Dev-corner: 48-hour Reddit Game Jam Postmortem

Last weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of "leading" a large (20+) team of dedicated artists, coders, and writers in the creation of a wonderful (if a bit rough around the edges) 2D platform game called Last Escape. I put "leading" in quotes, because my position was more of organizer and first-among-equals (save for a couple of executive vetoes, mostly to save time and keep things moving). It was an amazing experience, and I'm very...

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Tiny game: Stop the Zombies!

I'm so proud of saving more than killing...I discovered a tiny and minimal Java/Processing game through future superstar game designer William:   Stop the Zombies!Launch nuke circles. Save human pixels. Kill zombie pixels. Or just kill everything.The code is under a "Do whatever you want with it" license as far as I'm concerned, as it says in the code, it was based on someone else's code already.It should be noted that that code...

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Dev-corner: Making unlicensed fan games -- why your time is better spent elsewhere

If you're reading this blog, you're probably like me in that you feel that current copyright law vastly overreaches in favor of the "content industry" and at the expense of culture as a whole. You may or may not also enjoy playing unlicensed fan-made games -- games that make use of IP from other games without the original owner's permission.Today I'm going to talk about a little game company named Squaresoft(*). I liked Squaresoft -- a lot. I never cared for the company Squaresoft all that much one way or the other, but I loved their games (as...

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Dev-corner: Bart K. explains (and rants about) C/C++ pointers

C pointer syntax is an egregious design flaw. It's so bad, in fact, that it's solely responsible for multiple generations of programmers struggling with pointers, which frankly aren't that hard of a concept. I'm going to take some time today to explain pointers and, in the process, point out exactly what it is I can't stand about C/C++ pointer syntax. If you've never been able to wrap your head around pointers up until now, please give this a read, and hopefully you'll have a better understanding of them by the time you get to the end. I'll...

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Dev-corner: Primer to texture creation

So you got this shiny 25 megapixel camera from your grandma last Xmas, and are getting bored making photos of your cat with it? Put it too a good use and make some environmental pictures and upload them to the burning well!Wait, you don't have a rich grandma?... well take some photos from the website above (all public domain) and convert them to some nice textures to use in games ;)And of course FOSS is to the rescue and provides you with all the tools you need:Most importantly THE GIMP of course! Which is the premier open-source image manipulation...

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Xonotic Player Interviews

Do you like Let's Plays (Commented gameplay videos)? I do. Antibody of Xonotic made something similar with pro Xonotic/Nexuiz players and sometimes developers: Interviews during playbacks.Um, I hope you like YouTube.. ...

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Sintel The Game mini-update

The Sintel The Game crew contacted me and asked me to take down the post due to a misunderstanding, will keep the couple of screenshots here though. ~GoatSintel UltraliteAweso...

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Red Eclipse 1.0

The Red Eclipse project, forked from the now-defunct Blood Frontier project, has made it's first release - Red Eclipse 1.0: Ides Edition. It has been continuous under heavy development, as was BF before it, but the RE team took their time over a release opting to "Get Things Right" first*. Thus, the '1.0' should be an accurate reflection; solid gameplay, stable game, and embodies the majority of the game design the developers first envisaged. It claims to have both single- and multi-player modes. At time of writing, the website has no about...

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Spaced Out - Vega Strike and Pioneer betas plus Multiplayer Simutrans and MotoGT

The recent blogging activity, spurred on by the growth in official Free Gamer blog authors, is a pleasure to see. When I started the blog back in 2006, I didn't think it'd ever be so popular, let alone last this long. * Casual reference to remind readers that I am the original author and, should I ever be displeased, I will smite thee with banana flesh limbs. ^ Reference to IVAN; LIVAN or IVANX are better - see community site for variants. Vega...

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Reddit Game Jam 06 (March 25 to 27)

 All the screens I could find of RGJ 1-5 submissionsReddit Game Jam 06 starts March 25 and ends two days later (22:00 UTC).Anybody can participate. Those who can't code should get together with coders in a team. Team size this time is unlimited.FOSS is encouraged, not required. [full rules] From the subreddit's sidebar:A game jam is an event during which all participants create games according to a provided theme within a short amount of time...

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Holy Crap! M.A.R.S. 0.7.0!

Grave-Itation Pit!I don't like gravity shooters. In fact I don't like them so much I don't play them. They require more precision and skill than I want to give and are unforgiving.It is ridiculous that I like one gravity shooter though. A ridiculous one. M.A.R.S.So.. new version.. let my just copy-paste that changelog.. OH MY DOG THEY HAVE A VISUAL CHANGELOG!new music (by Obsidian Shell)new game mode (Grave-Itation Pit)improved AI (collect powerups,...

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SDL job offer, open art funding opportunities, tiny java/Slick game competition...

SDL-makers Galaxy Gameworks are looking for a talented developer who would be interested in developing and maintaining SDL.Pfunked might support artists starting their own funding campaigns for creating art for FLARE, as he did with Justin's. Here are some asset ideas.Then there's the option to offer high-quality art for being 'funded into free' at OpenGameArt. The current target is $130 for this dwarf warrior.I wish there were (more) open source...

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News from 0 A.D.

Well I certainly didn't see this coming, but 0 A.D. has decided to switch their game-play concept and turn the game into a Diablo like hack and slash RPG (while keeping the historical accurateness of course). For the first teaser pic see below:Ok bad phun, I admit...in reality they decided to turn it into a FPS game, which I really can't understand at all :( I mean, just look at these horrible screen-shots they are putting out as a 'proof of concept':However,...

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icculus @ Flourish! 2011: Gaming and Linux - also an interview!

icculus will be talking about gaming on Linux in Chicago April 2nd.Ryan "Icculus"  Gordon is a former Loki Software employee who is now responsible for icculus.org, which hosts many Loki Software projects as well as several new projects created by himself and others. Gordon's site hosts projects with the code from such commercial games as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, Quake III Arena and many other free and open source projects for multiple...

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FPS release weekend?

As the self proclaimed FPS expert here on FreeGamer (who doesn't have a PC to play any FPS right now :( ), I have to keep you updated on the newest released and developments of course!So what is the big news for this weekend? Well looks like the Cube2 engine powered Red Eclipse is finally getting an official release tomorrow :)Red Eclipse release teaserHead over to their IRC chat to not miss the release, which is expected for Sunday 13th of March,...

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Ryzom now nearly free to play

In a bold (desperate?) move the guys behind the nearly completely FOSS but still commercial MMORPG Ryzom have decided to make their game free-to-play, but with some smaller limitations (which are supposed to make you buy a subscription at some later point of course ;) ).Ryzom running on LinuxWe mentioned it before, but Ryzom also runs fine under Linux (as seen above), and check out their developers page, and art asset repository if you are thinking about contributing.Personally I feel the game shows it's age a bit too much on the desktop platform,...

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Besiege - 3D RTS (Java/Ardor 3D)

BesiegeBesiege is a space based real time strategy game where you conquer planets to let them produce new ships (and eventually research new technologies for you). Somewhat inspired by Eufloria and Galcon.The description resembles Qonk.The project did one thing that I think is very, very right: BIG SCREENSHOT ON FRONT PAGE.The ardor3d game runs on Linux this way:java -Djava.library.path=native -cp lib/*:Besiege.jar net.playbesiege.BesiegeBesiege...

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Pisau Serbaguna, Dilengkapi dengan Flashdisk

Masih ingatkan dengan MacGyver yang memiliki pisau serba guna, nah untuk pertama kalinya Victorinox membuat flashdisk yang dilengkapi dengan berbagai macam alat menyerupai pisau MacGyver, seperti pisau, gunting, dan alat lainnya. Selain itu, memori yang digunakan diklaim sangat aman dan tak bisa ditembus hacker.Saking percaya diri, Victorinox sampai menjanjikan hadiah 100.000 poundsterling bagi siapa saja bisa menembus sistem keamanan memory stick...

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Telepon Genggam Google yg Bisa Membaca Barcode Swalayan

Pabrik pembuat iPhone dan BlackBerry pasti berdebar-debar dengan kabar ini: Ponsel Google G1 mulai dipasarkan di Amerika Serikat pada Rabu (22/10)..Bukan karena G1 memiliki tampilan keren seperti Apple. Bukan pula karena kemampuan push mail yang membuat ketagihan seperti BlackBerry. Tapi karena G1 menggunakan sistem operasi ponsel buatan Google bernama Android.Kelebihan Android ini satu dibanding sistem operasi lain: ia open source. Ini memungkinkan...

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ManicDigger & ArdorCraft - Open Source Minecraft-likes

 Manic building on a ManicDigger serverManicDigger started as a third-party client for Minecraft Classic. According to the FAQ only Windows is supported but if you have Mono, you can do the following:Get nightly binary (.zip: warning, it is a .rar), unpack.mono GameModeFortress.exeThanks to gustavo for the instructions!Must.. build.. house..Unfortunately ManicDigger has the "most commonly used textures (grass and dirt) are ugly"-feature (just...

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PyWeek 12 is upon us! - Also: Python Game Book wiki and Spielend Programmieren

Take this for not doing your own "thing, number" logo! ;)PyWeek 12 is a game challenge/competition. It goes for a week. It starts on 2011-04-03.It's kind of open source: code needs to be visible, FSF license list is recommended, open source license appears not to be required though. See rules for rules.Screens of PyWeek11's entriesHere's the initiator's blog (+feed) - in case you're the stalker type. I know I am. :)PGB and SP banners/logosHorst,...

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Blender Game Engine Air race

We recently featured another air race kind of game, but this on has much more eye-candy:BGE_Airrace ocean demoAnd believe it or not, but it is made with Blender3d 2.49b's game engine (update to 2.5/2.6 planned at some point)! Another video with a nice terrain you can find here (beware crappy sound). And an in-game track editor is under development too!You can have a look at the development of it and download some old versions of the .blend over at the Blender artists thread. But don't expect visuals like above, as the awesome Blender artist Martinsh...

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OpenDungeons: Huge Progress

OpenDungeons finally released version 0.4.7 of their Dungeon-Keeper like game, now with a new UI, better team colors, and many more animations. Very exciting to see the project develop! Download the new release here The Peragro Tempus project also kindly enabled DAMN asset managing for the OpenDungeon's media repo, which could really help with getting artists to contribute in the future (go to the DAMN link, then browse, and you should see the...

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as3sfxr-b: evil (flash) sound machine

as3sfxr-b[Flash version][Code]Before was: as3sfxrBefore before was: s...

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FLARE leaping forward to 0.11 .. and problems with FOSS games

Flare v0.11 gameplay (spoiler warning)v0.11 of FLARE got released and developer Clint Bellanger writes in the FLARE blog about how it is tempting to add features (like adding more skills or replacing old ones) instead of moving to the next target (in this case vendors and action bar customization). Luckily what leads to a complete game wins in this case. :)Note: polish != re-inventing/re-creating.FOSS games are vulnerable to feature-creep and in many cases just don�t feel �finished� because they never really are. [...] It may be more fun to add...

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Mapping for Purity

Last month MCMic reviewed Purity and now he started making maps for it.Stepbouncing for Purity by MCMicp00 and p01 for Purity by MC...

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Maratis - Simple 3D Game Editor

Maratis' editorMaratis is a simple and visual game development tool designed for artists and developers. Tested on Windows, Mac and iPhone. [full feature list]Simple is good and Maratis' Interface is very pleasantly simple. I suspect the same thing (without iOS support) could be achieved by providing a simple blender UI setup and a few instructions. The default Blender interface is quite intimidating for beginners after all.Maratis and Blender demo...

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