And Holarse.de even did a small trailer:
P.S.: Sorry for the lack of updates lately. If you are interested helping out with the blog give us a notice here.
Vote for the LGA: May 2014 (OS game engine remakes)
And Holarse.de even did a small trailer:
P.S.: Sorry for the lack of updates lately. If you are interested helping out with the blog give us a notice here.
POTM March 2014 winner announced
Quite close outcome this time for the Project of the Month 2014 vote over at linuxgameawards.org. But there has to be a winner:
Here is a closer look that which project got how many votes:
Congratulations to the winner Battle for Wesnoth!
Here is a closer look that which project got how many votes:
Congratulations to the winner Battle for Wesnoth!
GSoC 2014 mentoring organisations announced, review and apply!
After sorting through almost 400 applications of mentoring projects, Google has announced this year's list of projects students can contribute to.
There aren't too many FOSS gaming related projects this time though.
These are the relevant ones:
- Blender Foundation (task ideas) Ok, not really a game
- CodeCombat (task ideas) We covered it a while ago
- Copyleftgames.org (task ideas) Anyone got details on this one?
- Crystal Space Engine (task ideas) same as every year...
- Inkscape (task ideas) Ok I am stretchning it a bit here
- jMonkeyEngine (task ideas) great java game SDK
- ScummVM (task ideas) Point&click adventure game engine
- SuperTuxKart (task ideas) Yeah!
- Battle for Wesnoth (task ideas) No need to explain ;)
- Worldforge (task ideas) Also hosting: RyzomCore, CEGUI
If you are not into game developer but would still like to contribute your programming skills I recommend you to have a look at these other selected projects (totally subjective and unsorted list): Non-profit accounting, Mifos, Mixxx, Freifunk, OSGeo, Sahana & ProjectTox.
KeeperRL and OpenIG
Two interesting projects I recently came across:
1. KeeperRL:
Description from the author:
2. OpenIG:
A real classic is being reimplemented as OpenIG (follow the development blog here). Interestingly the original developers have granted the rights to all the game's data to be freely (as in beer I assume) distributed with the new Java based engine.
Time to jump into the 4X games again ;)
1. KeeperRL:
Description from the author:
KeeperRL is a Dungeon Keeper and Dwarf Fortress inspired dungeon simulator built on top of roguelike mechanics. My vision is that you are a Sauron-like character, searching for ultimate knowledge of destruction. What makes the game different from other RTS is that you can, and are encouraged to, control your main character and lead your minions to an open war. The characters use equipment, scrolls, potions, spells, and other things you would expect in a roguelike. Combat is turn-based and very tactical. The whole world is procedurally generated, and there is adventure mode too.See a video of the (still in ASCII graphics) action here and the GPL licensed code here. Latest development release can be downloaded here (Win&Linux).
2. OpenIG:
A real classic is being reimplemented as OpenIG (follow the development blog here). Interestingly the original developers have granted the rights to all the game's data to be freely (as in beer I assume) distributed with the new Java based engine.
Time to jump into the 4X games again ;)
Linux Game Awards: PotM March 2014 VOTE NOW!
It's time for another installment of the somewhat bi-monthly Linux Game Awards:
The list of nominees is again quite interesting, so choose your favorite.
This months winner was 0 A.D. by the way... I guess we need to increase the promotion efforts a bit in case you weren't aware...
The list of nominees is again quite interesting, so choose your favorite.
This months winner was 0 A.D. by the way... I guess we need to increase the promotion efforts a bit in case you weren't aware...
Preparing for a crowd-funding: Torque3D MIT Multi-platform
I mentioned the nice developments on the Torque3D OpenGL and Linux ports a few weeks back, and now it seems like it is getting even more serious:
Now don't spill your beer just yet, as this is just the proposal the developer makes for a crowd-funding building up on his great previous Linux/OpenGL work.
One of the first (hopefully soon to be) FOSS games that could benefit from this, is the currently also looking for crowd-funding RoTC abstract FPS. Only 9 days left, but they made another good increase in the last couple of days, so it is still possible to reach their goal of $1500. In fact the older (mostly closed source) version was also recently updated and you can try it on some new servers.
The (more or less friendly) fork GREED tech MIT that aims to make a full FPS development kit out of Torque3D also seems to make some interesting progress, so it looks quite bright development wise for now :)
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| Planned platforms of Torque3D |
Now don't spill your beer just yet, as this is just the proposal the developer makes for a crowd-funding building up on his great previous Linux/OpenGL work.
One of the first (hopefully soon to be) FOSS games that could benefit from this, is the currently also looking for crowd-funding RoTC abstract FPS. Only 9 days left, but they made another good increase in the last couple of days, so it is still possible to reach their goal of $1500. In fact the older (mostly closed source) version was also recently updated and you can try it on some new servers.
The (more or less friendly) fork GREED tech MIT that aims to make a full FPS development kit out of Torque3D also seems to make some interesting progress, so it looks quite bright development wise for now :)
Code Combat: Open Source Javascript Tutorial Gamification (In A Good Way)
Code Combat is a javascript programming learning IDE wrapped in a delicious cute RPG/2D RTS packaging that runs in the browser without any plugins. They recently announced their open source/free art release.
The current set of Code Combat tutorials starts with directional movement and activation of pre-programmed behavior, continues with coordinate movement and targeting and conditional behavior and continues towards prediction calculations.
Editor GUI
There is an editor, officially described as "broken". I can confirm that the text editor was slow when I tried using it. :)
All in all, a very exciting project. I have noticed a few possible drawbacks so far:
- It's not yet clear which parts will not remain proprietary. It looks like the excellent humor (writing) unfortunately will do so (legal page).
- The music tends to be too exciting to code to.
- There's a CLA requirement for contributing.
What do you think? Persuaded to work on a HTML5 game yourself perhaps, seeing that this performs okay? :)
Happy new year & Congrats to the LGA January 2014 winner!
Hello 2014 and happy new year to everyone!
One of the new things for this year will be the regular Linux Game Awards done by various Linux and FOSS gaming site (and which has been spearheaded by the great LGDB).
And the first winner is:
The votes have been quite clear, but our friends from SuperTuxKart got a very respectable 2nd place:
You can expect some further promotional news coming up this month for 0 A.D. so stay tuned :)
One of the new things for this year will be the regular Linux Game Awards done by various Linux and FOSS gaming site (and which has been spearheaded by the great LGDB).
And the first winner is:
The votes have been quite clear, but our friends from SuperTuxKart got a very respectable 2nd place:
You can expect some further promotional news coming up this month for 0 A.D. so stay tuned :)
Torque3D seems to finally get a Linux port!
Following the release of the Torque3D engine under the MIT license (latest release 3.5 here), there was a lot of back and forth regarding a port to Linux (the engine actually used to have a good Linux port, but that one was dropped a few years back). At some point there was even an official Kickstarter crowed-funding attempt, which however failed to reach the estimated funds (but nether the less more than US$10k were pledged). After that things quited down, but several people continued developing a OpenGL renderer and Linux port.
Now it seems like all these efforts seem to be near a somewhat usable Linux port or at least that's what I understand by following this forum thread.
In the short term the most interesting application of this Linux port is probably that the creator of RotC has announced on his currently running indigogo campaign to liberate (and update) the game, that now there will also be a Linux port.
Great news if you ask me, so don't forget to pledge some of that Christmas money you got towards reaching the funding goal (currently $388 out of $1500, with 36 days left). Let's make this happen!
Edit (nearly forgot): these two projects related to Torque3D might be interesting to follow: Project GREED and Zentense.
Now it seems like all these efforts seem to be near a somewhat usable Linux port or at least that's what I understand by following this forum thread.
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| Torque3D running on Xubuntu 12.10 |
In the short term the most interesting application of this Linux port is probably that the creator of RotC has announced on his currently running indigogo campaign to liberate (and update) the game, that now there will also be a Linux port.
Great news if you ask me, so don't forget to pledge some of that Christmas money you got towards reaching the funding goal (currently $388 out of $1500, with 36 days left). Let's make this happen!
Edit (nearly forgot): these two projects related to Torque3D might be interesting to follow: Project GREED and Zentense.
Let's Play Permissions for Open Source Games With Free Art
Let's Play (LP) is an uprising form of previewing and experiencing video games.
While a review summarizes the experience, a LP allows to look a player over their shoulder and indirectly experience the game from one perspective in its entirety - if both Let's Player and viewer have the endurance.
LPs have many styles: non-commented, informational, humorous... And their production quality varies too, be it video, audio or presentation.
While a review summarizes the experience, a LP allows to look a player over their shoulder and indirectly experience the game from one perspective in its entirety - if both Let's Player and viewer have the endurance.
LPs have many styles: non-commented, informational, humorous... And their production quality varies too, be it video, audio or presentation.
Example of a Let's Play video in its natural environment
Some creators of LPs ("LPers") earn money using YouTube's monetization features. When they do, YouTube's semi-automatic moderation process starts paying more attention to the videos' compliance with copyright.
Sometimes, LPers will contact game developers to receive permission to create LPs. To many creators of games, LPs are a welcome form of promotion and they will always say yes.
Sometimes, LPers will contact game developers to receive permission to create LPs. To many creators of games, LPs are a welcome form of promotion and they will always say yes.
Clint Bellanger of FLARE released a Let's Play policy, which elegantly covers both the situation in which a game's art assets are CC-BY-SA 3.0 licensed and where all copyright belongs to one person.
FLARE is a collaborative effort of many artists who agreed to release their art under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and I think that FLARE's LP policy reflects the intention of the license very well.
A complicated case might be a game which contains art that is under the GPL, which could be interpreted in a way, that requires the resulting video, as well as video project files to be made available under GPL as well.
In theory, any LP could be considered "fair use". However, for-profit use and use of large portions of a work are often considered as not being "fair use" - for example by YouTube.
For game designers, I consider LPs to be a valuable resource, allowing to look up features or part-experience gameplay, where acquiring, installing and playing the game would be impossible, due to time restrictions.
I recommend looking up games that you have fond memories of or which you always wanted to try but the installation effort was too high on lparchive.org or just YouTube's search function with "let's play" in the query.
If YouTube's HTML5 doesn't work for you, youtube-dl will allow you to circumvent flash player issues (monetized YouTube videos appear to require flash).
FLARE is a collaborative effort of many artists who agreed to release their art under CC-BY-SA 3.0 and I think that FLARE's LP policy reflects the intention of the license very well.
A complicated case might be a game which contains art that is under the GPL, which could be interpreted in a way, that requires the resulting video, as well as video project files to be made available under GPL as well.
In theory, any LP could be considered "fair use". However, for-profit use and use of large portions of a work are often considered as not being "fair use" - for example by YouTube.
For game designers, I consider LPs to be a valuable resource, allowing to look up features or part-experience gameplay, where acquiring, installing and playing the game would be impossible, due to time restrictions.
I recommend looking up games that you have fond memories of or which you always wanted to try but the installation effort was too high on lparchive.org or just YouTube's search function with "let's play" in the query.
If YouTube's HTML5 doesn't work for you, youtube-dl will allow you to circumvent flash player issues (monetized YouTube videos appear to require flash).
Reminder: 1 week left to vote
Voting for the Linux Game Awards January 2014 will come to an end in about one week (24th of December).
So if you haven't voted yet, don't waste any time!
You can read more about the award in this older blog entry.
So if you haven't voted yet, don't waste any time!
You can read more about the award in this older blog entry.
Zelda can now be free as in freedom
Not only from the clutches of Ganondorf, but also from the dominion of proprietary software. All thanks to the magnificent Solarus Engine, a GPLed, SDL-based, 2D action RPG engine. This amazing project aims to provide a stable and easily customizable platform for users to create their own Zelda-like games, and so far, I must say, I am darn impressed by what I've seen. The engine already has two incredible launching titles, named The Legend of Zelda: Mystery of Solarus DX, and a parody of the former, Mystery of Solarus XD. Both are true love letters to the classic SNES RPG, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and amazing and enjoyable games on their own.
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| Mystery of Solarus DX |
But hark, the mere words of a mortal make no justice to the grandiosity of this undertaking. Sheathe thy sword, get thy green cap and ready yourself to adventure! You can start by marching straight to the Solarus download section, or, if your intentions are more creative, you can check the various sources here, and the quest editor here.
Code License: GPLv3
Mystery of Solarus DX Artwork License: Mixed (original Solarus assets under CC-BY-SA, but the game also uses spritework taken directly the A Link to the Past rom)
Linux Game Awards voting open now!
Quietly in the background a group of open-source and Linux enthusiast websites (full disclosure: including FreeGamer ;) ) has developed a new platform for promoting open-source games: http://www.linuxgameawards.org/
One of its regular features will be a monthly award and a related promotion drive for the winner on all affiliated sites.
As a start, our community came up with the first 10 nominees for the January 2014 award and you can now vote for your favorite game of those here.
P.S.: One of the nominated projects, SuperTuxKart, had a new release today also. Don't forget to check it out and vote for them if you like it.
One of its regular features will be a monthly award and a related promotion drive for the winner on all affiliated sites.
As a start, our community came up with the first 10 nominees for the January 2014 award and you can now vote for your favorite game of those here.
P.S.: One of the nominated projects, SuperTuxKart, had a new release today also. Don't forget to check it out and vote for them if you like it.
Holiday Racer 2.2 released (aka Stunt Rally)
Obviously someone is having a hard time with the winter in the northern hemisphere right now:
More awesome screenshots of Stunt Rally 2.2 here, and don't miss the details of the new version in the full change log.
Last but not least, discuss it on our forums :)
Last but not least, discuss it on our forums :)
Lips of Suna 0.8.0 released
And another great new release :)
Our favorite work in progress & not quite serious anime RPG Lips of Suna bumps its release number to 0.8 (change-log).
Most notable changes:
Addition (2013-11-21): Now there are also windows binaries available.
Our favorite work in progress & not quite serious anime RPG Lips of Suna bumps its release number to 0.8 (change-log).
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| I know what you are thinking... |
Comment away below or in our forums.
- New player model and animations contributed by gruntunbur.
- Lots of sound effects contributed by qubodup.
- More powerful animation blending.
- Performance improvements.
- Better eye, face and hair color customization.
- Fixed the AI not being able to use many kind of weapons correctly.
- Procedural map area placement and planning system.
- Procedural dungeon generation with corridors, rooms, treasures and monsters.
- Balanced the movement speed and physics behavior of player characters.
- Terrain chunks close to the player character load much faster.
Addition (2013-11-21): Now there are also windows binaries available.
New releases from the Worldforge project.
Yesterday saw the release of a new version of the client-side software "Ember" for the Worldforge project (an open-source MMO framework).
The focus of this version was to improve the world-editing features, and if not yet included, the GoSC 2013 improvements (for example an updated terrain renderer) should arrive in Ember soon too.
Speaking of the GoSC 2013: Another project benefiting from it under the umbrella of Worldforge was Ryzom Core, the open-sourced MMORPG engine behind the (older) commercial Ryzom MMORPG.
It seems like their OpenGL3.0 renderer is making good progress (see some videos here), and they seem to have finally decided to tackle the lack of proper Blender tools by hiring someone to do it (see paid job advertisement on Blender Artists). As it is an open-source project this seems to have been initiated by one of the developers only, so maybe we can get some people to pledge some extra funds to add to the bounty he is offering?
The focus of this version was to improve the world-editing features, and if not yet included, the GoSC 2013 improvements (for example an updated terrain renderer) should arrive in Ember soon too.
Speaking of the GoSC 2013: Another project benefiting from it under the umbrella of Worldforge was Ryzom Core, the open-sourced MMORPG engine behind the (older) commercial Ryzom MMORPG.
It seems like their OpenGL3.0 renderer is making good progress (see some videos here), and they seem to have finally decided to tackle the lack of proper Blender tools by hiring someone to do it (see paid job advertisement on Blender Artists). As it is an open-source project this seems to have been initiated by one of the developers only, so maybe we can get some people to pledge some extra funds to add to the bounty he is offering?
