The Ascendency of OpenTTD

OpenTTD is, at the moment, not a Free Software game. However, there are significant efforts underway to address this whilst greatly enhancing the game at the same time. All the graphics are being replaced (and then more created) by high resolution, high quality renders. Looking at the Enhanced GFX wiki page, it is going to be beautiful when ready. I'm optimistic that, given the size of the TTD community, this will be approaching readiness by the end of the year. It's an exciting prospect.

Meanwhile the community effort to create the ultimate transport game seems to have died. Exhaustive planning and a lengthy design document has not inspired people to contribute to it. I told them years ago that without a playable game they will not attract interest. I was derided and ignored, my posts deleted. The open source reality is that working code attracts willing contributors.

In other news, Ascendency has appeared on Abandonia, making it officially freeware - as opposed to legally ambiguous term abandonware. (I wish companies would just release their abandoned games under a Free Software license.) You probably need dosbox to play it. I remember buying the game when I was younger and it was a decent but not spectacular game.

That just makes me look forward to FreeOrion even more.

Empty Clip Still Full

A couple of days ago Warsow 0.1 was released. Being highly dependent on fast hardware, it's not a game to appeal to me and my ~5 year old workhorse. Still, it's got a very unique cel-shaded style among it's FPS fragfest contemporaries and appeals to the players who liked the physics-defying mechanics of older titles, bucking the recent trend in deathmatch gaming.

I saw Empty Clip 1.0.1 on the Game Tome and decided to check it out. Much to my consternation it required Fmod which is not directly available for Ubuntu. Search for help on the forums lead me straight to, typically, a request for testers for Empty Clips. So, other than manual installation of Fmod, I'm out of luck and out of time for today. This is the reason all game creators should investigate a proper installation tool other than simple pre-built binaries, such as Autopackage.

There was a new game announcement for an R-Type-like, called Level Shmup. The homepage link was broken and the download stalled for me. Not a good omen for a new game. Second time lucky with the download, it's a fairly basic affair and the gameplay is chaotic. I don't see much future for the game itself, although there's a few nice touches such as the parallax scrolling and adaptive difficulty. It is clear the author is talented and I hope he'll produce something of greater scope in the future.

I spotted X-Moto which was missing from the Free Gamer compendium - now rectified. I think X-Moto suffers from a common problem afflicting Free games; not enough level structure. Rather than a fairly easy tutorial and build up of difficulty, the levels quickly assume you have mastered the controls. There are many examples of this; ManiaDrive would be fantastic if it wasn't almost immediately impossible for all but the most experienced or skillful of players - even the first level requires a near-perfect lap to reach the goal time.

Up & Running

Well I've mostly finished tweaking the site. The next step is to work out a few organisational issues - probably using blogs to "store" articles that are linked on the front page and kept up-to-date.

I saw Formido 1.0.1 on Freshmeat and downloaded it. It had to be compiled. The compilation actually failed initially - you had to create a directory 'obj' first for it to perform the compilation.

$ cd formido-1.0.1
formido-1.0.1$ mkdir obj
formido-1.0.1$ make
formido-1.0.1$ ./formido

It's quickly apparent this game is a simpler version of Phobia III. Although not as polished, it's still fun for a few minutes.

Boson got another update. It is a good example of what it takes to create a successful open source game - long term dedication and steady contributions. Some people will do a lot in a short period of time; these projects usually fizzle out. The Free games that succeed are made over years, not weeks or months.

This game has a lot of potential and I wish I had a computer powerful enough to playtest the latest features. Instead I must make do with the screenshots on the web page. Check them out!

Taking Shape

The list of games is almost satisfactory (still more to come). Now I just need to sort out the layout so it's a little less tall and then start posting updates on major developments around some of the slower-to-release titles out there (you know who you are) who are lurking in the shadows and ready to strike out in the name of Free Software gaming!

Apparently good open source games don't exist. Obviously that person hasn't done much digging. I'm missing a lot of multiplayer games from the list (I don't tend to play them) such as BZFlag and Tremulus. They'll be added when it's more organised. Given I'm restricted to what can be done with a blogger template, I'm still working out how I can organise it better.

In the mean time, I'm just looking forward to Freeciv 2.1.0 since it has lovely new hi-res graphics.

Initial Games Added

I've added a bunch of games to the sidebar based on my bookmarks. There's a few missing, but it is a good start on some of the best Free Software games out there.

Welcome to Free Gamer

This blog will serve as a resource for collecting information on upcoming Free Software games. I have accrued a great deal of knowledge of the Free gaming landscape over the last few years and it's time to put it to use.