Apricot Project Launches
December 8th, 2007 by CrusaderA reader pointed out the Apricot project:
Starting February 1st 2008, a small team of again the best 3D artist and developers will develop a game jointly with the on-line community. The main characters in the game are based on the short 3D animation open movie Peach. At the end of July 2008 the game will be launched. The team members will get a great studio facility and housing in Amsterdam, all travel costs reimbursed, and a fee sufficient to cover all expenses during the period.
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The team will work on a cross platform game (at least Linux, Windows, OS X), using Blender for modeling and animation, Crystal Space as 3D engine and delivery platform, and Python for some magic scripting to glue things together. It is not only the purpose to make a compelling 3D game experience, but especially to improve and validate the open source 3D game creation pipeline, with industry-standard conditions.
The Peach open movie is being developed via a similar process; the Blender Foundation and Crystal Space community will provide financial backing, but you can also support the effort by pre-ordering the game. It’s noted that customers ordering prior to February 1st, 2008 will have their names listed on the credits.
It’s an ambitious plan, and it’ll be fascinating to watch come together over the next several months.