RE: Windows Installer for Xconq

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery at indiegamedesign dot com>]

Hans Ronne wrote:
>
> To follow your example, the people who wrote Half-Life had no
> reason to put
> stuff in their kernel that was of no use in their game. The
> xconq kernel,
> OTOH, has been written to be as flexible as possible and to
> provide support
> for as many different types of interactions as are conceivable.

I am not an Xconq developer, I haven't even gotten a proper Windows
build environment going yet.  So, take my opinions for whatever you
think they're worth.

My opinion is, even if you have the best game designer tools
imagineable, even if you can make really deep changes to Xconq gameplay
with them, "Modding" is still the industry standard term for it.  You'd
just tout the absolute coolness, flexibility, and scripting power of
your Modding tools.

Whatever the power of those tools, Xconq is not really middleware.  If
it were, a collection of rather different games would be running on "the
Xconq engine."  Maybe that sounds like a chicken-and-egg pronouncement,
but nothing is middleware until it's demonstrably in the middle of
something.  Middleware, for instance, would carry the connotation that
your code is very much intended to be used for non-Xconq games, that
development revolves around providing general purpose game engine
features.  I doubt that's the case, am I mistaken?

Regarding the label "Hacker" for the source code stuff, I think that is
both a confusing label and a very negative one.  Confusing because
Modders certainly hack at stuff, if not the source code.  Negative
because in many people's minds, it implies shoddy and undisciplined
engineering.  I don't think you want to communicate to the world at
large that your Xconq source code is a pile of sphaghetti coughed up by
hackers.  Even if hacking the sources is fun in the eyes of many people.

I would suggest the label "For Programmers" instead.

I think "For Players, For Modders, For Programmers" is standard game
industry terminology and creates the least amount of confusion, even if
you don't think it's a perfect fit.


Cheers,                     www.indiegamedesign.com
Brandon Van Every           Seattle, WA

Taking risk where others will not.