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Gitorious.org is dead, new host is Github.com

Gitorious.org is dead, new host is Github.com published on No Comments on Gitorious.org is dead, new host is Github.com

A long time ago, the infamous klaatu of GNU World Order fame, recommended Gitorious.org to me for a free and GNU friendly git host. I’ve been using them since, but the business model of (free) code hosting is a difficult problem to solve (just look at the recent Sourceforge scandals), and I was sad to receive an e-mail from them early this year about their closing down.

Gitorious was bought by Gitlab, a relatively well-known competitor of github.com. I’ve been discussing the move with Kastian for a while, and after trying out some alternatives, we ended up going for github.com. Here’s the current repo layout on github:

The main repo is the development version with current master (releases) and dev (development) branches. It will probably also contain some drafts of text-only documents for the background history, bestiary etc. in the future. The GPL only repository is provided as a courtesy for those who only want to look at/use/clone the Biamin «game engine» without any Creative Commons licensed artwork. The GPL version follows the official release cycle, with a short delay. The Legacy repo is provided for my own nostalgia, and contains the final version of the original game. It will only receive bugfixes.

The guys at gitorious.org are kind enough to continue hosting the static pages that are there now, and we’ve added a notice on each repo header to inform about the move to github.

Naturally, the move to github broke our update script, but that stopped working when we changed the branch models of the main repository. In order to future-safe the update script, I’ll be looking at using sigg3.net for hosting the release versions, regardless of code/git host. That’s all for now, more news to come shortly!

Back In a Minute First Public Release, Version 1.2!

Back In a Minute First Public Release, Version 1.2! published on 1 Comment on Back In a Minute First Public Release, Version 1.2!

After about a year of accidental coding and 2196 LOC, I’m proud to announce the first public release of Back in a minute or biamin; version 1.2! This game is dedicated to the Free and Open Source Software community. Please share it.

To get the software, you can either download it directly from my server or clone the git repository up at gitorious.org; follow the instructions on the download page.

The game has a dual license, GNU GPL 3 for code and CC BY-NC-SA Int. 4.0 for artwork, click here for licensing details. A GPL-only version without art is planned, but not ready at the moment.

The game requires BASH, and is UTF-8 compatible and POSIX compliant to the best of my admittedly humble knowledge. It looks best in a white on black colored terminal emulator with 80×24 "resolution". The game has been tested in xfce4-terminal and gnome-terminal on Slackware 14 and Fedora 17. It works in console too, but since the game presupposes 80×24 it doesn’t very nice. For some as of yet unknown reason, the terminal emulator may act funny if the game crashes. Please don’t play biamin in a window you cannot close.

Back in a minute needs a directory to store files, the default being:
/home/$(whoami)/Games/biamin/
but this is easily changed on LINE 10 in the CONFIGURATION header of the script. The game stores character sheets (.sheet files), a highscore file, a color configuration file and some temporary files in that directory. If you want to have several players access the same game (e.g. competing for the best highscore) you need to change LINE 10 accordingly and make sure every user has read/write access to that folder.

Usage: biamin or ./biamin.sh
(NO ARGUMENTS) display this usage text and exit
--play PLAY the game "Back in a minute"
--announce DISPLAY an adventure summary for social media and exit
--map CREATE custom map template with instructions and exit
--help display help text and exit
--usage display this usage text and exit
--version display version and licensing info and exit

The game features a number of "screens" that have several options. Use the keyboard keys indicated, e.g. (M)ap or (C)haracter, to navigate the screens. There are 8 secret items randomly hidden in the world. When you find the first one, you will be able to see one of the remaining 7 on the map. If you get that far..

The four races you can play as are Human, Elf, Dwarf and Hobbit. The Human provides the normal difficulty, whereas the other three gives you different advantages and drawbacks. I recommend playing as Human first to get the hang of it. The races’ characteristics are subject to change depending on feedback from you guys.

There are many monsters and villains in the Old World, so expect to perish. However, you can (R)est anywhere in the map to regain health points, and you may find magical items that give you special powers!

If you get sick and tired of the default map, you may create your own for re-playability ./biamin.sh --map will create a map template in your game directory, and follow the instructions provided on the screen.

If you’re into social media and want to brag about your highscore, running: ./biamin.sh --announce will create a short adventure summary for the masses! Since this feature only applies to heroes that have already reached the top 10 of the highscore, you cannot "announce" a living character.

I hope you have as much fun playing it as I did creating it. I’ve also played it a lot. Feel free to submit bug reports on https://gitorious.org/back-in-a-minute or on my bugs page. I will look at them ASAP. Feel free to e-mail me feedback through the form provided on the Feedback and donations page. Thank you and have fun!

Created gitorious project with 2 repos for biamin

Created gitorious project with 2 repos for biamin published on No Comments on Created gitorious project with 2 repos for biamin

I’ve created a project for Back in a minute on gitorious with 2 repos: Code and GPL-only. The latter is for those purists who wants to browse or use the GPL v. 3 licensed code without the tacked on Creative Commons licensed artwork. The former contains the full game, and I expect this is the repo that will see any use.

URL: https://gitorious.org/back-in-a-minute

There is still no code up there, but I’ll see whether I get the time to push some code up there before New Year’s Eve. Anyway, merry Christmas! Go have a good meal and some Christmas ale and check back in here in a few days. See ya!

Added feedback and donations button

Added feedback and donations button published on No Comments on Added feedback and donations button

I added a feedback page that has a donations button that supports any donation sent over PayPal or the Bitcoin network. Thank you for any donations!

I also have decided to leave the social media –announce function in the program, so as to spread the word. I am currently finding out the right way to implement this, but I am also doing a 20 page exam until December 16th, so biamin isn’t top priority atm.