Dev-corner: How to request art for your FOSS game project (and how not to)

During my tenure thus far as the head of OpenGameArt.org, I've run into a lot of different requests for art by various projects. I'd like to start out by saying this: Please, if you need art for your FOSS project, don't hesitate to come ask us! That's why we're here. :)That being said, there are ways to ask for art, and ways not to. Unlike some places, we'll never yell at you for not asking correctly, but there are still some things you can do (and avoid doing) to make your request more likely to be filled. I'd like to go over these today.Be...

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Some thoughts on commercial FOSS game development

It's been a while since I last stirred up controversy on the freegamer blog, so I thought today I'd talk about -- gasp -- developing FOSS games commercially.There's a common misconception out there (although I'm guessing a majority of the readers of this blog are aware of it) that software can't be both libre and commercial (I use libre here instead of free to make it clear that I'm referring to free as in speech and not as in beer). This is a problem that the FOSS community has struggled with since the very beginning. Writing FOSS full time...

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Assorted bunch of news

Yes... slow days here on FreeGamer... so we will try to give you a bunch of smaller news and projects to check out:First another Minecraft clone (this time for the PSP, but with GPL code): Lamecaft (which is a title I approve... generally ;) ). Then we have a open-source reimplementation of the famous jump&run Cave-Story: NXEngine. Maybe it is something nice to make your own platformer with too?A bit more high profile I guess is this game I recently cam across: Turtle Arena, which you might have guessed is another game based on the ioQuake3...

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Release Changelog Bullets: Los, SaR2, HoA, NatR

Lips of Suna - 0.4.0Lots of sound effects.Master server and server browser.Climbing over obstacles.Merchants and trading.Attacks can be charged by holding the attack button.Projectiles and sword swings have speed lines.Controls can be customized in-game.Basic blood effects and beheading.More flexible map generation algorithm.Improved aer female, android female and kraken models.New items: crossbow, musket, revolver, barrel, bookcase, dewspring leaf, fruit.New spells: berserk, dig, firewall, light, travel.New quests: Brigands, Mining Guild, Sword...

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Minetest-c55

Minetest-c55Minetest-c55: it's kind of like m*nec*aft, but:C++ & Irrlichttechnically simple, stable and portablelightweight enough for a laptop with Intel 945GM graphics...

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Ardorcraft AI

TeamTeapotCraftArdorcraft is now an API for Ardor3D.Fortunately, they follow the philosophy of having biiig screenshots on the project's main page.Unfortunately, as a non-Java-savy person I don't know how to quickly test it.Fortunately, a video of its impressive AI/NPCs is available:ArdorCraft - First NPC te...

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Tales of Maj'Eyal and T-Engine4

My greatest desire worst nightmare* is being answered realised! Long have I desired a graphical roguelike that was less savage than IVAN, and a nicer play than the standard 'land in random dungeon, and head off' fare that comes with the likes of Vulture's Eye and Lambda Rogue (trailer) - both good games but just missing something for me. * These things can swallow days and weeks of a man's life! The first thing to notice is that TOME4 is gorgeous....

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FOSS game engines put to great use

Disclamer: Yes I am fully aware that the following two game do not have libre media, and that one of them will never have unless they get away from the copyrighted IP!That said... the following two gems are really nice examples of what can be done with FOSS engines if some skilled artists work with them.. and they are free as in beer too :pThe first one has been mentioned before on FG, and is a Mod for the nice FOSS RTS Megaglest (Did we mention that one had a small new release too?). Annex: Conquer the World, doesn't seem to have it's one website...

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Nongame: Killer

KillerThe Killer is a flash/as3-based nongame. Talking more about it might spoil it so if you're OK with that, there's a discussion going on at TigForums.The source is "what you want" and hosted on github. Perhaps this could be ported to Haxe/Fixel.The developer has an interesting "support me" implementation. Exclusive updates and postcards....

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Strategic Initiative

Strategic InitiativeStrategic Initiative is "a semi real-time strategy game played over the Internet where the objective is to seize cities on islands". The technology used is Java. Have an alternative description:Strategic Initiative is an online multiplayer military strategy game played over 10 days where the objective is for you and your ally to control the most cities on the map.The code is available here under GPL...

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Naev 0.5 released!

Naev 0.5A new release of the 2D space trading and combat game Naev is out and available as binaries for Lin/Mac/Win here.For those using Ubuntu (or other Debian-derived distributions), Naev is available from PlayDeb. Naev is also available in Arch Linux, Gentoo, and from the openSUSE Games repository. Have a changelog:List of changes since 0.4.2:For PlayersLarger universeExpanded Dvaered, Frontier, Empire and...

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BlendSwap Hacked

Time to swap... passwordsOh my. Two weeks ago Librivox. Now Blendswap. Read the story here. See their twitter for live updates.Remember to use strong !P4$$w0rd5%_.Hm, OpenGameArt appears to be down, so it can't be hacked right now at least....

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Battle for Wesnoth Architecture

The popular open source game Battle for Wesnoth has been featured in the new free online book The Architecture of Open Source Applications. We believe that the beauty of the Battle for Wesnoth as a program is how it made coding accessible to a wide variety of individuals. To achieve this aim, the project often made compromises that do not look elegant whatsoever in the code. It should be noted that many of the project's more talented programmers frown upon WML for its inefficient syntax. Yet this compromise enabled one of the project's greatest...

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bfxr = sfxr + flash + omg awesome

bfxrSfxr is a simple retro sound machine. It has undergone some iterations and the latest software based on its principle is bfxr, which also has valuable management tools.Their feature list:5 new waveforms : triangle, breaker, tan, whistle, and pink noise.3 new filters : compression, harmonics, and bitcrusher.Ability to lock parameters during mutation/randomization.Expanded pitch-jumping abilities - good for arpeggiation effects.VisualisationMixerKeeps...

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