Open Source boardgames, better on a screen or on a table?

Staying with the theme of the festive season, how can FreeGamer help you prevent that awkward silence when you sit down with your relatives and realize you have nothing really to talk about? Well, open-source board games to the rescue... and you can spice up that quality family time by introducing some FOSS concepts ;)

A rather interesting concept is d0x3d! (a network security game):



It is actually intended to be a sort of teaching aid (ideas how to use it in class here), but it seems interesting enough to play with friends and relatives too.
You can order a full version of the game or download the sources under the sadly more restrictive CC-by-NC-SA here.

A similar concept of combining teaching with playing is the trading card game Phylo. Sadly it is even more restrictive in licensing (CC-BY-NC-ND), thus I am stretching it a bit to mention it here.

Much more open (and mentioned a few times before on FG) is Wtactics:

Wtactics card examples

Not much updates for it lately, but I am still looking forward to have in playable in their under development web-based client or Wagic.

Another nicely licensed (CC-by-SA) but update-lacking open-source board game is Sovereign:

Sovereign game board

It's a RISK like, but hexagon based strategy game. Oh and while we are at it... check out again this great post on Settlers of Catan implementations we had a while back; which leads us again to screen-based implementations of board-games.

One such general system is VASSAL, a FOSS engine to build and play online adaptations of board games and card games. It makes it possible to play live on the Internet or by email and has a quite extensive library of (mostly propitiatory) game modules.

VASSAL game module example

Another recently developed and graphically quite amazing "on screen" board game system is Desperate Gods. Again, sadly not FOSS (only shared source) but as explained on their GIT account, they are open to license parts of it for mods etc. under more liberal licenses (upon individual request).

Definitely also worth mentioning in this context is TripleA, also a RISK like game that recently had a rather big update and now includes a new map-creator for example.

TripleA, new WWII worldmap

And last but not least, MegaMek has to be mentioned too, as it is probably the most fully featured BattleTech online implementation.

But if you know of more cool examples of these kind of crossovers between FOSS computer gaming and table-top games, please comment below!

X-mas round-up

Welcome back to FreeGamer, and I hope you all had some nice holidays and avoided that dreadful family time by doing some productive FOSS game development ;)

So what happened over the holidays? Well contrary to my earlier announcements Cube2:Sauerbraten and AlienArena did not see a new release yet. However maybe they still manage it by the end of the year :) Torque2D MIT is also not yet on their GIT account, but they made a new 2.0 release of the 3D counterpart, and are looking for crowd funding for making a proper Linux port (including all the development tools). So... time to make use of the funds your grandma gave you for X-mas ;)

Also related to one of my previous posts: the help request for OpenDungeons and SumWars, did result in some interesting discussions at the very least. Not much new development regarding OD directly, but a new DungeonKeeper alike project surfaced utilizing the really nice JMonkey3D engine and a University backed AI system. See some early screenshots over here, where the use of OD graphics for "AgentKeeper" (working title) is discussed. Last but not least there was also some talk about using the really nice Lips Of Suna engine for OD, with a quick 2D prototype developed in LUA LÖVE2D.
Regarding SumWars has been also some interest, and hot of the press is an new bug-fix testing release for an new official release early next month.

In unrelated news, there has been an cool new 0 A.D. release, which an awesome video showing off the new render features:



They also made a respectable 2nd place in IndieDB's best upcoming Indie of the Year 2012. Rise of the East Mod development has picked up again too (new video here).

Also watch the Unvanquished page for an "big announcement" at the end of this year, as hinted at in their newest development blog post.

Candle Quest KS Funding Looks Unlikely, But You Should Still Back It

As of right now, a successful funding for our Kickstarter project Candle Quest is unlikely to happen. The momentum isn't there, despite good reviews from GeekDad and some promotions by a few other key bloggers.

However, you should STILL back the project right now, and at least before it's over. Why?

• A fresh boost in project backers could lead to a cascade of new backers. When you back a KS project, it moves up the ranking on the "Popular KS Projects" list. Projects higher on the list receive more attention from visitors to the site, and thus more views and more backing. It's a positive feedback loop.

• Backing the project costs you NOTHING if the project does not fund. This is entirely risk-free. If the project funds, you get what you wanted; if not, you're out nothing.

• The more backers we get for the project, the more we can evaluate what to do next. If we get many backers, even if we don't meet the funding goals, we can take that number to a traditional publisher and show them that there is a proven fan base for the game and they should publish it. Or we can get some other investor willing to help us self-publish.

• Backing the project makes me feel happy, and you want me to feel happy, don't you?

There you go. Don't stop spreading the word, especially to local religious organizations or game clubs. Promote the game on Facebook and Twitter, and post about it on your blog.

The artwork may make the game look like a children's game, but rest assured this is the same great game that is enjoyed by nearly every adult who has ever played it. Candle Quest is a great gateway game: simple to understand, simple choices on each turn, a balance of skill and luck, complex strategy options, lots of player interaction, an evolving story-arc, no player elimination, quick game-play, and appealing to all ages, genders, and religions.

Yehuda

Christmas Nights into Dreams

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher:  Sega

Released as a free demo with the purchase of Saturn exclusives back in '96, Christmas Nights into Dreams is one of those rare cases where the demo is just as sought after and nearly as expensive as the game itself.

The 'game' opens up with a motion comic style intro narrated by a woman who sounds extremely bored as she reads her text, telling you that it's Christmas, but people seem to be missing the Holiday's spirit because the Christmas tree's star is missing and that it's up you two underage kids to find it.

The demo consists of two levels, the latter being a boss fight, though what set the demo apart was its clock setting, on December 25th, the game's theme shifts radically to a Christmas setting, the once green mountains are now fully covered in snow, decorated with Christmas trees, stars and other Holiday decorations, even the soundtrack changes to a beautiful instrumental rendition of Jingle Bells, with that said, I felt that the boss fight as easy as it was, could've used more Christmas cheer, sure, the backgrounds and graphics were changed and decorated with presents but the background music clashed with the rest of the demo.

Once you're done with the two short levels you'll find an assortment of unlockables, but really, I didn't find them all that interesting, you get some karaoke songs where you can change the pitch of the singers and some poorly aged mid 90's CGI rendition of our characters, but that's about it, with that said, props to Sega for actually giving you a proper ending for completing the demo, it's just a shame that it's narrated by the same person and she still sounds bored out of her skull.

Overall, Christmas Nights into Dreams is impossible to rate because it's just a short 10 minute demo, but when you're in a Christmas cheer you'll be hard pressed to find a better 'game'

Trivia: Did you know that despite its name, Christmas Nights into Dreams also changes on other occasions? During the New Year, you get a 'Happy New Year' message, on Valentine's Day you get a Valentine's Hearts and on April 1st you play as the series' main antagonist.

Pros:

- A normal demo for most of the year, but on certain dates it throws you some nice curve balls
- Beautiful rendition of Jingle Bells
- I'd argue the demo has a better art style then the actual game
- The motion comic style intro and ending adds to the demo's whimsical nature

Cons:

- It's just a demo, so you'll be done with it in 10 minutes
- The unlockables are really not worth the time
- Why does the Narrator sound so bored?
- How many times have I said 'Christmas' in the review? Somebody make a drinking game out of that

Final Grade: N/A

I have to say, I don't like the artwork on the disc at all, I know it's just an enemy from the game, but it really doesn't do anything for me.

The demo originally came with a slipcase that I seem to have lost over the years, though to be fair there was never a whole lot of packaging to review here, so even if I had it, the final score would have been the same.

Packaging Grade: N/A

Christmas Nights into Dreams (Christmas Special)

Developer: Sonic Team

Publisher:  Sega

Released as a free demo with the purchase of Saturn exclusives back in '96, Christmas Nights into Dreams is one of those rare cases where the demo is just as sought after and nearly as expensive as the game itself.

The 'game' opens up with a motion comic style intro narrated by a woman who sounds extremely bored as she reads her text, telling you that it's Christmas, but people seem to be missing the Holiday's spirit because the Christmas tree's star is missing and that it's up you two underage kids to find it.

The demo consists of two levels, the latter being a boss fight, though what set the demo apart was its clock setting, on December 25th, the game's theme shifts radically to a Christmas setting, the once green mountains are now fully covered in snow, decorated with Christmas trees, stars and other Holiday decorations, even the soundtrack changes to a beautiful instrumental rendition of Jingle Bells, with that said, I felt that the boss fight as easy as it was, could've used more Christmas cheer, sure, the backgrounds and graphics were changed and decorated with presents but the background music clashed with the rest of the demo.

Once you're done with the two short levels you'll find an assortment of unlockables, but really, I didn't find them all that interesting, you get some karaoke songs where you can change the pitch of the singers and some poorly aged mid 90's CGI rendition of our characters, but that's about it, with that said, props to Sega for actually giving you a proper ending for completing the demo, it's just a shame that it's narrated by the same person and she still sounds bored out of her skull.

Overall, Christmas Nights into Dreams is impossible to rate because it's just a short 10 minute demo, but when you're in a Christmas cheer you'll be hard pressed to find a better 'game'

Trivia: Did you know that despite its name, Christmas Nights into Dreams also changes on other occasions? During the New Year, you get a 'Happy New Year' message, on Valentine's Day you get a Valentine's Hearts and on April 1st you play as the series' main antagonist.

Pros:

- A normal demo for most of the year, but on certain dates it throws you some nice curve balls
- Beautiful rendition of Jingle Bells
- I'd argue the demo has a better art style then the actual game
- The motion comic style intro and ending adds to the demo's whimsical nature

Cons:

- It's just a demo, so you'll be done with it in 10 minutes
- The unlockables are really not worth the time
- Why does the Narrator sound so bored?
- How many times have I said 'Christmas' in the review? Somebody make a drinking game out of that

Final Grade: N/A

I have to say, I don't like the artwork on the disc at all, I know it's just an enemy from the game, but it really doesn't do anything for me.

The demo originally came with a slipcase that I seem to have lost over the years, though to be fair there was never a whole lot of packaging to review here, so even if I had it, the final score would have been the same.

Packaging Grade: N/A

Christmas cheer rating: 

Honestly this is probably the most Christmas-y game I've played yet, not just for the beautiful music and the change in backgrounds, but because I love that the game's objective isn't to recover presents, save Santa or any other materialist/commercial aspect of the Holiday, instead, you're trying to find a magic star that will give people back their cheer, you can tell that bad narrator aside, there's a lot of heart in this game. Five snowmen out of Five.

Shabbat Gaming

Last shabbat after dinner I played Anagrams using Snatch-It tiles with Raanana's reigning Anagrams queen Shuli and her friend Janine, also no slouch. I used to think I was good at the game. This time I was surprised that I nearly held my own. I came in third, only a word or two down from Janine, who was a word or two down from Shuli.

After lunch I played Settlers of Catan with Anne, Sarah, and Noa. First play for Anne, astoundingly first or second play for Sarah (who has been playing games for some time now, and first time playing with the correct rules for Noa (who is a Dominion fan but doesn't know much else about gaming).

Experience and a little luck still holds some sway. I carefully promoted trading as a worthwhile endeavor, warned against trading with the leading player, especially when he or she is at 7 points or higher, and encouraged them to gang up on me.

Anne played aggressively, immediately going to block routes or steal board locations that other players needed. She claimed that she just played the best moves for herself and not deliberately to be aggressive. I've heard that before from a lioness ripping the meat out of a zebra. Sarah ended up boxed in with only two spots to which to expand, which can be difficult (though not impossible).

I had only three spots, but I only needed two. A series of 5s rolled early, each of which gave me 2 bricks and 2 wood, allowed me to plunk down an early 9-length Longest Road. I would not typically pick up Longest Road early in the game, but I felt that the large gap I had over the other players made it unlikely that I would get into a road building war with anyone else (and thus let a third player win, which is what usually happens to road builders).

This worked. I was able to keep my longest road to the end of the game and plunk down my fourth city for the win. The other players all had hidden victory point cards and 7, 8, or 9 points. I think they didn't realize that there were only 5 points (and Largest Army) to go around in the development card deck; they might have (should have) built a few more cities first before going for the cards.

This shabbat after dinner I played a few card games with Anne and a few kids at their house after dinner. I taught them how to play Oh Hell. We played to the end and I came in second. Then I taught them how to play Hearts. We played five rounds, no moons shot. We were all in our thirties or so when we had to quit.

Jack in the Dark

Developer: Infogrames

Publisher:  Infogrames/Interplay

Played on: Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy

Jack in the dark was a short promotional game/teaser for Alone in the Dark 2, its theme is a strange mix of Halloween and Christmas, in which you play as Grace Saunders, a young girl who was out trick or treating and enters a toy store that is apparently haunted, as all of the toys come to life, kidnap Santa Claus and want to kill you (Am I the only one getting a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe?).

The game plays as a survival horror, in fact, being a teaser for Alone in the Dark 2, it was probably to second game in the genre to have ever been created (that is, if you only count the standard formula for the genre). 

Unlike the first Alone in the Dark, here there is no combat, the game focuses entirely on puzzle solving which is an odd thing considering Alone in The Dark 2 was almost exclusively focused on combat, but the problem here is that even though this is just a short 5-15 minute game, a lot of the puzzles require quite a bit lot of lateral thinking, seriously, how I was supposed to know you have to feed candy to the jack in the box and THEN show him his reflection?

If you've played the old Resident Evil games you're probably familiar with the concept of 'tank controls' which is the perfect way to describe how it feels like when controlling Grace, she's a slow walker, slow turner, it's a pain to get her to sprint, even the act of investigating nearby items requires you to enter a menu, choose your option and then leave said menu.

Graphically the game doesn't look too hot, every character is made out of a few flat shaded 3D polygons whereas the backgrounds are 2D animations, possibly pre-rendered, if you're going to play this on Dos-box, I recommend you fiddle with the options and add some Anti-Aliasing.

There's only one song in the game and it's constantly repeating, though it's pretty Christmas-y in the mood it sets, however, I always found it interesting that if you turn the music off, it suddenly feels like you went from a Christmas themed game, to a scary Halloween themed one.

Overall Jack in the Dark is an interesting 'game' it's not a demo of Alone in the Dark 2 but neither is it really a game, it's part Christmas and part Halloween so if nothing else I can say it's an interesting title, a shame for its obtuse puzzles and controls.

Pros:

- Interesting mix of Christmas and Halloween themes
- A piece of gaming history

Cons:

- Not really a game, not really a demo
- Tank-like controls are a pain
- Some of the puzzles require a bit of Moon-logic

Final Grade: N/A

Packaging Review: This game was played using the 'Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy' compilation

Jack in the Dark (Christmas Special)

Developer: Infogrames

Publisher:  Infogrames/Interplay

Played on: Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy

Jack in the dark was a short promotional game/teaser for Alone in the Dark 2, its theme is a strange mix of Halloween and Christmas, in which you play as Grace Saunders, a young girl who was out trick or treating and enters a toy store that is apparently haunted, as all of the toys come to life, kidnap Santa Claus and want to kill you (Am I the only one getting a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe?).

The game plays as a survival horror, in fact, being a teaser for Alone in the Dark 2, it was probably to second game in the genre to have ever been created (that is, if you only count the standard formula for the genre). 

Unlike the first Alone in the Dark, here there is no combat, the game focuses entirely on puzzle solving which is an odd thing considering Alone in The Dark 2 was almost exclusively focused on combat, but the problem here is that even though this is just a short 5-15 minute game, a lot of the puzzles require quite a bit lot of lateral thinking, seriously, how I was supposed to know you have to feed candy to the jack in the box and THEN show him his reflection?

If you've played the old Resident Evil games you're probably familiar with the concept of 'tank controls' which is the perfect way to describe how it feels like when controlling Grace, she's a slow walker, slow turner, it's a pain to get her to sprint, even the act of investigating nearby items requires you to enter a menu, choose your option and then leave said menu.

Graphically the game doesn't look too hot, every character is made out of a few flat shaded 3D polygons whereas the backgrounds are 2D animations, possibly pre-rendered, if you're going to play this on Dos-box, I recommend you fiddle with the options and add some Anti-Aliasing.

There's only one song in the game and it's constantly repeating, though it's pretty Christmas-y in the mood it sets, however, I always found it interesting that if you turn the music off, it suddenly feels like you went from a Christmas themed game, to a scary Halloween themed one.

Overall Jack in the Dark is an interesting 'game' it's not a demo of Alone in the Dark 2 but neither is it really a game, it's part Christmas and part Halloween so if nothing else I can say it's an interesting title, a shame for its obtuse puzzles and controls.

Pros:

- Interesting mix of Christmas and Halloween themes
- A piece of gaming history

Cons:

- Not really a game, not really a demo
- Tank-like controls are a pain
- Some of the puzzles require a bit of Moon-logic

Final Grade: N/A

Packaging Review: This game was played using the 'Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy' compilation 

Christmas cheer rating: 

The game's Christmas theme feels a bit slapped on, remove the cheerful music, Santa and the Christmas tree outside the toy shop and instead you get a Halloween game, though the ending does feel like something you'd expect from a Christmas game, but everything else is just skin deep. Two and a half snowmen out of five.

Colony Wars Red Sun

Developer: Psygnosis

Publisher:  Psygnosis

The final entry in the Colony Wars series is quite a departure from its predecessors. Gone are the multiple mission paths, the series' extreme difficulty, heck, even the war between the League of Free worlds and the Colonial Navy takes a backseat to a new story arch in this game.

You play as Valdemar, a miner turned mercenary thanks to a ghostly figure known only as the 'General', apparently your character is humanity's last hope though the game never bothers to explain why your character was picked, in fact, it doesn't bother to explain much of anything really, this time around there are dozens of factions, the police, crime gangs, ruthless and corrupt companies and a slew of alien species who's relations with the League and the Navy are never really made clear, while I appreciate the fact that the developers tried to expand the lore in Colony wars: Red Sun, I felt that it only made it more confusing while downgrading the importance and scale of the series' main factions.

The game's plot is basically non-existent, you have interesting characters, but there's nothing for them to actually do, this sparks a pretty big contrast with its predecessor, Colony Wars: Vengeance, which had a great story, but no real characters.

The gameplay changed quite a bit as well, the ships handle a lot better and the enemy capital vessels no longer feature their cheap rays of death that never miss the target, instead featuring several guns and cannons that can be destroyed individually, you're also able to buy your own weapons and ships, unfortunately, for each step forward you'll find in this game, there's a step back to counterbalance it, for starters, there's a lot less mission variety, most of the missions consist of either guarding something or destroying something, you accept missions by signing contracts with different factions, but there's no repercussions with any of missions you accept, you can accept a mission by the space mafia followed by one offered by the space police and neither faction will care, you'd think at least one of them would refuse to hire you if you pissed them off.

I also found the game to be too easy, so easy in fact that I got bored fairly quickly after I started playing this and by the time I reached the game's midway point my ship was practically a flying behemoth of death. I think I only died once, during the last mission, but even then you can just restart it without any repercussions, which again, makes the game too easy and boring.

Graphically Colony Wars: Red Sun looks absolutely stunning, the textures, the ships, the effects all look great for a PS1 game, the only flaws I found were the capital ships who were quite a bit smaller in this game and the short draw distance during the ground missions. The orchestral soundtrack is pretty awesome as well, fitting the game's mood pretty well, though the songs repeated a bit too often for me.

Overall, Red Sun should have been the grand finale, the best of the series and in many ways it surpasses its predecessors, but these improvements are mostly cosmetic, the poor mission variety, the 'so easy it's boring' gameplay and the underdeveloped freedom and plot makes this game a disappointing ending to the series.

Trivia: Did you know that Colony Wars: Red Sun was created by a different studio than the first two games?

Pros:

- Graphically the game looks superb for a PS1 game
- Great orchestral soundtrack
- Your ship is pretty customizable
- Enemy capital ships no longer have that cheap ray of death
- The snarky characters are pretty interesting if a bit cheesy

 
Cons:

- Alternate path system was completely ditched

- There's no real plot to this game
- Extremely low difficulty curve makes for a pretty boring game
- The expanded lore is both confusing and underdeveloped
- Doesn't feel like a Colony Wars game at all

Final Grade: C

The cover looks pretty good, you see the Red Sun ship in the distance with a looming figure of Valdemar in the background, sure the image itself is just one big cliché, but it's a cliché that works.

As for the 30 page manual, it's... okay, it starts with a bit of cryptic and pseudo-deep dialog that sounds important but is really just pointless padding, it does however go into great detail on how to play the game, though I'd say too much detail a lot of the information there just isn't needed at all, with that said, I do like how it goes to the trouble of describing every weapon in the game, that's actually pretty useful, it also tells what you need to do to rank up in the game something which the game itself never really made it very clear.

Overall, it's a pretty good packaging, good artwork and a pretty decent manual, though I'd have liked if the manual gave you some backstory or if at least tried to fill some of the holes in the new expanded lore

Packaging Grade: B-

Colony Wars Vengeance

Developer: Psygnosis

Publisher:  Psygnosis

Launched just one year after the first game, no would blame you if you expected Colony Wars Vengeance to be a rehash of the original title, but believe me when I tell you this is not the case at all, the people at Psygnosis must've all been wizards because Vengeance is an improvement on almost every level (keyword: Almost).

An unspecific amount of time has passed since the first war (yeah the game's lore seems a bit confusing and contradictory at times), the colonial Navy was defeated, Earth was sealed off and is now a Planet in a constant status of civil war, amidst all this you play as Mertens, a fighter pilot who recently enlisted in a new faction also calling themselves the Colonial Navy despite the fact that it has very little in common with the old one.

The story for this game is really good, there are no real characters per se, sure you hear some names being thrown around but there's very little dialog, what really makes the plot interesting is Mertens' narration, you learn that despite it being brutal and at times savage, the Colonial Navy is not really 'evil', it's just trying to survive on a Planet with few resources left, it makes for a great 'war is hell' setting and the fact that there aren't even any real characters only adds to it, making you feel like you're just an easily replaceable number.

The franchises' alternate path style of gameplay also makes a return, but this time it's been scaled down (likely so they could fit it all on one disc), the choices, consequences and impact of all the battles seem to be pretty minor this time around, not helped by the fact that almost all of the endings are pretty much the same thing, moreover, it feels like there's a miscommunication between the story writers and the level designers, as plot points are raised and then promptly forgotten depending on what path you take in the war, they just mysteriously disappear with no real resolution.

On the gameplay side of things, it's very similar to the first game with a few tweaks, there's a greater mission variety, new weapons, both the enemy and friendly A.I were improved (thank god for that last one) and you got a boost ability, but the most noteworthy addition are the planetary missions, these looks great and add some nice variety to the game, despite the improvements make no mistake, the game is still very difficult and the capital ships are as cheap as they ever were.

Unfortunately, this time you're limited to only 4 ships and unlike the previous the game, all of ships here are incremental upgrades of the last one, meaning once you unlock a new vessel, there's no need to ever go back to the old one, you can also upgrade them this time around, but it's a very underdeveloped process, every time you complete a mission you get a few upgrade tokens and you can use them to improve your ship's speed, boost, shields or turning speed, there no downsides or compromises to upgrading, which is a shame.

Graphically the game looks amazing, leagues ahead of the first game, there's much more detail, the capital ships are huge, the ship designs are for the most part pretty interesting and the planetary missions look great with the exception of their draw distance, as every planet tend to look too foggy.The orchestral soundtrack fits the overall 'war is hell' theme pretty well, the game feels darker, even oppressing, it never lets you forget just how unimportant you are in the overall struggle.

Overall colony wars is an improvement over the first game, the production values and the plot are really good, but unfortunately some of the features like the ship upgrading system feel underdeveloped, while others feel downgraded from the first game, namely the alternate path system, moreover, they still didn't address how cheap enemy capital ships are.

Trivia: Did you know the creators' original intention was to create a setting in which neither side was 'good' or 'evil' ? In the their own words they wanted to make a game that 'focused more on two factions that were forced together to fight over what remained of dwindling resources. There was no right or wrong, just two very hungry animals'

Pros:

- Engaging 'war is hell' story
- Graphically, it's quite the step up from the first game
- Orchestral soundtrack fits the theme pretty well
- Great mission variety, new planetside missions are fun

 
Cons:

- Alternate path options have been downgraded from the first game

- Ship upgrade system is underdeveloped
- Enemy capital ships rely on cheap shots
- Depending on the paths you take, plot points are sometimes raised and promptly forgotten

Final Grade: B

The cover looks nice and action packed, featuring two fighters dogfighting with an ominous presence in the background.

The manual is also somewhat impressive, it features some very high quality paper by game manual standards and it fills you in on some backstory for both the settings and some of the characters, it also gives you a short description of every weapon and item which can be pretty useful.

Overall, not a bad packaging, it's not perfect by any means but it has enough content and is just flashy enough to warrant a second or even a third look.


Packaging Grade: B

Dev-corner: You don't know it, but your FOSS game project has a deadline.

How soon is the deadline on your FOSS game project?

You're probably thinking that you don't have one.  And in the sense that a commercial developer would use the word deadline, you don't.  There's no date looming above you on your calendar, no boss asking for updates at your next staff meeting, no investor threatening to pull their funding for your project if you don't finish on time.  As a FOSS developer who is writing games as a hobby, you have the luxury of taking your time, right?

Nope.  Rather, your "deadline" is like the bandwidth limit on one of those cheap "unlimited" web hosting services.  It's sooner than you think, but it's not set in stone, so it's easy to not think about it until you're already past it.  The deadline for your FOSS game project is when any of these things happens for the first time:

• You realize you've bitten off more than you can chew, and lose interest.
• Changes in your life (getting married, having kids, getting a new job, going to school, etc) prevent you from spending an appreciable amount of time on your project.
• The game engine you're working on that was "feature rich" when you started it is now so badly obsolete that it's pointless to continue development on it.
• Any other random circumstance I haven't thought of that might cause you to stop working on your project.

I don't have any hard data here, but given the number of dormant and failed FOSS projects out there, it's probably safe to say that your deadline is under twelve months from the start of your project (seriously, try browsing some dead projects on the various source code repository sites.  For every successful project, there are dozens -- if not hundreds -- of projects that never really got off the ground).

Now, there are projects out there like Flare and Battle for Wesnoth that have broken the one year mark, but what these two projects both have in common that most lack are that they've attracted multiple developers beyond the original teams.  As such, when one developer burns out for a while or has family obligations, other people are continuing to work on and improve the code base, which keeps the code up to date and interesting so that your project continues to gain momentum and attract interest from potential contributors.  As such, your real deadline isn't to finish your project by the one year mark, it's to get it far enough along that it's playable, so that it attracts other developers who want to add on to it.

If you want your project to get to this point, there are some things you can do that will help immensely.

Understand that you're on your own until you can produce real, compelling gameplay.
 
Almost every FOSS developer who gets into writing games does so because they have a personal vision of their own ideal game.  Maybe you're lucky enough that there are two or three of you with a shared vision at the start of your project, but regardless of whether you have a small team or you're all alone, you probably aren't going to attract too many more developers to your project without an appreciable amount of gameplay already in place.  Your project might sound great on paper, but there are thousands of other projects that sound great on paper as well, but never got anywhere.  If a developer is looking for something to do, they're not going to notice your project with no real gameplay; they're going to go for an established project that is already playable and has real momentum. 

The way to attract developers to your game is to harness the 'itch' that people always talk about in relation to open source software.  For that to work, you need someone to play your game and decide they want to add their own pet feature to it, and for that to happen, you need a playable game.

And, since you probably aren't going to have real gameplay right out the door, the first key to a successful FOSS game project is understanding that, just because you made it open source, it doesn't mean that developers are going to start coming out of the woodwork wanting to help you.  Be prepared to spend long hours working on your own, getting to the point where you have real gameplay.  (Oh yeah, and I don't mean just a terrain engine.  People need to be able to play your game, and have fun doing it.)

Keep your ambitions in check.

This is a big one, but it's something I've covered at great length in the past, so I'll keep this short and sweet.  If you've never completed a game project before, or you've never written any real networking code, that awesome idea you have for an MMO that's going to totally be better than World of Warcraft isn't going to happen

Here, I'll show you something.  Check out this SourceForge search for MMORPGs in the planning stage.  At the time of this writing, there are 22 pages of results, and everything after half way down the third page hasn't been updated in at least a year.  Only around 10% of MMO projects in Sourceforge ever make it to production status, and a lot of the projects that do make it that far are engines as opposed to full games.  If you really want to make a huge game and you think you can code fast enough to do it before you burn out, try making a really small game first, as an exercise.  If you can do that, it'll give you a good sense of scale to determine how ambitious your big project idea really is.

Ugly hacks really aren't all that bad.

This one is from personal experience.  I'm a reasonably good developer.  I've worked on enough projects that I have a pretty good intuitive understanding of the scope of the projects I take on.  My own main problem is that when I see a new feature I'd like to add, I get tempted to re-architect my code to make that new feature as clean as possible, rather than hacking it in.

There is, of course, a lot of merit to clean code.  Ugly hacks aren't a good thing.  They make your code harder to read and maintain.  On the other hand, if you've put a year into your pet project and it's nearly playable, now is not the time to rewrite it so you can add in some snazzy new feature or optimization.  If the feature is unnecessary for making your game playable, leave it out.  If you absolutely need it, hack it in.

For some of us, this is a pretty tall order.  I personally worry about what people might think of my code.  I'm confident that I can handle most projects, but I'm always worried that there will be some gap in my knowledge that causes me to do something stupid or miss something really obvious.  When there are entire blogs out there devoted to poking fun at bad code (not knocking the Daily WTF, by the way -- it's hilarious and highly educational), it can be pretty scary to release hastily written, hackish code into the wild.

But when you do, remember that a lot of projects never see a playable release at all.  That hackish code you put in there will probably be replaced eventually.  You may even trip over it and curse it later on.  But if it's the difference between a project that never gets finished because you burned out while trying to do things 'right', and a completed project that attracts the attention of other developers because it has legitimate gameplay, your ugly hack was ultimately for the best.

Try some FOSS game project necromancy.

Maybe you already missed the "deadline" on a FOSS game project several years ago, and you've got a bunch of code languishing on your hard drive.  If you find yourself thinking of starting up a new project, you might also want to think about resurrecting that old code and finishing it instead.  The deadlines I listed above aren't absolute.  Even if you burned out on a project at one point, the code is still there, and there's nothing stopping you from picking it up again.  Most projects stay dead, but yours doesn't have to.

In conclusion...

Your number one duty to your pet FOSS game project is to get it into a playable state without giving up.  If you miss your deadline, whenever that may be, you're consigning your idea (and your time) to the graveyard of projects that never saw the light of day.  Make your project playable and get it out there, and it has a much bigger chance of succeeding in the long run.

Bart K,
OpenGameArt.org

Virtual On

Developer: Sega-AM3

Pubkisher: Sega

I remember the first time I saw this game in the arcades, I was mesmerized by the spectacular 3D graphics, they were bright, colorful fill explosions, the gameplay was fast and furious and I just loved the double-stick arcade cabinet, seriously I need to get a controller like that.

Unfortunately at the time I didn't have a Saturn and it wasn't until much later that I finally bought the console version but playing it today I don't enjoy it nearly as much as I did the arcade version back then.

Yes, the gameplay is still fast if a little jerky... but boy is it shallow, at its core, Virtua on is a 3D fighting game, but unlike other game of its genre there's really very little distinction between 'characters' or even a battle strategy, each mech has three attack styles in common, melee, a long ranged one and short range explosion, and finally they have a special move who's usefulness varies between characters, amidst all this you're able to move freely in a fairly open stage. That's it really, there's really not much more to it, the game is very fun for the first 15 minutes, but it gets old, by the time I beat the last boss with one character I was already sick of the game.

Doesn't help that there aren't even that many modes to it, arcade, versus and a 'ranking' mode in which you get a score depending how well you do, I suppose this last mode is the closest thing you get to replay value, but it still doesn't excuse the repetitive nature of the game.

Graphically the Saturn version is a bit of a mixed bag, the mechs and environments look pretty good enough, but the explosions and lasers look pretty awful, mostly due to the terrible transparency effects on these (Saturn fans are probably used to this).

Overall this is the sort of game that is fun in short bursts or when played with a friend, anything more than that and it just becomes a repetitive chore.

Pros:

- Fast Gameplay
- Mechs and environments look pretty good by Saturn standards
- Fun in short bursts

 
Cons:

- Gameplay is pretty repetitive

- Very few game modes

- Explosions look pretty bad

- Occasional jerkiness

- The game is called 'Virtual On'...what does that even mean? Is the game only virtually on?

 Final Grade: D

The game comes in one of those early flimsy Saturn boxes, moreover it features yet another mid 90's CGI cover of our mechs in a standard, boring pose, at least the fact that they're not humans helps disguise the CGI flaws.

As for the manual, I'm honestly baffled by it, it's over 100 pages long... but it says very little, you get a little background information on the setting and each mech and then rest of it is just padding... lots and lots of padding it tells you everything about the game, it's options, modes, screens, everything, I know that this is what a manual is supposed to do, but a lot of the explanations just seem so needlessly drawn out, I'd understand the need for this if this were a strategy game, an RPG or a simulator, but on a fast paced arcade fighting game? Hell, you barely got any instructions on the arcade cabinet, regardless, if you're a huge fan of Virtual On, you might enjoy reading the manual.

Packaging Grade: D+

Some upcoming releases

Looks like we will get some nice x-mas presents this year:

A bit delayed but probably right on time for the Mayan end of the world, we will see a long awaited new release of Cube2:Sauerbraten. Read about the release announcement here. Hmm, I wonder if it has already Occulus Rift support...

Also on the FPS front, AlienArena is having a major engine update, with a claimed massive 3-4 times speed increase in BSP rendering and more VBO improvements.

Mars meets CounterStrike?

Furthermore they announce a new game-mode to be added soon, which tries to slow down the game-play of AlienArena a bit and add a more tactical appeal. Sounds a bit like selling out to the CounterStrike/ModernWarefare crowd to me, but lets see how it will play ;)

Last but not least, GarageGames has announced that after the recent FOSS licensed release of their 3D engine Torque3D (see latest updates here, sadly no working Linux port yet), they will also open-source their 2D engine!

And in fact it will not only be a source-drop, but rather a significant update including a merger of their iOS code with the rest of the Torque2D one.

Also no Linux port yet, but just as for the 3D engine one will hopefully show up sooner or later.

P.S.: In case someone has missed it: SuperTuxKart had a very nice new release recently, bumping it up to version 0.8. See a video of it in action here.

Long Distance Antike with Chris and Jim

Last night I played Antike with two friends on a different continent. We didn't play an online board game; we played by video chat with four video cameras and three copies of the game, one at each location.

Chris lives in Oregon. Jim lives in Indiana. I live in Raanana, Israel. This was not our first long distance game. Four years ago, we arranged for Chris and Jim to set up a game at BGG.con so that I could play "at the con" when I wasn't able to make it. This year the internet reception at BGG.con was spotty, and scheduling was difficult, so we delayed the game a few weeks. On that occasion, we played Agricola.

Face to face is best, of course, since you get to see your friends, pass around a beer, and need control only a single board state. Online gaming generally has only text chat, which removes most of the social element from the game. Also, in online games, you are subject to the occasional implementation issue, such as an interface error. Playing by video chat neatly fits into the space between these two options. We could see the other person in a limited way when we looked at the screen, although we generally looked at our own board. We could talk in real time, and even wave at the other players' families in the background when they came in to gawk at us geeks. The copied board states ensured that no errors were made during play.

The game took two and a half hours, including setting up the communications and the boards, resetting the communications to remove some static and mic problems, and a bathroom break. We used Google+ Hangout (although we toyed with using Skype). Chris used two cameras, one for himself and one for the main board.

Pics that Jim's and Chris's wives took are on my Facebook profile.

We played on the Middle Eastern map. I played Arabia (southeast), Jim played Persia (central north), and Chris played Greece (central west). Chris and I had similar strategies of early Know-Hows; Chris beat me to the first one and stayed about a turn and a half in front of me until near the end of the game. We each took one south side of the board. Jim played a heavy expansion strategy, quickly expanding to 15 and then 20 cities across the north, and then he armed himself and created a military front to protect his territories, which bulged in an arc across the entire north of the board and down into the center. However, having missed all of the early Know-How points, he lagged behind in points for most of the game.

I get the feeling that both of them are used to more conflict in the game. In our game, not a single city was conquered. In fact, the only fight that occurred was when I swapped some ships with Jim so that I could place a ship near his city, not to conquer it but to get the second "7 ships" award. Near the end, Chris expanded to get the last "5 city" award, which brought him to withing a point of victory, but I collected the "All eight Know-Hows" (worth a free point) and then got my 14th sea location on my next turn. The game ended 10 to 9 to 6 (or 7).

As usual, this was a great time spent with two amazing people whom I rarely see or interact with face to face. The conversation was game oriented mostly, but the game was really an excuse to get together. Hooray for games, and for video chat, and for good companions.

Support Candle Quest: The Hanukkah Board Game

Candle Quest, my well-designed Euro-style board game and therefore actually fun to play for both adults and children, is on Kickstarter now. It won't be produced unless it receives enough backing and support to reach its funding target in the next three weeks. So please back it now.

Here's a brief description of the game:

- Flip a candle card

- Buy, sell, or auction the candle card

- Collect 8 different colored candles to win

That's not too hard, right? Each step is described in detail in the rulebook, and you can be up and playing in less than five minutes.

However, for those of you who think this is just a kid's game (from the colorful pretty graphics), I've played the game upwards of a hundred times or so, and while it doesn't have the depth of Chess, it has a surprising amount of depth for a game with such simple rules.

In the first few games, you manage your money to acquire the candles you need. Then you begin to think how to prepare for the bad candles. Then how what you throw out or auction could help others (some people track the candles that other people collect). Then you start to track the cards that have been thrown out so as to know when you need to compete heavily for a card that is now in limited supply. You reassess the value of the dancing candles because of how they help you in the end game.

When you move to the advanced game, you try to balance the quick acquisition of candles vs the points on the candles. You consider the money and value how much you actually gain and lose each turn with your acquisition, while also considering the five point ending bonus.

The game is not just about the cards you draw; it is about the choices you make - flip or loot a card, buy, sell, or auction the card, and if you auction the card, for how much? But it has enough random elements to make it possible for younger players to complete against their elders.

See my analysis of the game for more.

Sound like a game that should exist? It can, but only with your help! If you've already backed the game, share the Kickstarter link with your local Jewish organization or synagogue or with others who you think might enjoy it. Do it soon, though, because the funding time period ends in three weeks!

Duke Nukem 3D

Developer:  3D Realms/Lobotomy Software

Publisher:   Sega

Duke Nukem 3D for the Saturn has an interesting story behind it, according to the team that worked on it, Sega had originally contacted other studios to do this port, but eventually, all of them failed to do so, except for Lobotomy Software, who achieved this by running the game on their custom-made Slavedriver engine, the same engine used to create Exhumed/Power Slave and the Saturn port of Quake.

So having said all that, is this port any good?

Meh, not really, it starts out well enough, the game runs at a nice speed (if a bit slower than its PC counterpart), the textures seem be displayed at a pretty good resolution and it even displays some impressive dynamic lighting, but I'm afraid that's where the good news end.

First off every enemy seems to missing a few frames of animation, the same goes for all of the videos you find in the first two levels, remember when you turned on the film projector and you were presented with a dancing showgirl? Yeah her dance was reduced to 4 frames of animation, the rest just seems to have gone missing.

Speaking of missing, there are four levels from the PC version who have mysteriously disappeared, and some of the ones that kept were cut down, making them shorter, I also noticed some occasionally strange geometry and texturing like walls who'se textures were extremely stretched or polygons that seemed warped, but the absolute worst issue with this game is the total lack of scripted events, as a result the game lost dozens upon dozens of Duke's one liners, as a result, Duke is a completely silent for most of the game add that to the already scaled down levels and you're suddenly playing what feels like a standard Doom-clone.

The controls are roughly the same as Quake, except for the swimming controls which I felt were needless complicated, but I eventually got used to them.

Overall, this port is pretty disappointing I've always liked Duke Nukem 3D better than Quake, but there's just so much stuff missing from this version that if you're buying the Saturn port of either, you might as well just stick with the latter game, at least the most of the weapons, violence and content in Saturn Quake are intact.

Trivia: Did you know that if you have a save file from any other Lobotomy game in your console's memory you'll unlock a secret game called Death Tank Zwei?

Trivia 2: Did you also know both Id Software and 3D Realms weren't seeing each other eye-to-eye when this version was released? Kinda ironic their Saturn ports use the same engine.

Trivia 3: And did you also know that the US release is compatible with the Sega Netlink? It was the only first person shooter for the Saturn that featured an online multiplayer option, and unlike the Dreamcast, the Saturn's online capabilities can still be used today with little hassle.

Pros:

- Original and fun weapons
- Humor and raunchiness is extremely childish, but I had fun with it
- For the most part this is still Duke Nukem 3D
- Dynamic lighting looks pretty good

 
Cons:

- Four of the levels are missing while others were severely cut down

- No scripted events means you'll hear very few one-liners, in many levels you don't get hear Duke at all!

- At times you'll run into some weird texturing and geometry

- Some levels feel like you're playing a cheap Doom-clone due to all the missing content.

 Final Grade: C

The game features the classic shooter box art, I really should write an article on that, a lot of games from this time had similar art and as a result Duke Nukem 3D tends to get lost in the crowd.

Inside you'll find a pretty decent manual, with, weapon and enemy descriptions, all standard stuff for shooters of this time, though I like how it introduces what little plot it has with a letter written by Duke himself, it even makes references to the first two games, that was a nice touch.

Finally, the game comes in a nice late Saturn case, so chances are it has a better chance of surviving bombings than most underground shelters.

Packaging Grade: B-

Video updates (various)

Today I let the videos speak:
First of all a nice FOSS bullet hell SHMUP, called Shmupacabra:



Taisei Project is maybe also relevant if you like getting killed ALOT (hehe, insider joke for q).

Previously mentioned Cube Trains (based on Frogatto) has reached version 1.0:



You can support the developer of this nice puzzle game by buying the Expansion-pack for 2 Canadian bucks or more! Another option to try and fund FOSS game development... maybe there will be some sales figures published at some point?

Next on the list: open-source engine reimplementation project Corsix-th:



You will need the original game for the non-free artworks though.

And last but not least: 0 A.D. got a brand new website: www.play0ad.com! Celebrating this they also made some nice video tutorials for total beginners:



Have a look at tutorial 2 and tutorial 3 also.

Signing off :)

Edit: Small interview with the 0 A.D. developers.

Resistance 3

Developer: Insomniac Games

Publisher:  Sony Computer Entertainment

When I started playing this game, I thought I knew what to expect, the first game in the series was a pretty boring game, whereas the sequel improved on this by changing up the formula and why fix what isn't broken... right?

Well, Insomniac decided to ignore logic and tried to fix things that didn't need fixing, that in itself is somewhat unexpected, but the real surprise here is that it worked, Resistance 3 is without a doubt in my mind, the best game in the series.

The Health system was once again revamped, this time to, are you ready for this? A Medpack based system, yes, good ol' honest-to-god medpacks, it's been years since a game did this and I didn't even know how much I missed it until I started playing the game, but the changes don't end there, you have a new main character and you know what? I REMEMBER HIS NAME!

Yes, for the first time in a resistance game, I cared enough to remember the main character's name, the plot was mediocre, but the setting and characters were interesting, I especially loved the prison level, an old penal institution that was taken over by its prisoners and would send out parties to hunt other humans for food, this is a great concept and I'm surprised that the Gears of War series never really took advantage of it.

Another interesting addition are the upgradeable weapons, each time you damage an enemy with a specific gun you get experience points which will eventually strengthen your weapon, sure in the real world it'd be the opposite, but who cares? I was having too much fun with the campaign to care.
Other changes involve the total lack of boss fights, I consider this to be a blessing in disguise given how lame they were in the previous game.

Graphically this is easily the best looking game in the bunch, not that it's a hard feat to accomplish, but it is the first title in the series which I can honestly say that it looks good... really good even, not the best looking game on the PS3, but it's certainly in the top tier.

If you never cared for this series (and honestly, who could blame you?) you might want to try this final entry in the series, you just might be pleasantly surprised.

Warning: This game uses an online pass, meaning that if you buy a used copy you might find yourself locked out of the multiplayer portions.

Pros:

- Great singleplayer campaign
- Interesting setting, characters and locations
- Upgradeable weapons are pretty neat
- Health system is based on medpacks, god I missed those
- This time around I actually cared enough to remember the main character's name!

 
Cons:

- Multiplayer will be locked from you if you buy a used copy. What kind of bull*censored* is that?

- Differences in gameplay might alienate fans of the previous two games

Final Grade: A-

Our cover here is pretty boring, it's a depiction of a Chimerian skull on a red background, the game also has an inner boxart which is actually the one 'm showing in the picture, it looks just like the regular boxart, but without the dozens of annoying logos cluttering it up.

Inside you'll find a manual with a boring cover and of course, the game.

As boring as the manual looks, this time it actually has some background information, hallelujah! Granted it's not a whole lot of information and... the manual is pretty small... and a lot of it is just legal information, but in the end it still made for an interesting read and in this day when collector's editions are all the rage this is the best I can hope for.

Overall, all three of the covers are boring, but at least the manual is pretty decent

Packaging Grade: B-