Dwell - A Retro Sandbox Survival MMO

[Jungletoe]

I made a blog post about modding in Dwell:

I just added a modding system. Here’s how it’ll work:

    -I add a keyword that you enter into mods.txt
    -I code a mod that only activates if you have the keyword in the mods.txt
    -I encourage everyone to allow me to make mods for them, instead of them needing to create mods themselves

Here are a list of available mods:

    -NO_SHADERS (disables shaders)
    -DEBUG (print packet data)
    -GLASS_OBJECTS (makes all objects semi-transparent)
    -MAPPER (saves map data so you can make detailed world maps)
    …more to come…

At the moment, these are just options, not mods. In the future, more significant “mods” will be added by a select modder’s group.

I'm considering releasing the client opensource to GitHub and allowing the community to add on mods and such. Any thoughts on how this might work? I've never worked on opensource software and I thought you SFMLers would know more than I do

[Lo-X]

Hell yeah I'm waiting for that =) I'm very curious about some parts. Plus open sourcing can benefits you, if people participate.

[Jungletoe]

Hell yeah I'm waiting for that =) I'm very curious about some parts. Plus open sourcing can benefits you, if people participate.

Exactly. The one thing I'm worried about is that my code is too ugly. I guess I can have a bunch of people help me out

I'm also not sure about how I want to allow people to modify it. It might cut into my profits a bit, but if the game ends up becoming widely modded, then it could positively affect the PR of the game. Also, I'm not sure if Steam will even allow something like this. We're looking into it!

EDIT:
Another option would be to only allow a small group of modders access to the source. It would probably ultimately end up being leaked, but if I keep it tight enough, it might not be such a huge issue.

[Nexus]

The alternative is that you don't give access to the whole C++ source code, but to some dynamic modules, for example in the form of Lua scripts. Dynamic components make the code initially more complicated, but you can benefit from faster prototyping and more flexibility.

[Jungletoe]

The alternative is that you don't give access to the whole C++ source code, but to some dynamic modules, for example in the form of Lua scripts. Dynamic components make the code initially more complicated, but you can benefit from faster prototyping and more flexibility.

Yup, that's a possibility as well and would work better.

[Aquacalvin]

WOW! This looks amazing! Reminds me of the old Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past. Keep up the great work.

[Jungletoe]

[G.]

It looks great!
I'm looking forward to hunting deers trapped between trees and killing Venny. Good times...

Here's a pic of my house inside a mountain from one year ago. :p (and fun evening at Venny's house )

[Jungletoe]

Oh hey

Oh yes, fighting the elusive tree-deer. I think we'll need to balance that somehow hmm... Also, we made it harder to grief. Digging now drains your stamina (which is precious in Dwell), so it would be hard to destroy too much.

[Jungletoe]

Screenshake is a pretty powerful tool when used correctly.

[lordseanington]

Looks like a great and interesting game.
 

[Borax Kid]

Really nice, i can't wait to play it!

I have a question: for which part do you need libnoise in your game ?

[G.]

Map generation seems like a reasonable guess. :p

[electrux]

i really need to learn wat and how data will flow on network... tried making an mmo like game but gave up coz i dont have enough knowledge on network atm... so... ima try making single player first anyways nice job

[Jungletoe]

Map generation seems like a reasonable guess. :p

Correct. There are 3 programs. Client, Server, and Map Generator.

Looks like a great and interesting game.
 

Thanks bro

i really need to learn wat and how data will flow on network... tried making an mmo like game but gave up coz i dont have enough knowledge on network atm... so... ima try making single player first anyways nice job

Starting off on SFML's networking lib is a great way to learn. We just switched to Enet's lib because SFML couldn't handle our level of traffic, but SFML's lib is by far the easiest and most intuitive way to get familiarized.