PyWeek #16 in April
PyWeek logo
PyWeek is a game jam that obviously goes on for one week and requires the use of Python. It takes place online and there are overall winners in team and solo categories, as well as awards. The dates of the 16th PyWeek challenge are 00:00 UTC April 14, 2013 to 00:00 UTC April 21, 2013. Registration opens on 15. March 2013.
There is a message board for the community and there are interesting methods to publish Python games as HTML/JavaScript using pyjs, as demonstrated by the PyWeek #15 entry Kaos.
License Requirements: At least Shared Source required. Free software licenses recommended.
PyWeek #15 Entry: Rainbow Rooms
Rainbow Rooms is a physical-nonsense-maze puzzle game based on libtcod.
Various fonts are being used, some of which might be problematic license-wise for including in for example Debian's official repositories but it should be possible to replace them in less than two hours including research and documentation.
Code License: GPLv2
Content License: Unclear
Valyria Tear: "Final Release of Half-Episode I"
New Valyria Tear GUI screens
Valyria Tear Half-Episode I has been released, which I suppose we can take as 50% of Episode I's acts being complete.
The release brings new graphical interfaces and development is ongoing.
An OS X version can now also be grabbed from the OSX thread.
Code License: GPLv2
Content License: Various (DFSG approved)
Hey Freegamers,
My name is Antoine and I’ve been a devotee of this site and the Linux Game Tome for years. Now I have the priviledge to contribute back an article. Thank you qubodup for helping me out with this article. I love open source games, but I have a particular soft spot for those that allow creativity and collaboration from their users. Imagine if there existed an open source, and therefore completely editable, game engine with as much content as Morrowind’s fans have created available for it? As many of you are aware, there are currently fan projects working to extend the life, reach, and functionality of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind far beyond what’s possible using Bethesda’s Construction Set modding tools.
Can you guess which screen is rendered by what engine? :)
About Morrowind: Morrowind is an enormous proprietary game loved by fans for its atmospheric and immersive world filled with bizarre giant mushrooms, homes built into giant vines, and barren wastelands. However, it was plagued by software bugs, had many elements that were half-baked in their execution, and its game engine took poor advantage of GPUs. Some of these problems fans were able to address with unofficial patches and mods, but others could not be solved without changing the actual game engine.
When I found an open source reimplentation of the Morrowind engine I had to become involved. I’m very new to the group, but I’m helping out the PR team. However, just days after finding OpenMW, I discovered two more such projects existed, with rumors of a fourth. Mark Siewert of The Crystal Scrolls (and soon OpenMW), said the multitude of projects are a testament to the interest people still have in this game’s strange world. Indeed, look at the massive undertakings of fan projects like Tamriel Rebuilt, MGE XE, MGSO, or type in on YouTube “Morrowind 2011” or “Morrwind 2012” and you’ll get a sense for the countless hours fans continue dedicating to improve Morrowind a decade after its release.
I spoke with the developers of the different engines about their projects to get an idea of what their development status is, what their goals are, and how they’re accomplishing them. A quick disclaimer; you need a legal copy of Morrowind to use any of these engines for playing Morrowind. You can get one from steam (it goes on sale every couple of months) or by purchasing one on ebay.
OpenMW began in 2008 by Nicolay Korslund, it uses ogre3d, bullet physics, OpenAL, OIS, NifLib, and MYGUI. Nicolay stepped down as project lead last year and was replaced by the developer Marc “Zini” Zinnschlag and is joined by many great developers.
Project Aedra, was started by Tom Lopes in 2009. It employs NifLib, Bullet Collision, Quake 3 Arena for "pmove" character controller code, and the FastLZ library.
The Crystal scrolls was started by Mark Siewert in 2007 and it employs the Crystal Space 3d engine.
So what do these projects have in common? Well, they are licensed under some form of the GNU GPL license, written in C++, and aim to have all the features of original Morrowind, including compatibility with all official and unofficial expansions and plug-ins (and those based on external programs such as the Script Extender). Their individual goals are listed below.
Additional Goals:
OpenMW | Project Aedra | The Crystal Scrolls |
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|
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Features:
| OpenMW | Project Aedra | The Crystal Scrolls | |
| Windows | Done | Done | Done |
| Mac OS X | Done | - | - |
| GNU/Linux | Done | Wine | - |
| Game launcher | Done | - | Planning |
| Console | Nearly | Nearly | - |
| HUD | Early | Partial | - |
| Render Interior | Done | Nearly | - |
| Render Exterior | Partial* | Nearly | Done |
| Sky Rendering | Early | Done | Partial |
| Day/Night Cycle | Done | Nearly | Partial |
| NPC Rendering | Nearly | Partial | Done |
| NPC Animations | Nearly | - | Nearly |
| NPC Dialogue | Nearly** | - | - |
| Sound effects | Partial | Done | - |
| Music | Done | Done | - |
| Object Collision | Partial | Done | - |
| Object interaction | Nearly | Nearly | - |
| Water Layer | Nearly** | Nearly | Partial |
| Scripting | Nearly | Partial | - |
| Multiplayer | - | Early | - |
| Plugin Merging | - | - | Planning |
| Graphical Replacer Support | Done | Done | - |
| Multithread Stream Loading | - | Partial | - |
| Hardware Animations (Shaders) | Planning | Partial | Nearly |
| Load Doors | Done | Done | - |
| Render Particle Effects | - | Planning | - |
| Read Scrolls and Books | - | Done | - |
| Menus | - | Partial | - |
| Ground Blends | - | Early | - |
| Distant Land | - | Partial | - |
| Journal | Partial | - | - |
| Nearly** = Code is in the repository, but not in the latest release. | |||
| Partial* = Code is in repository, but likely to not be activated in a release for quite some time. | |||
| - = No code or planning done yet, or possibly not intending to include. | |||
When is your next release?
OpenMW: No exact date, but we are on the verge of our big 0.12.0 release.
Project Aedra: One was just released. The latest download is r163.
Crystal Scrolls: After recently returning from an unexpected and prolonged hiatus, I released a new snapshot two weekends ago.
What’s next?
OpenMW: Work on version 0.13.0 has already begun.
Project Aedra: Everything (in no particular order); scripting, multiplayer, key binding, animated textures, GUI, conformance (tweaking every little thing to be the same as in Morrowind), ground blends, bug fixing, animated skins, distant Land, 3D SFX, and shaders.
Crystal Scrolls: I am going to join forces with the OpenMW team and help them in getting their own project out of the door. While I will still continue developing this project, I also want to see one of the many Open Source Morrowind projects completed. And from my point of view, OpenMW is likely to reach maturity first. I am planning to do more work on things that do not depend on the renderers, so this should be of use to OpenMW as well.
Concerning Crystal Scrolls 0.3:
Concerning Crystal Scrolls 0.3:
- Plugin/Mod support. Possibly with a launcher which lets you disable/enable plug-ins
- Support for original save games (it's no that different from plug-ins).
- Object interaction. This will enable many additional features, such as picking up objects, entering internal cells, and more.
How big is your team?
OpenMW: We have eleven active developers (with varying degrees of involvement with OpenMW) and five people working on things like package maintenance, public relations, and website administration. Our team list is here.
Project Aedra: 1 person, me!
Crystal Scrolls: Myself.
How can people contribute?
OpenMW: If you are skilled with C++ or have game programming skills please register at our forum, look at the version 0.13.0 thread and find an unassigned task, assign it to yourself and get started. Also we want people with fast computers and video editing skills to record demonstration videos for Youtube. We hope that releases post 0.13.0 will be playable enough to necessitate many bug testers. If you are learning how to code, download and have a look at OpenMW.
Project Aedra: I'm looking for C and C++ game programmers with prior experience who can help program.
Crystal Scrolls: There are many ways to help out. Now that rendering and animation is mostly out of the way, it is feasible to start implementing more features. My primary goal for 0.3 is to add plug-in/mod support, and object interaction, but one can easily imagine things that are not blocked by this feature: sound, the console, scripting, etc. So if you want to help, install the program and find something that is missing and that might not depend on plug-in support or object interaction.
There you have it folks; three projects sharing a lot of common ground, but with some different goals and feature sets. Which is the best? That depends on who is asking. I suggest trying out all three every six months or to see how their changing and defining their own style. No doubt they will influence each others development with ideas and solutions. It is very exciting that Mark Siewert is joining the OpenMW team. Here’s to open source, games that facilitate creativity, and the preservation and improvement of games for posterity!
Fosdem Game Dev
We already mentioned the FOSDEM 2012 role playing game development talk but recently I found links to more open source game development and game design "devrooms" here.
- Alistair Riddoch - The Dynamic Data Driven Worlds of WorldForge.mp3
- Arthur Huillet - Anatomy of a role playing game.avi
- Erik Ogenvik - Getting Started With Ogre3d For Game Development.mp3
- Jeremy Rosen - Balancing a game - the open source way.mp3
- Thomas Kinnen - Data-Driven and Component-Based Game-Entities.mp3
I also recommend "A New OSI for A New Decade" here, which starts with explaining how not to be annoying when advocating freedom.
Arthur Huillet of Freedroid talked about RPG development at FOSDEM 2012:
In two and a half hours, the online #AltDevConf starts. There seems to be no way to attend live unless you use Windows or OS X but the talks will be recorded and made available online later.
There will be 25 talks from the range of game programming, education, design and production.
There will be 25 talks from the range of game programming, education, design and production.
AltDevConf is an online community-driven conference...
We aim provide free access to a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts, and to create a space where bright and innovative voices can be heard.
Wizznic! received more GUI enhancements [video (00:57@YouTube)]
TORCS 1.3.2 brings menu music into the game [.ogg (05:50/7.1MB)]
Knights 0.19 features deathmatch [description]
Humm and Strumm is an in-dev co-op game engine [design .pdf (156kB)]
SuperTux' level contest has four entries so far [submission thread]
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| Hale RPG |
A very fine read is this review of the TBS/RPG Hale. Its first comment was written by the sole developer.
Flare 0.15 introduces outdoor areas. Translation submissions are welcome now as well. Look for instructions and examples in this post.
Freedroid RPG recently released the second candidate for 0.15. Soon it will be ten years since registration of the freedroid project on SourceFroge.net.
Checking on Scourge 2, another open source RPG title, there has been no development for eight months.
Unknown Horizons Player Scores...
libtcod's project browser filter
libtcod, an advanced toolkit for roguelikes now has an online browser for projects using it that allows to apply filters.
Tactical battle in Hale
I stumbled over Hale, an RPG described as having "deep tactical combat system and storyline".
The project seems to use freely licensed assets, which is a great. I hope that the GUI will receive a makeover (using a pastel background color and killing the 1995'ish 3d button/border look does wonders).
Example sound visualization at Freesound 2.0
Freesound went 2.0! CC-BY and CC0 as license options! (Unfortunately CC-BY-NC as well). Sampling+ remains for legacy sounds where authors have not switched to a modern license. Read the announcement here.
Six-legged vehicle in Xonotic
Xonotic 0.5 brings new maps, vehicles and multi-language support. Many more details can be found in their annoucnement post.
Wazzal in space
The recently open sourced game was made by Ville Mönkkönen of Instant Kingdom (IK). He is responsible for excellent freeware games including Notrium and is currently working on a for-pay top-down fantasy RPG.
IK community member Amarth shared some insight about what it would take to make Wazzal run on modern operating systems:
It will be a lot of work. DirectX calls (Windows only) are sprinkled all around the code. Then there are some references to the win32 api, though not many when compared with the DX ones. There are probably also some non-standard C++ Visual Studio-only things going on, but that shouldn't be too hard to fix either. DirectX is the big problem here.It also needs to be done, because Wazzal is written with the DirectX 8 library, which seems to be no longer supported in any way by Microsoft.The license for both code and assets is a very permissive one and likely to be compatible with MIT/zlib/3-BSD (and CC-BY for assets):
It's positively impossible to find the headers and libraries needed to compile this at Microsoft. I haven't tried other locations yet. It's probably not impossible to find, but who knows how well supported old libraries will be on newer versions of Windows...
10 You are allowed to use the game source files and the included resource files in any way you wish, I only ask that you retain this license and credit me.
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.
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.
