Food Force/Meeting Logs1

First Meeting Log

Session Start: Thu Feb 07 22:00:55 2008 Session Ident: #olpc-foodforce

Participants:

MurielGodoi, manugupta, deepank, User:Ankur.verma Ankur, Anubhav, sj

<manugupta> Muriel: deepank is the second developer that has been selected. anubhav is one of the three developers selected for the project. No one else selected for now.

<Ankur> I am interested in applying my skills in Programming and Software Development towards development of Food Force game for XO. I had been involved in contributing to OLPC project as Summer of Content Intern and sharing my ideas on OLPC mailing lists. I have a strong programming experience along with experience in software development, thus I believe I would be able to contribute to the part I am involved in. My work in summer of content inculded developing problems with Multi platform soultions which can be used to teach and learn programming.

<MurielGodoi> Starting: please take a look at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Food_Force_2 for descriptions and some screenshots of the current version. The game has been developed in python, using pygame library, it is a mix of trade and strategy game.

<Anubhav> Its a nice idea

<deepank> Yes, I too have read it and it is a great idea and the game has been extensively developed.

<Ankur> I read it. Its a great concept through which students will be fascinated and further comparison with other friends score will be motivaing to them. Yes, I really like strategy games like Rise of Nations. Though concept of Food force is already built, we need to take the base classes and build upon that. As mentioned, Basic GUI has been developed using Pygame API. Further, we need to develop on it. Could you please tell us further directions. It will be exciting to work upon it.

<MurielGodoi> Ankur: that interface is developed, but it is not fully functional. There are just the GUI elements. I think that the hard work which should be done is in the game model

<MurielGodoi> there are 3 main entities in the game model

Resources, facilities and indicators

Resources

resources actions: create, use, buy and sell

they represent: rice, beans, salt, books, medicines and so on...

Facilities

Facilities represent: farm, school, training center ....

Each facility has levels of building, that uses differents amounts of building materials to be achieved. Each facility spends and produces resources on each turn

<Ankur> Yes, they should contribute to all the things in right proportions (which we will set in our code) and based upon it points will be alloted. And suppose for developing house, there will be corresponding deduction in Wood. Thereby, he will work for it.

<deepank> but facilities like farm will help to create more resources

<Ankur> Yes, accordingly, they will trade with other villages to achive a balanced diet and to develop further.

<Anubhav> and the village flourishes and prospers after making use of resources and growing its economy

<MurielGodoi> yep, perfect

Indicators

<MurielGodoi> Indicators shows the player progress in each area. Each indicator has a dictionary of facilities -> weight, which are responsible for indicator value calculus using weighted average equation

<Ankur> in the bottom of the screen, the resources will be shown in the form of bar chart.

<MurielGodoi> yep. so we need more efforts to code the game model and link it to the gui widgets. It is needed to talk to wfp, to check how exactly they help the village: food, money...

<Ankur> First we should proceed by making the basic GUI functional, and then building upon it. Please tell your suggestions.

<MurielGodoi> in 6th mission of the first game the player has 10 years to make the village self-sufficient

<MurielGodoi> the initial commit is at https://dev.laptop.org/git?p=users/murielgodoi/foodforce2;a=summary It is in my personal git tree, i will request to transfer it to a public one, so you can register to your git server and commit code. I would like to know your abilities so we can better set tasks

<Ankur> I am new to using PyGame Library, but I am ready to learn further on it. I have developed problems on Python, Ruby, C, C# as part of Summer of Content. I have a strong experience with C. I also have experience in Software Development.

<Anubhav> I am familiar to python language but haven't worked on the pygame library.

<deepank> I am very good with C; have some experience with Python and I find it easier than C in various aspects

<arjs> i think anyone who has done C can easily do python and the rest...:) so that shouldn't be a problem at all i think

<MurielGodoi> I also wanna let you know that the game concept is not entirely set. So we are open to new suggestions and ideas

<arjs> We need a design specification document I guess. That'd be really helpful for new people to get integrated into the workflow. Just a long wiki page perhaps that defines what all the game would do...

<deepank> ok. So we assume to be starting from base zero

<MurielGodoi> deepank: not exactly from zero, there is a good rendering structure there which renders just the dirty areas. optimized for XO

<Ankur> What problems you were facing while making basic GUI functional?

<MurielGodoi> Ankur: do not have the model done

<Ankur> In model we will have to link and use objects created using pre-defined classes. Am I right?

<MurielGodoi> Ankur: there is a mock-up of model coded in the git and there are a initial of indicator, facilities and resources classes

<Ankur> I was reading Foodforce2.py. Is it the one you are talking about. It has classes for constructional buildings and a basic GUI development.

<MurielGodoi> Yes, I was going to refactoring splitting simulation and gui code. They are in different classes , but in the same py. add info: pgu is the library used to gui elements in pygame. I developed a sugar skin for the widgets which i included there. I tried to follow the sugar guidelines: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines

Resuming:

1) we need build the design specification document in the wiki

2) complete the basic code of the game model

3) link the model with the gui

4) link the model with the simulation

the game model should me generic so we can set the weigths further and set a meeting with wfp to get more information about the message

<arjs> MurielGodoi, definitely you ppl should talk with Matt and all asap so that you can get their perspectives...

<MurielGodoi> as you can see in the screenshot, there is a message bar. The game will use that to send educational messages to the players

<deepank> Muriel: One more suggestion; I saw an internet game vocab building where for every word you guess correctly 10 rice grains are donated to Food Programme. Can't there be something of the same sort done for this game. Some donation made on behalf of the player on successfully playing the game.

<Anubhav_> yes, freerice.com , Its also a great thing, Similar to the Food force project

<MurielGodoi> deepank: great... i will mention that to wfp and see how can we include freerice into it

<MurielGodoi> arjs: if you play food-force 1, you will realize that the major part of educational lessons about nutritions, poverty are in the movies and sounds

<arjs> MurielGodoi, btw we are starting a major public health and awareness project around the XOs...Food Force will fit in beautifully into that :)

<MurielGodoi> arjs: There is another idea about using the crank to speed-up the build contruction/work so the kid can charge ther battery and feel like he/she is putting the hands on the village work

<arjs> MurielGodoi, nice. come to think of it, i can help you integrate a light sensor to simulate the sun, a heat sensor to simulate heat/fire...:) But anyway, I guess all that will come later, and I can work on those aspects and you all can work on integrating those..

<Ankur> Yes, I would love to.

<MurielGodoi> sure, this game open a plenty of opportunities to explore. I also let clear what I am open to ideas, suggestions about game concept, project managament. Let's learn and grow up together to make a great game

<deepank> the Idea of using crank as a control to play game should definetely be implemented

<deepank> Definitely. Should we have a mailing list for the project?

<Ankur> Yes, it will be great.

<MurielGodoi> I will request that.

<deepank> It will be a nice way to keep everyone updated about the progress of the project

<deepank> Regarding the Game Concept; I think the concept is excellent, though the minor tweakings here and there will come as we go on furthering it

<Ankur> Please tell us the directions. With right pointers from your side, we will do it.

<MurielGodoi> should be nice for all play food-force1 to see the message educational strategies

<Ankur> And sir, what for the model diagrams. Do we have a rough sketch of it.

<MurielGodoi> a sketch should be nice

<MurielGodoi> In further we will also need an artist for artwork. by making a well designed structure we can improve graphical aspects without effect in the model

<arjs> MurielGodoi, there is a portal on the wiki where u can post ur artwork requests http://community.livejournal.com/olpc_art/ http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community:Art http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Art_Gallery

<MurielGodoi> so for monday: a basic document on wiki, play food-force1 and try to run the current code

<deepank> Can you give instructions for running the current code

<Ankur> Any Directions regarding code will be very helpful.

<MurielGodoi> all of you are linux user? you will need python, and pygame libraries. maybe you can just download by gitweb by now, considering that the repository will change. when running you can press 's' in keyboard to test the soundtrack. Press '1' and '2' keys to control the indicator and 'r' key will restart all buildings from step 1. I set that to test the simulation :)

<MurielGodoi> remember our game is "Food-Force 2: escape poverty”, so we should know food-force1