[Hajo]

Hi,

I've been posting questions since a while and talked now and then a bit about my new toy project. Yet I've been and I am quite hesitant to announce it here since:

- It's not a RPG in strict sense.
- It doesn't feature anime-style graphics.
- Compared to other current projects, it looks and is very simple.
- It's in a very, very early stage.

But hey, I've been asked about it and promised to post an announcement once a new version is out. So I post an introduction here.

What is it meant to be? I've tried to put it all into this one paragraph:

Sonnheim - A place in the sun, to meet friends and explore worlds. Sonnheim is a multi user environment consisting of landscape and city like maps. It tries to combine the ideas of socializing and role playing and provides an environment for this.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sonnheim/

It's written in Java, it's tile-based, client-server and open source. I've tried to be reasonable with resources, but performance optimisation was not a no. 1 goal, while swift development was and is. The choice of Java came along with that, it's not particularly fast, but easy (for me).

Some documentation can be found here:
http://sonnheim.wiki.sourceforge.net/

And a more verbose introduction of the project:
http://sonnheim.wiki.sourceforge.net/Sonnheim+Introduction

And some screenies, but better download it and look at it 'live'. These are not quite up to date.
http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=198872

Why did I start this project, and what are my goals?

Reasons have been manyfold. And it's a long story. A bit more than two years ago I quit all my projects, since I thought they ruin my life, take too much time away, time that better goes into other activities. But it didn't work out that way, I had more time, but it neither improved my life, my personal situation, nor made it feel anything any better. At some point I called it a failed try; I'll never have a life ... I mean what others call a life. It's just not my thing. So I looked for things to do, to fill the time, the emptiness and since I don't really seem interested in much else, I went back to programming and painting. Not that I'm particularly skilled with graphics, but I like paint and model.

Sonnheim is my toy project now, where I can spend time and have the feeling to do something sensible. Without it, my life would just suck more. I like the project, the ideas, and maybe I can pull it off, make it what the intro says, an online world to explore and meet friends. Currently it's mostly a dream though, and something I can work on, something that at least feels remotely sensible.

Maybe in some years it will change into a real online world :)

Kind regards,
Hajo

[BadMrBox]

Do I have to set up my own server to be able to test it?
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[Hajo]

[MDS-MU]

[Hajo]

I'm also not quite sure if open source is a good idea. But one of my other projects lately went open source, and within a few days people started to submit patches. It was a nice experience :) That project has a fairly big and active community, though, accumulated over the years.

Another of my projects was released open source and died soon thereafter since I had discontinued work and noone else wanted to take over.

One of my hopes is that I can include source snippets from other open source projects that are similar, although I didn't do that yet. Another hope is that people might take a look at the code if they face a problem and maybe suggest patches or fixes. For the latter the project is too young, though, and it would first need some people who are interested in it. So I must get it further completed first, before this hope can be fulfilled.

Making money would be a nice side-effect, but sometimes I think money is bad for hobby project. Actually I don't think I'll ever have to worry about this, though ;)

If someone takes things from my project to use in theirs, I think I should feel honored that it was considered good enough. A long time I was afraid people could "steal" my work and I tried to "protect" it, but these days I think it was wrong thinking, which only lead to fears and worried thoughts.

The game is prepared for simple animations, but I was too lazy to draw more than the basic frames for each direction yet. Some day this will come, though. Pixel-precise scrolling isn't a problem. Smooth scrolling, maybe Java is too slow overall, I must see. Until I'm there, everyone has a faster PC anyways ;)

I'm happy that you like the graphics and the ideas. I like them too :P

One thing that I learned from my former projects is, to keep things simple. At least while working alone. If it gets too complex, at some point it will be work instead of fun. I hope that I find a good balance, to keep it simple enough to modify and enhance it with ease, while still having everything that is needed to make it interesting.

Thank you for the feedback! It's much welcome :)

[Verious]

Hajo, how is development progressing on Sonnheim?

[Hajo]

[Hajo]

"How I mine for fish?"

When looking for interesting pastimes for players in Sonnheim I came across mining. The implementation is a bit crude but basically it works:

http://sonnheim.wiki.sourceforge.net/Mining

It's cool and the limited range of view gives a nicely confined and endangered feeling there. Much like real mines would do, I guess. I like the effect.

The next thing that I tried, have been simple walking animations. It seems to be required, no one seems to accept a game where the avatars just hop from square to square it seems.

I'm just terribly bad painting animations and have no help with graphics currently :(

After seemingly endless hours of work I now have the most basic things together, avatar and the most needed clothing overlays for simplest possible walking animation. *sigh* It's just enough that I can say it's some animation, but I'm afraid it will scare more players away from the project than it will attract.

Is there someone here who would like to help with Sonnheim graphics?

A few screenies of what I have so far can be found here:
http://sonnheim.gotdns.org/sonnheim/screens.html

[Hajo]

I thought it might be time for an update:

http://sonnheim.wiki.sourceforge.net/Sonnheim+project+status

PCs can now group into parties, there is an accounting system for players to keep track of all their characters, numerous bugfixes and small additions have been made.

A simple combat system is now in place, and a simple monster AI is about complete, with a minor buglet in the animation of moving monsters.

But the reason why I post is, that Sonnheim underwent the first real test online :)

http://simugraph.com/feedback_forum/viewtopic.php?t=60

It was up on the projected server, and a friend and me ran around and tested the various features. We found some quirks and buglets, but the server was up and stable from start to end of the test when we logged off, calling the test complete.

Ok, two players online for about 30-45 minutes isn't that much, but hey, it worked and didn't crash!

I think I should try to merge the "LA Crawl" module back into the main development line, but the clash of art styles is just too big. Maybe for the next while a compromise must do, with much missing and low quality artwork, and a few things completed, showing what could be done with the engine.

[Verious]

Congratulations on the successful test, it sounds like things are progressing well.

If you need more people to logon for the next test, I would be willing to help and I'm sure there are other people on this site as well.

[Terry]

Yeah, count me in too :)

Congrats, Hajo!
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http://www.distractionware.com

[BadMrBox]

Count me in too :D.
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[Hajo]

Wow, now that is some nice surprise :)

I'll sure let you know once a new version is up for testing. Thank you for your interest!

[Mattias Gustavsson]

I'd be happy to join in as well :-)
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[RedSlash]

Me too! Well.. only if you can't find enough people.