Volume 2, Issue 1 - August 17, 2008
irc.windfyre.net #zfgc
This week's banner courtesy of LuisaRafidi and icon courtesy of mit
Hello members, and welcome to another issue of ZFGC Weekly! Here's what's in this week's issue:
1. Community Announcements (Ctrl+F CA0104)
2. Best of the Forum (Ctrl+F BF0104)
3. Weekly Awards (Ctrl+F WA0104)
4. The Big Question (Ctrl+F BQ0104)
5. Featured Project:
ZFGC-API and an interview with its creator, Infini (Ctrl+F FP0104)
Community Announcements (CA0104)-- The Nintendo Community Fangame Convention is being held once again! The chance to check out demos from Nintendo fan game developers the interbutts over is on the way! Details, including how to register, can be found in this general direction:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30428.0-- Serious about your spam? Who isn't? The spam board is back on ZFGC for another round of brain-cell-corrupting fun, but this time, there's a catch. What's the catch, Hoffy? Find out here:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30350.0-- ZFGC's games and resources database is filling up slowly but surely! Need to find a sprite sheet? A MIDI? Maybe you just wanna sit down and chill out with a game of Super Smash Bros. NES? You can check out these features and more by hovering over the "Games" and "Recourses" tabs above.
The Best of the Forum (BF0103)Here are some of the best quotes of the past week or the most relevant topics of the moment:
Talking Tourneyshttp://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30381.0I didn't enjoy it, because of !@#$% rules.
To Lol Or Not To Lol?http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30502.0Rule number 1 of humor: If you have to explain the joke, it isn't funny.
The Final Debatehttp://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30466.0FFIX was not my favorite game of all time. It's my favorite Final Fantasy game (this side of Tactics, at least), and definitely had some excellent, memorable moments. A few scenes always stand out as exemplary, while others fly by in mediocrity. As far as JRPGs, though, it really doesn't get much better.
Manu-what?http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30310.0Good luck with that, "guy who didn't read the manual".
matuer diskushon u gaisehttp://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30387.0If you feel that you're ready, then why wait? If you're committed to the person you're with (which i am...), then there shouldn't be anything stopping you really.
Not So Cyber Anymorehttp://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30516.0Awesome, sounds like fun.
nb4 Mammy being Jealous.
Got a topic you think should be featured? PM Hoffy or Dantz!
Weekly Awards (WA0104)MIDI of the Weeklegofreak's "To Zanarkand" from Final Fantasy X:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30474.0http://for-shiz.com/legofreak/To%20Zanarkand.mid
Orchestration of the WeekD-Pad's The Legend of Zelda MP3 Orchestrations:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30508.0Download
Cuteness of the WeekFalconPaunch's Yoshi's Story in a Nutshell:
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30509.0http://www.yoroshii.org/Yoshi2.swf
The Big Question (BQ0104)In this section, we'll ask a relevant or interesting question to the community each week, which everyone can discuss, comment on, and generally go gaga over.
This week's question:
Why do people tend to cancel Zelda fan games?Join the discussion at
http://www.zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=30530.0Got an idea for a Big Question? PM Dantz or Hoffy!
Featured Project (FP0104)This week Dantz hacked into the metaverse with Infini to explore the infinite possibilities of his new pet project, ZFGC-API.
The only API most of us are familiar with is DirectX. Can you fill us in on what exactly an API is?API simply stands for Application Programming Interface, which referes to a high-level command set that provides an interface to a OS, library or service. In this case its an interface to a library of code that allows the developer access to ZFGC's database.
Does ZFGC-API function on the same basic principles as other APIs?Yes, it provides a simple high-level interface for the code library, just like all other API's do.
For the concerned programmer, how easy is it to implement an API in your game?I've written a number of different wrappers for the most commonly used languages and RAD tools, so getting it into your language should be no problem. Actually setting it up within your language or tool is incredibly simple, for a bare-bones application it only takes 4 function calls to setup everything ready for you to access the database.
Okay, now we get a bit more specific. How does ZFGC-API work (feel free to be detailed!), and is it compatible with any method of game-making? Will some methods be more ZFGC-API
friendly than others?Well basically when you start your game a connection to a proxy script hosted on zfgc's server is setup, this script is responsible for validating access, providing security, and so forth. Although in reality you will probably will never realise this, as its all handled transparently by simple API calls.
Once this connection is setup your game can send and request information to be inserted into and extracted from ZFGC's database, again this is handled transparently by numerous API functions. There is currently a wide variety of different API functions you can access to do different things to the database, everything from getting a members post count to sending a personal message. Check out the function description topic for a full list.
As for compatibility with different forms of game making; If you can access a DLL, you can use its functionality. The DLL has been designed to be as flexible as possible and as easy to import into any form of language or RAD tool.
How would achievements work? Is there a high degree of flexibility for the developer?The API contains the bare-bones of accessing the database (giving rupees, storing metadata, etc) in an easy, flexible manner, how the developer chooses to use it is up to him. There is nothing to limit the developers imagination.
Is it possible for things to work in reverse? For example, a member attaining certain status on the forum, or posting a secret combination of words, or attaining a certain post count unlocking secret things within the game.As said in the previous answer, the API contains all the bare-bones functionality neccessary to do things like get profile information on a member, so enabling things based on post-count is exceptionally easy, you just get the members profile, check the trigger, and unlock the secret if its set.
Getting crazier...would it be possible, say, in a team-based game, for multiple players to all have to fulfill the same requirements together in order to gain benefits?Again, yes. The API contains the functionality neccessary to do that, how it is done is up to the developer.
Yubel recently suggested a ZFGC Leaderboard. With ZFGC-API, could we see this becoming a reality?Yup, thats pretty easy to do. Hell theres even a simple to use highscore system already implemented in the ZFGC-API.
Will there be prizes for members who attain achievements through ZFGC-API? Say, bonus rupees, special titles, or even secret forums?At the moment achievements on the forums are limited to rupees, highscores, and so forth. The main bonuses are designed to be client-side. However these are all things we are thinking of, its a matter of balancing the security, you don't want a malicious game randomly changing your user title do you
.
Could a player be penalized for negative action in a game? Say if the game offers moral choices. If a player makes an obviously very evil choice, or perhaps kills another player without cause in an online game, could that player be penalized through ZFGC-API? It'd be awesome to see someone's title changed to "The Merciless!"Again, yes. You can take rupees, change profile fields and so on with only a few simple function calls.
Would it be possible for multiple games to trigger one achievement? Let's take a series, for example. Perhaps the player could get a benefit after completing all of the games rather than one?This is actually somewhere where one of my favorite features comes in handy. Per-User, Per-Game metadata. It allows you to store arbitary pieces of data on a users profile, specific to the game. You can use this to store anything from save files, achievements, to general statistics. In this case you could easily use it to store flags like 'Game1Completed', 'Game2Completed' and so forth, all a game in the series would have to do is check for these when you complete it, and if all are set then it can give the bonus prize!
Are there any chances of ZFGC-API becoming open source in the future?No. Due to security reasons inherent in giving access to a confidential database this is highly unlikely.
Is it strictly program-side, or does it rely on OS-specific functions?I'm not quite sure what you mean by this question. If you mean does all the work happen on zfgc's server and none on the client, then no, the work load is split. Non-security conscious work is done on the client, security conscious work is done on the server.
Any rough idea when we can expect a final release?There is a release out now if you wish to use it, check out the ZFGC-API downloads topic. If you want to use it for your game just send me a message with a link to your game in the game database and I'll approve it.
There will be no 'final release', just constant releases adding new features.
Is there anything the community can do to help out with this awesome project?Start using it
.
Know a project you think should be featured? PM Dantz or Hoffy!Authors of this week's issue: Dantz, Hoffy