simulation games like Silent Hunter and Jane’s 688(I) Hunter/Killer. Today I’m happy I can say we have a free and open source submarine simulation game that also runs on Linux.

I’m talking about Danger from the Deep (DftD) which is a World War II German submarine simulaton game. Source code is released under GPL license and artwork under Creative Commons license. Danger from the Deep 0.3.0 has just been released and it features much improved graphics (thanks to upgrade to OpenGL 2.0 and GLSL 1.1), 4 new u-boat types (IIA, IIB, IIC, IID), a new Tribal class destroyer, models can now have moving parts (turrets, guns…), multi-threaded code, new sound system, improved torpedo management, new basic torpedo camera and more. For details see latest news section.

I’ve played DftD for a couple of minutes today and I can say it looks like a very promising open source game project. If you are also a submarine fan be sure to download Danger from the Deep and… Dive! Dive! Dive!

Tags: navy, submarines, simulations, simulation, subsim, games, game, gaming, free software, open source, danger from the deep, dftd

PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a very nice gaming console. Actually it is much more than just a console. It is also the cheapest way to get some of the new technologies like Blu-ray Disc player and the Cell microprocessor. Another great thing about PS3 is that it is a very open console, which is also using a lot of open standards (like OpenGL for graphics) for game development. Sony even officialy allows you to install Linux on PS3 and the company is directly helping with development of support for PS3 in the Linux kernel. This openness has already enabled some of the very interesting uses of PS3. For example it is used to build an academic computing cluster (a cheap way to build super-computers), performs calculations to help with cancer/Alzheimer’s research and it is also used for some real-time ray-tracing.

But there is one important piece of hardware in PS3 that Sony (or nVidia) is still blocking direct access to: the RSX ‘Reality Synthesizer’ graphics processing unit (GPU). If full access to RSX was allowed to programmers people could create even more amazing and creative new stuff with PlayStation 3. In a hope to persuade Sony to open-up the full access to RSX a petition has been started. So if you are a PS3 owner or will become one in the future be sure to sign this petition. Hack, even if you are not interested into PS3 right now, consider signing the petition. Help bring more freedom and openness into game consoles.

Tags: playstation, playstation 3, ps3, sony, hardware, rsx, reality synthesizer, graphics, petitions, petition, linux

When I woke up yesterday morning a message from Tim Ansell was waiting for me on Jabber. It was some extremely great news about open source game project Thousand Parsec, which I joined a couple of months ago. Google has just published the list of mentoring organisations for Google Summer of Code 2007. What is so great about it is that Thousand Parsec was one of the selected organisations. This also means that I get to be one of the mentors.

I must say this has surprised me a bit. Thouand Parsec is quite a small project, not that well known and 4X space strategy games are unfortunately not as popular today as they were a few years ago. Who knows, maybe the foundation of existing code base, our plans for the future or some other part from the project description convinced Google to choose Thousand Parsec. Whatever the reason, this is our chance to get some fresh new developers, to get the project to the next level and make it more known and appealing to gamers. We have to make the most out of this chance.

So, if you are a student and would like to work on a task for a vibrant free and open source game project, I encourage you to take a look at Thousand Parsec : Google Summer of Code 2007. Here you will find some instructions and ideas for a project on which you can work during the summer. I’m sure it will be fun, you will learn something new and if you finish your project you will even get 4500$. Our community is waiting for you! And don’t forget that the deadline for submission of student applications is 26^th of March.

Update: The deadline for student applications has been changed to 26^{th of March, So you now have about 4 days left to join the fun.}

Tags: games, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, stars!, galactic civilizations, programming, google, summer of code, soc, gsoc

As I’ve written before, Thousand Parsec is a free and open source project aiming to create 4X space empire building strategy games similar to Stars! and Galactic Civilizations. We are currently running an AI programming competition. So, if you know the fine craft of writing code and would like to take a shot at game programming, be sure to check out the official competition page and join us. Who knows, you might even win one of the cool prizes. The preferred source code languages for submissions are C++, Python and Ruby. But you can use any language of your choice. The deadline for submissions is 31^st of March 2007.

Update: The deadline date was wrong. You have one month of extra time than previously reported.

Tags: games, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, stars!, galactic civilizations, programming, ai, artificial intelligence

Just in time for Christmas holidays the community of developers, artists and translators released a new major version of free and open source turn-based strategy game The Battle for Wesnoth. In version 1.2 single-player mode has a new tutorial and three new campaigns: Two Brothers, The South Guard, and Under the Burning Suns. The existing campaigns include new scenarios, dialogue, items, and optional bonus victory objectives. Multi-player mode also has new features. There are new units, new terrain types and artwork has also improved much. Translators have worked hard to update the translations and I’m proud to say that my cousin Matej also did a great work helping with Slovenian translation. For more info about the new version check out the release notes, where you can also find download links for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Now let’s get playing!

Tags: games, strategy, strategies, turn-based, tbs, fantasy, linux, free software, open source, mac os x, windows

About 11 years ago we were using OS/2 Warp as our main operating system on our first family PC. I was 15 years old back then and it is only natural I liked playing games a lot. By far the largest chunk of my computer time was spent playing a 4X (explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) strategy game Galactic Civilizations developed by Stardock. I just loved researching new technologies, using planet resources to build fleets of spaceships and conquering more planets.

After a year or so we had to switch to Windows and since I couldn’t live without a healthy dose of 4X I had to find a game similar to GalCiv. Luckily I found the game of Stars! which was developed by Jeff McBride and Jeff Johnson who were at the time employed at Microsoft (at least something good came from them :)). Even today I think Stars! is the best 4X game ever. Very complex and deep and a lot of fun. Later I also played Galactic Civilizations for Windows, but that didn’t last long since I started to switch to Linux and I spent less of my free time on games and more on other things.

Let’s fast forward to present. I’m a full time Linux user now and some time ago I was in a little bit of a nostalgic mood. So I started looking for free and open source Linux games similar to Stars! and Galactic Civilizations. I found a project called FreeStars, but its website didn’t show much promise, especially since it stated that it doesn’t yet compile on Linux. So the search continued and I came across a project named Thousand Parsec. The website was looking very nice, there was a lot of information, and there were screen shots of working clients.

Thousand Parsec project doesn’t try to be just a clone of Stars!. They are creating a general framework for making 4X space empire building games, that can be very long, have a huge universe and can be played online. Although the game is not yet at the same level as Stars!, I see a lot of potential in it. Noticing that there is a C++ protocol library (libtpproto-cpp) available, I’ve decided that I could also help with the development. But more details about this later…

Anyway, if you are like me and love playing games like Stars!, Galactic Civilizations, VGA Planets and Master of Orion, then be sure to check out the Thousand Parsec project. A major new version 0.2.0 of Python/wxWidgets based client has just been released and in addition to Linux it also works on Mac OS X and Windows.

Tags: games, 4x, strategy, turn-based, strategies, tbs, stars!, galactic civilizations, vga planets, master of orion, linux, mac os x, windows