Re: GSoC: convert a game to clutter

["Jason D. Clinton" <me jasonclinton com>]

On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Pascal Sachs <psachs student ethz ch> wrote:
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> So my question is, if the gfx code should be replaced with clutter
> effects, or if it should stay there as a fall back solution if clutter
> is not supported by the system.

Replace.


> My proposal for the soc Project would be to first (after getting
> familiar with the code) implementing the basic stuff like the arena and
> the stones falling down, so that the game has about the same
> functionality like before.
> The second step would be to add some cool animations, like fading to
> clear the board, maybe that the stones rotate a little while falling. I
> don't know which animations would look the coolest, so I would have to
> do some testing and of course I would be open for more proposals.

Probably something that conveys the 'snap' of the pieces in to their
slot similar to what happens when such a piece is dropped in to the
real-world game. There's already a clutter alpha time function to
achieve a kind of 'bounce' effect. Instead of bouncing though, the
piece dropped would wiggle a little--perhaps 2% of the width of the
piece--and the pieces below it would wiggle slightly less. Flipping is
probably a bad idea.

Some kind of visual background parallax would be neat as long as its
not too distracting. You need to come up with enough work to keep you
busy for the whole project time. See below.


> The third step would be to do some improvements on the static graphics
> like boards and stones.

This isn't really necessary. If you're not an artist, don't worry
about this. We have artistic people constantly giving us new theme
ideas. I would focus on the code part of your proposal


> The last step would then be testing, bug fixing, finishing the
> documentation of the functions and maybe some minor changes on my code
> if necessary.

Documenting functions in a doxygen style manner is really not needed.
No one else consumes them. Don't focus too much time on this.

Make sure your proposal is focused on coding, effects, and how you
want to accomplish what you want to do. And make sure it includes
enough work to keep you busy but not so much that its unattainable.