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Topic: TimeWarp & TW-Light (Read 3500 times)
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Zzzzrrr
Zebranky food
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Posts: 19
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What happened to the Timewarp and TW-Light projects? They both have a very nice Melee with awesome graphics and ships. The latest version of TW-Light seems to be stable, for the most part.....
Anyone interested in trying the network melee with TW-Light?
Also, does anyone know if there are plans in the works to update UQM with new graphics?
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Baltar
*Many bubbles*
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Posts: 109
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I'm also curious to hear what youBastrd has done with my project but alas last night when I happened to check the board at the same time as him I noticed that he was checking this thread...yet no response.
All I've heard at this point is that UAF gave up on the project some months back because he 'was tired of waiting'. I think he publicized his plot document, which was an amalgam of alot of old materials plundered from us with some of his own lame-ass ideas thrown in.
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youBastrd
Frungy champion
Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 67
It's real velour, just let yourself go.
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What happened to the Timewarp and TW-Light projects? They both have a very nice Melee with awesome graphics and ships. The latest version of TW-Light seems to be stable, for the most part..... Hi Zzzzrrr,
Thanks for the nice comments. The games do feature nice melee, smooth graphics and a nice variety of ships. I'd like to take credit for the projects, but really I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants that wrote the game: The_Fly, KBoom, Orz, Tau, Geoman, Culture20, Yurand, and many, many others over a period of about eight n' a half years. Their contributions made the game what it is.
Zzzzrrr, I'd like to paint a rosy picture that the projects are currently moving as quickly they were previously. But real lives have changed us all, and most have moved on to greener pastures. There are a few patches and new people coming through, but the reality is that it's been about seven months since the last commit to TW-Light, and GeomanNL has stopped active development on Timewarp. While there are lots of plans and ideas, commits to the source are the only thing that matter at the end of the day. There is so much potential in what could be added, and if the goals were small enough, it would be possible to get the project rolling again.
If people do have patches, bug reports etc, please feel free to send them in.
The gaming climate is changing: 2D games are going out of fashion in certain places like store-bought, AAA console games, but rising in popularity in places like cell phone and XBox Live with games like Wik: Fable of Souls, and Geometry Wars. There is a huge variety of Flash-based games online: if one desires making a smaller, free game, it does not require making a huge investment as it does for a C++ game. Also, the idea of writing your own software in C++ from scratch is less popular. The trend is definitely to make mods for existing game engines instead, as the vast majority of coding has already been done. Its worth mentioning here that the codebase in TW-Light is rather difficult to navigate. Many best coding practices weren't common 8 years ago, and haven't yet been refactored into the code.
Part of the challenge is that if Toys for Bob does make a real Star Control game, one would expect it to be better than Timewarp or TW-Light. This puts the developers of these projects in a difficult position, as the projects may become redundant.
So in reality, Timewarp is in a kind of mid-age crisis, looking for its own identity. What is its niche, its target audience? What problem does this software solve? Is it to appease hardcore Star Control fans while waiting for a real Star Control game from TFB? Is it to end up on Linux distro CDs? Is it to provide a free, fun game; if so, how is this better than browsing newgrounds.com etc, or perhaps just playing free demos of AAA games?
Zzzzrrr, you do raise a good point to keep the game as simple as possible, and stick to what currently works, namely melee.
In any event, the efforts are driven solely by passion, patches from the community and positive comments. So please, keep the positive contributions coming. 
Cheers,
yB!
PS I hate to have to add this, but clearly Seth Austin AKA Baltar does not not own anything in Timewarp, TW-Light or TWX. I have extensive documentation to prove this legally, including his own admission of this fact. I have also made several requests to leave me, this project and its developers alone. We have no tolerance for his history of abusive behaviour. Leave us alone!
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Culture20
Enlightened
Offline
Posts: 917
Thraddash Flower Child
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I'm still occasionally editing little files here and there so that the latest TW will compile on my newer linux systems, and I'll submit to CVS/SVN when I'm done, but as yB said, RL is a 6!tc4. That, and a strong desire to spread myself too thin doing anything I'm slightly interested in.
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Zzzzrrr
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 19
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Thanks for the nice comments. The games do feature nice melee, smooth graphics and a nice variety of ships. I'd like to take credit for the projects, but really I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants that wrote the game: The_Fly, KBoom, Orz, Tau, Geoman, Culture20, Yurand, and many, many others over a period of about eight n' a half years. Their contributions made the game what it is.
Thanks for getting back to me with so much information. I agree that small incremental steps could take TW-Light a long way if the goals are realistic. As I mentioned before, I think the game should simply focus on melee and ship design. The game engine and graphics are already very good. Bug fixes, network improvements, cross-platform functionality, and maybe an improvement of the physics engine are all that are necessary to make it very playable.
The gaming climate is changing: 2D games are going out of fashion in certain places like store-bought, AAA console games, but rising in popularity in places like cell phone and XBox Live with games like Wik: Fable of Souls, and Geometry Wars. Part of the challenge is that if Toys for Bob does make a real Star Control game, one would expect it to be better than Timewarp or TW-Light. This puts the developers of these projects in a difficult position, as the projects may become redundant.... What is its niche, its target audience? What problem does this software solve?
The top-down 2D aspect of Star Control is the game's strength. I don't think it would be the same if they tried to modernize it with 3D or a make it into a FPS or simulator. The reason I enjoy Melee is much is that I can sit down and bang out a quick game in 5 minutes of arcade style action and not get sucked into a virtual world where I burn countless hours.
The mission of TimeWarp should be to provide Star Control fans with a playable, network capable, and updated version of the original Super Melee. I also think it would be a fun project to work on as an amateur programmer and game developer. IF (and this is a big IF) TFB ever releases a new SC game I don't think the TW project needs to die. #1 it's still a fun game, #2 it would be fun to work on, and #3 maybe the project could serve as an "Open StarControl" for the real Star Control game. Just like OpenOffice or OpenSuse, etc....
Thanks,
Zzzzrrr
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