2x0ng is a challenging action/puzzle game with procedurally generated levels. It is pronounced “TWO-zong”, and is the sequel to David O’Toole’s 2009 PC puzzler Xong.
2x0ng framebuffer examples
At its core, this game is a mashup. 2x0ng’s design is a nonlinear combination of several different late 70s/early 80s home video games, combining related aspects of each into something new. In 2x0ng, you move a guy around the screen and shoot at enemies in all directions, as in Berzerk. The ball you throw ricochets and comes back to you, like in Tron Deadly Discs. You break colored bricks with the ball, like in Breakout. You transfer colors from one place to another in order to complete the level, similar to Revenge Of The Beefsteak Tomatoes.
To reach the next level, you must successively unlock new areas by opening color-coded gates in the correct order. The levels are procedurally generated, so the game experience is different each time. Later levels are much larger than the screen, and feature substantially more moving/colliding objects than would have been possible in a real home video game from that era.
In a pretty surprising move the source-code of the idTech3 based games Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were released under the GPL by Activision and Raven Software. You can find the original source drops here and here. The content is obviously still propitiatory (e.g. you need to buy it), but some people have already plans to upgrade the source as OpenJK (most likely back-ports from ioQuake3) and make a Linux version most likely. Would be also cool if a nice stand-alone FOSS 3rd person sword-fighting game would come out of this… but the detailed player animations will likely be the biggest road-block.
Ahh well… and since I hate posting something with no pictures or videos I include the pretty nice new Flare 0.18 release:
It includes some pretty nice new features too:
10 Equipment Slots, up from 4 (and easily configurable)
Ok I admit it… I am a bit of a 0 A.D. fanboy! But the new Alpha 13 release is also great again, and deserved an update post:
Also pretty cool is the new OpenMW 0.22 release, that finally features player and NPC animations, and thus starts to look more like a functioning game:
The Libre Software Meeting in Brussels is looking for talks about the “Free Gaming World”.
An ideal place to introduce your project, talk about how to work with other people on open source game projects and meet other free software developers!
The deadline for submission is 31 March 2013!
Some previous talks, if you’re not sure what to expec or what they expect from you:
Today I have a real “underground & secret” game: no website, no description, no nothing really… just a forum post and some cool game-play videos:
It seems to be called “Brood Hunter” and is quite obviously a Gloom inspired Quake1 mod.
However given that it most likely used the GPL Darkplaces Engine (same as Xonotic) and since game-play looks great, I have to do some wishful thinking here and hope it will be released as an open-source game so that we can work on replacing the remaining non-free Quake1 content at some point
Vanity items and improved colours: dress up and frag with style.
Visible legs in first person: know where you are kicking and parkouring.
New and revamped maps: bringing you even more variety.
Better viewing: level flythroughs, improved third and first person cameras.
Better menus and other HUD elements: easier to see and read at a glance.
New weapon: Mines add a new dimension to the existing gameplay.
New mode: attack and defend in Gauntlet, competing for the most laps.
Automatic demo recording: for those times you just have to watch it again.
User Accounts: donate or contribute, and wear the in-game supporter badge.
Improved weapon balance and gameplay rules, bugs fixed, and much more.
Especially the visible legs in 1st person view add to the parcour movements and overall the game feels much more “complete” now. Here are some impressions of a bot-match I had earlier on:
Jason Rohrer is a quite controversial independent game developer with a track record of thought provoking games. His latest offering (in alpha state for 50% off sale with public domain source code included) The Castle Doctrine is a MMO about “burglary and home defense”. Better than I could do it here shortly, these two (1, 2) articles give you an idea what the game is about.
Build defenses to protect your family or is it just another puzzle to solve?
The interesting twist is that you are (can be?) both a home intruder and responsible for building defenses for your own home. In a sense it is thus a player created puzzle solving game if you look at it from a more game design (abstract) point of view. It however also rises some ethical questions about how you deal with the theme of the arms race between intruders and home defenders. In either way, it sounds like a fun game though
Are We Alone - a space game where you travel from planet to planet, between star systems in search of intelligent life – has been released on Github under MIT license.
It was made for Ludum Dare 22 “alone” and is a quite atmospheric piece.
In the genre mix between MMORTS, city building, economy simulation and tower defense game, you control an exiled human, with the apparent goal to get back to earth.
The interaction with other players is quite indirect. You can attack other player’s bases and win the “data” resource this way, which you need to perform “research” actions. However, defeating a base does not change it, you simply get the reward and can attack again.
Shunned Survivor Server map
While researching, however, you need to perform in a tower defense minigame, during which your defensive towers can be destroyed. If you succeed, the research was successful. If not, you have to enforce your defenses and try again.
Even though quite a bit of the gameplay time is spent on waiting for resources to be generated by the various resource gathering buildings, I find this game very entertaining and highly recommend you to give it a try.
Erebus is a hack & slash role-playing game under heavy development, yet playable with currently three missions.
Features:
Classic point-n-click style RPG, with dungeons to explore, enemies to fight, NPCs to talk to, sub-quests to complete, scenery to interact with, weapons, treasure and other items to find.
Also supports Rogue-like keyboard controls.
Multiple quests (currently three, more will be added as development progresses!)
Choice of starting characters (currently Barbarian, Elf, Halfling, Ranger, Warrior).
Start straight into the action – none of this “For your first quest, please find your next door neighbour’s pet cat”.
Vector-based world rather than tile-based – so items/scenery can be placed in any position, or aligned in any direction.
2D animated graphics, with zoom in/out, and lighting effects.
Completely free and Open Source – no ads, unlike many free Android apps.
User interface optimised to work with mouse, keyboard and/or touchscreen.
Cross-platform – available for Windows, Linux, Nokia Symbian and Android devices.
Code License:GPLv3+ Content License: Various (Most DFSG approved, CC-BY 2.x might be problematic)
