Xonotic community frag movie and other FOSS arena FPS news

Very nice new movie from the Xonotic community:


It gives a pretty good idea about the vanilla game mode, although the very popular (some say too popular) "Minstagib" (one shot kills) and the total conversion mod Overkill (All new player-models and weapons, with team-spawn etc.) are also shortly shown.
Not shown are the popular vehicle mod and the recently added lightning gun (still WIP), but you can try everything yourself easily by getting the auto-downloader of the latest development build here.

As with most FOSS games, they are looking for more developers (& players) and if you have some cash to spare you can currently also pledge for the creation of some NPC characters for a single-player or COOP-mode here.

Speaking of FOSS crowd-funding, another great FOSS arena shooter, Red Eclipse this currently preparing a campaign for porting their somewhat aging Cube2 engine to the much nicer Tesseract (which is technically something like Cube3).
Oh and a new version (1.5) but still with the old engine should be out very soon ;)

Happy fragging!

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Stunt Rally version 2.5 released

To celebrate tomorrow's big movie launch, I am nicknaming it Interstellar edition :D

Get the all the details and download links here!

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Terminal Overload 0.3 released + support the developer on Patreon

The very innovative and awesome looking (+ fully FOSS) multiplayer FPS Terminal-Overload got a new release today. Edit: By now there is actually already a 0.4.0 release, get it here.

Charged x-jump on the new ETH5 map (3rd person camera turned on)

One of the new features is a charged jump that lets one take big leaps to reach good sniping spots or evade an enemy etc. Other changes for this release:

- New map: ETH5

- Prettier GUI

- Replace re-jumping with instant & charged x-jump.

- Tweak CAT movement speeds.

- Simplify disc controls.

- ETH mode: Each class only has one type of offensive disc.

- SMG changes: Increase firing rate, decrease damage, shorter range.

- MGL changes: Remove recoil, decrease firing rate, fire only one projectile.

- MG changes: Projectiles are affected by gravity.

- Remove etherboard from class #4 (Minigunner) loadout.

- Remove SG2 from class #2 loadout.

- Improve responsiveness of mouse look while in CAT form.

- New projectile visuals (except discs & grenade).

The new GUI looks like this:

New menu graphics with options window

While it is is quite awesome looking and playable already, it obviously still needs a bit of further development. Since the funds of an earlier crowd-funding drive have been used up, the developer is now looking for other ways to survive. If you like what he is doing, you can head over to his new Patreon page to support him with a monthly payment.

Yes, YOU! Right NOW! ;)

Developer contributions to code and art are of course also welcome.

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Annex 4.0 RTS released!

We mentioned it a few days ago, but you can now download the latest 4.0 version of the RTS Annex: Conquer the World.

Changes:

– 2 New Factions: Alliance Renegades and NEO Republic
– Shadow Organization units: Vixen (hero) and Sentinel
– New Tilesets: Apocylapse, Metropolitian, Overcast, Brightland, and Outland
– Increased Level cap, unit re-balancing and refined gameplay.
– New Technology tree options: Simple Battle, Simple Deployed, Ready for War, and Insanity.
– All Technology trees now have a (D) Double Damage or (H) Half Damage variation.
– Improved graphics, lighting, and particle effects
– Save + load game feature
– New maps and scenarios
– New soundtrack, voice overs and sound effects.
– FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) license

It's especially great to see them switch to a fully FOSS licensing model!

P.S.: Unrelated, but Unvanquished also got a new Alpha 32 release just now.

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Citadel makes big promises

There's a new big remake effort a-brewing in the Free Software world, this time for prominent shooter/RPG, System Shock. under the shape of project Citadel. According to project description, the goal is to recreate the original game using the widely known GPLed platform Darkplaces Engine, upgrading the game's graphics to full 3D but keeping game aesthetics close to the origianl game. Added modding capabilities and cooperative multiplayer will also be a part of the project. 

Details, however, are somewhat scarce, so far, as development is happening behind closed doors, and creator Josiah Jack just announced the existence of the project itself after months of programming in secret. While the code will certainly be all GPL or GPL-compatible due to Darkplaces licensing requirements, the game appears to rely on original proprietary assets, as well as using its own whose license nature is yet to be disclosed.

With a release date planned for the the 23rd of December, System Shock's CD release anniversary, I guess we'll have to wait and see if this project will deliver.

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Annex:CTW RTS version 4.0 close to release

The MegaGlest based RTS Annex: Conquer The World is very close to a major update as version 4.0. Strait from the developer's mouth:

Yes! We are so close we can almost taste it.

He also posted a game-play video of the current development version:


He also recently stated that the new release will be fully FOSS, i.e. not only GPL source-code but also all artwork under a FOSS compatible creative-commons license (most likely CC-by-SA).

It's just a pity that the new much improved GUI code from MegaGlest seems to be not yet ready for the release.

P.S.: Also check out this Tower Defense mod for MegaGlest.

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A potpourri of open-source engines for old(er) games

Yep, not much updates on the blog, but I thought I throw up a list of (mostly) obscure open-source news:

• Original Keen Dreams source-code liberated
• Also check out: CloneKeen, Omnispeak & Commander Genius
• CaveExpress liberated (2d physics game)
• Pixel Dungeon RogueLike open-sourced (Android only)
• X-Com: Apocalypse engine reimplementation
• Libre content replacement project for Gish
• Stein's Gate Visual Novel Engine reimplementation

Less obscure: New version of OpenMW (0.32).

Big tease: Icculus works on open-sourcing a game and it seems to be a relatively new title as it includes steamworks support.

Please comment below if you know of other recent open-sourceing efforts ;)

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Let's play Unvanquished

Ok we are a bit slow with updates currently, but I still wanted to share these cool Let's Play videos created for the Linux Game Award winner of last month Unvanquished:



This is actually the second part, and you can see the first part here (it is mainly about the new menu and playing a tutorial though).

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FreeGameDev.net Outage (Fixed)

**Update 2014-08-12 22:17**

It seems all is back to normal! Thanks 123-reg for sorting out it quickly although nobody emailed me or updated the support ticket, but stellar support nonetheless.

If you want a domain name host, then I can happily recommend 123-reg after this experience.

**Update 2014-08-12 11:14**

I've been in touch with 123-reg and was told the following:

This domain has entered in a renewal phase at the registry, it will be completed on the 15-Aug-2014, during this phase you cannot make any DNS changes.

I asked if it would return to as-was once this is phase is completed and if they could do anything to speed it up, response:

Yes, they will return to the original ones, we have encountered these situations before and we can speed up the renewal process.
I will need to escalate this chat to a support ticket to have my colleagues assist you further, is that ok?

So it is being escalated. I'll keep this post updated.

**Original Post**

I'm not sure (as I've not heard from anybody, really) of the exact extent of the freegamedev.net outage (especially the forums which projects/people depend upon) but it is currently down for me and others if isup.me is to be believed.

I forgot to renew the domain. I would cite lots of excuses but I don't have any!

Don't panic! It is now renewed, but perhaps because I renewed it after it expired (on the 9th - I noticed the forums down this morning which is the 10th) it seems I don't have access to the admin tools and it hasn't recovered yet. They have taken my money though so I expect normal service to resume soon and my provider (123-reg) says the 16th at the latest.

To everybody that this impacts, I am sorry. It'll be back soon. Also, it should auto-renew next year.

 - Charlie

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Stunt Rally now comes with spaceships and cool ancient cities!

Stunt Rally 2.4... talk about feature creep, but I am not complaining ;)

See more pictures of the release here, and don't forget to give some feedback on our forums.

Oh and you can now browse cars and tracks online.

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First public release of Terminal Overload!

You might remember the crowd-sourcing campaign from the beginning of this year to make a fully FOSS remake of a rather unique game.

Well, a bit later than promised, but really awesome never the less:


Note that this is a really early alpha and most of the art still has placeholder quality. It is quite playable multiplayer game already though, and there is a Linux and a Windows version for download on their website.

Please don't forget to give feedback on our forums (also if you are interested in helping out).

This is by the way to my knowledge the first FOSS game utilizing the open-sourced version of the Torque3D engine and also the only one that uses the work in progress Linux port so far.

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Support the development of the Terra Centauri RTS

Not exactly hot of the press, but the developer behind the MegaGlest based RTS Annex: Conquer the world has started a new project:

In a lonely planet circulating a distant star, a war of survival rages on. There a sentient race, the Valkyries struggle to protect their world and themselves against the parasitic organisms Devourers. Explore large maps for resources, treasure, and other advantages to fight back the relentless horde of Devourers.

Terra Centauri: The Last Stand is a new unique MG based game. While game shares a similar art style to Annex, this game has radically different gameplay and much higher quality models.

He is also running a funding campaign on Patreon and you can give feedback on the Megaglest forums.

Speaking of Megaglest: while development has slowed down a bit lately, the work on the CE-GUI based new menu and HUD is looking great.

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Duck Marines, FOSS remake of ChuChu Rocket

Thanks to Tangram Games for pointing out to us that they just released version 1.0 of their local multiplayer game Duck Marines.

They describe it as:

Duck Marines is a cross-platform free software PC remake of Sonic Team’s ChuChu Rocket.
Duck Marines attempts to recreate the magic from the local multiplayer of ChuChu Rocket while adding new elements like mini games, a level editor, colorful pixel art and more.

But see for yourself:



For those not familiar with the original on the Dreamcast here is a small description of the gameplay:

The goal of the game is to get as many ducks into the submarine of your color. Gray ducks give you one point, gold ducks give multiple points and pink ducks will trigger an event or mini game.
Guide the ducks towards your submarine by placing arrows on the ground. When walking over an arrow ducks will instead walk in the direction the arrow is pointing.
Beware of the blue predators. Predators love to eat ducks and will kill a large number of your ducks if they reach your submarine. Try instead to guide the predators to the other players’ submarines using your arrows.

Source-code (zlib) can be found here, assets are licensed under the CC-by-NC-SA/ND. Build with the great Lua 2D game framework LÖVE by the way.

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DevCorner: GameDevelop goes open-source

Thanks to GamingOnLinux for pointing out that this crossplattform *no-programming* 2D game development suite has gone fully FOSS.
It can export games to HTML5 and native code (x86 Linux and Windows).

Read the original announcement here. The github repository is here.

License infos:

• The IDE (in the IDE folder) is licensed with GPL v3. 

• The Core library, the native and HTML5 platforms (respectively Core, GDCpp and GDJS folders) are LGPL v3. 

• Extensions (in the Extensions folder) are using zlib/libpng license. 

• The name, Game Develop, and its logo are the exclusive property of Florian Rival.

Here is a small video to get you started:


& you can find some example games here.
----
By the way: I also recommend to have another look at the Godot engine which has had many improvements since it became open-source a few months ago.

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Winner of the Linux Game Awards PotM July 2014 announced!

See full announcement here.



Congrats to Unvanquished, they are doing a great job for sure!

While they won by a clear lead, the follow-up projects are also very much worth mentioning:

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May the source be with you

I'm a big advocate of the phrase, "Release Early, Release Often." I think it is by far the best way to keep or gain community interest in a project.

Of course, that simple phrase doesn't quite sum up what you actually must do - simply uploading a release and announcing it on your mailing list is unlikely to attract interest. For example, who knew about Lincity-NG 2.9beta in lieu of the intended Lincity-NG 3.0?

Lincity-NG is in a bit of a mini-crisis. A victim of the shutdown of the Berlios developer services, all the web material is in a bit of a mess. Its home page is now on fedorahosted.org but still links back to the defunct Berlios page. There are entries on Google Code and Github that are up to date with the source, as well as an imported Sourceforge project* which is the only place you can currently find the beta, however all are unofficial / back up for now.

(* Not to be confused with this redundant redundant project)

Another game project which suffered was Battles of Antargis. It has re-emerged on Github and development seems to have resumed with C++ replacing the Ruby bits which previously encumbered the game. For a web presence, you have to use the Internet archive for its old Berlios page or external sites e.g. the LGBD entry or on Libregamewiki.

Battles of Antargis

It's not just Berlios that throws a spanner in people's works. Sourceforge has setback the oft-setback Extreme Tux Racer by closing down their hosted apps. The main communication medium was phpBB but now it is completely gone. They did manage to get an updated 0.6.0 release online before this, at least.

Since there doesn't appear to be any project communication channel for ETR, I have contacted them suggesting a FreeGameDev forum.

Speaking of FGD forums, there's plenty of activity amongst the projects there. Stunt Rally continues to gain more strings to its bow. Sci-fi hovercrafts! That ought to be interesting. Despite being one of the prettiest open source games and incredibly put together almost by one person, CryHam - well, not quite; it took VDrift's physics and Ogre3D's jazz - the project doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves.

Sci-fi overcrafts now in Stunty Rally

You can browse the tracks online. Check out this fun looking track with pyramids and chasms galore.

Another project gaining momentum is OpenDungeons. It's had its ups and downs, but seems to have gotten its footing now with regular test releases and several active contributors. The new website is coming along, but more importantly so is the game as especially Yohann Ferreira aka Bertram (of Valyria Tear fame) has come in and steadied the ship. I look forward to seeing creatures like this golem trudging dark, damp and dangerous dungeon corridors.

Of course the reality of open source game development is that it is not an overnight job. It takes years of perseverance to realise the goals of many projects. Over the course of that time, occasionally the rug may get pulled from under you. You just have to be prepared to dust yourself off, get up, and keep going.

Or you could just call it quits.

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OpenRA also has a new release

OpenRA is a Free Software recreation of the famed Command & Conquer engine, and it aims to support and enhance all Westwood games originally built upon it, namely Tiberian Dawn, Red Alert, and Dune 2000. However, unlike most engine remakes, OpenRA isn't a simple 1:1 recreation with a little streamlining here and there, as the project also aims to optimize and rebalance the gameplay for purposes of online multiplayer. The project has recently released the latest stable version, fixing a lot of bugs and adding plenty of new features, as seen on the following release trailer:

Interestingly enough, in order to play all the games supported by OpenRA, you are not forced to own an original copy of any, given that all three ones were released gratis a few years ago. Though the package comes without any of this data, it immediately invites the player to download it from the project's own repositories, thus making all the games readily available to play.

The campaign mode is still not fully supported by OpenRA, with only some missions available for playing and no cinematics support at all, but we can only hope this will change in the future. In the meantime, you're free to enjoy all the supported games in skirmish mode, or play online against friends. So here's to the OpenRA team, and keep up the good work.

Code license: GPLv3

Assets license: Free-as-in-beer (available gratis, but still subject to copyright, as the C&C franchise is still intellectual property currently owned by EA)

Official website

Source code (Github)

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YSoccer out of Beta

Since football is all the rage right now - unless you are hiding under a rock then you can't have escaped the World Cup - then a little bit of football game news seems appropriate!

The game formerly known as Yoda Soccer has left beta and been unleashed upon the classic pixel soccer game world as YSoccer.

YSoccer version 14

If you never played Sensible Soccer, then you may not yet get what the fuss is all about - if that's the case then you should download it and give it a try!

Sadly football games are a little under served in the open source game community. Bygfoot and Eat the Whistle are quite playable, if a little raw. Project Football is almost a game. Open Football and Open World Soccer never quite got off the ground.

Project Football looked great but was last updated 4 years ago

YSoccer stands out amongst them and deserves a bit more attention than it probably gets.

EDIT: I feel I was a little unfair to Open World Soccer. If you download 0.5 (the most recent release, from 2010) you can see it is quite close to being a playable game. It is by the same guys as YSoccer and was originally an attempt to get away from the proprietary language that YSoccer is written in. You could even say it was intended to be a full port of YSoccer from Blitzmax to C++ (the author suggests so).

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OpenXcom hits 1.0

We have previously mentioned OpenXcom on several occasions before, but now the massive UFO: Enemy Unknown engine reimplementation project finally hit the long-awaited 1.0 mark, and they decided to celebrate by releasing this lovely trailer that sums up quite well the insane amount of detail and improvement put into the project over the course of 4 years. I'll let it do justice by itself, but not without thanking all the contributors for raising one of the most acclaimed DOS-era strategy classics from the stagnating swamps of buggy unsupported legacy releases and platform incompatibility.

On a final note, the engine is, of course, free-as-in-freedom, though it relies on original game data of proprietary nature. You can download OpenXcom here, and buy an affordable digital copy of the original game on Steam, or somewhere around the web.

Code License: GPLv3

Assets License: Relies on original proprietary data files. All new original art assets included in the OXC package available under CC-BY-SA

Official Website
Source Code (Github)

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Vote now on Linux Game Awards for the PotM July 2014

You know the drill ;)

For those a bit slow: yes you can vote for multiple projects... So lets share the love a bit and not only focus on a single title (you know which one I mean).

Otherwise: If you have great ideas how the award could be made even better than it already is (yes we know, this time the nominations are a bit random), comment below.

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Mutant Gangland is Free (but only as in Freedom)

Mutant Gangland is a nice-looking, turn-based strategy game that just happened to have all of its code released under the MIT license.

The games graphics follow a classic pixelart aesthetic

This project is attempting to follow the classic Free Software game business model where you share the source but keep the artwork proprietary, which is perfectly acceptable and fine. It currently sells for $3.99 and it's available for GNU/Linux, OSX, Windows, and Android.

So let this be an example to all of the new wave of indie developers. People, share you're freaking source codes under a Free License! Not only you're not losing money because of this, you'll also be getting free revisions and improvements to your own code, and you will be providing others the chance of creating something different with it.

Code License: MIT
Assets License: Proprietary

Official Website
Source Code (Github)

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Freeablo is that Diablo engine remake we've been wishing for, is currenly looking for contributors (and general ravings about Diablo. In fact, mostly that)

Freeablo engine in its early stages

Who doesn't love the original Diablo? When it was first released in 1996, this game set a notable landmark for making the RPG genre more accessible to a broader audience, while still keeping many gameplay aspects of classic Rogue-derived RPGs, that kept the game fresh and unique even after being completed several times. This bridge between classic and modern aspects combined with an incredible attention to detail, a uniquely crafted atmosphere that still gives me the creeps, and a gameplay pacing and length that is just the right balance between level progression and grinding, has helped making Diablo one of my all time favourite games. Well, that and Battlenet, of course, we can never forget how Diablo was one of the first to make it so easy to just go dungeon crawling with a couple of friends online.

There is, however, one thing that I don't like about Diablo. One thing that annoyed me all over these years of repeated runs and occasional multiplayer meetups. And that is how Blizzard itself decided to neglect its maintenance and compatibility completely and practically drop all active support for it, despite keeping the Battlenet servers online. Yes, you will have a tough time trying to buy a fresh copy of this game nowadays, because Blizzard cares so much about their legacy games they don't even sell 'em anymore in their official store. But even if there still are plenty of used copies available online for cheap, running the game on modern systems can be a whole a new quest, given that the last patch is dated from 2000, which means no performance maintenance, no improved graphics compatibility, in fact, not even additional screen resolutions, and certainly no stability updates whatsoever. 

The first Cathedral levels loaded and randomly generated in Freeablo

As a matter of fact, Blizzard has a whole tradition of being disrespectful to legacy fans. They refuse to let resellers touch their games (physical Diablo II and Starcraft copies still go by $25 nowadays, with no Steam or GOG versions in sight), they frequently discourage and hamper any type of mod support or mod attempts, other than whatever's produced under their little walled garden editor-type programs and, obviously, they never ever released the source code of any of their games, just to make sure us, the plebeian fans, would never touch their precious abandoned heritage with our filthy paws.

Luckily, this might just be about to change, with the coming of a bold, new engine remake project most aptly named Freeablo. This project aims to rebuild and expand upon the original Diablo engine, keeping it fully portable and compatible with modern systems, as well as making it adaptable and moddable for anyone willing to modify the game. All of this while still paying due respect to Blizzard and requiring the original game files in order to run the game. Now isn't this nice? 

As of the current 0.1 release, there is still much to be done, which is why the project is open to contributors of all sorts. Hopefully, with enough time and effort, we can all free Diablo one day from the clutches of proprietary software and greedy corporate execs who are still stuck in a 90s mentality on how to commercialize and support video games.

Code License: GPLv3
Assets License: Relies on original proprietary data files

Official Website
Source Code (Github)

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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.

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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!

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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.

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FlightGear 3.0 and Bombable add-on

This week saw finally saw the official release of version 3.0 of FlightGear.

Notable changes:

Highlights in this release include integration of the FGCom voice communications client within the simulator, improved terrain rendering, faster scenery loading, and improved usability. This release also coincides with the release of FlightGear World Scenery 2.0 – massively improved scenery data covering the entirety of the planet and incorporating OpenStreetMap roads and detailed terrain information from a variety of sources.

Also interesting is the "Bombable" add-on, which adds combat mechanics:

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KeeperRL and OpenIG

Two interesting projects I recently came across:

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 ;)

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DevCorner: Multiple new platforms for Torque2D MIT

I tend to focus a bit on the 3D side of things, but the recently open-sourced Torque2D (note the "2") engine is pretty cool too:



And in fact it got a whole lot better in the last couple of weeks with it being ported to Linux, Android and your browser (through Mozilla's emscripten).

So if you are thinking about developing an open-source 2D game targeting multiple platforms, Torque2D has just became a serious contender.

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