We're in GSOC for the 4th year running 
Our organization and community continues broadening as does the potential for where to work in a GSOC project. Terasology's engine and module land remains primary, but there are so many supporting tools and projects now, along with Destination Sol being at the cusp of having our libraries fully integrated and Android support restored. Next year maybe we might even have more than two games to play with?
Some of the highlights this year is that we're trying to keep up with a road map, even splitting out some work in detail like the architecture arc, with more of the Terasology engine getting kicked out into libraries or modules, and some of those like Gestalt being heavily updated. Our module and asset system have gained Android compatibility and are ready to be tried in Destination Sol. The entity system itself is aiming for another major release which should both be used for DS as well as Terasology itself (still runs on the old embedded ES version). As such we're in free-fire mode for API breaking changes if justified and mitigated by easy-fix guides or module PRs. Maybe we'll aim for a new major engine release after GSOC finishes - could even be the major version that takes us into Beta?
This year we've moved our ideas page to Trello where some of the ideas still need some more details and links. Free style ideas are also fine, but a bit more challenging. Talk to us on chat! Some general notes remain in the GitHub wiki, as does the suggested project structure and handling of the project over the summer, although that'll be more relevant after selections are made and students + mentors start getting organized.
I also hope to put the mentor role system through its paces more properly, with stronger commitments even as the responsibilities can remain small. One problem last year seemed to be the smaller footprint of mentor roles vs a more typical primary mentor jack-of-all-trades making mentor volunteers take the system less serious / too casual leading to a lot of mentors that, well, simply didn't show up regularly. That's bad and hurt some of the projects. While everybody did make it in the end we could have done much better as a community in supporting some of our students.
Primary style mentors where a single strong person can handle all the things and sink a ton of time into a project remain the more ideal approach, but that's just not how life works for most volunteers, especially here with a video game project of all things. So while I hope we get a bunch of strong mentors I still hope we can also apply those with less time or more niche roles to help more students so long as they're regularly active and visible. I'll reinforce this year that a commitment to mentor is a commitment and I need to see every such mentor on chat every single week unless something unexpected took them away for something critically important in RL.
For students: Check out all the links, come chat with us, and poke around at either game engine and various modules or side projects. The sooner you get started on making a splash in an area relevant to where you want to work for GSOC the better. Even if you're nervous about your skills or ideas apply anyway - even if you don't get picked the experience of competing for a slot and putting your thoughts into a formal proposal is a very valuable life experience, plus gaining some insight into how a major open source project works gives you some solid ideas for how you might structure your own future. Enjoy the experience, no matter what happens!
Our organization and community continues broadening as does the potential for where to work in a GSOC project. Terasology's engine and module land remains primary, but there are so many supporting tools and projects now, along with Destination Sol being at the cusp of having our libraries fully integrated and Android support restored. Next year maybe we might even have more than two games to play with?
Some of the highlights this year is that we're trying to keep up with a road map, even splitting out some work in detail like the architecture arc, with more of the Terasology engine getting kicked out into libraries or modules, and some of those like Gestalt being heavily updated. Our module and asset system have gained Android compatibility and are ready to be tried in Destination Sol. The entity system itself is aiming for another major release which should both be used for DS as well as Terasology itself (still runs on the old embedded ES version). As such we're in free-fire mode for API breaking changes if justified and mitigated by easy-fix guides or module PRs. Maybe we'll aim for a new major engine release after GSOC finishes - could even be the major version that takes us into Beta?
This year we've moved our ideas page to Trello where some of the ideas still need some more details and links. Free style ideas are also fine, but a bit more challenging. Talk to us on chat! Some general notes remain in the GitHub wiki, as does the suggested project structure and handling of the project over the summer, although that'll be more relevant after selections are made and students + mentors start getting organized.
I also hope to put the mentor role system through its paces more properly, with stronger commitments even as the responsibilities can remain small. One problem last year seemed to be the smaller footprint of mentor roles vs a more typical primary mentor jack-of-all-trades making mentor volunteers take the system less serious / too casual leading to a lot of mentors that, well, simply didn't show up regularly. That's bad and hurt some of the projects. While everybody did make it in the end we could have done much better as a community in supporting some of our students.
Primary style mentors where a single strong person can handle all the things and sink a ton of time into a project remain the more ideal approach, but that's just not how life works for most volunteers, especially here with a video game project of all things. So while I hope we get a bunch of strong mentors I still hope we can also apply those with less time or more niche roles to help more students so long as they're regularly active and visible. I'll reinforce this year that a commitment to mentor is a commitment and I need to see every such mentor on chat every single week unless something unexpected took them away for something critically important in RL.
For students: Check out all the links, come chat with us, and poke around at either game engine and various modules or side projects. The sooner you get started on making a splash in an area relevant to where you want to work for GSOC the better. Even if you're nervous about your skills or ideas apply anyway - even if you don't get picked the experience of competing for a slot and putting your thoughts into a formal proposal is a very valuable life experience, plus gaining some insight into how a major open source project works gives you some solid ideas for how you might structure your own future. Enjoy the experience, no matter what happens!
April 9th: Student app deadline (opens about two weeks prior, but start on those proposals sooner!)April 22nd: Slot request (at this point we lock down the number of student proposal picks)May 1st: Project selection (our deadline for picking student proposals)May 6th: Projects announced! Community bonding after thisMay 27th: Start of work period 1June 28th: First evaluation deadline and work period 2 startsJuly 26th: Second evaluation deadline and work period 3 startsAugust 26th: Student final submission deadline- Sept 2nd: Mentor final eval submission deadline and results next day
Last edited:
