Gee Whiz

Gee Whiz is a role-playing game similar to the popular game called Wizardry. For those who are not familiar with it, Wizardry is a two-dimensional maze game played from a first-person perspective, developed by Sir-Tech Ltd. As a long-time fan of these types of games, I decided to create a similar game for Linux users. I started working on this project in February 2002, without creating any flowchart because I already knew what I wanted to achieve.

However, after a few weeks of working tirelessly, I was feeling burned out and decided to shelve the project. However, after sharing my work with other developers, I received positive feedback that inspired me to continue with the development of the game. The initial version of the game was called "Generic Wizardry Clone" (GWC), but it was later renamed to GWiz- a play on the pronunciation of "Gee Whiz."

As an open-source project, there are some specific requirements for running the game, including GLib, SDL_image, SDL_ttf, and Simple DirectMedia Layer. The recommended installation process involves using the command prompt to configure the installation directory, followed by the make and make install commands.

However, be aware that this release may break some binary formats, such as character roster files, and old binary files will be ignored. Furthermore, users can customize their game controls by selecting specific keys to reconfigure using the F12 key while playing in the maze.

In this release, preference handling was improved to fix any segmentation faults that occurred during initial use. Overall, Gee Whiz, although not original, is a great game that provides enjoyable gameplay reminiscent of the classic Wizardry.