The first major community effort is coming out of the FreeGameDev community. It has been identified that the major weakness in creating quality looking Free games is the lack of Free art - either hard to find or just non-existent. So, we will be creating the first Common Media Project. As yet untitled and unorganised, it will be an effort to create a set of quality artwork for a specific genre - the fantasy genre is looking like the choice of the involved artists - that will be hosted in an easy to find / use place so that Free game developers can easily use this common media to create the basis of their own game before branching off in their own artistic direction once they attract contributors. Games like Scourge, JCRPG, Xarvh, 8 Kingdoms, and the many other open source fantasy/medieval games out there.
Speaking of new projects, FIFEngine and Zero Projekt have announced that they will collaborate to create a commercial quality techdemo (i.e. mini-game) that will showcase FIFEngine as a platform. More on this tomorrow.
The guys attempting to revive the Tux Racer / Planet Penguin Racer project under the new moniker Extreme Tux Racer are, despite not meeting their own scheduled expectations, keeping at it. They have a spiffy new logo!
Well, well, what have we here... the inaugral release of Silver Tree, brainchild of Battle for Wesnoth creator Dave White. Given the "resources" he has at his disposal - some of the core Wesnoth developers and artists are also set to contribute to Silver Tree - this really has to be a project to watch. Still, it's early days for this 3D RPG and it's hybrid real-time and turn-based gameplay. I couldn't get it to compile (admittedly not trying to hard) so I'll wait a bit.
I wonder if Silver Tree signals the "end" of Wesnoth development - in that it has gotten as far as it can really get as a game, besides bugfixes, new campaigns etc - as the core team are essentially moving on.
I see Auteria on the game tome. Not Free but freeware, YA3DMMORPG. (Yet Another...) 'Nuff said. (The name makes me think 'autism'... nothing to do with the quality of the game, just the the name.)
An up-to-date Linux port of Egoboo Resurrection is almost a reality. It is buildable although there's a few reported issues. It looks like a public SVN is going to be made available, good news for the project, so helping out with development should be easier. The lead developer Zefz has been working hard on it in an unintentionally private manner.
FIFE seems my type of game engine! (old computer hehe) it seems to be some type of Fallout engine replacement (?) could you clear that a bit please? I've searched their site but didn't really understand most of the stuff...
ReplyDeleteEL MARIACHI: from what i've gathered, yes, it's an engine being created to support fallout files and can be used to create new fallout type games. the description makes it seem more complete than their recent changelogs do. i think at this point they don't have a playable game, but they're making progress, and are looking for a knowledgeable programmer to help them with certain parts.
ReplyDeleteHey guys, I'm the PR guy of the FIFE project so let's try to clear up some things :-)
ReplyDeleteFIFE is meant to become an engine framework for all kinds of 2D RPGs and a bunch of other genres (though the current emphasis is clearly on RPGs). The project started as an undertaking to create an improved open source Fallout-like engine with better mod support as the original engine(s) of Fallout 1 and 2 are a nightmare when it comes to modding.
However while the project progressed our aims have shifted over the time. So FIFE should become a solution for all kind of RPGs; so no emphasis on Fallout file format support anymore!
We're currently making plans how to improve the project management and the general structure and your concern about the blurry mission statement has been noted el mariachi. Thanks for the pointer :-)
And some notes concerning the original news post:
* The techdemo is NOT meant to offer commercial quality in any way!
* The techdemo has NO emphasis on real gameplay but on explaining how to create games based on FIFE. So it's not meant for players but for the people who consider to use FIFE for their game projects.
I hope that helped to clear up things :-) If you want to get some direct feedback from the developers before writing your todays update, feel free to visit our IRC channel Mr. freegamer :-)
#fife @ quakenet
Greetings,
Martin
I have an eye in Silver Tree since a month ago. I didnt expected a release so soon, this project promisses.
ReplyDeleteMany people are visual types or want an appetizer (I do :) ) If possible, and if you see my point, try to include one screenshot in every post you make.
ReplyDeleteWow. I totally missed the Project Penguin Racer (now Extreme Tux Racer) reference!
ReplyDelete