PHP, and other ways to enhance Creatures

I’ve been cheating a bit on CAOS, you see. I’ve decided to branch out a bit and dabble in some other programming languages, starting with PHP. I started by writing up some simple ATTR/BHVR calculators; if you’re a developer, you might find these useful. But I’ve been thinking a lot about other ways programming languages besides CAOS can be used to enhance gameplay and benefit our tiny community as a whole.

Of course, other programming languages have been aiding the CC for a long time. Web-based programming is what brings us wonderful tools like LiveGMS and The Creature Repository, not to mention the Creatures Wiki and all our forums and blogs. And it's hard to even start when you get into non-web applications: all our 3rd party sprite viewers, gene editors, and direct game tools like DevThing... why, the community simply would not be the same without these tools.

I decided to start with PHP because web-based programming seems to be the way of the future. My first inclination, as told by my first calculators, is to use PHP as an aid in writing CAOS.

Now, it wouldn't be too impossible to write, say, a code generator in which you input a few variables like classifiers, image file names, and so on, and it spits out the cosfile for a basic food/toy agent. But I just really don't see that benefiting the community much, especially since, in my opinion, I believe we as developers ought to be focusing on additions to the game that mix things up and change the way we play; not just creating more of the same thing with different sprites.

But on the other hand, it might be a good starting point for new developers-- they might excitedly generate a Creatures version of their favorite toy and then seek to learn out to alter it to make it more complex, which could be a lot less intimidating than writing code from scratch. Something else to consider is the occasional newbie who is still enchanted by vanilla gameplay and would really enjoy a simple way to create their own food and toys on a whim.

But if I'm going to make code generators, I'm more inclined to generate Magic Words templates or code for dialogue boxes (I hate, hate coding dialogue boxes; finding an easier way is actually very high priority for me)

Something else that's been brought up is the notion of a web-based version of EasyPRAY. Personally, I think that utilizing something like CAOS2PRAY would remain easier, since the "blanks" you fill in would be about the same, only you'd have to go through the extra steps of opening your browser and downloading the generated prayfile. But it's still something to consider, particularly since agents for the Garden Box I've been working on actually use their own chunk type-- something neither EasyPRAY nor CAOS2PRAY supports. I also might be able to code a way to search the cosfile for potential dependencies, which could take some work off the developer's hands.

So the potential of using PHP to develop CAOS aids is certainly there, but what about other aspects of development? Something I was tossing in my head long before I picked up PHP was the idea of a site that focused on collaborative community projects, with a variety of features.

The first aspect would be a sort of developers' database, wherein developers (anyone registered on the site) would create a profile containing contact information, information about what they like to develop, their availability, and their skillsets, be that CAOS, spriting, 3D modeling, gene editing, concept sketching, as well as other programming languages and really, any skill that might be useful to the community. You could then basically search for a spriter or a coder or whatever you needed, and then contact them to see if they were interested in helping you out.

The second aspect would be a project ideas database, where people could post project proposals and ideas, and other users could vote in favor or against certain ideas. It would then be easy to gauge what ideas were popular and in demand just by glancing at the list. When an idea became popular enough, it would open up to development. A project manager (by default, the user who proposed the idea, but the role could be handed off to someone else if needed, or even shared among multiple people) would then make a task list.

Each task would include the skillset required and a detailed description of what needed to be done. Some tasks would obviously need do only be done once, something like "Spriting: A red and yellow-striped beach ball with animations for bouncing and popping." but it could also be a repeatable task, especially in the early/planning stages, something like "Sketching: Five concepts for undersea creatures, front and side views."

Interested contributors could then search for tasks that were needed by category and apply for them. Some tasks would require approval of the project manager first (to avoid say, someone signing up for something they may not have the skillset for.) Their contributions to various projects would be tracked in their profile.

Another, sort of offshoot feature would be a favor-trading board. This would be for tasks that aren't a part of a larger project; for example, if I was working on a personal project and need a sprite done, or if someone with no scripting experience just wanted an agent that turned norns to statues when they were touched (or something) and couldn't do it for themselves, they could post this on the favor-trading board, and offer something in exchange from their own skillset.

Something like this, while way out of my league at the moment, is still entirely possible for the future. The biggest problem with something this big and well-organized though, is that our community is simply just too small and inactive to fully utilize it. It would be an enormous amount of work for something maybe twenty or so people would really actively use. Still, it's nice to dream sometimes.

What of you guys? Can you think of any web-based programming possibilities that might benefit the community?