The World of Free and Open Source Games

Free and open source software has really been catching on lately. With the advances of Ubuntu, Firefox and many other free software packages it is becoming more of a viable choice for customers. The software is getting user friendly enough that normal computer users can use it. This is great and all, but what if you are into games? A look into this after the jump.

The state of free and open source games is just in its beginnings. Most of the games you see are 2d games, mainly puzzle games and arcade side scrollers. Are these the games that hardcore gamers want? No. These are more for the casual gamers. But what about full on 3d shooters, and action/adventure games?

Well right now there aren't many. I wonder though why? The graphics api that is used on the ps3 and wii is readily available for all platforms, and is ready for open source development. If you are into xbox games, and windows games, microsoft's directx is available, along with their xna development software. Many physics engines are available such as ODE, Bullet and Newton to be used in these projects.

I think that the main problem is, is that not enough teams of people have worked together to create these games like the larger open source software projects like ubuntu, openoffice, firefox. For a project like this, a good community is the key. Games need bug testers, programmers, project managers, and a good plan for development, just like any other application. More people need to get involved in this area of programming.

The problem is that a lot of people want to create games, they all want to know how to make the next Halo or World of Warcraft right from the start. They try for something to large to begin with, and then get scared away from creating games, because it is too hard. Most times people start off these large projects by themselves. The truth is is that a lot of these people just worked together, they could get something done by splitting everything up.

A good example of this is a game called the Monkey Game Project. It started out on the blenderartists form with a bunch of self-professed noobs. It was basically a community game project. Each individual person may not know much about everything you need to make a full game, but together they had enough knowledge to create a game. Now this game may not be the best game ever, or have good graphics or anything, but it proves with a good community spirit can give you results.

This idea has recently been used to create another game called Yo Frankie!. This time it was a bit different. These developers were not noobs of any sort. A group of the best developers and artists from the Blender3D and CrystalSpace3D projects came together to create this game. With all of that combined talent, they managed to create a very good looking game, with good gameplay. Everything was thought out well, and they did finish the whole project. Everything was done with free software. This game is also not perfect, especially performance wise (due to inefficient code in blender's game engine), but the two goals were accomplished. It was shown that it is possible create a high quality game with free software, and it also helped both software projects with new features, and better performance.

The point is, if more groups of talented people (or even not so talented) got together, used a optimized graphics and physics engine, the quality of games will increase. I just hope that one day, one of these games will be competing with the likes of Halo, Call of Duty, MSG and others, just like Linux and Windows, OpenOffice and Microsoft Word and Firefox and Internet Explorer. It will be good all around, as the commercial companies will have more competition, and the quality of open source projects will increase. We already have some good examples sprouting like Frets on Fire, and some other MMORPGs, and hopefully more come into the scene. Well thats it for my insight into free and open source games. If you have something to say, please comment, or check out our Facebook groups discussion board.