The Sims 3: Ambitions

The Sims 3: Ambitions

• Developer: The Sims Studio
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Genre: Simulation
• Release Date: June 29, 2010 (US)

About The Sims 3: Ambitions

The Sims 3 Ambitions allows players to pursue a variety of exciting paths and careers in their Sims' lives that in turn affect their overall gameplay experience and neighborhood.

While on the job, the player has direct control over their Sims' work and can choose how to spend their days. Players can opt to make house calls and save lives as a doctor or choose the devious route and test experimental medicine on patients, be the hero firefighter tackling raging infernos or smashing everything in sight at the victim's home with an axe, or take a shot at solving cases as an investigator, nicely convincing sources to divulge secrets or roughing up perpetrators in a dark alley to get information.

The Sims 3 Ambitions Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
• CPU: Pentium 4 @ 2.2 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2200+
• RAM: 1 GB
• HDD: 6 GB free disk space
• Graphics: 128 MB Graphics Memory
• Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6600 / ATI Radeon X1300
• Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
• DirectX: Version 9.0c
• Notes: Requires The Sims 3 "Razor Version" to play

Download The Sims 3: Ambitions – Direct Links

Part 1 – 700 MB

Part 2 – 700 MB

Part 3 – 700 MB

Part 4 – 436 MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

• Developer: EA Bright Light
• Publisher: Electronic Arts
• Genre: Adventure
• Release Date: November 16, 2010 (US)

About Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, players will be on the run, fighting for survival on a desperate and dangerous quest to locate and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, engaging with Death Eaters and Snatchers in epic battle sequences at every turn.

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 2500+
• Memory: 1.5 Gb
• Hard Drive: 5 Gb free
• Video Memory: 256 Mb
• Video Card: nVidia GeForce 6800 / ATI Radeon X1600
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements

• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
• Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2 GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
• Memory: 2 Gb
• Hard Drive: 5 Gb free
• Video Memory: 512 Mb
• Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 3800
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• DVD Rom Drive

Download Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – Direct Links

Part 1 – 700 MB

Part 2 – 700 MB

Part 3 – 700 MB

Part 4 – 700 MB

Part 5 – 700 MB

Part 6 – 700 MB

Part 7 – 700 MB

Part 8 – 700 MB

Part 9 – 700 MB

Part 10 – 700 MB

Part 11 – 182 MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

DungeonHack/Godhead Demo Ultimatum

DungeonHack aka Godhead imposed an ultimatum on itself: two weeks for finishing a gameplay demo using the Lips of Suna engine.

Should the demo not be finished by that time, the development team will commit Seppuku.

Just kidding. :)

It's refreshing to see an open project put some pressure on itself. I'm looking forward to the results of this.

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII

Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII

• Developer: Ubisoft Romania
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Genre: Flight Action
• Release Date: September 18, 2007 (US)

About This Game

In this game, you are the leader of Operation Wildcard, an undercover and elite squad of pilots secretly created by the American government. Your mission is to sabotage and destroy the Third Reich's evil plans to create a weapon of mass destruction. During this mission you and your team discover that the bad guys also have an elite team of their own. In an attempt to disarm the enemy, you engage in dramatic and movie-like spy missions in some of the world's most exotic locations using experimental weapons and flying never-before-seen prototype aircraft.

Minimum System Requirements:

• CPU:  Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz/ Athlon64 3200+ or higher
• RAM: 1 GB or higher
• VGA:  256 MB AGP GeForce 6xxx series / RADEON X800 or higher video card
• DX: DirectX 9.0C
• OS: Windows XP SP2/Vista
• HDD: 7 GB installed size + 1 GB free for virtual memory
• Sound: DirectX compatible PCI 16-bit sound card
• ODD: 4xDVD-ROM

Recommended System Requirements:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 6320 / AMD Athlon X2 4000+ or higher
• RAM: 2048MB or higher
• VGA: 256 MB GeForceFX 7900 / RADEON x1900 or higher video card
• DX: DirectX 9.0C
• OS: Windows Vista/XP SP2
• HDD: 7 GB installed size + 2 GB free for virtual memory
• Sound: 5.1 sound processor
• ODD: 4xDVD-ROM

Download Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII – 1 Direct Link

Click Here – 4 GB

Download Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII – Direct Links

Part 1 – 700 MB

Part 2 – 700 MB

Part 3 – 700 MB

Part 4 – 700 MB

Part 5 – 700 MB

Part 6 – 598 MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII

• Developer: Ubisoft Romania
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Genre: Flight Action
• Release Date: March 23, 2006 (US)

 About This Game

In Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII, players test their air-combat skills as they experience the most famous battles of World War II. As a squadron leader, players can fly up to 39 WWII aircraft in both single-player and multiplayer missions. The game features squadron-based combat, in which each artificial intelligence wingman's specialized skill can be used to the pilot's advantage. During the course of the 18-mission campaign, players will evolve along with their wingmen into an ace fighting force. The heroic storyline that follows the evolution of a single squadron and the cinematic presentation create moments reminiscent of classic World War II movies. Pilots fly in close to Germany’s industrial terrain during a bombing raid or emerge from the fog and cloud cover over London to engage the enemy.

System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows XP (Windows XP only if Steam downloaded version).
• Processor: 1 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor, 3 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon or better recommended
• RAM: 256 MB, 1 GB recommended
• Video Card: 64 MB DirectX 9.0c compliant, 256 MB recommended
• DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
• Sound Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant sound card
• Hard Drive Space: 6 GB
• Multiplayer: 64 Kbps upstream broadband connection or faster
• Controller: Windows-compliant mouse, keyboard, joysticks, gamepad
• Supported Video Cards: ATI Radeon 8000 or 9000/X series, NVIDIA GeForce 3/4/FX/6/7 Series, GeForce 4 MX NOT supported

 

Download Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII – 1 Direct Link

Click Here – 2.61 GB

Download Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII – Direct Links

Part 1 – 700 MB

Part 2 – 700 MB

Part 3 – 700 MB

Part 4 – 700 MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

Caesar IV

Caesar IV

• Developer: Tilted Mill Entertainment
• Publisher: Vivendi Games
• Genre: Strategy
• Release Date: September 26, 2006 (US)

About Caesar IV

Stationed in a newly established Roman province, your job as governor is to bring the region into the Roman fold by developing a thriving capital city, extensive trade networks, and of course a secure environment through the creation of a powerful military. You'll also need to funnel some of the city's wealth back to Rome.

Minimum System Requirements

• OS: Windows 2000/XP
• Processor: 1.6 GHz
• Memory: 512 Mb
• Hard Drive: 2 Gb free
• Video Memory: 64 Mb
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c
• Keyboard
• Mouse
• DVD Rom Drive

Download Caesar IV – Direct Link

Click Here – 1.06 GB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

Anno 1404: Gold Edition

Anno 1404: Gold Edition

• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Developer: Related Designs
• Release Date: Nov 26, 2010 (EU)
• Genre: Strategy

About This Game

Anno 1404 Gold Edition gives you the complete 1404 experience in one neat package of incredible depth.

System Requirements

• CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz
• Graphics: DirectX®10-compatible graphics adapter with 512 MB RAM
• RAM: 1 GB
• Sound Card: DirectX®9-compatible
• OS: Windows® XP (SP3), Windows Vista®
• Direct X Version: DirectX®9/10
• Hard Disk Space: 6 GB free space

Download Anno 1404: Gold Edition – Direct Links

Part 1 - 700MB

Part 2 - 700MB

Part 3 – 700MB

Part 4 – 640MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

GeneticInvasion : a brand new Tower Defence

Hi! I'm here to show you a new game that I'm working on: GeneticInvasion

It's Tower Defence game, but it has something special: it uses evolutionary algorithms.
The idea of evolutionary algorithm is to use darwin theory to solve problems:

• We generate random solution to the problem.


• We evaluate them.


• We take some of the better ones, apply random mutations to them, and generate an offspring from them.


• The child replaces their parents in the solution population to form a new generation.


• And we do this, again and again, until we find a solution that is good enough.

Well, in GeneticInvasion, the problem, is you. So enemies evolve in order to crush you.

Download the .webm video

We used a real evolutionary computation library called EO to make this game. The library is being used for many serious projects.

So, you heard me, an army of colorful enemies are trying to eliminate you, don't just sit here, fight!

Some notes:

• For the first time since we began to develop it, the game is now interesting to play. That means that it's neither too easy nor too hard to play.


• I also added 3 levels that are supposed to be sorted by difficulty.


• There is a medal system, so you can try to get gold on all 3 of them. (I failed to get the gold medal on the third one through :P)


• There are no binaries, if someone is feeling like doing some, please contact me.


• The game is theoretically compatible with at least GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac OS but has only been tested on GNU/Linux. You'll need SFML, EO and Glu to build it.


• Please send us your remarks and comments.!

Also, I'd like to thanks OpenGameArt and the artists that contribute it, without them our game would probably had hand-drawing art, and we suck at it. (Also many thanks to ozzed who did the music on Jamendo)

Official website: GeneticInvasion   Controls for playin the game

Men of War Vietnam PC RELOADED

Men of War Vietnam PC RELOADED

• Publisher: 1C Company
• Developer:  1C Company
• Release Date:  09/2011
• Genre:  Real-Time Strategy

Install Notes

1. Unrar.
2. Burn or mount the image.
3. Install the game.
4. Copy over the cracked content from the Crack dir on the disc to the <install> dir of the game.
5. Play the game.

 

Download Men of War Vietnam PC RELOADED - Megaupload

Part 1 - 953 MB

Part 2 - 953 MB

Part 3 - 612 MB

Download Men of War Vietnam PC RELOADED – Fileserve

Part 1 - 953 MB

Part 2 - 953 MB

Part 3 - 612 MB

www.elj-games.blogspot.com

Planets are a nice thing...

...but make us FreeGamer blog-authors lazy, as all the news are already in our awesome game and development planets :p

New to the feeds is our revision control planet, for those news-freaks that want to keep up to date even if it is just a change in punctuation of the readme file :p



It is btw interesting to see on this planet how much changes happen in the Xonotic SVN, while to the outward observer the project seems to be moving only slowly forward.

However, recently they released an auto-builds update script, which makes it much easier to keep up with their development builds (which seems to be the preferred version for them now in general, but things can break from time to time). Oh and for the lulz: a "my little pony" mod recently surfaced for Xonotic also :p



Next on the list? Ahh yes, Stunt Rally version 1.2 got released:

Stunt Rally 1.2

Changes include (amongst other stuff) a new split-screen and a ghost car rally mode.



Other things to mention? Mage is a open-source MTG client, but not as nice looking as Wagic. But it might convince you with other features (of which Mage has a lot ;) ).

Unknown Horizons has a nice news update with all the improvements Google's Summer of Code gave them and the Zod engine is set out to improve the multiplayer part of the (back then really nice) game Z (using the unfree media from the original it seems).

PyWeek 13 (And PyWeek 12 Winners)

It's time PyWeek #13 soon!



The dates of this challenge are are 00:00 UTC 2011-09-11 to 00:00 UTC 2011-09-18.

Timetable
Friday 2011/08/12	Registration underway
Sunday 2011/09/04	Theme voting commences
Sunday 2011/09/11	Challenge start
Sunday 2011/09/18	Challenge end, judging begins
Sunday 2011/10/02	Judging closes, winners announced

Check out PyWeek 12's winners by the way:

Loopback: Asteroids + Tower defense. Retro Look. Permissive code license.

Loopback - PyWeek #12 Team Winner

Lemming: Enough Plumbers + Canabalt??? Hand-drawn horrible ;). Permissive code license.

Video: PyWeek #12: Lemming Speed Run

The PyWeek guys seem to have figured out the license part of game prototyping well: Lemming for example contains a list of all used art pieces' urls and licenses. Neat!


PS: Ludum Dare got 600-1 entries last weekend.

BZFlag Tournament hosted by Ohava Open Computers

BZFlag

There will be a tournament of the CTF game BZFlag.

When: September 30th, at 5pm EST

Where: Online(?)

How: Visit ohava.com/gametourney for sign-up.

Prize: An Ohava OpenBook BE awarded to the MVP of the winning team. More prizes will be given to all of the winning team's members.

News Shorts

OpenPatrician is a not-yet-playable free implementation in Java of Ascaron's classic The Patrician and The Patrician 2. There are some assets but unfortunately the project's default license is a noncommercial one.

OpenMW is moving forward: new blog look, renderer is being refractored, inventory being implemented, record saving too.

Alex the Allegator was part-ported to HTML5 using the melonJS library. I'm #9 on the high score at time of post! :D

DusteD, maker of Wizznic! is not dead.

Blendswap now has a slim set of rules for contributors and texture licenses are annoying.

Bandit Racer is a car racing and combat game in HTML5, built with GameJS. Comes with track editor and pretty UI. An earlier version multiplayer mode, which will probably come back sooner or later

Keeping up a tradition...

Yes, I post only seldom, but when I do it I keep up the good old tradition of mixing totally unrelated projects in one big post :p



So where to start today? Ahh yes:



The puzzle type game Berusky 2 was recently FOSSified (code and art GPL) as pointed out in our forums (but I have to admit I saw it first on LGDB). And as out great founder was quick to point out, it follows the great tradition of the first part with was also released under the terms of the GPL.



In totally unrelated news, Lips of Suna version 0.5 got released last week, with a bunch of nice graphical and game-play improvements (change log and discussion here).



For those living behind a rock, Lips of Suna is a crazy mix of Minecraft, slightly adult themed anime and a more classic RPG. Definitly worth a try, even though still under heavy development!



Hmm and now a quick run-down of other (I'd say less important) news:

Q3 Rally (now stand alone with the ioQuake3 engine) is nearing another release and OpenXcom is making good progress in the "battlescape" AI. In WarZone2100 land, you can now test the cool new models with a test mod (is supposed to work with the latest snapshot release). The fork of the W:ET, OpenWolf is also progressing with a fix of the Mod support (while the more ambitious ET:Xreal seems to have gone in a hiatus again), and while talking about id software source-code, I have started this small anticipatory id tech 4 project which needs contributors ;)



The end.



Oh wait, did we ever mention the source release of Cities3D (a Setters of Catan like game)?

On OpenGameArt 2 and FreeSound 2

This is old news: OpenGameArt 2 launched and with it an improved interface for browsing and submitting freely licensed game art. Testing, feedback and submissions welcome of course. :)

OpenGameArt 2 submission form

FreeSound is also moving forward, away from FTP-submissions, away from CC-Sampling+, although it seems that noncommercial licenses will be supported. A beta of the new site is open for public testing!

FreeSound 2 submission form - the upload button is flash...

A very curious feature is the "bulk license change", which is what you see first when logging into FreeSound 2:

FreeSound Bulk License Change

If you're a FreeSound contributor, please log into the new site and select CC0 or CC-BY.

I finally got hold of a video of OpenGameArt's admin BartK talking about his site at Libre Graphics Meeting May 2011:

Video: OpenGameArt's founder about the site

Does any of these submission forms scare you away? Did you notice an obvious interface design mistake? Got any libre art sharing news to spread? Let us know in the comments!

Open Source in Humble Indie Bundle #3: Haaf's Game Engine (HGE)

HGE's Particle Editor

The proprietary games sale Humble Indie Bundle has a tradition of including open source engine releases.

In all of the other humble bundles there has always been at least one game that opened its source (in #2 it was revenge of the titans. in #1 it was penumbra, lugaru, aquaria and gish).

- Fer C.

Bundle #3 is soon over and the *nix port of the Windows-only zlib-licensed engine HGE has been now released as open source as well. It is the engine used by Hammerfight from the Bundle. Visit the pages: hge, hge-unix.

The non-free BASS audio library was replaced with OpenAL.

The hge-unix readme states "10 I don't know anything about the Windows version of HGE.", which might mean that developers have to juggle two engine versions and audio libraries if they want to support the three main platforms. Or hge-unix needs to be ported back to windows systems.

You can read more about the port in the blog post HGE comes to Mac and Linux by Ryan Gordon aka icculus. Or perhaps watch his talk about Linux/open source gaming (again?).

LinWarrior r19+

LinWarrior r19+ Test Video

I tested and recorded the latest LinWarrior git revision (a few changes since release19). Some of the new features in r19 and after include:

• Atmospheric daytime setting


• New units (Flopsy, Scorpion and Tank)


• Cockpit frame in first-person view


• Trees, trees, trees

The LinWarrior engine is still being developed, for example mechs are still hardcoded rather than configured in textfiles right now.

PS: A video of actual gameplay, rather than just testing the controls. Unfortunately no sound but 1920x1200 resolution...

Playing LinWarrior r19+ [mute]

Cubosphere: First Beta

Cubosphere 0.1 Beta testing video

The first beta release of Cubosphere is available.

The game reminds of irrlamb and Neverball but is in fact a tile-based puzzle, rather than a free-physics/precision game. It has a simple level editor and 18 visual/audible styles to chose from. Some features of the 200+ levels are lasers, frying blocks, teleporters, switches, elevators and enemies.

Some random FPS engine news

Fast games for slow summer news weeks... but actually some of these news are a bit older already also :p

To start out... yes RedEclipse got a (smaller) new release a few days ago, codenamed Supernova (Version 1.1). The release notes can be found in our/their forums, but it plays as great as before (except for the annoying hit sound :p ). Edit: game-play video from one of our forum users.

Noteworthy news related to that (albeit not strictly FOSS related): RedEclipse also got included into Desura now (Moddb's indie friendly answer to Steam, even with an upcoming Linux port). To avoid complains in the comments... I mention this here even though it is a closed source game distribution platform, simply because it can be a great way to promote (and maybe even sell?) FOSS games, and if we would finally be able to attract the modding community (which is largely represented on Moddb) to work with FOSS engines instead, it would be win-win for everyone involved.

Despite its unfree content War§ow is also worth a look now and then. According to their somewhat recent blog entries they have made great progress in speeding up the Quake2 based renderer, and plan to include a matchmaking and statistics system in the maybe not so distant 0.7 release. It's actually a pity that the engine isn't used for other projects, and given that it is Quake2 based, it could probably be ported to mobile platforms like Android rather quickly (since there is a full and fast Quake2 Java port).

Talking about mobile platforms... the engine behind Xonotic (formerly Nexuiz) Darkplaces, seems to have gotten an iOS port judging by a quick look at the very recent new source release. No news post about the most recent changes, but slightly older news tell us about a much higher frame rate then before :) Would be nice if Xonotic would see another Beta release soon also ;)

Oh and I know I will get flamed for this again (e.g. for mentioning a commercial game on this blog; but I stand by my opinion that commercial isn't != FOSS), but the Darkplaces based and GPLed source-code containing SteelStorm: Burning Retribution, has been added as a free bonus to the latest HumbleBundle (at the time of writing this, with still 5 days remaining to get this "pay what you want" indie-game-bundle including some really nice games all running on Linux). Just to quickly mention... no news about source releases from that source this time (but they added all of the games from the 2nd bundle if you pay above average)... but given the somewhat lukewarm source releases last time (not really FOSS) I guess that is not a big loss :-/

Hmm what else? World of Padman was somewhat recently updated, and its engine ioQuake3 is moving to a modularized renderer.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST (hot news coming in while I am writing this)... John Carmack just confirmed in his keynote on this year's QuakeCon, that the Doom3 source code will be released this year (probably shortly after the Rage release scheduled early October)... which will be a really nice addition to the FOSS engine pool (finally a somewhat modern single player FPS engine). I am especially looking forward to see some of the existing high quality Doom3 mods to go stand alone, and maybe even FOSS!

Double Trouble

Hallow thar Free Gamers!

Warmux, the project formerly known as Wormux, is dying. (It amuses me how "formerly" sounds like "formally", doesn't it? Or is that my colloquial pronunciation?)

The current development version has rather minor changes: improved game mode (ie including weapon), new "squad" play (teams can ally). But there's little more coming. What this means is that the next version - if any - of WarMUX, might be the last. At least, it is most probably over for the author of these words.

Who knows. It was not long ago that the PARPG lead was calling that dead (and I scolded him for it, did I). The great thing about Free software is that it can live on.

Moving on to more vibrant projects, and ToME4 beta 29 30 31 is in the wild. The current development pace is quite astonishing. More graphical tiles, bug fixes, play balancing, and some useful optimizations - don't get addicted!

zzoxx

In a similar vein, the author of Scourge has embarked on another project: a HTML/JS isometric graphical rogue-like called zzoxx. It is intriguing, though not yet really playable. What's the best Free browser-based game you know of? Comments encouraged, let's talk about how Free software gaming is engaging the browser as a platform - and if it is a good idea or not.

Freeciv 2.3rc1 (NEWS) was released a few days ago. This major release of Freeciv is focused on multiplayer features including longplay. I just had a quick go and Freeciv is really well done these days. There's a few kinks still, but this is the best release yet. It still misses some of the charm of the original, and there's a few ways in which is not friendly to new users (no direct link from the city screen to the help content, in case you want to know what a wonder or building does, for example). I'd love to see some dedicated community members put together an introduction and a palace and/or throne screen.

There's also been a Freecol bugfix release. Freecol 0.10.1 fixes many of the issues with version 0.10.0 which was a fairly major release for the project.

There's been other stuff I forgot about. It's a funny time of day. Speaking of fun - here's a rather fun video of Stunty Rally 1.2 mishaps doubled up with music I found fitting. There are several points where it seems like those two videos are deliberately synchronized!

SuperTuxKart 0.7.2: Add-on manager release

SuperTuxKart now has an add-on/DLC/community-content manager, which allows you to download tracks and karts from inside the game, without having to move or unzip files. I am very excited about this feature, which hopefully will be a strong motivation for community members to create new content for the game.

Suzanne's kart

One example of the advantages of this feature: a few days after the release of 0.7.2 the amazing Suzanne (Blender's mascot) kart was finished. Instead of having to manually download and install it or wait for 0.7.3, players can simply get the kart in the add-on manager. [edit: unfortunately right now Suzanne is only in SVN and not yet in the add-on manager (to be fixed)]


Here's a video of some of the content you can get via the add-on manager:

SuperTuxKart 0.7.2 DLC

In case you are on Linux or OS X, consider getting the 0.7.2a release, which should perform much better [info here].

Beastie

Two more content addition in this version are:

• New Beastie Kart
• New Snow Peak track by Samuncle

NOLF2 source released but to what end

The commercial abandonware 2002 game No One Lives Forever (trailer) has been released under the GPLv2.

The NOLF2 source code has been released under the GPLv2 by Touchdown Entertainment. Along with the game source code, you will find the engine source code, as well the tools behind it. It's great news for the entire NOLF2 modding community, since now we'll be able to keep the game alive!

I have uploaded the package to free services since the Touchdown Entertainment website is down: http://www.multiupload.com/WBO4EQHRAE

It isn't yet clear what license the assets are released under, but as with most commercial game source releases I suspect that it is not part of the source release.

Do these commercial source pseudo-Free releases have any merit beyond giving loyal followers a way to keep their fun alive? It has been of great benefit to have had the ID engines released as Free software, but they were the platform for a number of very significant free projects that would later transition from freeware mods to true Free software.

If the source release is a way to say thanks to the fans, why not bundle the media too?

The same recently happened with the more popular Arx Fatalis. The Arx Liberatis developers are doing a valiant job of cleaning up with the ultimate goal being a native Linux port (currently WINE reliant) but is this just a commercial company using the open source community to keep a dead game alive and milk the last few drops out of their dying cash cow?

I'm not impressed by decade-old game source releases that do not include the full media for the game. It's still not Free, even worse, it's still not free. If anything, it is arguably a negative for the open source community because it reduces the pool of developers who might otherwise contribute their skills to a more worthy cause.

*grumbles*

RIOT Game Coding Competition

RIOT is a game coding competition for Caanoo, Wiz, Pandora and Dingoo's Dingux developers. In the future, probably also for nD devs, unless that one turns out to be vaporware.


The contest entry dealine is over but votes are running until July 22 2011.

Four RIOT entries that provide source

So far, four of the entries provided their source, you can filter them out here.

HTML5 2D Game/Engine crowdfunding: Time Hammer

When I was looking for last post's link to Justin's portraits, I found a collection of b/w portraits and a new crowdfunding game project: Time Hammer.

Timehammer project introduction video

What is Time Hammer?

1. A game where you run, jump, fall and die, try again, smash enemies, and have fun (hopefully!)  It's a retro, 8-bit throwback to an earlier time, but with some modern touches that we just couldn't help but include.  Low gravity, destructible environments, a kickin chip-tune soundtrack... yeah, it's a blast!
2. A gaming engine built from scratch in HTML5 / Javascript. Time Hammer will be the first fully-featured, plot-driven game featuring the HTML5
3. An indie community dream come true. The game engine will be released open-source on GitHub - meaning that anybody can download it, improve it, and use it for any purpose, free of charge.

"Which license?" was my first thought and question.

I haven't actually researched the nuance of those licenses, and honestly some of the kickstarter money would be used to get a lawyer to recommend one. Two strong contenders are the GPL and MIT license.

Isn't there a group of free software lawyers, who might consult for free beer or less? Supporters can voice their opinion to this topic on the comments page.

Going for USD 8,500

I was reassured, that flash will not be used at all, not even for sound.

Flare 0.14 Characters, Quests and HD video

The last version of Flare that Free Gamer took a look at was 0.11. The newest version is 0.14.

Character customization in Flare

Title and savegame loading screens now exist, adding to immersion.

Character customization (gender, portrait and name) is now possible. (Note how much depth this part of starting a game can acchieve in some cases). The character portraits are a product of Justin Nichol's fantasy portrait marathon.

Joystick support, conversations, vendors, quests, a new area and many more smaller additions included. It is now possible to configure keybindings and resolution, which leds to my first 720p HD video of Flare gameplay:

Watch this video in 720p HD here

Clint Bellanger, main developer of Flare, posted a reflection on game progress in Flare, which includes some simple but interesting statistics.


You can show Flare some pocket love via Flattr.

Warzone2100 art revolution project

I've been following the Warzone 2100 art revolution project for some time now... but after years of displaying only nice renders of cool new models, it finally seems to be getting closer to an actual game integration with the recent integration of GLSL normal-maps etc. into the latest Warzone2100 snapshot.



More awesome (very much work in progress) screen-shots can be found in the Warzone2100 art dev forum (especially this thread) and on the art revolution forum. And while there is still a lot of things to do... an actual Warzone2100 release with a massive graphical update seems not too unlikely in 2011! Lets hope for the best ;)

Script Blocks: 3d visual programming(?)

Yesterday we wrote about Java3d-based Callie. This project is also Java-based but uses the jMonkeyEngine.

Script Blocks is a 3D .. environment, in which you can place blocks that produce or modify signals and blocks that react to them by changing color or by moving for example.

I assume that the project is inspired by Minecraft's Redstone Circuits. And I think it's a great virtue that instead of yet another attempt to implement Minecraft, this project focuses on one (complex) mechanic and extends it.

The video below is much better at explaining what the project is about:

Script Blocks Introduction

Callie: 3D Action

Callie is an in-development 3D action game with jumping puzzles and guns. It runs using Java WebStart.

This is Amy

There are a few common problems with the project: animations are missing, the camera is hard to handle in the level environment, license info is missing for both assets and code. One very nice thing the developer did is providing this simple control scheme.

The use of Java3D in the project, lead to complaints and might discourage developers from contributing code. Apparently the problem is that Java3D is not an active project.

Callie 0.4 gameplay

Some random news from our forums etc

Yes, big summer hole here in FG... luckily we get at least some guest posts from Bart (aka the OpenGameArt founder).

So, maybe today we just make a small summery of recent news that popped up in our Freegamedev forums (boring for the forum regulars I know :p ):

First of all (as we mention that project way to little), find a release candidate of the latest SuperTuxKart version in this thread.

In our showcase forum you can also find a nice (but low-fi) turn based strategy game called Strategic Initiative, which is made by the same guy who was also behind the classic Empire (well I didn't know it before ;) ). Also don't miss the updates on The Legend of Edgar.

Back in the section of out hosted projects, the user Skorpio has been showcasing some nice Mechs for Linwarrior3D lately, which are now being integrated into the game:



At the Red Eclipse forums an interesting collaboration project to make a mod loosely based on Team Fortress (classic?) recently showed up, with the user John_III making a lot of progress on the first map (and a very recent small WIP by me too ;) ):



Oh and the work that is currently done to redesign the look of OpenDungeons as seen in this thread, is looking rather fantastic too.

In other words, don't miss the action in our forums (and on the FG planet), during this time of little blog updates ;)