Gameplay programmer application - Melkon

[Melkon]

Position: Gameplay programmer, i am not really sure i can help in that because i am lack of experience, but i will try to be useful.

Do you understand that Wildfire Games is a non-commercial project, work for 0 A.D. is volunteer, and work is done for free?

Yes

Do you agree to distribute all your work for Wildfire Games under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license?

Yes

Name:

Attila Szenczi (alias Melkon)

Email:

melkonka (at) gmail (dot) com

Skype:

m3ikon

Location:

Hungary

Availability:

I guess about 20h a week, i can guarantee at least 10 in the next 6 month.

Age:

22

Occupation:

Study, hopefully slowly works too.

Skills and Experience:

I am lack of experience, i learn programming in my university.

Motivation:

I want to make games.

Personality:

"Just one more chapter and i go to sleep."

Short Essay:

Today, i searched for C++ game projects in google, i saw a topic from last year where you searched for developers, and i am lucky because you still do it.

Actually nowadays i work on my first project (http://code.google.com/p/melkontd/), i know it's not a big deal and the code is terrible, i like to join you because i want to improve myself. I always wanted to make games, so when i saw your project it was no question for me that i must try to join you.

Interests and Hobbies:

I really enjoy to play board games, there was a half year when we played through every night.

I like to read fantasy books, actually i mostly read the same books over and over again. I also like to play table tennis and of course i enjoy to playing video games. When i can go to a concert from some of my favourite band i always go.

I am also a big fan of Trading Card Games, i was a professional HKK (It's a hungarian TCG that started in 1995, a bit similar to MTG) player, i try most online TCG and i can spend alot of time to play with them.

Staff:

No

Community:

(Optional) What communities, websites, or forums do you frequent that relate to your interests and the gaming world?

Favorite Game:

At the moment it's League of Legend, i am not bad in that (statistically i am in the best 2%), and because i really love how Riot improve their game and how they communicate with player base i think it's my overall favourite too.

Work Examples:

As i mentioned before, i am lack of experience, i can only give you that: http://code.google.com/p/melkontd/ i know that's not too much.

Edited July 17, 2013 by Melkon

[plumo]

Welcome, Attila (epic name by the way )!

One of the programmers will get to you soon, or go on our IRC irc://irc.quakenet.org/0ad

[sanderd17]

I've just started programming for 0AD too, and it's organised a bit archaic. You just pick a task you'd like to do, work on it and ask for review.

The tasks can all be found on trac: trac.wildfiregames.com/report/1 with some easy ones in this list: trac.wildfiregames.com/report/15

To get to know the code, I propose to also check out the wiki: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki (it also mentions the process for patch submission and reviewing)

And when you have questions, irc://irc.quakenet.org/0ad-dev is a better choice to be as a developer.

Also, if you want to change gameplay, you have to play the game. Just to avoid introducing oddities in the gameplay.

Edited July 18, 2013 by sanderd17

[RedFox]

Hello, Atilla, glad to have another programmer signing up to help with 0 A.D.

Taking a look at the code, you still have some fields to improve in, but I think you can definitely do it

What I found:

• Comments - If you're a beginner, then this doesn't make sense, but honestly, you should comment every function of your project with even a brief description - even if the function itself is obvious. This habit has saved me a lot of trouble in the past when I have to edit code I wrote years ago. I suggest you follow the Doxygen commenting style, since that is what we use in 0 A.D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxygen
  
• References - You don't seem to use pass-by-reference for objects. In general, it is a good habit to forward structures like Vector2f as 'const Vector2f&', to avoid a copy-constructor. In general, everything bigger than 8 bytes should be passed as a const reference (like Vector3f, which we use a lot). Here's a few articles on const correctness: http://www.parashift...view-const.html.
  
• Const Correctness - If you want to write good C++, you must also write your code to be const correct - functions that don't modify object state, should be declared as const and return const reference to a non-POD (plain-old-data) type:
  sf::Vector2i ClickableArea::getChoord1(); // before
  const sf::Vector2i& ClickableArea::getChoord1() const; // after
  
• Code Formatting - While this is a philosophical debate at its heart, in general we want code to stick to this standard, which is the most readable: http://trac.wildfire...ions#Formatting
  
• Code Quality - You should try to make code simple and readable. Over-complicating code can make it harder to read for others. For example:
  

This code:

bool Tower::haveValidTarget(std::vector<Minion*> minions)
{
if(true==haveTarget && isInRange(target))
return true;
else
{
for(auto it=minions.begin();it!=minions.end();++it)
{
if(isInRange(*it))
{
target=*it;
return true;
}
}
}
haveTarget=false;
return haveTarget;
}

Could be better written as:

/**
* Updates the current target minion.
* The first minion that appears in range is chosen.
* @param minions Vector of minions
* @return True if a minion is targeted, False if no target.
*/
bool Tower::haveValidTarget(const std::vector<Minion*>& minions)
{
// old target still in range?
if (haveTarget && isInRange(target))
return true; // keep firing at it

// we need a new target:
for (Minion* minion : minions)
{
if (isInRange(minion)) // pick the first minion in range as new target
{
target = minion; // target in sight
haveTarget = true; // you should set this value if you want to use it
return true;
}
}
haveTarget = false;
return false; // no targets in sight
}

You should also notice that you made a serious programming error by passing 'std::vector<Minion*>' By-Value. This means it copied the entire vector instead of passing it as a reference 'std::vector<Minion*>&'.

For now I recommend joining the IRC Developer Chat, grabbing a copy of the SVN repository via our Trac and then find yourself a Ticket you feel comfortable with.

Here's our guide for submitting patches: http://trac.wildfire...bmittingPatches

Have fun!

[Melkon]

Thank you for answers and code review, i will do my best to improve.

[RedFox]

Great If you have any more questions, feel free to join our IRC Dev Chat: http://webchat.quakenet.org/?channels=0ad-dev

[Melkon]

Great If you have any more questions, feel free to join our IRC Dev Chat: http://webchat.quake...hannels=0ad-dev

I am here.