Refactoring

[Jason James House <jasonhouse comcast net>]

 I personally think that the "right" approach would require sitting 
down and thinking about as many game variations and (G)UI variations as 
possible...  And as lame as it might sound, create ven diagrams...  
Where do which features overlap where?  Which features are subset of 
other features?  The proper approach would have several high level 
coding interfaces/libraries, and even more specializations (and probably 
specializations of specializations).  Each additional layer should 
provide ease for the coder.
 I generally also feel strongly about preserving partitions between 
dissimilar functionalities.  The better preserved they are, the more a 
user can pick and choose exactly what they want.

Here are some points that I consider to be important in differentiating 
a "game."  I am sure that I left a lot out, but I hope to bring up good 
points.

Timing
* Are you playing against a clock?  Does the environment change while 
you wait?  Can the rate of change be adjusted? (this can be more than 
one parameter, not just overall game speed)  What timer variations can 
exist?  How do they get updated?  (chess has many variants.  Go has "Byo 
Yomi")  What happens when a timer runs out?  (An interesting chess 
variant - one of your pieces is removed as penalty, and the timer 
resets)  Is the game turn based?  Does it have to be? or are there ways 
to make it more simulaneous? (for example the civilazation 3 play the 
world expansion)

Players
* How many players are there?  Has the functionality of each distinct 
player/AI been seperated from each other? (scorched earth is rather 
interesting in this way.  Roundhouse chess might offer surprises with 
both players and timng.  Local verses net should be invisible to the 
coding of the players)  What possibilities for human control can exist? 
(why can't your friend play the level boss?)  What limitations do each 
kind of player impose?  (A relativistic dog fight can only be from the 
perspective of someone in the cockpit when there is only one human 
involved.  Some controls are just too complex for people)  What support 
for scripting can be done?  (Imagine warcraft, where you can write your 
own battle strategies)  How well parameterized are the AI's?  Can 
non-gnu-games AI's/players be used?

Rules
* Can different rulesets be used for the same setup?  What flexibility 
for rule variations exist?  Can rules be hot swapped?  Can AI's handle 
it?  (Consider Nightmare Chess)

Board Rendering + Connecting Players
* I think these are already in discussion.  I would hope that the two 
topics (board rendering, and connecting players) would be independent of 
each other.  Can non-gnu-games coded versions be used?