Summer of Code/Application/2022
Part 1 - Organization Profile
Special attention: "student" is now called "GSoC contributor" by Google.
The new tagline of GSoC is : "Introducing developers to open source software development"
Name
ScummVM
Website URL
Organization logo
Your organization logo must be a PNG, with a minimum height and width of 256 pixels. scummvm-web\public_html\images\scummvm_logo_large.png
Tagline (Describe the organization's mission. This is often the only thing a participant will read about your org, be sure to make it clear and concise. 50 char maximum.)
Adventure and RPG preservation project
Primary Open Source License
GPL-3.0
What year was your project started?
2001
Link to your source code location
Organization Category (Up to two)
End user applications Other
Technology Tags (Max 5 tags)
C++, SDL, OpenGL, Assembly, Lua
Topic Tags (Max 5 tags)
games, game engines, software preservation, software archeology
Organization Description
ScummVM is a game preservation projects that celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. Originally focused on 2D Point&Click adventure games, its scope widened in 2016 to RPG thanks to a successful GSoC students, and to 3D games in 2020 after the merge with its sister project, ResidualVM. The purpose is only to replace the game executable, not to enhance or replace the game assets.
Contributors guidance
https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/GSoC_Application Page requires an update
Communication Methods (How do you want potential contributors to interact with your organization?)
Part 2 - Organization Questionnaire
Why does your org want to participate in Google Summer of Code?
Almost every year since 2007, the program has given us the opportunity to have talented and motivated students working with us. It also gave us the opportunity in 2016 to broaden our scope to RPG games.
What we hope to gain is valuable code contributions, and new developers for the project. In previous years, we've had students take up and complete tasks which were on our Ideas page, including for example full new engines ports. But also, some students have come up with new functionalities or game engines, proposing and finally implementing them. These have been our favorites.
A number of GSoC contributors have stayed involved after the summer to become full team members and continue working on their projects, and we hope to make this happen this year as well.
What would your org consider as a successful summer?
We consider that having the opportunity of coaching motivated GSoC contributors is already a successful summer. Obviously, it's even better if they stay with us at the end of the summer.
How will you keep mentors engaged with their GSoC contributors?
First of all, we have an internal rule that GSoC contibutors have 2 mentors for the highest possible availability.
Then, we want our mentors to have the following qualities:
- Be a volunteer and be able to commit to participating for the entire duration of the program. They have to be available to their students and the mentor team.
- Have a considerable track record hacking on ScummVM. They can help the students more effectively and in an immediate fashion this way.
- Have the patience and skills to explain to their respective students how to tackle their tasks. Also, to be able to help the students out when they are in sticky situations.
- Have a clear vision on how a task should proceed, both in broad strokes as well as in the technical details level, with of course some freedom movement to the students.
- Be regularly present on our #scummvm-gsoc channel, where we continuously inform each others of the progresses and issues of the students.
How will you keep your GSoC contributors on schedule to complete their projects?
We require GSoC contributors to give a detailed schedule for their project as part of their GSoC application. This helps the GSoC contributor in splitting the work into small manageable tasks and organizing their work. This also helps to make sure that the project is achievable and realistic, and help us determine when the student is expected to be working according to the new timeline.
As the GSoC is no longer considered as a full time job, We'll determine with the contributors the days we expect a feedback in the detailed scheduled, so that the GSoC contributors don't disappear silently. We also ask the students to blog at least once a week about their progress, except if the contributor planned to take a week off.
In parallel, mentors check the progress to make sure the schedule remains realistic. If the GSoC contributor is behind schedule, discussions will occur very early among the mentors and then with the contributor to define what can be put in place so that they complete the projects nevertheless.
How will you get your GSoC contributors involved in your community during GSoC?
Before and during GSoC, we'll consider GSoC contributors as special developers, but developers nonetheless. They will therefore have equivalent rights, privileges and duties. For instance,
- We first ask our GSoC contributors to write introductory letters to our development list and their blog so everyone is familiar with their background, skills and assigned task.
- We created documentation in order to help the GSoC contributors to familiarize themselves with the project, particularly 'Developer Central' and our wiki. Google SoD helped us to improve it significantly during the past year.
- They are encouraged to take part in discussions, whatever the medium on which these discussions occur.
- They will be able to get support from and chat with the team 24/7 on our IRC channels. They are voiced (+v) so that everybody knows who they are.
- We noticed during previous summers that merging the GSoC contributors code early make them feel more involved, so we plan to do it again this year.
Anything else we should know? (Optional)
Is your organization part of any government?
No