Daimonin Review

Site: http://www.daimonin.org/

Daimonin is an open-source, 2D, isometric MMORPG. Here is the project page at sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/daimonin/files/Experimental/.
You can try the game on a free public server at the official website or download the client and the server and run them.
Daimonin offers vast world with many quests, races and genders. The game features large number of quests.
You can download map editor and create your own maps.

Screenshots

 

 

The Zenith Remnant Now Available For Preorder!

Arcen Games is pleased to announce that The Zenith
Remnant, the first expansion to its popular space RTS AI War, is now
available for preorder.  This expansion is still in the early stages of
development, but we're making the alpha/beta versions available to
anyone on a trial basis, and in full for anyone who preorders, so that
our community can be involved with feedback and ideas as development
progresses.  This sort of open development process has been so
successful for our 2.0 version that we just couldn't cut our community
out of even the earliest stages of our expansion.

Spokes Map

Tree Map

 

What Is Planned For The Final Release?


To some extent, exactly what is planned is a bit uncertain, and for a
very good reason -- we plan
to rely on community feedback and discussion to help us build the
product as we go.  That said, there
are a lot of very specific ideas that are now on the schedule for
implementation:
This is
the list
of planned features, and you're free to comment on any of them at any
time.




As you can see, we actually
have over 80% of the planned features somewhat finalized, but then again
nothing is finalized until we
go live.  If players hate a feature, or a better one surfaces before we
get started on one idea, then
we're going to adjust our plans accordingly -- that's the uncertainty
mentioned above.




In a broad sense, here's what will definitely be in the expansion:

* 80 to 100 new ships, including:

   * At least 12 new ship classes with a variety of abilities.

   * At least 6 massive "Golem" ships.

   * At least 5 new "capturables" other than Golems.

   * Several new ships for allowing players expanded ways to control
fleets.

* At least 4 new map styles.

* At least 12 new AI Types.

* A new, neutral minor faction in the galaxy: the Zenith Aliens
(NPCs).

* 30-40 minutes of new in-game music tracks.

* At least two universal new AI ship subsystems (like Astro Trains).














Three Upcoming Golems (Shown Actual Size In Window)

Beep. Bop. Updates. Racer. Critterding. PARPG. OGA.

Sorry.

Attempts to rescue old forum files will go on until November 9, 2009, I will update you on that date or earlier. For now, there's a replacement of the FGD planet (let us know if blogs are missing)

racer

I made two videos [one, two] of the alpha-stage-but-stable sci-fi racing game racer.

I also made a video (sorry for frame rate and encoding error) of the 3d-life-form simulator critterding. Not a game, but potentially entertaining ;)

Portrait for PARPG

PARPG's team is working on a level editor. There's new art too of course. Did you notice that awesome portrait over there -> ? I'm so impressed!

Speaking of graphics, OGA has some new featured art (East RPG monsters). It too looks *smart positive adjective*. Also some neat concept art (example).

I (qubodup) will be posting less (probably for the next 3 years). Busy much :) Remember that you can informally apply to become a freegamer reporter if you like :)

AI War 25% Off Sale!

Get AI War on your platform of choice! Direct2Drive
(UK
link) and Stardock's
Impulse have joined Steam in our 25% off
promotion, available for a limited time. The Steam and Direct2Drive
sales end on the 27th, and the Impulse sale ends on the 26th.

Co-Optimus Review of AI War

[AI War] manages to propel the RTS
genre forward and beyond its usual trappings with an innovation that is
so simple it’s amazing it hasn’t been done previously, while still
managing to keep the spirit of those classic RTS games alive.  Best of
all, it does so with one key element in mind: co-op is not just a bullet
point on a box, but a way of designing, creating, and playing games.
-Jason Love, Co-Optimus

IncGamers AI War Diary

IncGamers has been keeping an AI War co-op diary
chronicling some recent games with players who are fresh out of the
tutorials.

Read part 1 here
Read part 2 here

AI War on Fidgit

Just a heads up that Tom Chick has posted a small piece on Fidgit (the
SyFy.com gaming blog) noting the new features, and availability via
Steam etc.
http://fidgit.com/archives/2009/10/sci-fi_strategy_game_ai_war_ac.php

Well
done on getting the game out to Steam and the other digital
distributions, I hope the game sells a bundle and the community here
expands exponentially. Top work Chris, and all the folks at Arcengames!

Dragonica News

Since 15 October 2009, Dragonica is announced fully live. Till then the game was Open Beta state. The live version is released with a new expansion – Tales of the Damned. It has several new features – new dungeons, new areas and of course - new bosses.
The new version comes with long waited pets – now players can have a pet like Husky the Dog, Felix the Cat and Griffon the Bird.

For more information visit http://en.dragonica.gpotato.eu/

AI War 2.0 (Achievements, Leaderboards, Steam and Direct2Drive!)

Arcen Games is very pleased to announce the release of AI War: Fleet
Command version 2.0, which marks the culmination of our long-running
post-release overhaul. To see just how epic this journey has been, take
a look at this: AI
War 2.0 vs. 1.0, A Retrospective. The cumulative post-release
notes, included near the end, are literally novella-length (46,573
words). That's how much has changed in the since our initial release.




You can download a trial
version of the game, as well as purchase a license key to
unlock the full version. If you already have the game or demo
installed, just hit "Check For Updates" inside the game to get the
latest patch.  

Achievements

High Scores

AI War Comes To Steam and Direct2Drive!

Direct2Drive and Steam join Impulse and GamersGate in offering AI War--
be sure to check them out! The Steam version includes online
leaderboards and Steam achievements (other versions are all local-only
for those features). If you've previously purchased your copy of AI War
from another platform and would like to activate it on Steam to get
those features, you will be able to do so in
the near future. In celebration of the release of 2.0, AI War is
also going to be 25% off at Steam through Oct. 27th -- and look
for similar sales at other partners very soon.





   





Many Updates:

- New local high scoreboards for everyone, and online high
scoreboards through Steam.

- 129 Achievements, which can be logged locally and/or through
Steam.

- Player ships can now be assigned preferred target types, which
greatly increases tactical control.

- A number of co-op-related interface improvements: see allied
resources, more informative gifting lists, etc.

- Several new visual effects: smoke trails and sparking for damaged
ships, etc.

- Much improved (or entirely replaced) graphics for over 50
different ships.

- Ships now accelerate and decelerate when moving, making them much
more graceful.

- New Collision Priorities make placement of larger/fixed ships in a
group of smaller mobile ships much easier.

- Players can now select multiple AI Modifiers at once in the lobby.
Turrets have been rebalanced and made more distinct and interesting.

- Custom planet name lists can now be used for those who don't like
the random names.

- Networking improvmeents.

- Many other bugfixes and balance tweaks.




The above list is just a sampling of what has changed since 1.301,
however, so be sure to check out the full release notes to see
everything. And remember, to see everything since 1.0, see this: AI War 2.0 vs. 1.0, A
Retrospective.

---

As an added note, if you are a player who is is unable to
install patches for whatever reason (this is usually a windows issue),
you can download the patch files through the following link: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1000To2000.zip

Then
unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI
War\ unless you specified something else).  Please make sure that your
unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than
just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.  This is
a cumulative update, so as long as you have at least version 1.000 of
the game installed, this will update you to the latest version (2.000)
without any issues.

This update now available for Impulse
customers.

For existing GamersGate customers, you can always
upgrade your copy from the "Check For Updates" link in the game just
like customers from our direct site can.  The latest version of the
installer will also be coming to GamersGate, but that will affect new
customers only.

Co-Optimus Interview With Chris Park About AI War

Co-Optimus interviews Chris Park, the developer of
AI War, about the game in general but of course the co-op aspects in
particular.  Park is a huge proponent of co-op in general in gaming, so
was very excited to have an interview that focused so heavily on those
aspects, which are often just a minor bullet point in a long list of
other topics discussed.

Read The Interview

Article in The Herald-Sun About Pablo Vega, AI War's Composer

The Herald-Sun recently did an article about Pablo
Vega, Arcen Games' composer.  Pablo has a lot of exciting things going
on his life (local TV pilot, concert with his friend Anoop), and AI War
is just one of them.  To read more about him, including is prodigious
start as a musician, click over to the Herald-Sun!

Read The Article

Free Graphics For Indie Developers!

ABSTRACT
AI War was made
possible in large part thanks to some art that Daniel Cook released for
indie developers to use for free, even in commercial games.  A lot of
that art (as people have noticed) is from the classic shooter Tyrian. 
Now that Arcen is successful enough to have its own artist on staff,
we're happy to pay it forward by releasing the AI War 2.0 art for others
to make use of.  The hope is to help bootstrap another indie developer
the way that Daniel Cook bootstrapped us.

Free Graphics For Indie Developers!

Forum un-down #5

Short version: feel free & safe to use the Forum again. The old posts might or might not be added to the posts we post from now on later.

Longer version: there is still hope that the files (and posts) will be restored but of course no guarantee. Having a job doesn't help the server administration spend money on trying to restore the files.

However, I was assured, that the posts we write from now on will be preserved, even if the old posts get restored. I told otherwise in a previous post's comment before.

I'm sure you are curious about whether the forum software is responsible for the data loss. It is not. It was me, not bothering to check whether the posts get saved in the database or not. The default behavior is to save to files, saving to db would have to be enabled.

Diehard GameFAN Review of AI War

Sure, the genres are different, and the settings couldn’t be more
varied, but here we go. A.I. War: Fleet Command is more
addictive than Diablo II. ... A.I. War: Fleet Command is the rare
game that comes along out of nowhere and makes you pay attention. ...
It won’t break the bank, you don’t need a brand new gaming rig to enjoy
it, you can lose yourself in the story, and you can keep playing it for
hours. Fans of space battles should do themselves a favor and pick this
game up as soon as possible.

- A.J.
Hess, Diehard GameFAN

Cheat Code Central Review of AI War

AI War: Fleet Command provides the kind of gameplay depth rarely seen
in today's mainstream RTS offerings,
and it does so with one dimension tied behind its back.

- Derek
Hidey, Cheat Code Central

Eternal Lands

Site: http://www.eternal-lands.com/

Eternal Lands is a free MMORPG game under development. It is not so well-known mainly because it is not developed by some large and multinational game development company but a small team.

I really enjoy this type of games – they are not so perfectly working but you can touch part of the game development process. You can visit the developers page and the forum to learn more.

In EL characters are not bond to a profession, they can learn any skill they like and change it anytime. Players can choose between six playable races: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, orchans and draegoni. I didn’t find much visual difference between the races though.

Gamer Limit Review of AI War

While the casual gamer will find the sheer volume of this game very
intimidating, AIW:CF will
undoubtedly have a strong draw to the RTS enthusiast. Because of its
support for a vast number of
units, and exploration of a seemingly endless planetary system, it
will leave gamers playing the
same map for hours on end.

- Curtis
Takaichi, Gamer Limit

AI War Trailer 3

View On Youtube - Download Full Quality Version



AI War: Fleet Command is one of the surprise indie hits of 2009. One of the most popular indie titles on Stardock's Impulse, AI War is coming to Steam in October 2009 with online leaderboards and achievements, as well as the huge 2.0 graphical and gameplay enhancements that will be available to all existing customers (through Impulse, GamersGate, or our website) for free! This trailer shows you what all the fuss is about.

Knight Online

Site: http://knightonlineworld.gamersfirst.com/index.php

Knight Online is a popular MMORPG developed by MGame Corporation. The game is free to play and download, but with some premium services. The site here is the US official, there are also two other servers – the Korean and the Japanese.
Knight Online is set in a fantasy world of magic, knights and battles. Right at the beginning you are thrown in the conflict between two enemy nations and you must choose a side!

The game has four starting classes – Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Priest. The first job change is at level 10.

Gameplay
At the beginning every new player starts with a mission to defeat one big worm and save his future virtual friend – Seed (or Max). Your virtual friend will help you with information and tips about the game world.
Leveling up is similar to most other games – players obtain experience through killing mobs and doing quests, obtain stats points per each level and develop their character with great deal of individuality.
If you want to level up faster in Knight Online it is better to start some quests and fight mobs while doing the quests. Also you can improve your weapons and armor through crafting.
The in-game currency is called Noahs. Players can obtain Noahs through killing monsters, doing quests, trading and so on.

PvP
The game offers often wars, castle sieges and other events. Players can duel other players from their nation and fight for National Points and Ladder Points players from the enemy nation.

Quests
The game has many quests – very similar to many other MMORPGs – kill n mobs or collect m items.

Downloading the game.
I personally don’t like games without own client hosting. They redirect you to some big file sharing sites with a lot of ads and spam/scam content. On the official site you see that your download must be something like 900mb and on the file hosting servers you see 400mb exe. And all of them store an exe with different size. All file hosting servers listed in the official game site. So which is the correct one? I don’t know.
This is not very pleasant approach for a serious company and game. I am not sure I can trust such game. Maybe I haven’t seen the exe on the official site? I don’t like this part ruining otherwise marvelous impression.

Overall impression
Knight Online is a very good game with cool PVP system and fascinating gameplay. Very fast it became one of my favorite games.

This post in my blog - Game news, reviews, cheats, fun - http://godsector.blogspot.com/2009/10/knight-online.html

The Reticule Interviews Chris Park About AI War, Part Two

The Reticule concludes the interview Chris Park, the
developer of AI War. Topics in this part range from 2D games, why many
indies smartly avoid DRM, the future of AI War, other upcoming Arcen
titles, and our upcoming release on Steam.

Read The Interview

The Reticule Interviews Chris Park About AI War, Part One

The Reticule interviews Chris Park, the developer of
AI War, about a variety of subjects: the game's AI, co-op features, and
how we managed to get such massive unit counts, amongst others.  Check
back tomorrow for part two!



Read The Interview

Forum down #4

8 Oct, UTC+1:

22:27 < ghouly> freegamedev wiki backup restored : http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/freegamedev/wiki

22:28 < dmj728> ghouly...are the message bodies back?

22:28 < ghouly> not yet, we'll work on that this weekend

PS: For all your game development forum communication needs I recommend this list for the moment.

Forum down #3

So a 'backup' forum is free for use again, while we wait for filesystem recovery results (the download of the fs has finished so 'repairs' begin now)..

Meanwhile jClassicRPG created a new forum. Make your choice ;)

Boomtown Review of AI War

It's a powerful experience when a game's less frenetic moments are
just as absorbing as its action, and AI War
manages to engross from all available angles, challenging the player
with strategically demanding
scenarios and framing it all in brilliant 2D visuals that provide
ample visual stimuli but maintain
easy access to statistics. Expertly crafted resourcing and development
tools prevent stagnation of
the game's simple conquest objective, and the sheer scope of ships,
maps and difficulty levels – not
to mention co-op – is likely to keep this gem afloat for some time.
RTS fans rejoice.


- Adam
Hall, Boomtown

Forum down #2

Permission to panic given.

We didn't lose the databse, but it might be that we lost the files. Unfortunately the messages of the forum are saved as files. Check this out (but don't post) to see how a 'full' forum without messages looks like.

So this is the 'message-only backup' I was talking about in previous post.

We still might be lucky and the filesystem can be recovered. It's 400GB big and it takes a week to download that, so expect having to wait...

Waiting is the magical word here.

:(

I'm very unhappy about the forum and how not having it around might affect the community members and especially the projects that use it as part of their infrastructure..

Iterative Game Design The Right Way

ABSTRACT
AI War
designer/programmer Chris Park is accustomed to using iterative design
methods from his business programming background, and carries this over
to game design.  Iterative methods are often scoffed at, usually because
the scoffer does not actually understand what iterative design is, but
these methods carry some unique benefits when used in a disciplined way.
 AI War is discussed as a case example of this.

Iterative Game Design The Right Way

Forum down

Due to a filesystem error (apparently) the FreeGameDev forum is down. The post data (MySQL table) is safe and will be likely restored in a day or two. It's not clear yet if file attachments can be restored. We will keep you updated.

You can use this phpBB forum as a short-term temporary solution.

Star Trek Online (STO)

Are you a Star Trek geek? Are you a MMORPG fan? Both?

Star Trek Online Closed Beta is available for new registrations. You can try and be accepted on the official site - http://www.startrekonline.com/.

In STO you can experience 25 century universe. You can face the vast space as a Federation Captain or a Klingon Warlord. According to the official site the player will have the opportunity to customize his own space ship to better represent his personality. Star Trek Online will feature space and ground combat.

Trailer:


Screenshots:

"Star Trek Online game content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and used with permission. All rights reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. © 2008 Paramount Pictures Corp. All rights reserved."

AI War: Fleet Command - One Minute Pitch Video

View On Youtube - Download High Quality (1024x768) Version



Want to get up to speed on the basics of AI War in a jiffy? This one-minute video does a lightning walkthrough of the basics of what most makes the game unique.