TheOpenAnalyst » Gaming

The Brave New World of Open-source Game Design

TheOpenAnalyst — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 10:02:00 +0000

When Acclaim Games publicly unveiled its Rockfree project, a free-to-play, web-based riff on the rhythm genre, last November, it did something unusual. It invited gamers to play an early version of the game so they could weigh in on the project as it was being developed.

That may not seem like a drastic move to the beta-shrouded web world, but for game makers it is another sign that the long-standing barrier between the game maker and game player that was set up to protect the profitability of projects is crumbling. One unintentional slip — or one public demo gone wrong — had always been enough to ruin a game’s prospects. As the video game marketplace grows ever more crowded, however, community engagement is increasingly being viewed as an invaluable tool. Just as the industry’s behemoths waited for startups selling virtual items to succeed before adopting such a business model, the old guard is slowly moving to engage directly with its communities.

The Brave New World of Open-source Game Design

Blood Frontier: The Latest Open-Source FPS

TheOpenAnalyst — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:02:00 +0000

Cube was early on one of the first open-source first-person shooter games designed around its own engine. The 3D graphics for Cube were not the best, but development of this game had been going on since 2001. Based upon the Cube engine was then the Sauerbraten game that was also referred to as “Cube 2″ with its engine being redesigned. Now though another game is emerging and its engine is derived from Sauerbraten. This game is called Blood Frontier and in this article we have a few screenshots of this game, which is working its way towards a stable release for the open-source community.

Blood Frontier is based upon the Sauerbraten engine and takes advantage
of the features like a 6-direction height field world model, real-time map editing,
light-maps, shader-based lighting effects, integrated physics support, and a particle
engine. Like Cube and Cube 2, Blood Frontier uses OpenGL and SDL, which makes
it multi-platform friendly with binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Blood Frontier: The Latest Open-Source FPS | [Phoronix]

Bringing Up Open Source, Part 2: The Consumer Side

TheOpenAnalyst — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:35:00 +0000

The expansion of open source into new markets is prompting consumers to notice alternatives to traditional computing habits. Personal computing power now puts so much opportunity into the hands of consumers that previously impossible activities are possible without exposure to proprietary software. Open source projects are finding their way into full-service business offerings at cost-saving levels for consumers and enterprise alike.

Consumers can select from a growing inventory of software in a wide variety of genres. Open source is feeding a frenzy in two key areas like never before. Game-playing aficionados are joining home entertainment fans in using more than just off-the-shelf proprietary solutions.

Gaming: Bringing Up Open Source, Part 2: The Consumer Side | Technology News

Why games are NOT the key to Linux adoption

TheOpenAnalyst — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:49:00 +0000

I have a number of concerns about a recent article about games [as] the key top Linux adoption. It nearly screams for scrutiny, as a it presents opinions and broad stereotypes as fact, contradicts itself and makes conclusions that have the capacity to hurt, not help the community.

Gamers are adventurous folks… [who] often build their own computers, either from scratch, a barebones kit, or a stripped down retail box…. therefore, [gamers] are a ripe target for the open source community.

Why games are NOT the key to Linux adoption | FSM

Why games are the key to Linux adoption

TheOpenAnalyst — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:56:00 +0000

I just ordered my first computer yesterday: 4GB RAM, a 250 GB SATA 3gb/s hard drive, a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a Nvidia 9800 graphics card, and a comfortable 20″ monitor. But while these were all expensive (especially the video card), none of them compared to one item on the list: Windows. That’s the hope that Linux companies must look forward to.

Right now, a popular Linux evangelism idea is to force Linux as a pre-install option onto retail computers and wait for the market share to magically shoot up. With the exception of the niche netbook market, this really hasn’t happened (and the netbook market share happened in-part because of customized netbook-specific Linux distributions). What’s going wrong?

Why games are the key to Linux adoption | The Warden

Can open source save gaming companies?

TheOpenAnalyst — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:28:00 +0000

News that Myst Online is going open source has excited some people.

But is this a valid test of the open source concept?

Not unless it actually succeeds. As with many past attempts to grasp open source the way a quicksand victim grasps a vine, Myst open source is an act of desperation.

Can open source save gaming companies? | Open Source | ZDNet.com

OSS Gaming: Ready for the Big Leagues?

TheOpenAnalyst — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Whether you’re talking about the Wii Latest News about Wii, the Xbox 360 Latest News about Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 Latest News about PlayStation 3, the video game industry is on a record-setting pace for revenue in 2008. Consumers have scooped up billions of dollars worth of game consoles, accessories and big-budget titles. With sales set to top US$22 billion in 2008, according to The NPD Group, gaming looks as though it’s weathering the ongoing economic downturn well.

However, high-priced platforms and multi-million dollar games are not for everyone. There is an alternative to the realm of big-bucks publishers and monolithic developers like Electronic Arts — open source gaming.

OSS Gaming: Ready for the Big Leagues? | Applications | Linux News

The Untapped Open Source Online Gaming Opportunity

TheOpenAnalyst — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:28:00 +0000

Open source software is often an unsung hero in the online gaming universe. Game engines are complex applications with core functionalities provided by numerous modules. These include a rendering engine for 2-D or 3-D graphics and a physics engine or collision detection and response calculator. In addition, game developers have to provide for sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading and a scene graph.

Behind the scenes, open source graphics rendering engines and game development engines power some of the most popular boxed and online games. Open source is not just the power behind the games. It’s very likely that any given online game back-end system relies on software developed by the open source Apache project.

The Untapped Open Source Online Gaming Opportunit y | Developer | Linux News

The psychology behind open source and gaming

TheOpenAnalyst — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:19:00 +0000

One of the things that drive success in online games such as World of Warcraft is the community and ecosystem that surround the game itself. This is much akin to open source where projects grow and become successful as individuals become part of the whole.

How we define our individual identities and the forms of social participation that we pursue to shape these identities drive our engagement. Whether it’s software or gaming, we shape the world around us.

The psychology behind open source and gaming | CNET News