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{{TODO| add information on other parts of arianne}}
Stendhal is a fully fledged and completely free multiplayer online adventures game (MMORPG) developed using the Arianne game development system. It features a new, rich and expanding world in which players can explore towns, plains, caves and dungeons.


== 1. Description of project ==
Players will meet NPCs and acquire tasks and quests for valuable experience and cold hard cash. The character will develop and grow and with each new level become stronger and better. With the money acquired new items can be bought and armor and weapons improved.
And for the blood thirsty ones out there; satisfy your killing desires by roaming the world in search of evil monsters!


== Why and how did you get started? ==


The [http://arianne.sf.net Arianne] project was established in 1999 and is still thriving today. It is an umbrella project, covering several subprojects. The most important ones today are Marauroa, Stendhal and Marboard.


[http://arianne.sourceforge.net/?arianne_url=servers/server_marauroa Marauroa] is an open source framework and engine to develop turn based and real time games. It provides a simple way of creating games on a portable and robust server architecture. Marauroa manages the client server communication and provides an object orientated view of the world for game developers. It further handles database access in a transparent way to store player accounts, character progress and the state of the world.
{{TODO|
The OpenGTS project was first released January 25, 2007. Before that time, I was working on another SourceForge project, OpenDMTP, which was the client-side GPS tracking communication protocol, with an included reference implementation. However, I quickly realized that a GPS tracking system that was hardware independent, allowing the integration of nearly any existing GPS tracking device, was much more useful to people wanting to provide themselves with a GPS tracking system.


[http://arianne.sourceforge.net/?arianne_url=games/game_stendhal Stendhal] is a fully fledged and completely free multiplayer online adventures game (MMORPG). It features a new, rich and expanding world in which players can explore towns, plains, caves and dungeons. Players will meet NPCs (non player characters) and acquire tasks and quests for valuable experience and cold hard cash. The character will develop and grow and with each new level become stronger and more skillful. With the money acquired new items can be bought and armor and weapons improved. And the blood thirsty ones out there can satisfy their killing desires by roaming the world in search of evil monsters.
The first release of OpenGTS just supported storing received events from OpenDMTP protocol devices, and exported KML for display of a map on Google Earth. All database administration to add accounts, device, etc, was performed through command-line tools.


[http://arianne.sourceforge.net/?arianne_url=tools/tool_marboard Marboard] is an early prototype of an easy to use vector graphics program allowing live collaboration over the Internet. While it is not ready for production use yet, it is a good proof that Marauroa is suitable for serious applications, too.
From that point, the project quickly evolved with the addition of other mapping service providers, an included reporting engine, web-based account/device administration interfaces, etc. As various commercial enterprises became aware of the capabilities of the system, they provided a number of suggestions for enhancing the project to fit their particular vertical GPS tracking markets.


== 2. Why and how did you get started? What was the date? ==
Today, OpenGTS is being used for tracking busses, taxis, ships, ATVs, runners, skiiers, patients, pets, emergency service vehicles, water tank levels, scrap containers, tractor/trailers, maintenance crews, etc. To date, it's been downloaded and put to use in over 70 countries around the world and is tracking assets around every continent (including Antarctica).
}}


Arianne was born over ten years ago. In 1999 a posting on Linuxgames about "What I'd like to see in an RPG" was made. When Miguel Angel Blanch Lardin saw the posting he founded the Arianne project, unaware of other games like Nethack which may already fit the criteria. The first version of the website was in Spanish but it was quickly translated to English because of public demand.
== Who is the software's intended audience? ==


Today Stendhal is the subproject most people are interested in. It is interesting to note that it started as a test case for multi zone support in our framework Marauroa, in early 2005.
{{TODO|
For anyone wanting to have a commercial grade GPS tracking system. While the project does come with a step-by-step installation guide, it does require some knowledge of generation server installation procedures, and some familiarity with installing services such as MySQL and Tomcat.}}


== 3. What is the software's intended audience? ==
== What are a couple of notable examples of how people are using your software? ==


Arianne in general is targeted at both game developers (including programmers and artists) and players. This leads to a very nice symbiosis which gives us lots of real usage feedback and allows us to incorporate it quickly. The game Stendhal is fully playable and a lot of people are playing it on a daily basis. It is, however, still in heavy development, with about a new release every month.
{{TODO|
The Panama Canal Authority is using the system to track their service personnel along the Panama Canal. It is being used to track ships to and from Antarctica. There are also several other exciting projects currently underway.
}}


== What are the system requirements for your software, and what do people need to know about getting it set up and running? ==
== 4. What are a couple of notable examples of how people are using your software? ==


There are localized versions of Stendhal with local communities in countries all over the world, including Germany, Poland and Japan. Perhaps the most notable ones are KrakowMobile and Player-like world.
{{TODO| add information on other parts of arianne}}
Stendhal is written in Java and will run on any system supporting Java, including Microsoft Windows and Linux. If you already have Java, playing Stendhal is as simple as clicking on the [http://arianne.sourceforge.net/jws/stendhal.jnlp Stendhal Webstart] link.


[http://www.edragons-krakowmobile.yoyo.pl/infopage.php?id=18 KrakowMobile] is a Stendhal fork featured on the website of the city Krakow. The Stendhal maps are replaced by maps of Krakow with real world images of historically important buildings, and NPCs replaced by famous people from Krakow and Poland.
The Stendhal Server needs a MySQL database which is provided by many Linux distribution and part of many Server Hosting arrangements. It can be easily installed on Microsoft Windows, too.


[http://www.player-like.org Player-like world] is a modified version of Stendhal used for online game research in a Ph.D. study. The study explores if it is possible to differentiate between characters played by humans from characters played by computers, a sort of a Turing test for online games characters.
We suggest using Eclipse for contributing because Eclipse is the IDE most of us are having experience with. There are instructions for other IDEs like Netbeans on our Wiki.


== 5. What are the system requirements for your software, and what do people need to know about getting it set up and running? ==
== What gave you an indication that your project was becoming successful? ==


The Stendhal client just depends on Java Runtime Environment. So once Java is installed you can start to play without having to edit any configuration settings.
{{TODO|
I keep a world map on the wall with pins showing the location where OpenGTS is being used. I've now lost count of all the pins on the map, but to date, OpenGTS is now being used in over 70 countries around the world, and tracking assets around every continent. This was probably the first indication that OpenGTS was going to continue to grow.
}}


The Stendhal server does require a database. We got a lot of support requests from people trying to setup and configure MySQL. While MySQL is part of all common Linux distributions, configuring it on Microsoft Windows is not that easy. So in the last version we added support for the installation-less H2 database.
== What has been your biggest surprise? ==


Marauroa as a game engine is of course targeted at developers. So you will most likely need a Java Development environment and some experience with programming.
{{TODO|
I'm constantly being surprised by the new ways that OpenGTS is being used. One example is water tanks. They don't move, but
tracking their water levels helps service personnel to know when they need to be refilled.
}}


== What has been your biggest challenge? ==
== 6. What gave you an indication that your project was becoming successful? ==


It was a number of small indications over a period of time. For example, the Arianne project reached very high scores on the SourceForge activity ranking. Possibly more important is that the number of users and positive feedback has increased steadily. Last but not least the number of people that went from users, to contributors, to core developers has increased over time.
{{TODO|
Trying to make sure that the web interface behaves in a similar fashion on the major web browsers. We perform regular testing on Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. But some browsers are less compatible than others :-)


== 7. What has been your biggest surprise? ==
Another challenge has been trying to keep up with the volume of email I get on a daily basis from both commercial and private enterprises requesting information on the availability of new features, etc. It is exciting to see, however, all the different ways people have found to use OpenGTS.
}}


Hendrik: I was very surprised when I learned about the Polish fork KrakowMobile being featured on the official website of Krakow (which is the second largest city in Poland). There are even newspaper articles about the launch event. Oh, and seeing a Japanese fork of Stendhal using Japanese characters was very interesting, too.
== Why do you think your project has been so well received? ==


Katie: I started playing Stendhal just for fun, and I had little programming experience. Now I can code in Java, script in MySQL, (and got a wonderful day job using these), my German and Spanish have improved enormously and most importantly I've made friends for life.
{{TODO| add information on other parts of arianne}}
We believe this is partly because Stendhal is completely free: Client, Server, Graphics, everything. On the one hand it does mean that there are no hidden costs, no subscription fees. On the other hand it means that it is very easy to contribute. A number of companies have released GPL versions of their clients. But the most fun, of course, is contributing to the heart of the software, the server side.


== 8. What has been your biggest challenge? ==
We strongly believe in "[http://catb.org/esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html Release early, release often]". So contributors can see the fruits of their work quickly. And players see the progress we make in extending the world.


Stendhal is still under heavy development. This means that we constantly add new interesting features and in rare cases this may dramatically change the RP system.
And last but not least: Stendhal has a great and very helpful community.


For example in the past there was the simple rule "the faster the weapon, the better". This had the strange impact that a light knife was more suitable than a heavy sword to fight a huge dragon. So in 2008 we added a new property: "weight". Now heavy weapons are more suitable against huge monsters. Light weapons are still useful to fight small creatures. As usual we put information about "weight" into the release announcement and even added some NPCs in game to explain it. But a number of players totally ignored it, went right into big trouble, and got angry. It took a couple of days until the word was spread and the situation improved.
== What advice would you give to a project that's just starting out? ==


The challenge we face is to communicate such changes in a way that is noticed by all our users.

== 9. Why do you think your project has been so well received? ==

On the social level Arianne has a very friendly and nice community, which we consider very important. Unlike other "free" games, we publish the complete source code and graphics of the client, server, and website under a free license (GPL/AGPL).

On the more technical level Arianne strongly believes in two principles: "Release early, release often" and "Keep it simple, stupid". This basically means that we try to break complex issues down into a number of small parts. We then tackle them one after the other and share the results as soon as possible. This way we get early feedback and our users can follow our progress.

Last but not least Stendhal is a nice online role playing game with beautiful graphics and a retro feel, and players have commented that it offers something different from other MORPGS.

== 10. What advice would you give to a project that's just starting out? ==
Have a Vision. And a plan.
Have a Vision. And a plan.


The vision is what you want your project to be about. It is the main source of motivation.
The vision is what you want your project to be about. It is the main source of motivation.


The plan helps you to achieve this goal in small steps. Especially at the beginning of a new project it is very easy to get lost in some interesting details. I think it is important to have a working prototype out rather quickly (within a month, better within a week). Don't be afraid to share your work just because some features are not finished. Just openly tell people what works and what does not work, yet, and ask them for feedback.
The plan helps you to achieve this goal in small steps. Especially at the beginning of a new project it is very easy to get lost in some interesting details. We think it is important to have a working prototype out rather quickly (within a month, better within a week). Don't be afraid to share your work just because some features are not finished. Just openly tell people what works and what does not work, yet, and ask them for feedback.


New open source projects may be very keen for contributors to join the team. Who you add to your project and invest time in, is important to get right. Early in Arianne's history were problems with commitment from developers who joined the project. These were people that joined the project, asked for tasks and vanished after that. It was a pity because they delayed the project a lot and made it much harder to keep adding new features. Since then, we ask new developers who want to contribute, to start by submitting patches to the SourceForge Tracker for review. We counter the possible demotivating effect of this by communicating as much as possible and coordinating new and interesting tasks. New developers are only then added as project members with write access to the repositories after agreement from the rest of the team.
== Where do you see your project going? ==


== 11. Where do you see your project going? ==
{{TODO|
The uses for OpenGTS seems to be expanding every day. With new ideas for features that we had not yet considered. One area that seems to have some demand is in emergency response tracking. We are currently working with some organizations to help OpenGTS grow in that area.
}}


The next major step in Marauroa will be rewriting the database access code to be totally asynchronous. So if the database server is offline for say 2 minutes because of a database server restart the game should be able to continue as if everything was just fine.
== What's on your project wish list? ==


The last version of Stendhal introduced huge improvements to the sound and music system. We are currently in the process of improving the ambiance all over the world by adding fitting sound effects and background music. The next major step are changes to encourage more teamwork. There are a couple of ideas surrounding class roles, parties and guilds.
{{TODO|
There is a long list of new features I'd like to see in OpenGTS. Probably at the top of the list of a more attractive user interface. I'm not a graphical designer myself, so this is one area that in which we could use some help.
}}


== What are you most proud of? ==
== 12. What's on your project wish list? ==


Another ten successful years with our friendly and helpful community. May it continue.
{{TODO|
Probably the adaptability and extensibility of the features. OpenGTS was designed to be easily extensible. Every GPS tracking market is different. So far, OpenGTS has been able to easily adapt to the commercial requirements of just about every GPS tracking market that I've come in contact with.
}}


Oh, and we are looking for a new Java Webstart code signing certificate because the one we are using now has expired. Unfortunately many signing companies refuse to deal with Open Source Projects or are way too expensive.
==If you could change something about the project, what would it be?==


== 13. What are you most proud of? ==
{{TODO|
OpenGTS is pretty adaptable to change, and change is happening all the time. However, I probably would have laid out the database table names a bit differently, knowing what we know now about where OpenGTS would be used.
}}


The Arianne project has a very nice and helpful community.
== How do you coordinate the project? ==


== 14. If you could change something about the project, what would it be? ==
{{TODO|
The system is being used in several commercial environments, so it is constantly being tested and scrutinized by a multitude of people. We try to knock out bugs quickly, and fortunately, there really aren't many 'bugs' that we're trying to deal with.
}}


That is a hard question given that Arianne is 10 years old and a lot of things have changed in this time. At the start the main programming language for example was C, now it is Java. We try to break huge features and changes into small parts that we can handle.
== How many hours a month do you and/or your team devote to the project? ==


== 15. How do you coordinate the project? ==
{{TODO|
Actually GPS tracking and telematic systems design is a full time project for me. I'm constantly given new projects to design and implement. Much of the commercial work is very industry specific and doesn't make it into the core open-source OpenGTS project. But the components that do make it into OpenGTS enhance the project for everyone's benefit..
}}


We use SourceForge's trackers for bugs, patches, and feature requests. The forum and mailing lists have played an important role in the past and they are still monitored and new postings answered quickly.
== What is your development environment like? ==


Most of our communication, however, has moved to [http://stendhal.game-host.org/development/chat.html #arianne] on the Freenode IRC network. There, we have meetings, discuss plans and support users. The support varies from people wishing to set up their own Stendhal server, to those wanting to create a new game using Marauroa. In the IRC channel is a CIA bot which announces commits to CVS, play-by-play, so everyone is aware of what is happening to the source code.
{{TODO|
I split my time between 3 different development platforms: Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. We currently use the old tried-and-true CVS to coordinate code changes between them, and keep hard disks and flash drive encrypted with TrueCrypt to keep them protected.


== 16. How many hours a month do you and/or your team devote to the project? ==
We also have a few Internet facing servers we use for testing and debugging before deploying to some of the commercial environments we're responsible for.
}}


The project leaders and core developers spend way too much time on it.
== Milestones ==

{{TODO|don't use 0.0x releases but the ones with noteworthy changes, mention all Arianne Subprojects, not just Stendhal}}
== 17. What is your development environment like? ==

Most core developers run Linux. Microsoft Windows, however, is used by many contributors. Eclipse is the most commonly used IDE in the project, although our project leader is sticking resolutely to Emacs. The nice thing about Eclipse is that you can change a couple of lines of code and test them immediately without having to recompile the complete project. We use ant for compiling the code outside the IDE and for creating the distribution.

We also use Hudson for continuous integration and automatic testing. The CIA Bot and the Hudson Bots in our IRC channel keep us informed about what is going on in the code.

Gimp is very popular among the graphic artists, and Tiled is used for mapmaking.

== 18. Milestones: ==


{| class="prettytable"
{| class="prettytable"
! Version / Date || Milestone
|-
|-
| 2000 || Arianne's first version to feature a real client-server framework
| 0.0x <nowiki>[2005-03-01]</nowiki> || The first release
|-
|-
| 2002 || Python RP system, database backend and xml world definitions, 2D client
| 0.1x <nowiki>[2005-05-12]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2003 || Marauroa was born starting the movement from C++ to Java
| 0.2x <nowiki>[2005-06-04]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2004 || Games: Mapacman (a multiplayer pacman clone) and Gladiators
| 0.3x <nowiki>[2005-07-03]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2005 || Stendhal mutated from a test case for Marauroa to a playable game
| 0.4x <nowiki>[2005-12-20]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2006 || Stendhal: Banks, friends list, and an automatic client update
| 0.5x <nowiki>[2006-06-16]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2007 || Stendhal: Rated weapons and a complex quest chain surrounding marriage
| 0.6x <nowiki>[2007-05-24]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2008 || Marauroa: 2.0 Stendhal: new combat system, grammar parsing, different AI profiles, completely redone artwork
| 0.7x <nowiki>[2008-10-02]</nowiki> ||
|-
|-
| 2009 || Marauroa: DAO approach to database access. Stendhal: housing, OpenJDK support, instantiated dungeons
| 0.8x <nowiki>[2010-01-??]</nowiki> ||
|-
| 2010 || Stendhal: Trading Center
|}
|}


In addition to the normal [http://arianne.cvs.sf.net/viewvc/arianne/marauroa/README?view=markup release] [http://arianne.cvs.sf.net/viewvc/arianne/stendhal/doc/CHANGES.txt?view=markup notes], we announce new versions of Stendhal from an [http://arianne.sourceforge.net/?arianne_url=content/news&all=100 in game point of view].
== How can others contribute? ==

{{TODO|
== 19. How can others contribute? ==

A nice thing about the Arianne project is that a number of people with different interests and skills are working together. Lets start with a group of contributions that is easily overlooked but is very important: Feedback, bug reports, feature requests, ideas. Even support requests are helpful because they show us in which places our software is not as easy to use as we want it to be. So we try to make it as convenient as possible for people to provide feedback. The Sourceforge tracker is a good place to open tickets. Or if someone prefers to chat with us, we have a link to our chat room on the project website.

In Stendhal we try to have at least one new quest per release. Most of the work required to add a quest, however, is not related to writing code. It is on a creative level, creating a nice little story that fits into the world. Then the text the NPCs are going to say needs to be written down. Sometimes new items are required which in turn need graphics. After all those parts are thrown together, the new quests needs lots of testing. Especially testing by people not knowing the inner logic of the program code.

On a more technical level patches and code contributions are very welcome. The source code is well documented and we are happy to answer questions. Those with artistic skills are the people who make Stendhal a beautiful place. Stendhal has very nice and original graphics and music.

== 20. Project Leaders and Core Developers ==

; Name : Katie Russell
; SourceForge user page URL : http://sourceforge.net/users/kymara
; Occupation : Analyst/Developer
; Education : PhD, Mathematics
; Location : UK
; Photo : http://cia.vc/images/db/a9/e-t128.png


; Name : Hendrik Brummermann
; SourceForge user page URL : http://nhnb.users.sf.net
; Occupation or experience : Developer of University Management Software
; Education : Diploma in Computer Science (FH), Master of Business Process Engineering (M.Eng.)
; Location : Germany
; Photo : http://cia.vc/images/db/3a/3.png


; Name: Kimmo Rundelin
; SourceForge user page URL: http://sourceforge.net/users/kiheru
; Occupation or experience: Student
; Education: BA, Material Chemistry
; Location: Finland
; Photo : -

== 21. Developers ==


; Name: Penny Elaine
; SourceForge user page URL: http://sourceforge.net/users/tigertoes
; Occupation or experience: over 30 yrs in computer field
; Education: Florida Tech
; Location: United States
; Photo : -


; Name: Markus Keunecke
; SourceForge user page URL: http://sourceforge.net/users/madmetzger
; Occupation or experience: Software Engineer
; Education: Diplom Wirtschaftsinformatiker (FH), Master of Business Process Engineering (M.Eng.)
; Location: Germany
; Photo : http://cia.vc/images/db/11/7b-t256.png


; Name : Yuriy Krawtsow aka yoriy
; SourceForge user page URL : http://sourceforge.net/users/yoriy
; Occupation : C/C++ coder and system administrator of *nix systems
; Education : Federal Technical University
; Location : Russian Federation, Moskow Region, Kolomna city
; Photo : https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9fc8dde77377927a8890247684e6b745.png


; Name: Silvio Heinrich
; SourceForge user page URL: http://sourceforge.net/users/plassy
; Occupation or experience: Mechatronic Technician
; Education: General Certificate of Secondary Education, vocational education
; Location: Germany
; Photo : -

== 24. Why did you place the project on SourceForge.net? ==

The Arianne project was moved to SourceForge 10 years ago in January 2000. There are little records left of the pre SourceForge days. This is proof that moving to SourceForge was a good decision because there has been no data loss ever since. Today we are still very happy with this decision.

== 25. How has SourceForge.net helped your project succeed? ==

SourceForge provides a number of very useful tools for developing and sharing free software: version control systems, a very easy to use bug and feature tracker, web hosting, mailing lists, forums, and the file release system. Just to name the most important ones. All those things work out of the box and are very reliable. If we had to setup and maintain installations of these services ourselves, we would have a lot less time to concentrate on our project. And it is obvious that this communication related infrastructure plays a key role in both coordinating development and getting the word out to our users.

== 26. The number one benefit of using SourceForge.net is ==

SourceForge has a very good reputation and nicely integrates a number of useful tools for developers and users.

== 27. Name three projects you think deserve to be named POTM. ==

* scalex - http://sourceforge.net/projects/scale2x
* Junit - http://sourceforge.net/projects/junit
* Tiled - http://sourceforge.net/projects/tiled








== Feedback ==
* More support for file releases of umbrella projects like Arianne. Most people are interested in Stendhal. So we like to have the Stendhal related files show up prominently in the green section above the folder structure. This basically means we can only do releases of Marauroa and Marboard exactly one day before a Stendhal release. In the past it was possible to use the "touch" command as workaround to set the file date into the past, but that does not work anymore. There are ideatorrent entries on this already: https://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/sourceforge/ideatorrent/idea/478/ and perhaps https://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/sourceforge/ideatorrent/idea/477/
* The software download pages sometimes contain ads which ask for personal information. For people with little technical background those input formulas look like something required by us / SourceForge, and it worries us.



We could use help in a several different areas:


* We could use some help from someone with a graphical eye that could help create different 'skins' to the user interface. And maybe various icons that would help enhance the look of the system.
* We would like to have PostgreSQL fully supported as an another selectable database option and could use some help from someone more familiar with PostgreSQL.
* We've received requests for information on the importing of shapefiles into GeoServer (and display by OpenLayers). We could use some help from someone intimately familiar with the configuration procedure of GeoServer that could help with documenting how shapefiles and other map file types can be imported into GeoServer for display by OpenLayers.
* Some GPS tracking hardware manufacturer sponsorship would be appreciated as well :-)
}}
</div>
</div>

Latest revision as of 20:10, 17 February 2010

1. Description of project

The Arianne project was established in 1999 and is still thriving today. It is an umbrella project, covering several subprojects. The most important ones today are Marauroa, Stendhal and Marboard.

Marauroa is an open source framework and engine to develop turn based and real time games. It provides a simple way of creating games on a portable and robust server architecture. Marauroa manages the client server communication and provides an object orientated view of the world for game developers. It further handles database access in a transparent way to store player accounts, character progress and the state of the world.

Stendhal is a fully fledged and completely free multiplayer online adventures game (MMORPG). It features a new, rich and expanding world in which players can explore towns, plains, caves and dungeons. Players will meet NPCs (non player characters) and acquire tasks and quests for valuable experience and cold hard cash. The character will develop and grow and with each new level become stronger and more skillful. With the money acquired new items can be bought and armor and weapons improved. And the blood thirsty ones out there can satisfy their killing desires by roaming the world in search of evil monsters.

Marboard is an early prototype of an easy to use vector graphics program allowing live collaboration over the Internet. While it is not ready for production use yet, it is a good proof that Marauroa is suitable for serious applications, too.

2. Why and how did you get started? What was the date?

Arianne was born over ten years ago. In 1999 a posting on Linuxgames about "What I'd like to see in an RPG" was made. When Miguel Angel Blanch Lardin saw the posting he founded the Arianne project, unaware of other games like Nethack which may already fit the criteria. The first version of the website was in Spanish but it was quickly translated to English because of public demand.

Today Stendhal is the subproject most people are interested in. It is interesting to note that it started as a test case for multi zone support in our framework Marauroa, in early 2005.

3. What is the software's intended audience?

Arianne in general is targeted at both game developers (including programmers and artists) and players. This leads to a very nice symbiosis which gives us lots of real usage feedback and allows us to incorporate it quickly. The game Stendhal is fully playable and a lot of people are playing it on a daily basis. It is, however, still in heavy development, with about a new release every month.

4. What are a couple of notable examples of how people are using your software?

There are localized versions of Stendhal with local communities in countries all over the world, including Germany, Poland and Japan. Perhaps the most notable ones are KrakowMobile and Player-like world.

KrakowMobile is a Stendhal fork featured on the website of the city Krakow. The Stendhal maps are replaced by maps of Krakow with real world images of historically important buildings, and NPCs replaced by famous people from Krakow and Poland.

Player-like world is a modified version of Stendhal used for online game research in a Ph.D. study. The study explores if it is possible to differentiate between characters played by humans from characters played by computers, a sort of a Turing test for online games characters.

5. What are the system requirements for your software, and what do people need to know about getting it set up and running?

The Stendhal client just depends on Java Runtime Environment. So once Java is installed you can start to play without having to edit any configuration settings.

The Stendhal server does require a database. We got a lot of support requests from people trying to setup and configure MySQL. While MySQL is part of all common Linux distributions, configuring it on Microsoft Windows is not that easy. So in the last version we added support for the installation-less H2 database.

Marauroa as a game engine is of course targeted at developers. So you will most likely need a Java Development environment and some experience with programming.

6. What gave you an indication that your project was becoming successful?

It was a number of small indications over a period of time. For example, the Arianne project reached very high scores on the SourceForge activity ranking. Possibly more important is that the number of users and positive feedback has increased steadily. Last but not least the number of people that went from users, to contributors, to core developers has increased over time.

7. What has been your biggest surprise?

Hendrik: I was very surprised when I learned about the Polish fork KrakowMobile being featured on the official website of Krakow (which is the second largest city in Poland). There are even newspaper articles about the launch event. Oh, and seeing a Japanese fork of Stendhal using Japanese characters was very interesting, too.

Katie: I started playing Stendhal just for fun, and I had little programming experience. Now I can code in Java, script in MySQL, (and got a wonderful day job using these), my German and Spanish have improved enormously and most importantly I've made friends for life.

8. What has been your biggest challenge?

Stendhal is still under heavy development. This means that we constantly add new interesting features and in rare cases this may dramatically change the RP system.

For example in the past there was the simple rule "the faster the weapon, the better". This had the strange impact that a light knife was more suitable than a heavy sword to fight a huge dragon. So in 2008 we added a new property: "weight". Now heavy weapons are more suitable against huge monsters. Light weapons are still useful to fight small creatures. As usual we put information about "weight" into the release announcement and even added some NPCs in game to explain it. But a number of players totally ignored it, went right into big trouble, and got angry. It took a couple of days until the word was spread and the situation improved.

The challenge we face is to communicate such changes in a way that is noticed by all our users.

9. Why do you think your project has been so well received?

On the social level Arianne has a very friendly and nice community, which we consider very important. Unlike other "free" games, we publish the complete source code and graphics of the client, server, and website under a free license (GPL/AGPL).

On the more technical level Arianne strongly believes in two principles: "Release early, release often" and "Keep it simple, stupid". This basically means that we try to break complex issues down into a number of small parts. We then tackle them one after the other and share the results as soon as possible. This way we get early feedback and our users can follow our progress.

Last but not least Stendhal is a nice online role playing game with beautiful graphics and a retro feel, and players have commented that it offers something different from other MORPGS.

10. What advice would you give to a project that's just starting out?

Have a Vision. And a plan.

The vision is what you want your project to be about. It is the main source of motivation.

The plan helps you to achieve this goal in small steps. Especially at the beginning of a new project it is very easy to get lost in some interesting details. We think it is important to have a working prototype out rather quickly (within a month, better within a week). Don't be afraid to share your work just because some features are not finished. Just openly tell people what works and what does not work, yet, and ask them for feedback.

New open source projects may be very keen for contributors to join the team. Who you add to your project and invest time in, is important to get right. Early in Arianne's history were problems with commitment from developers who joined the project. These were people that joined the project, asked for tasks and vanished after that. It was a pity because they delayed the project a lot and made it much harder to keep adding new features. Since then, we ask new developers who want to contribute, to start by submitting patches to the SourceForge Tracker for review. We counter the possible demotivating effect of this by communicating as much as possible and coordinating new and interesting tasks. New developers are only then added as project members with write access to the repositories after agreement from the rest of the team.

11. Where do you see your project going?

The next major step in Marauroa will be rewriting the database access code to be totally asynchronous. So if the database server is offline for say 2 minutes because of a database server restart the game should be able to continue as if everything was just fine.

The last version of Stendhal introduced huge improvements to the sound and music system. We are currently in the process of improving the ambiance all over the world by adding fitting sound effects and background music. The next major step are changes to encourage more teamwork. There are a couple of ideas surrounding class roles, parties and guilds.

12. What's on your project wish list?

Another ten successful years with our friendly and helpful community. May it continue.

Oh, and we are looking for a new Java Webstart code signing certificate because the one we are using now has expired. Unfortunately many signing companies refuse to deal with Open Source Projects or are way too expensive.

13. What are you most proud of?

The Arianne project has a very nice and helpful community.

14. If you could change something about the project, what would it be?

That is a hard question given that Arianne is 10 years old and a lot of things have changed in this time. At the start the main programming language for example was C, now it is Java. We try to break huge features and changes into small parts that we can handle.

15. How do you coordinate the project?

We use SourceForge's trackers for bugs, patches, and feature requests. The forum and mailing lists have played an important role in the past and they are still monitored and new postings answered quickly.

Most of our communication, however, has moved to #arianne on the Freenode IRC network. There, we have meetings, discuss plans and support users. The support varies from people wishing to set up their own Stendhal server, to those wanting to create a new game using Marauroa. In the IRC channel is a CIA bot which announces commits to CVS, play-by-play, so everyone is aware of what is happening to the source code.

16. How many hours a month do you and/or your team devote to the project?

The project leaders and core developers spend way too much time on it.

17. What is your development environment like?

Most core developers run Linux. Microsoft Windows, however, is used by many contributors. Eclipse is the most commonly used IDE in the project, although our project leader is sticking resolutely to Emacs. The nice thing about Eclipse is that you can change a couple of lines of code and test them immediately without having to recompile the complete project. We use ant for compiling the code outside the IDE and for creating the distribution.

We also use Hudson for continuous integration and automatic testing. The CIA Bot and the Hudson Bots in our IRC channel keep us informed about what is going on in the code.

Gimp is very popular among the graphic artists, and Tiled is used for mapmaking.

18. Milestones:

2000 Arianne's first version to feature a real client-server framework
2002 Python RP system, database backend and xml world definitions, 2D client
2003 Marauroa was born starting the movement from C++ to Java
2004 Games: Mapacman (a multiplayer pacman clone) and Gladiators
2005 Stendhal mutated from a test case for Marauroa to a playable game
2006 Stendhal: Banks, friends list, and an automatic client update
2007 Stendhal: Rated weapons and a complex quest chain surrounding marriage
2008 Marauroa: 2.0 Stendhal: new combat system, grammar parsing, different AI profiles, completely redone artwork
2009 Marauroa: DAO approach to database access. Stendhal: housing, OpenJDK support, instantiated dungeons
2010 Stendhal: Trading Center

In addition to the normal release notes, we announce new versions of Stendhal from an in game point of view.

19. How can others contribute?

A nice thing about the Arianne project is that a number of people with different interests and skills are working together. Lets start with a group of contributions that is easily overlooked but is very important: Feedback, bug reports, feature requests, ideas. Even support requests are helpful because they show us in which places our software is not as easy to use as we want it to be. So we try to make it as convenient as possible for people to provide feedback. The Sourceforge tracker is a good place to open tickets. Or if someone prefers to chat with us, we have a link to our chat room on the project website.

In Stendhal we try to have at least one new quest per release. Most of the work required to add a quest, however, is not related to writing code. It is on a creative level, creating a nice little story that fits into the world. Then the text the NPCs are going to say needs to be written down. Sometimes new items are required which in turn need graphics. After all those parts are thrown together, the new quests needs lots of testing. Especially testing by people not knowing the inner logic of the program code.

On a more technical level patches and code contributions are very welcome. The source code is well documented and we are happy to answer questions. Those with artistic skills are the people who make Stendhal a beautiful place. Stendhal has very nice and original graphics and music.

20. Project Leaders and Core Developers

Name
Katie Russell
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/kymara
Occupation
Analyst/Developer
Education
PhD, Mathematics
Location
UK
Photo
http://cia.vc/images/db/a9/e-t128.png


Name
Hendrik Brummermann
SourceForge user page URL
http://nhnb.users.sf.net
Occupation or experience
Developer of University Management Software
Education
Diploma in Computer Science (FH), Master of Business Process Engineering (M.Eng.)
Location
Germany
Photo
http://cia.vc/images/db/3a/3.png


Name
Kimmo Rundelin
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/kiheru
Occupation or experience
Student
Education
BA, Material Chemistry
Location
Finland
Photo
-

21. Developers

Name
Penny Elaine
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/tigertoes
Occupation or experience
over 30 yrs in computer field
Education
Florida Tech
Location
United States
Photo
-


Name
Markus Keunecke
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/madmetzger
Occupation or experience
Software Engineer
Education
Diplom Wirtschaftsinformatiker (FH), Master of Business Process Engineering (M.Eng.)
Location
Germany
Photo
http://cia.vc/images/db/11/7b-t256.png


Name
Yuriy Krawtsow aka yoriy
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/yoriy
Occupation
C/C++ coder and system administrator of *nix systems
Education
Federal Technical University
Location
Russian Federation, Moskow Region, Kolomna city
Photo
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/9fc8dde77377927a8890247684e6b745.png


Name
Silvio Heinrich
SourceForge user page URL
http://sourceforge.net/users/plassy
Occupation or experience
Mechatronic Technician
Education
General Certificate of Secondary Education, vocational education
Location
Germany
Photo
-

24. Why did you place the project on SourceForge.net?

The Arianne project was moved to SourceForge 10 years ago in January 2000. There are little records left of the pre SourceForge days. This is proof that moving to SourceForge was a good decision because there has been no data loss ever since. Today we are still very happy with this decision.

25. How has SourceForge.net helped your project succeed?

SourceForge provides a number of very useful tools for developing and sharing free software: version control systems, a very easy to use bug and feature tracker, web hosting, mailing lists, forums, and the file release system. Just to name the most important ones. All those things work out of the box and are very reliable. If we had to setup and maintain installations of these services ourselves, we would have a lot less time to concentrate on our project. And it is obvious that this communication related infrastructure plays a key role in both coordinating development and getting the word out to our users.

26. The number one benefit of using SourceForge.net is

SourceForge has a very good reputation and nicely integrates a number of useful tools for developers and users.

27. Name three projects you think deserve to be named POTM.





Feedback

  • More support for file releases of umbrella projects like Arianne. Most people are interested in Stendhal. So we like to have the Stendhal related files show up prominently in the green section above the folder structure. This basically means we can only do releases of Marauroa and Marboard exactly one day before a Stendhal release. In the past it was possible to use the "touch" command as workaround to set the file date into the past, but that does not work anymore. There are ideatorrent entries on this already: https://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/sourceforge/ideatorrent/idea/478/ and perhaps https://sourceforge.net/apps/ideatorrent/sourceforge/ideatorrent/idea/477/
  • The software download pages sometimes contain ads which ask for personal information. For people with little technical background those input formulas look like something required by us / SourceForge, and it worries us.


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