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The great GD.net collaborative coding horror experiment? (...and the results are in!)

Rip Off · 2013-12-03T01:14:06

//EDIT: See THIS POST (from page 4 of this topic when viewed with default settings) for the "results". //EDIT: See THIS POST (from page 3 of this topic when viewed with default settings) for revised rules and links to the actual topics. Possessed Inspired by this thread, I was curious as to what would be the outcome of a game developed collaboratively right here, with the main rule being You can only add new code, not alter or remove existing code. I'm not sure if this has been done before, while I am vaguely reminded of something gone before I cannot find any thing. Here is how I see this "working" (or, as is perhaps more likely, going up in flames): I will post a basic skeleton program. I'm thinking C++, SDL 1.2.X or SFML Posts here will act as a kind of revision (un)control system, each post a "commit" You must attempt to amend the current version of the code (revision number?) The code change for a single "commit" should be relatively small and cohesive - add or change a single feature at most Posts should highlight what was changed (if possible using a diff?) Posts should include the full source of the program so far The program will be in a single file only Dependencies are limited to the standard library and the multimedia library only. No OS-specific calls Assets may be attached to your post, they should be free of copyright restrictions You can only add new code, not alter or remove existing code You may, however, alter numeric or string constants in existing code You may add code into existing lines: Add a new clause to a condition Add to an existing expression Add parameters to existing function declaration/definition/call sites Adding // at the start of a line is allowed by this rule (?) You may also "insert" a newline after a //, thus uncommenting such code The code must compile on your platform of choice, and should strive to be cross platform The code must not crash, to the best of your ability Bad commits are ignorable under the "amend the current version" rule I don't know whether there should be a theme. A theme might help focus the initial work, but I think lacking a theme could have some hilarious results. Any thoughts? If there is sufficient interest, I could post the initial version sometime soon, perhaps at the weekend (Halloween seems topical). Of course if it has all been done before I will just slink away quietly...

GDNet Lounge Community

Started by rip-off October 23, 2013 12:16 PM

64 comments, last by Ganoosh 10 years, 9 months ago

slicer4ever

6,773

October 23, 2013 05:59 PM

This....is going to be a thing of beauty.

Edit: since this will be a single file, could we simply use a google doc, so multiple people can edit at the same time. Not sure how well this would work with code, and also not sure how well google identifies who has made what changes.

Check out https://www.facebook.com/LiquidGames for some great games made by me on the Playstation Mobile market.

TheComet

3,927

October 23, 2013 06:35 PM

Why not just jump over the offending code? >=D

A splendid and well thought through idea!

I have one more request: Can we completely exclude external assets? I think it would be much easier to work on this if it's all dumped into one gigantic source file for easy copying and pasting. It could get quite messy and painful if everyone starts throwing their zip files all around the place. Again, just inline the assets.

"I would try to find halo source code by bungie best fps engine ever created, u see why call of duty loses speed due to its detail." -- GettingNifty

CombatWombat

681

October 23, 2013 06:57 PM

Can we completely exclude external assets?

Ideally the sprites should be hand coded as arrays.

Or std::maps with x,y hash key and an RGB struct.

TheComet

3,927

October 23, 2013 09:23 PM

And obviously, the xy hash key should be encoded as a char array (allocated by "new") and not have a null terminator for efficiency

"I would try to find halo source code by bungie best fps engine ever created, u see why call of duty loses speed due to its detail." -- GettingNifty

molehill mountaineer

595

October 23, 2013 09:29 PM

Sounds good for a larf - I vote c++ (I don't actually know SFML but since the S stands for simple I can't imagine it'll be too hard to pick up)

This is what I'm working on

rip-off

Author

11,000

October 23, 2013 10:28 PM

Can we completely exclude external assets?

That is certainly an option. I believe the GIMP has a built-in way to export an image as C source.

The downside is for large assets the code becomes very verbose, this will probably affect the thread load time and the performance of the syntax highlighter.

I had been thinking that an asset is posted just once - in the post that created it, not maintained as a ZIP in each post. That way, if you want to contribute you just need to download any assets that have been created since you last contributed.

Edit: since this will be a single file, could we simply use a google doc, so multiple people can edit at the same time. Not sure how well this would work with code, and also not sure how well google identifies who has made what changes.

Interesting idea, but I like the thought of seeing the history of the progress directly here. I also am intentionally trying to minimise the barriers to entry, otherwise I'd be using Github or something rather than specifying that a GD.net thread as a version control system.

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wintertime

4,154

October 23, 2013 10:39 PM

Do you really think you need art for such an experiment? You could just generate some bitmaps in memory procedurally, which could add some interesting code.

swiftcoder

18,997

October 23, 2013 10:55 PM

Do you really think you need art for such an experiment? You could just generate some bitmaps in memory procedurally, which could add some interesting code.

+1

Procedural generation FTW.

Tristam MacDonald. Ex-BigTech Software Engineer. Future farmer. [https://trist.am]

Bacterius

13,181

October 24, 2013 08:39 AM

Do you really think you need art for such an experiment? You could just generate some bitmaps in memory procedurally, which could add some interesting code.

+1, and I second the C suggestion as well (though for making a mess C++ is unparalleled).

Also, I don't think google docs would work out, really. By the time you get to compile and test your stuff someone will have edited the google docs, and by the time you've merged someone else will have probably broken what you were working on, requiring you to fix your code, and so on. That said, the "don't remove or alter code" does make merging changes quite a bit easier, assuming steps are taken to make sure commits are consistent with one another (i.e. one doesn't logically conflict with the other). But maybe it's part of the experiment to battle with another member until some kind of equilibrium is reached

“If I understand the standard right it is legal and safe to do this but the resulting value could be anything.”

jbadams

26,386

October 24, 2013 09:13 AM

Love it, and topic pinned!

Once you sort out all the details and get this thing started -- assuming you decide to go ahead -- might I suggest pinning the official topic in the "coding horrors" forum for the duration and linking from the lounge like the "PUTT" contest is currently doing?

It'll be interesting -- and terrifying -- to see what's produced!

- Jason Astle-Adams