Re: [Chicken-users] 3D games in Chicken

[Matthew David Parker]

I don't know if it's too early to start suggesting a game to make, but I
have an idea for a pretty simple (artless) game that would actually be
quite useful to me and a lot of people (and fun).

Right now I'm working for my dad who is a computer science professor and I
changed Xpilot (www.xpilot.org) so that you can control your ship using
scheme (chicken).  So we use that to try out neural networks and genetic
algorithms and other artificial intelligence ideas.  It's the perfect game
for it because the controls are so simple (turn, thrust, shoot), yet the
behavior of the ship must be very advanced to avoid walls, dodge bullets,
kill the enemy ship, or capture their flag. He's going to use it to teach
his artificial intelligence class, and we've already gotten a couple of
papers accepted at conferences using it.

I think we should make a 3D version of xpilot from the ground up in
Chicken.  If you want, install xpilot from ftp.xpilot.org and take a look
at it, and imagine a full 3d version.

If you don't want to play the game, here's the gist of what the 3d version
would be like:

-space simulator with realistic physics, accelleration, momentum, etc.
-multi-player client/server, server calculates physics, client displays
relevent game-world data.
-full 3-axis movement.  mouse points ship, another button thrusts
-large cave-like maps made of simple blue wireframe blocks and diagonal
half-blocks.
-little white blocks for bullets

The game would look very retro, mostly black with blue wireframe walls and
white enemy ships and bullets.  Conrolling the ship would be very unique.
In all other space games I have ever seen, the thrust button doesn't
actually make you accelerate, but it makes you go a certain velocity.  In
xpilot it really makes you accelerate, and because there is no friction in
space, you just go faster and faster.  The ship also has a mass and
momentum, so getting it to change directions means that you have to deal
with the momentum of your ship.  It's fun to control the ship like this in
2d, and I get excited when I imagine skimming around the map like this in
3d.  Not to forget that the combat would be entirely unique, as you can
point your ship to shoot in any direction regardless of your ship's
movement.

Also we would make it so the user could control the ship with AI, and get
relevant game-world information for input to the AI.  I am mostly excited
to play this game, but I do think it would be very useful for doing AI that 
could be used for controlling real spacecraft.

So that's my idea for a game, and I hope it gets made sometime by someone.
With a BSD license, of course (Wo! to the GPL...)

Matt