Team name:
FIFE developing team.
Project name:
FIFE -
Flexible
Isometric
Fallout(-like)
Engine. (We're currently thinking about switching to a new name or at least changing the meaning of the FIFE acronym to show that we've moved away from the Fallout roots & limitations of the engine.)
Brief description:
Just like the name of our project suggests we work on an open source framework for isometric 2.5d games. The framework started as a Fallout-related project but we decided to turn it into a complete isometric framework for the development of cross platform games in general. We are focusing on the development of the framework itself but will bundle it together with an (rather simple) example game. This way game creators have a starting point for their own FIFE-based projects. We're working on comfortable and easy-to-use editing tools as well. The framework and the tools are meant to run on all flavours of Linux, Win32 and MacOSX.
The FIFE project is in development since almost three years now and we have released eight public alpha & beta versions of the framework on sourceforge / freshmeat over this time. We did release our latest stable milestone 2008.1 at 2008/07/13. We're currently in the early planning phase for our next planned milestone 2008.2 that will hopefully ship some time between early November till end of December.
Target aim:
Open source
LGPL v2.1; non-profit.
Compensation:
We hope that interested artists will find it exciting to work together with other experienced and passionate developers. But as we're a non-profit project we can only offer the actual development experience that you'll gain and the satisfying feeling to be involved in an ambitious project as compensation.
Technology:
Linux, Windows, MacOSX
C++, Python
SDL, OpenGL (optional), Boost library
3d modeling tool of your choice (e.g. Blender)
SVN sourcecode checkout:
[quote title=Quote:]svn co
https://svn1.cvsdude.com/fife/engine/trunk/[/quote]
HTTP sourcecode download:
FIFE 2008.0 source package
Talent needed:
Webdesigner:
We're currently in the planning stages of replacing our fifengine.de website with a better looking version that shares a consistent design among the majority of its subpages.
A collection of all ideas concerning the new website can be found at our
wiki.
We're looking for somebody who could take care of the following tasks:
* Either create a new design from scratch or pick one from
http://www.oswd.org/ and modify it for our needs. There are already some design-related notes at the wiki article linked above. Solid (X)HTML & CSS knowledge required.
* Create templates of the new design for the following software solutions that we plan to use for the new website:
* Mediawiki (wiki functionality)
* Drupal (planet functionality)
* SMF (forums)
* Wordpress or any blogging solution of your choice
* Optional: find a way to integrate a blogging solution into our forums (we're using the SMF software). We looked into a couple of bridges for Wordpress but we haven't really decided on a solution yet so we would appreciate any pointer from somebody who had done something similar in the past.
3d modeler
We've used graphics from
Reiner's tilesets for our recent releases. Now that the engine supports more advanced view features (e.g. stepless zoom for the OpenGL renderbackend, rotation & tilt manipulations), it would be great to get a 3d modeler involved who could create some custom map objects for the Rio de Hola game that is planned to ship with the upcoming 2008.1 milestone.
The main issue is that we don't have much prior experience in working with artists so this would be something new for the team and the majority of useful information that can be found at our wiki is geared towards the programmers. On the other side this would be a great chance to improve the project and build a solid fundament for future artists.
There is no clear preference when it comes to modeling solutions as the engine does not care as long as you save the rendered object as a common 2d image format (PNG, BMP, TGA). A friendly modeler who helps us out of misery from time to time has created some custom map objects with Blender and therefore there is already a working Blender template in SVN. So Blender would be one possible choice but we're happy with other modeling solutions as well.
There might be important information for artists missing simply because we have no prior experience searching for them. Artists are usually interested in different information than programmers; in case you have a question about the artist position don't hesitate to ask and we'll answer and add the information to the main post as well.
Framework core engineer
Advanced C++ skills and strong interest in engine design are the requirements for applying for this position as you will work on the design of specific framework modules as well as on the architecture of the whole framework. Experience with any of the 3rd party libraries that we're utilizing would be a nice plus but isn't a must. It is far more important that we find someone who can invest a serious amount of time to improve the design of the framework and give the development a direction.
Framework module engineer (misc.)
We're searching for developers who are able to improve certain modules of the framework. Possible fields of work are:
* Audio module development (OpenAL).
* Editor development.
* Event channel module: all type of events (GUI widget, keyboard, mouse & script events).
* GUI-related development.
* Network support.
* Pathfinding, blocking, line of sight.
* Scripting development (Python, for a more detailed description, have a look at the following paragraph).
* Video module: SDL software renderer, OpenGL hardware renderer
* View module development.
* VFS module: virtual file system.
* Unit test development.
Scripting module engineer
We did recently add Python support to our framework by utilizing
SWIG. You would work on implementing features into FIFE that are not performance-critical and can be written in Python therefore. Basic C++ knowledge will be sufficent; advanced Python experience is more important for this position. Another plus would be if you would have worked with SWIG before and could help out with possible arising issues (e.g. object ownership between framework core (C++) and script side (Python) or exception handling were two of the potential pitfalls we did recently discover).
We're using the Python-based
SCons tool as build system for our project. Experience with this build tool would be another fantastic additional skill for any interested developer as we intend to improve our build scripts in the long run.
Python game engineer
The team is currently working on a so FIFE-based example game entitled "Island_demo". The purpose of this undertaking is to create an example game that:
* proofs that FIFE is ready to create a full featured game with it.
* helps us to create a reasonable API for game creators by testing the usability of it in an actual game project.
* provides a starting point for game creators by offering example content that they can modify and play around with.
Your task as techdemo developer would be to help with the API design by implementing techdemo features in Python. We plan to replace the current raw API that is shaped after the C++ framework code and simply exposed to Python via SWIG with a more pythonic one by introducing an additional API layer. For more information about the API plans see:
More pythonic scripting API for FIFE
Project manager
Project management is a quite complex task as there are a lot of different aspects you can work on. The most important ones are:
* Public relations: write blog updates about the current status of the project and help to spread the word about FIFE.
* Milestone planning: work out a roadmap for the next releases together with the programming staff.
* Developer recruitment: advertize the project and try to find new interested developers this way. Actually this is what I'm doing here right at this very moment
For more information about all project management related aspects:
Project management
Basically we're searching for someone who's willing to learn about the basics of project management by working on an actual game development project. No need to be afraid: I've learned a fair share about project management in the two years since the project was founded so I can provide you with proper guidance
Macintosh maintainer - <font color="green]position open</font>
FIFE compiles fine on Linux & Win32 systems. The code itself should be 100% PPC compatible but we're lacking an experienced Macintosh-based programmer who could act as maintainer for this platform and build release binaries.
There is already a build guide for Macintosh systems in place though it might be slightly outdated by now. Check it out here:
Guide: building FIFE on Macintosh systems
Win32 maintainer
The majority of the active developers run Linux-based systems. We would need somebody on the team who takes care of the following aspects:
* Compile SDK: maintain the official Win32 compile SDK. The compile SDK is a collection of tools (scons, mingw, SWIG) and libraries we utilize for building FIFE on Win32 systems. The compile SDK supports scons (mingw), code::blocks (mingw) & MSVC 2005 (MS Visual C++) as build environments. As libraries tend to get outdated over the time your task would be to update the SDK package with the latest available tools and libraries and test if they work fine in combination with the supported build environments.
* Release packaging: take care of packaging official FIFE releases as well as unofficial SVN snapshots for Win32 systems.
For more information about the mentioned tasks see:
Compile SDK
Release packaging (draft)
Team structure: (only currently active members listed!)
jwt - software engineer (framework core)
mvBarracuda - project management
m64 - software engineer (video module)
vtchill - software engineer (unittests)
My job as project manager is to keep the team together and to ensure that the
communication structure inside the team works so everyone enjoys working on the project. Among other things I'm responsible for the recruitment of new developers, writing
developer blog updates, maintaining the
project wiki and to provide the official win32 packages and prebuilt SVN snapshots.
Links:
Homepage
Development wiki
Getting started guide for interested developers
FIFE documentation (doxygen, epydoc, IRC logs to follow soon)
Design documents
Developer blog
Roadmap for the upcoming releases
FIFE-based games in development:
Keys of Naand - a medieval fantasy RPG
OpenAnno - a strategy game / economy simulation inspired by the Anno game series
Zero-Projekt: Was vom Morgen blieb - A postnuclear RPG set in a German wasteland
Current release:
Stable:
FIFE 2008.1 Win32 (official release based on r2512)
FIFE 2008.1 source package (official release based on r2512)
Experimental:
FIFE 2008.1 Win32 (official release based on r2512)
Ways to contact the team:
IRC channel: irc.quakenet.org | #fife
eMail: mvBarracuda AT web DOT de
ICQ: 98600423
MSN: mvBarracuda AT web DOT de
AIM: barrafife
Important:
We've moved away from our Fallout roots over the last months. Since the 2007.2 release FIFE doesn't support loading Fallout maps anymore but just our own XML-based map format. If you want to use the Fallout maps with older FIFE releases you will need a legit copy of Fallout 1 or 2.
Videos:
2008.0 promotion trailer
Screenshots:
To give you an impression of the current status of FIFE we took sample screenshots of the two most recent stable releases and one that shows FIFE in combination with Fallout's assets.
2008.1 milestone:
2008.0 milestone:
2007.2 techdemo:
2007.1 techdemo:
Fallout support:
Feedback:
Feel free to add whatever feedback you like
Criticism will help us to improve the project.
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