Monday, February 22, 2010
Digimon Battle – upcoming Digimon MMO game
New Digimon MMO is coming soon! Digimon Battle is the new title, announced by WeMade Entertainment.
Site: http://www.digimonbattle.com/
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Game sfx maker tool ... sfxr in flash!
What's all this then? This is as3sfxr, flash port of sfxr. It makes sounds for your games. You only have to press buttons and listen and press buttons again.
This is great: no need to understand how sound synthesis works, ability learn a little about sound synthesis by pressing buttons/moving controls randomly, no need to download/compile/install anything either. Oh how I would wish for more tools of this kind, maybe specialized stuff like (non-8-bit) fire effect generators, ice effects, explosions... There are some sfx gens for pure data but it will take a little more time to get them running.
At the top of this post, there is an embedded flash applet. If you are a user of an open source flash player: do you see it? Can you use it? How many of you already knew of sfxr but only now did try it through as3sfxr?
I hope this 'no info about games' post does not shock you.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
World of Tanks – new PVP oriented MMO game
World of Tanks is new MMO action game announced just recently by WARGAMING.NET. The game would be focused mainly on PVP battles with wide range of modes like quick random battles, mini-missions, clan wars and more.
World of Tanks is promised to be free to play so I presume many people will try it. The game will feature variety of tank models from different historical events and countries.
Tiger tank, Soviet T-34, American 155mm M40 Gun Motor Carriage are some of the models mentioned on the press release.
Site: http://www.worldoftanks.com/
Arcen's Upcoming Puzzle Game Gets Official Name, New Alpha-Version Screenshots
Arcen's currently-inwork puzzle game now has an official name: Tidalis.
The teaser
preview for the game has been updated to show the game's new logo,
as well as a lot of the game's current art. Please bear in mind that
most of the middle-ground sprites are currently missing from the shown
backgrounds, and that the look of the HUD is quite temporary. The new
screenshots are from the actual game -- not concept art -- and so
should give a better glimpse of what is coming.
In other Arcen news, the tower defense game A Valley Without Wind
(AVWW) has been pushed back to 2011. In place of that title, the
completion of Arcen's zombie puzzle-based adventure game, Alden Ridge,
will be the next priority for the company after Tidalis. Alden Ridge
is already about 70% complete (though filled with temporary art
and music), and now that the last design roadblocks have been
resolved with this game, it should fit better with Arcen's 2010 lineup.
Most specifically, completion of this game in place of AVWW will allow
adequate time for the second expansion to AI War to also be completed in
the fourth quarter. Currently, development of AVWW is expected to be
Arcen's primary focus for the first 6-8 months of 2011, or more if
needed. It's a big game (as is Alden Ridge, but Alden Ridge already has
80 completed levels, a finished engine, a complete level editor, and so
on).
We at Arcen are quite excited to share all of our upcoming work with you
-- much more information to come about Tidalis in particular in another
2-3 weeks, along with public pre-release versions for demo or for full
access to via preorder. Stay tuned!
The teaser
preview for the game has been updated to show the game's new logo,
as well as a lot of the game's current art. Please bear in mind that
most of the middle-ground sprites are currently missing from the shown
backgrounds, and that the look of the HUD is quite temporary. The new
screenshots are from the actual game -- not concept art -- and so
should give a better glimpse of what is coming.
In other Arcen news, the tower defense game A Valley Without Wind
(AVWW) has been pushed back to 2011. In place of that title, the
completion of Arcen's zombie puzzle-based adventure game, Alden Ridge,
will be the next priority for the company after Tidalis. Alden Ridge
is already about 70% complete (though filled with temporary art
and music), and now that the last design roadblocks have been
resolved with this game, it should fit better with Arcen's 2010 lineup.
Most specifically, completion of this game in place of AVWW will allow
adequate time for the second expansion to AI War to also be completed in
the fourth quarter. Currently, development of AVWW is expected to be
Arcen's primary focus for the first 6-8 months of 2011, or more if
needed. It's a big game (as is Alden Ridge, but Alden Ridge already has
80 completed levels, a finished engine, a complete level editor, and so
on).
We at Arcen are quite excited to share all of our upcoming work with you
-- much more information to come about Tidalis in particular in another
2-3 weeks, along with public pre-release versions for demo or for full
access to via preorder. Stay tuned!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
HellBored: Chris Park Interviewed About AI War and The Zenith Remnant
HellBored recently conducted an
interview with Chris Park about AI War, the reception of The Zenith
Remnant, developing games as an individual versus as part of a team, and
why developing capable RTS AI is such a challenge for the industry.
Read The Interview
Metacritic: AI War 40th Best PC Game of 2009
All the way back in December, Metacritic
released their annual list of the year's best-reviewed games on each
platform. Things have been so busy here at Arcen that somehow we missed
posting a news item about this, but we thought it was pretty cool to
say the least. For a game that started out as a one-man project with no
budget, it's pretty amazing to see that wind up at the #40 slot out of
all the great indie and AAA titles that were released during the year.
Read
The Article At Metacritic
released their annual list of the year's best-reviewed games on each
platform. Things have been so busy here at Arcen that somehow we missed
posting a news item about this, but we thought it was pretty cool to
say the least. For a game that started out as a one-man project with no
budget, it's pretty amazing to see that wind up at the #40 slot out of
all the great indie and AAA titles that were released during the year.
Read
The Article At Metacritic
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Tales of Fantasy - upcoming MMORPG
Site: http://tof.igg.com/
Tales of Fantasy is new, 3D MMORPG published by IGG. The game will offer many mounts and the ability to tame wild monsters. Characters will be able to obtain wings and fly as there is story about it in the teaser website.
Players will be able to fight while riding different creatures, even mount change can be possible in the middle of the battle.
Players will be able to craft and enchant their equipment and create unique weapons and items.
Screenshots:
Tales of Fantasy is new, 3D MMORPG published by IGG. The game will offer many mounts and the ability to tame wild monsters. Characters will be able to obtain wings and fly as there is story about it in the teaser website.
Players will be able to fight while riding different creatures, even mount change can be possible in the middle of the battle.
Players will be able to craft and enchant their equipment and create unique weapons and items.
Screenshots:
Friday, February 12, 2010
Pretty Warzone; What's to see in Linwarrior; Sauerbraten and content
Warzone 2100 has pretty new textures! Oh wait, didn't I report this more than one year ago? Well.. the release after the next is supposed to feature them, finally.. But I *do* have news to offer: Building models are being re-modeled and re-textured! Slightly related: There is a tutorial on making models and texturing them on their forums.
Hmm... I wish there were "tower defense" maps for Warzone 2100... and that moving units wouldn't be such a torture.. Speaking of torture, do you wish you could test WZ with new textures but don't have the time to figure out how to get the svn version? Well, maybe the following showcase video of the textures in-game will ease your pain. ^^
LinWarrior3D 2009_11_08 r15 was released a while ago. As a lover of the game that served as inspiration for LinWarrior, I'm compelled to like it. After all: you can shoot (and destroy stuff even!), you can move torso and legs individually and you have a wingman.
On the other hand, there is no mission goal and the game lacks any mech customization. Also I really miss a "STOMP STOMP" sound.. As for the game's name: well, at least they don't call it "FreeMech". :)
There's quite a bunch of new content in Sauerbraten's subversion repository, taken from Quadropolis, their community content sharing web site. However, [Insert expressions of discontent about licensing choices of others here].
I am quite surprised how much new content Quadropolis is attracting. On the other hand a discussion was started on OpenGameArt's forums, discussing the additional hardships of creating free as in freedom art, which kind of explains it. On the other, other hand, OpenGameArt is doing not bad as well, it attracts contributors who would probably never find a fitting project for their art and keep their works on their hard drive until the next disk failure should have separated them. I wish that projects would start telling their contributors to upload their works straight to OGA though.
I also hope that the community content sites set up for SuperTuxKart, VDrift and WorldForge will help contributors as they are supposed to.
Warzone 2100: re-worked buildings
Hmm... I wish there were "tower defense" maps for Warzone 2100... and that moving units wouldn't be such a torture.. Speaking of torture, do you wish you could test WZ with new textures but don't have the time to figure out how to get the svn version? Well, maybe the following showcase video of the textures in-game will ease your pain. ^^
LinWarrior3D 2009_11_08 r15 was released a while ago. As a lover of the game that served as inspiration for LinWarrior, I'm compelled to like it. After all: you can shoot (and destroy stuff even!), you can move torso and legs individually and you have a wingman.
On the other hand, there is no mission goal and the game lacks any mech customization. Also I really miss a "STOMP STOMP" sound.. As for the game's name: well, at least they don't call it "FreeMech". :)
There's quite a bunch of new content in Sauerbraten's subversion repository, taken from Quadropolis, their community content sharing web site. However, [Insert expressions of discontent about licensing choices of others here].
I am quite surprised how much new content Quadropolis is attracting. On the other hand a discussion was started on OpenGameArt's forums, discussing the additional hardships of creating free as in freedom art, which kind of explains it. On the other, other hand, OpenGameArt is doing not bad as well, it attracts contributors who would probably never find a fitting project for their art and keep their works on their hard drive until the next disk failure should have separated them. I wish that projects would start telling their contributors to upload their works straight to OGA though.
I also hope that the community content sites set up for SuperTuxKart, VDrift and WorldForge will help contributors as they are supposed to.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Lineage2 with free trial
http://www.lineage2.com/freetrial
Lineage2 is one of the first and most awesome MMORPG games I’ve ever played. It has a fantasy world (the world of Aden), 36 classes, 6 races, countless quests, real castle sieges, real and fast PVP battles.
The game is pay to play and this is the only reason many people stay away of it but I think, it’s the only option for really fun gameplay.
I played Lineage 2 some time ago, in fact I spent more than a year, working during the day and playing during the night. This time was so fun, I haven’t played any other game with such enjoyment.
Lineage2 is one of the first and most awesome MMORPG games I’ve ever played. It has a fantasy world (the world of Aden), 36 classes, 6 races, countless quests, real castle sieges, real and fast PVP battles.
The game is pay to play and this is the only reason many people stay away of it but I think, it’s the only option for really fun gameplay.
I played Lineage 2 some time ago, in fact I spent more than a year, working during the day and playing during the night. This time was so fun, I haven’t played any other game with such enjoyment.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Beautiful Open Source Puzzle Games
The beauty of a (puzzle) game is not only what we see and hear, but also what we feel when pressing buttons and moving the mouse. Controls are important and I prefer them crispy.
No free software puzzle game has more flavor than Krank. The player piece is a string of circles, which follow the cursor to collide with smaller pieces, which need to be connected to static pieces in different combinations. Unfortunately I fail at recording videos of the game and screenshots can't communicate the feel of the movement and sounds.. Speaking of movement, the controls are not as sharp as they should be, according to my ideal. However, this seems to fit the game very much, slow music, slow pace, 'swimming' controls. At first I was frustrated, because trying to do precise movements quickly leads to disaster (or just a harder time finishing levels than if you would do it slowly) but then I learned to relax.
Anyways, you have to try the python-based game for yourself! Just listen! :)
Cuboid-Clone is a nice and simple Panda3D-based puzzle game. If I understand correctly, the levels are cloned 1:1 as well, which would be rather disappointing. If anybody feels like braining some levels, here are instructions.
Cuboid-Clone download link here. The code license appears to be BSD (let's assume 3-clause).
I always loved Zaz' sound effects and now it has prettier backgrounds, and as I believe, freely licensed music (although author info is missing). The replay-video generation function now works without stealing focus, but I advise against uploading the resulting .ogv file to YouTube. :)
If you're a web designer, you could help the developer out with building a web page for Zaz.
In Waymark, you move a piece around in turns, your paths are defined by static blocks, that keep you from falling over the edge of the screen. Collect other pieces and reach the exit is the goal. Thanks to Danc's lovely pixel art (which is freely licensed under CC-BY) and the fitting sound effects (license unknown), Waymark is a pleasure to play.
There is one big problem with the game: movement is way too slow. This confuses me, because I am sure that I played the game a few months ago and movement was very quick. The current version number is 2009-01-10, perhaps the developer forgot it's 2010 and recently released a new version? Or am I having troubles with running Java apps once more?.. In any case, I'll try to convince the developer that this game needs quicker movement. :)
EDIT: If you have trouble starting the game (version mismatch) read this. If you happen to have troubles with Java apps in general (because you are perhaps using a tiling window manager) tell me so in the comments and I'll add a solution to that to this post.
EDIT2: It appears, that I first tried the windows version and that movement in the win version is faster, than the developer intended. The bug was a feature, and a great one. :( Also the developer confirmed that 2009-01-10 is the correct date.
PS: I totally forgot JAG! One of the zagillion connect-four-based block puzzle games, I don't even know what it is a clone of or if it is original! In any case, graphics and sounds are far from programmer art. I'm enjoying this great game from time to time and my only complaint is that the bonuses (pay points to destroy all blocks of one kind and similar) are not properly introduced. Maybe they are described in some readme, but for such a colorful puzzle game, the only proper introduction is having a shiny fat arrow pointing at them when I have accumulated enough points to use them the first time. :)
No free software puzzle game has more flavor than Krank. The player piece is a string of circles, which follow the cursor to collide with smaller pieces, which need to be connected to static pieces in different combinations. Unfortunately I fail at recording videos of the game and screenshots can't communicate the feel of the movement and sounds.. Speaking of movement, the controls are not as sharp as they should be, according to my ideal. However, this seems to fit the game very much, slow music, slow pace, 'swimming' controls. At first I was frustrated, because trying to do precise movements quickly leads to disaster (or just a harder time finishing levels than if you would do it slowly) but then I learned to relax.
Anyways, you have to try the python-based game for yourself! Just listen! :)
Cuboid-Clone is a nice and simple Panda3D-based puzzle game. If I understand correctly, the levels are cloned 1:1 as well, which would be rather disappointing. If anybody feels like braining some levels, here are instructions.
Cuboid-Clone download link here. The code license appears to be BSD (let's assume 3-clause).
I always loved Zaz' sound effects and now it has prettier backgrounds, and as I believe, freely licensed music (although author info is missing). The replay-video generation function now works without stealing focus, but I advise against uploading the resulting .ogv file to YouTube. :)
If you're a web designer, you could help the developer out with building a web page for Zaz.
In Waymark, you move a piece around in turns, your paths are defined by static blocks, that keep you from falling over the edge of the screen. Collect other pieces and reach the exit is the goal. Thanks to Danc's lovely pixel art (which is freely licensed under CC-BY) and the fitting sound effects (license unknown), Waymark is a pleasure to play.
There is one big problem with the game: movement is way too slow. This confuses me, because I am sure that I played the game a few months ago and movement was very quick. The current version number is 2009-01-10, perhaps the developer forgot it's 2010 and recently released a new version? Or am I having troubles with running Java apps once more?.. In any case, I'll try to convince the developer that this game needs quicker movement. :)
EDIT: If you have trouble starting the game (version mismatch) read this. If you happen to have troubles with Java apps in general (because you are perhaps using a tiling window manager) tell me so in the comments and I'll add a solution to that to this post.
EDIT2: It appears, that I first tried the windows version and that movement in the win version is faster, than the developer intended. The bug was a feature, and a great one. :( Also the developer confirmed that 2009-01-10 is the correct date.
PS: I totally forgot JAG! One of the zagillion connect-four-based block puzzle games, I don't even know what it is a clone of or if it is original! In any case, graphics and sounds are far from programmer art. I'm enjoying this great game from time to time and my only complaint is that the bonuses (pay points to destroy all blocks of one kind and similar) are not properly introduced. Maybe they are described in some readme, but for such a colorful puzzle game, the only proper introduction is having a shiny fat arrow pointing at them when I have accumulated enough points to use them the first time. :)
I got dragon, err … not really – Last Chaos first impressions
Last Chaos is cool, free-to-play MMORPG with a fantasy theme. I started to play it just recently but here is my review.
20;18;05.jpg)
Sorcerer – first impression
After some time playing a mage I created a sorcerer and started again. The sorcerer is something between summoner and fighter with magic. He has some relatively strong summons and several close range attack skills. The summons aren’t fully controlled, you can only decide their mode – attack, attack second, defend and follow. They stay in attack mode very short interval of time so you can’t leave your character sitting somewhere and getting experience while you are away, drinking coffee.
I get pissed off because the summons leave attack mode if I move my character even a little. There is no such problem with attack second though.
The summoner is a weak character, maybe the weakest of the all Last Chaos characters. If you intend to PVP, choose another one. Or be prepared to think fast and consider your character’s weak and strong points.
23;56;36.jpg)
Getting basic consumables
If you a newbie in Last Chaos you may have problems in obtaining consumables like HP and MP potions and so on. You can buy potions from one NPC in the town but the prices are too high. I had this problem – all my money went for potions even though I don’t use much.
00;42;22.jpg)
The game emphasizes much on the production. You can produce your own potions very easy – for hp potions you need to collect herbs, for mp potions – waves (or something like this) and for pet food for hatchling dragons and ponies you need to mine ore. Yep, you feed your pet pony with ore. Poor little creature. I can understand dragons eating ore, but horses? Also if your pet dragon or horse feels ill and its HP goes down you can give it some herbs. And if the creatures by any chance start to dislike you, you must feed it with waves and it will be the same again.
Sorry, I was talking about the potions. To produce potions from your ingredients you need a recipe and a skill. You have first level skill by default so you can collect materials and make first level potions. The recipe is obtained from the same NPC who sells potions. You need to learn some skills to produce better potions and collect more resources but be careful with your sp points.
13;23;40.jpg)
23;46;41.jpg)
You can obtain moonstones as a regular drop from the monsters. There are several levels of moonstones. You can exchange them for a random reward at the statue in the middle of the town.
Dragons and Dragon Hatchlings
To obtain a hatchling you need to finish a quest called Drake's Egg. You get the quest from Loraine, the NPC near the class masters. First thing you need to do is to obtain a Dragon Egg. It drops from the monsters around the town, I get even two for very short time. You can purchase an egg from the other players. With the egg, you talk again with Loraine, and she sends you to the second town to talk with some other NPC, I forgot his name now. Some archeologist, maybe. You teleport to the second town and talk with him and that’s the quest. Congrats, now you have baby dragon. To find the teleporter, search for a NPC with a teleporter before its name in the NPC list. It’s location is near the PVP arenas.
In the second town you can talk with any NPC for a direction. Don’t be shy, they are only Non Player Characters.
23;40;39.jpg)
To get a pony you need to finish quest called Pan’s Flute. It is given by Loraine again, and it is very similar to the Dragon quest. At the end, you obtain funny, fat pony with short legs that eats ore and needs wave to like you.
The pets you obtain from these two quests are level 1 and they level up while you fight in their company. They get only a tiny bit of your experience and they level up very slow. I got bored even before my pet dragon reach level 2. Also, aggressive mobs tend to attack your pet first if you don’t attack them. So at the beginning pets are just a nuisance. Of course, it is cool to ride a horse or a dragon, but they level up so slow …
13;23;14.jpg)
20;18;05.jpg)
Sorcerer – first impression
After some time playing a mage I created a sorcerer and started again. The sorcerer is something between summoner and fighter with magic. He has some relatively strong summons and several close range attack skills. The summons aren’t fully controlled, you can only decide their mode – attack, attack second, defend and follow. They stay in attack mode very short interval of time so you can’t leave your character sitting somewhere and getting experience while you are away, drinking coffee.
I get pissed off because the summons leave attack mode if I move my character even a little. There is no such problem with attack second though.
The summoner is a weak character, maybe the weakest of the all Last Chaos characters. If you intend to PVP, choose another one. Or be prepared to think fast and consider your character’s weak and strong points.
23;56;36.jpg)
Getting basic consumables
If you a newbie in Last Chaos you may have problems in obtaining consumables like HP and MP potions and so on. You can buy potions from one NPC in the town but the prices are too high. I had this problem – all my money went for potions even though I don’t use much.
00;42;22.jpg)
Herb field
So what is the solution?The game emphasizes much on the production. You can produce your own potions very easy – for hp potions you need to collect herbs, for mp potions – waves (or something like this) and for pet food for hatchling dragons and ponies you need to mine ore. Yep, you feed your pet pony with ore. Poor little creature. I can understand dragons eating ore, but horses? Also if your pet dragon or horse feels ill and its HP goes down you can give it some herbs. And if the creatures by any chance start to dislike you, you must feed it with waves and it will be the same again.
Sorry, I was talking about the potions. To produce potions from your ingredients you need a recipe and a skill. You have first level skill by default so you can collect materials and make first level potions. The recipe is obtained from the same NPC who sells potions. You need to learn some skills to produce better potions and collect more resources but be careful with your sp points.
13;23;40.jpg)
Getting waves for MP potions
23;46;41.jpg)
Ore is healthy breakfast for dragon babies.
Moon stonesYou can obtain moonstones as a regular drop from the monsters. There are several levels of moonstones. You can exchange them for a random reward at the statue in the middle of the town.
Dragons and Dragon Hatchlings
To obtain a hatchling you need to finish a quest called Drake's Egg. You get the quest from Loraine, the NPC near the class masters. First thing you need to do is to obtain a Dragon Egg. It drops from the monsters around the town, I get even two for very short time. You can purchase an egg from the other players. With the egg, you talk again with Loraine, and she sends you to the second town to talk with some other NPC, I forgot his name now. Some archeologist, maybe. You teleport to the second town and talk with him and that’s the quest. Congrats, now you have baby dragon. To find the teleporter, search for a NPC with a teleporter before its name in the NPC list. It’s location is near the PVP arenas.
In the second town you can talk with any NPC for a direction. Don’t be shy, they are only Non Player Characters.
23;40;39.jpg)
Cute
Horse and PonyTo get a pony you need to finish quest called Pan’s Flute. It is given by Loraine again, and it is very similar to the Dragon quest. At the end, you obtain funny, fat pony with short legs that eats ore and needs wave to like you.
The pets you obtain from these two quests are level 1 and they level up while you fight in their company. They get only a tiny bit of your experience and they level up very slow. I got bored even before my pet dragon reach level 2. Also, aggressive mobs tend to attack your pet first if you don’t attack them. So at the beginning pets are just a nuisance. Of course, it is cool to ride a horse or a dragon, but they level up so slow …
13;23;14.jpg)
Funny
I’ll stop here for today. I must write something about the personal dungeons, fighting the Barlog and so on.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Contributors, contributors, contributors
The development structure of FOSS game projects can be a one-man show, it can be semi-closed by having a fixed team and little web presence, it can have lots of tasks without anybody knowing what needs to be done, or it can be plain frozen until a developer decides to pick it up.
Today, I will try to pick some of the open development ones that provide some kind of ordered task list and provide instructions in the case of media creation being the job.
Programming
Syntensity has some open tasks (having played the game helps understanding :) ), which involve tinkering with the Sauerbraten-based engine and JavaScript.
latest UFO:AI world view
PARPG developers wants to ship the first tech demo on 10th of March but could use some Python programmers' help. The engine used by PARPG, FIFE, just released 0.3.0, introducing internationalization as one of the features. One plan for a forthcoming version is to improve rendering performance.
Never mind the sidetracking, regarding PARPG programming: here's the first step (chat) of involvement and the second (forums). :) In case you're worried about setup complications: being on Arch Linux it has been no effort for me to install fife-svn and test the svn version of PARPG many times.
Current PARPG status
I told you about the problems of getting Bitfighter to run on my x64 system. Others suffer from the same and now the development team is looking for someone willing to take a look at our errors and their code in this thread. Should you happen to take a look and have an idea of what the problem is but are too laz.. busy to register at yet another forum, please do comment on this post. :)
Assets/Media/Art
Racer is getting prettier and prettier and hopefully the instructions for making cars, using the editor and creating visual themes will let some race track artists do their magic. I recommend the racer-dev group for getting in touch with the developer.
A list of wanted voice lines for NAEV was compiled. For brainstorming, a PiratePad was used, which is based on the FOSS collaborative web text editor etherpad.
jClassicRPG recently received a new voice pack but is still looking for more voices. If you are or you know someone who likes to put their voice to use and has a way to record it, go to/direct them to the updated voice acting instructions.
irrlamb documentation now features a wiki page on level editing. For questions and feedback use this thread.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
A3P: Acquire, Attack, Asplode, PWN!
Hey FreeGamer crowd, I hope there are still a few people around ;)
Today there will be only a short update, as I simply can't believe this gem of a game (see below) has not been featured on this page!
EDIT: Do not miss qudobup's post about FOSS engine news directly below this one!
Check out A3P, if that has sparked your interest! At it's current version (0.5) it can be described as a third person arena shooter with some small RTS/squad command elements, and it is definitely fun to play:
The technical specs are rather interesting too: Based on the BSD licensed Panda3D engine (while itself being licensed MIT; the media license is unclear though) it has all the bells and whistles one can expect from a modern game (Full GLSL shader based rendering, networked ODE physics, even integration into your webbrowser).
Yet it was developed by ONE man in only ONE year! That makes us fellow free game developers look a bit bad, I guess :( Maybe that's because it was developed in Python!
Check out the development blog for further insight into this miracle ;)
Today there will be only a short update, as I simply can't believe this gem of a game (see below) has not been featured on this page!
EDIT: Do not miss qudobup's post about FOSS engine news directly below this one!
A unique arena shooter
So someone had the balls (pun intended) and released a completely unique arena shooter with many nifty features, described by the creator as a mix of TPS/RTS/OMG/BBQ ;)Check out A3P, if that has sparked your interest! At it's current version (0.5) it can be described as a third person arena shooter with some small RTS/squad command elements, and it is definitely fun to play:
The technical specs are rather interesting too: Based on the BSD licensed Panda3D engine (while itself being licensed MIT; the media license is unclear though) it has all the bells and whistles one can expect from a modern game (Full GLSL shader based rendering, networked ODE physics, even integration into your webbrowser).
Yet it was developed by ONE man in only ONE year! That makes us fellow free game developers look a bit bad, I guess :( Maybe that's because it was developed in Python!
Check out the development blog for further insight into this miracle ;)
Friday, February 5, 2010
Open Source 3D Game Engines Updates
Crystal Space 1.4 is out. Features include improved animations ("integrating vertex based animation with skeletal animation") and terrain ("improves rendering and handling of large outdoor areas"), OpenAL for sound and an internationalization plug-in.
Engine screenshots are very informative. This is Panda3D by the way.
Panda3D has a prettier website, it released version 1.7.0 and apparently has a web-plug in. The new version makes it easier to crash the computer, but also gives a performance boost - with the magic of 'pointer textures'.
I have a little crush on Panda3D, because it gives access to 3D and audio with no complicated setting up through a scripting language (Python). On the other hand it requires 3D models to be in its own format and I find converting not very convenient. For example there have been problems importing animations into Radakan.
OGRE mascot
Ogre has a mascot, and it might even become freely licensed, somebody just needs to confirm this (by posting in the thread). :)
Besides that, 1.7.0 RC1 has been released, which is licensed under MIT license (before, it was LGPL). Here's what seems like a changelog.
OGRE wikis
Just for kicks: a simple comparison of OGRE, Panda and Crystal regarding lines of code. What does it tell us? Well, that OGRE has the biggest codebase (even though it only handles graphics), that Panda3D is the most compact of the tree and that Crystal Space code size had strange ups and downs. Nothing more really.
Kambi VRML v2.0 is soon to be released, as is the final version of the demo game Castle (which will only mean additional eye candy to the game). What is more important, as soon as Castle 1.0 is released, work will start on Castle 2.
Castle 1 is a three-level game and I consider it hard (easy to die) and its controls to be rough. On the other hand the level design is great: the layout invites exploration the levels are linear, each with a goal to be reached. This way the levels actually are part of a game, rather than an open-ended tech demo. This is why I have a good feeling about Castle 2.0 already. Depending on whether the developers decide to work on Castle 2 on their own or to ask the community for contributions, we might see some more use of their forum.
Morrowind scroll loaded in OpenMW
Old news: OpenGameEngine development stopped in October 2009, until a project manager wants to take over. The form in which the project is left is described as "usable" and "still too much work to make it worth the time investment".
Enjoy another ridiculous comparison of 3D (game) engines: OpenMW, KambiVRML and OGE. I just love diagrams. :)
We have a list of 3D engines on our wiki, if you want to dig some more. Also all FOSS game engine blogs that have feeds are included in the FGD development planet feed aggregator.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
NEO Online
Site: http://neo.playomg.com
NEO Online or New Era Odyssey Online is a new fantasy MMORPG with many cool features. Its official closed beta is scheduled for February, 8th, so I look forward to try it and share my experience with you.
What I know about the game till now is that it offers great character development freedom, as any character can learn any skill as long as it has enough skill points. So you can have a sword-waving mage or a healing warrior.
The game will offer plenty of quests – from the important main story quests to minor and part-time quests. You can decide to share or not your quests with your party – it’s the first game I’ve ever seen with this option explicitly available in the interface.
PVP and PK
You can try your skill in a usual duel mode or choose to become a criminal (PK mode). Your character needs to be level 20 or above to be in a PK mode or to be PKed by other players so rest assured, on one will kill you until you feel good enough to fight back. .
The game offers three types of mass PVP – group battles, guild battles and territorial wars.
NEO Online or New Era Odyssey Online is a new fantasy MMORPG with many cool features. Its official closed beta is scheduled for February, 8th, so I look forward to try it and share my experience with you.
What I know about the game till now is that it offers great character development freedom, as any character can learn any skill as long as it has enough skill points. So you can have a sword-waving mage or a healing warrior.
The game will offer plenty of quests – from the important main story quests to minor and part-time quests. You can decide to share or not your quests with your party – it’s the first game I’ve ever seen with this option explicitly available in the interface.
PVP and PK
You can try your skill in a usual duel mode or choose to become a criminal (PK mode). Your character needs to be level 20 or above to be in a PK mode or to be PKed by other players so rest assured, on one will kill you until you feel good enough to fight back. .
The game offers three types of mass PVP – group battles, guild battles and territorial wars.
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