Summer has kicked off with great news – my proposal for Google Summer of Code with MovingBlocks-Terasology has been selected.
What is Google Summer of Code?
For the uninitiated, Google Summer of Code is a global program aimed at bringing university students into open source. Students work with an open source organization on a 3-month programming project during their summer break. Google selects around 200 organizations and funds their projects. It’s a win-win: students get an amazing learning experience and a generous stipend, organizations get dedicated contributors, and Google gets to play the benevolent patron.
This is MovingBlocks’ second GSoC selection as a mentoring organization – veteran status, basically. With 10 slots this year (up from last year’s 3), this summer could be enormously productive for MovingBlocks.
What is MovingBlocks- Terasology?
MovingBlocks-Terasology is a Minecraft-like open source game built in a voxel world. A voxel world is essentially a 3D world made up of blocks. Terasology is still in its Alpha stage, but what makes it special is its modularity. With a huge, diverse set of modules already developed or in development, Terasology offers amazing possibilities. It has a minimal engine where even core features like health, inventory, and combat can be added or removed as plug-in modules.
What am I doing?
My project is titled as Exploration World- Improved Gameplay (proposal here). In a gist, I plan to add WildAnimals, Puzzles, Exploration and other content to create a new gameplay module. The new gameplay module would pack together the best of whatever is created yet, to create a new gameplay setting that would add meaning and purpose for the end user.
My primary mentor would be Skylar ‘skysom’ Sommers and secondary mentors would be- Florian ‘flo’ Köberle, Xavier ‘xtariq’ Tariq and Isaac ‘iojw’ Ong.
When am I doing this?
Since college reopens mid-July, I’ve already started work on the project. Officially, May is meant to be a community-bonding period and the coding phase only starts in July. But I plan to finish my GSoC early and have already jumped into coding.
Blog for updates
I plan to use this blog to track my progress and document the work along the way. This is going to be an exciting summer!