LINUXGAMES

The Frictional Games website has been updated to announce that Penumbra: Black Plague has gone gold, and will ship for Linux shortly:

At the beginning of January we sent the final version of Penumbra: Black Plague to Paradox Interactive, so indeed the news about the 12th of February for a North America release is correct and the 15th of February is set to be the European date. Exactly what part of Europe this is remains to be seen, we personally have our fingers crossed for Sweden!

We have also finished our little site for Penumbra: Black Plague, you can find it here. It’s nothing fancy beyond a short presentation of the game and purchase information. The site is of particular use if you are a Mac or Linux user, as this is where you will be able to get Penumbra: Black Plague when it is done. When that is? Well, the work is in progress so we are hoping that within a month or so of the Windows release there should be a Linux and Mac release.

There’s also a few links of interest:

• A physics-focused Developer Diary.
• Previews:
  • GameChronicles.com
  • TotalVideoGames.com
  • Game-Over.com

The first game in the horror-themed adventure series, Penumbra: Overture, was released for Linux just last year (demo | retail).

Nimuh, an open source and open content puzzle game, is at version 1.02 (thanks Linux Game Tome). Changes:

• Joystick problem solved. In previous versions you couldn’t have a joystick plugged if you wanted to play.
• Bug that made the game not work in the English version is now solved.

There are also tutorials for creating new game content.

Screenshots: [ View ] Download: [ nimuh.com ]

Platinum Arts sent in a heads up regarding their educational game design tool Sandbox reaching Beta 2 (sorry about the posting delay):

• Driveable carts via kartmode complete with a hovercart model
• New ogre model for 3rd person mode
• Codebase significantly updated including md5 support
• New menu
• Many New Maps: Floating Island Castle, House, ParticleShowcase, an updated tutorial map, and a race track for kartmode
• Lots of code cleanup thanks to the hard work of Hirato
• New higher quality texture set including lava
• Moving platforms and elevators (featured in the castle map)

This release is mainly thanks to these great guys:

• Hirato: Massive contributor to this release through coding, mapping, the new menu, etc.  Without him this release wouldn’t be nearly as solid and advanced.
• Quin: Contributed Cart Code
• Geartrooper: Contributed Cart Models
• Cube 2 Community: Providing constantly updated source code and various other help and support

There’s also a wiki with documentation.

Downloads: [ platinumarts.net ]

Thanks to benasselstine for letting us know that LordsAWar!, a clone of the turn-based strategy game Warlords II, is now at version 0.0.7:

• added new artwork
• added diplomacy interactions
• added new game options:
  • different razing policies
  • “I am the Greatest” mode
  • random turns
• plugged two large memory leaks
• fixed dozens of bugs, including some crashes

Download: [ lordsawar.com ]

A reader (thanks timong) let us know that a new snapshot release of Java Classic RPG is out; here are the highlights:

Ecology System and ecology generation with 3 type of animal packs (gorilla, wolf, warthog) was added, Encounters’ system draft version was implemented, World geography generation was boosted with Cave and River addition, Animated /rigged model loading (Gorilla), Text box log and choice box window added to UI elements, World map colorization was extended, ‘UI ruining shadows’ bug fixed.

It’s also mentioned that testing results, opinions, and comments are highly appreciated.

Download: [ sourceforge.net ]