New releases from the Worldforge project.

Yesterday saw the release of a new version of the client-side software "Ember" for the Worldforge project (an open-source MMO framework).

The focus of this version was to improve the world-editing features, and if not yet included, the GoSC 2013 improvements (for example an updated terrain renderer) should arrive in Ember soon too.

Speaking of the GoSC 2013: Another project benefiting from it under the umbrella of Worldforge was Ryzom Core, the open-sourced MMORPG engine behind the (older) commercial Ryzom MMORPG.

It seems like their OpenGL3.0 renderer is making good progress (see some videos here), and they seem to have finally decided to tackle the lack of proper Blender tools by hiring someone to do it (see paid job advertisement on Blender Artists). As it is an open-source project this seems to have been initiated by one of the developers only, so maybe we can get some people to pledge some extra funds to add to the bounty he is offering?

Quick reminder: Free The Monsters open game art crowd-funding

We talked about it before here, but now there is only about 2 days left and even though all funds go to the team regardless of if the goal is reached, they are still a long way off what then would need to create a nice set of openly licensed fantasy monsters.

So please head over to their indiegogo fund-raiser page: "Free the Monsters" and donate.

DevCorner: jMonkeyEngine SDK 3.0 (stealth) release

The maybe most user friendly and complete FOSS game engine jMonkey Engine 3, has recently released the final version 3.0 of their very nice SDK.

Here is a list of the full changes:

Engine
- LWJGL base now works on MacOSX 10.7+ incl. Applets
- Hardware Skinning
- Shader Nodes
- Better Character (beta)
- New LOD Generator!
- TangentBinormalGenerator was refactored
- Better physics debug view
SDK
- Now bundles a compatible version of the JDK
- Now bundles a version of Blender for conversion and more
- Shader Node Editor (!)
- Code completion for assets
- Texture Atlas creation and packed texture handling
- External editor mesh updates for j3o files
- Seamless 3DS and Collada import through blender
- Improvements to model import tool, allows to locate and import textures
- Attach custom AppStates to the SDK editor scene
- New help and error log system, look for the monkey in the bottom right!
- Improved Font Importer
- Improved support for using other IDEs for code
- Improved obfuscation support for protecting your applications code

Besides general advanced of this Java based game engine, some changes of the list of new features are especially interesting! I think that for example their graphical editor of GLSL shaders is something that could benefit even projects not using jMonkey3 itself, and it is definitely something that was lacking as a FOSS game-dev tool (the half-heartily implementation for something like this in Blender has yet to reach the level of real usability).

Check out the link above to learn more about this shader node editor!

Frogatto & Friends looking to be "greenlit" on Steam

We have mentioned in the past a few times that it is a common misconception that FOSS games need to be also "freeware", and in fact the opposite can be quite beneficial to the overall development of a game or the engine it is build on.

The 2D jump & run  Frogatto & Friends has been for sale on mobile platforms for a while now, and its really high quality game-play and graphics are definitely a notch above most other open-source games:



All of it is possible through the use of their awesome open-source engine Anura.

Now they are looking to sell their game also on desktop computers through the very popular Steam digital distribution platform. You can vote for inclusion here.

As far as I am aware this is the first open-source game that actually aims to be sold through this channel, but recently another one, Warsow, was actually approved for inclusion as a freeware title.

As a launch of their "greenlight" campaign, the creators of Frogatto & Friends have started a Q&A session on reddit, where you can learn more about them and their awesome game(s).

Unrelated to that: please also check out our own "sub-reddit" about open-source gaming :)

Breaking news: The Dark Mod 2.0 stand alone version out now!

I guess quite a few people were waiting for this to finally happen :)

Have a look at the release announcement here and the full change-log here.

They also did a nice introduction video a few months ago:



Haven't got the chance to try it myself yet, but this is high on my list of open-source games to play!

Blender Game Making Challenge starts on the 20th of this month

While not necessary only for FOSS games, all will be done with the Blender3D included game engine (BGE). Check out their website here and/watch the video below:



The overall theme will be announce on the 20th when the contest starts.