SoundMUD 0.14 is available

SoundMUD 0.14 is available at http://jlpo.free.fr/soundmud

The time-wasting quest of the adequate game library

I used to use pygame 1.7.1, pygame mixer, and that was all. The trouble was using recorded speech. Then pygame regressed, while nothing better appeared. The positional audio libraries didn't add much. The next combination could be pygame, pygame mixer, wxpython, and some pyTTS replacement (not pyttsx I'm afraid). I don't know.

Some thoughts about SoundMUD 0.13

SoundMUD 0.13 had the following:
- the client-side assets (sounds, ...) could be updated automatically
- the admin could alter the world without restarting the server
- the admin could have an overview of the world, including the location of the monsters and players
- it was possible to keep some mystery about the world

While these features fascinate the admin, the player doesn't notice much.

Actually, having a persistent world requires maintenance, so even the admin isn't that much pleased. And MMORPGs like World of Warcraft don't fascinate me anymore.

That's why I thought about:
- allowing players to start their servers
- focusing on single player gameplay (but trying to keep the separation between server and client).

Another problem is that while I tried to clean up the code, the result is not necessarily better. I might have added even more complexity. I'm not sure to be able to go much farther.

About the server

On June 2012, I had to move the server to a temporary place with less control. While I could make the server work again, it broke down in a few weeks, maybe due to an harsher environment. I have a full backup though, and the machine will be repaired eventually someday, when I have access to a suitable place, maybe this year.