Thousand Parsec

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  • Current C++ server version: 0.7.0, released 18 April 2010
  • Current wxPython client version: 0.3.2, released 31 Mar 2009

Thousand Parsec is a framework for turn based space empire building games.

It is important to understand that Thousand Parsec is not only a game by itself, it is also a frame work for creating a similar group of games. Some of the games, such as our first demo game MiniSec, are developed by the Thousand Parsec developers themselves. In the near future we hope that other developers will create their own games using Thousand Parsec.

Some examples of games which Thousand Parsec draws ideas from are, Stars!, VGA Planets, Master of Orion and Galactic Civilizations. These games are often called 4 X's from the main phases found in the games, eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. If you haven't heard of them, other games which are a bit similar include, Civilisation, Hero's of Might and Magic and Starcraft.

Thousand Parsec includes everything you need for:

  • play any of the currently running games,
  • set up your own game using already designed games, and
  • building your own space empire building game.

History

Development of the project (under a different name) was started in January 2002 by Tim Ansell. Originally it was going to be a simple clone of Stars!. Later Tim decided to try starting a full open source project to become the "Worldforge" of space empire games. He hoped that this would encourage other people who didn't want to just clone Stars! to help out with the project and give it a broader appeal. After the announcement of the project Lee Begg was the only person who joined it. Even today Lee remains the only other major contributor.

By the year 2006 Thousand Parsec has not reached the envisioned goals. Partly the problem has been in the underestimation of the amount of work needed and partly because the project has not attracted any new developers. However, Thousand Parsec has a huge code base of framework which is rapidly accelerating it forward. The number of features left before full games of the complexity of Stars! can be produced is extremely small.

In 2007 Thousand Parsec was allocated 3 slots in the 2007 Google Summer of Code.

In 2008 Thousand Parsec was fortunate enough to be allocated 8 slots for Google Summer of Code. Projects include three new Rulesets, a 3D client, three AI-related projects, and a project to extend the server and create a single-player mode.

References

External links