LordsAWar version 0.1.3, a clone of the turn-based strategy game Warlords II, has been released with the following changes:
Download: [ nongnu.org ]
The second episode of the Penny-Arcade game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is now available for Linux. This time the price has been lowered to $15 and:
Not only did we learn a lot on the first episode but we got a ton of great feedback from you guys. As a result episode 2 has more puzzles, more flash cut scenes, multiple difficulty settings, a longer story with more dialog options and some really epic boss fights.
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Ep 2 Download: [ Atomic Gamer | Greenhouse ]
Speaking of Wine, CodeWeavers has announced to give away their pretendulator CrossOver for free to anyone visiting their website tomorrow on October 28:
In July, CodeWeavers – whose software lets Mac OS X and Linux users run Windows programs without having to Microsoft for a Windows OS license – launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge (lameduck.codeweavers.com) to encourage President Bush to make the most of his remaining days in office by accomplishing a major economic or political goal by January 20, 2009.
[CodeWeavers CEO] White admits this is not how he foresaw the Challenge unfolding.
“I launched the campaign to inspire President Bush to make the most of his final days in office. Who knew that our Challenge would have this kind of impact on the country?” White said. “On the other hand, who knew that the economy would implode, causing oil demand to drop into the abyss and gas prices to plummet as well. Clearly, investigating Bear Stearns, AIG and those guys is misplaced – CodeWeavers is responsible for this mess. So it’s free software for all!”
This offer includes free support and updates as well, just like a regular purchase that goes for $40 or $70 usually.
The latest development release of Wine has been released. This release has the following new items:
The previous release added:
Download: [ Wine 1.1.7]
Ryan “icculus” Gordon has released the Linux port of 3D Realms and Human Head’s id Tech 4 engine shooter, Prey. Currently only the demo is available, pending feedback which will enable the release of the version that works with the retail release. See the Prey Linux page for more details.
Prey Demo Download: [ Atomic Gamer | icculus.org ]
2D Boy and Greenhouse Interactive have announced that the Linux version of World of Goo will be available on the Greenhouse online game store. The 2008 Independent Games Festival award winner is priced at $19.95 US; there was also a recent interview at Rock, Paper, Shotgun with the developers:
RPS: What have you learned from the process? What advice would you give to other small teams of indie devs looking to be the next attention-grabbing game?
Kyle: Some of the best advice I got from Randy Pausch was, “Learn to shoot your baby in the crib.” I think I ended up killing around 2 out of every 3 levels I made, keeping only the ones we thought people would really like.
The developers of SingSong Karaoke let us know about their Java-based title:
Karaoke while the game scores you by measuring your voice against the original artist. SingSong allows you to karaoke with any song you want to sing by giving you the tools to support new songs. Battle against friends to finally settle who is the best singer! Any number of players can sing at the same time
One of our readers, Slacker, pointed out that GarageGames recently had an IRC Hour discussion with the community regarding Torque Game Engine Advanced 1.8:
[2008-10-16 17:27:05] Jake-GR: with 1.8 if someone in the community was brave enough to port to linux, will that be officially included into a later release? or kept as a resource or such?
…
[2008-10-16 17:28:22] [GG]mattf: if someone ports it *cleanly* to linux then we would consider including it (with a big *not supported* disclaimer)
Slacker added:
This is pretty much in-line with all things regarding Linux & GG in the past couple of years. It’s the first mention of anything about TGEA & Linux since OpenGL has never made it into their newest tech until their recent announcement of Mac support for TGEA.
A reader sent in the following announcement:
Djl is an open-source (GPL licensed) game manager written in Python 2.5 for GNU/Linux Operating System, and is inspired by Valve’s Steam software for Windows.
It makes possible, via a repository, to download, install and remove a reasonable number of games placed in a subdirectory in an absolutely invisible way (but without dealing dependencies). It can also import or make .desktop shortcuts to launch games which were already installed (natives and special shorcuts for Wine games.
About games, each one comes with its description (which is mostly ingloriously stolen from jeuxlinux.fr), an icon, an image and some additional information in order to help you choose which to install.
Once they are installed, they can be launched from main window, which not only contains games that are installed from the repository, but also shortcuts as .desktop files.
News in this version:
- The repository use now a webservice with a database, it’s more easy to maintain and for add new features on the repo.
- Best function for search if djl is already running.
- New shortcut import window.
- djl is now able to change shortcut.
- New context menu on the main game list.
- If a game archive is already downloaded (and not removed), it will not be re-downloaded in the future.
- It’s now possible to choose the default tab (shown on startup).
- Best internationalisation support.
- New IRC client.
- Some minor changes.
Koonsolo has sent in more information about their upcoming puzzle game Mystic Mine:
[...] Mystic Mine can be played with a single button. People and children with limited mobility will have no trouble with the controls. The difficulty also adapts to the current player, making sure that everyone can enjoy and finish the game at their own skill level, regardless of age, experience and disability.
After releasing the gameplay preview video, several people noticed that the game was probably controlled with only one button. Mystic Mine is indeed a so called “single-switch” game, but it can also be played using the mouse.
The menu system can be navigated with only 3 buttons: a select, next and exit button. And when holding the select key for a few seconds, the “one button” mode is enabled, and the menu can be controlled using a single switch. Of course other keys, mouse or joystick/joypad can be used, but they are not mandatory.
The 1.0.1 maintenance of Wine has been released. This release contains translation update and the following bug fixes in this release:
Download: [ Wine 1.0.1 ]
COR Entertainment has announced the latest release of their open source first-person shooter, Alien Arena 2008:
Version 7.20 features a host of improvements, optimizations, and new features such as the implementation of per-pixel GLSL effects including parallax, normal and specular mapping/highliting, occulusion culling of entities, shader performance boosts, new and improved weapon/event effects, and much more. The end result is a game that not only looks great, but also runs considerably faster than previous releases.
On the gameplay aspect, a brand new reward system has been implemented, allowing players to choose from three powerups when reaching a certain achievement total. Weapons have received further balancing, powerup effects made more smooth, and various bugs have been squashed. Several brand new levels have been added, as well as player skins that improve visibility and an HUD based weapon inventory.
TechCrunch mentioned a Torque-based virtual world from IBM that replicates China’s Forbidden City:
The principal goal of the project is to provide the means for a worldwide audience to celebrate and explore Chinese culture and history. As an IBM Corporate Citizenship project, the project marries world-class subject matter with world-class technology innovation. It is a premiere showcase of IBM’s leadership in virtual worlds and cultural preservation.
The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is the world’s first online virtual world dedicated to a country’s cultural heritage. This is presented as a three-dimensional replica of the square-kilometer palace grounds called The Virtual Forbidden City. The project partners’ goal was to create an experience that is as authentic as possible by being true to important Chinese principles of balance and harmony.
While exploring, you can create an avatar and play Go.
Download: [ beyondspaceandtime.org ]
Splash Damage has posted an interview with EnemyTerritory.tv, the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars competition site which broadcasts league matches:
What’s the idea behind EnemyTerritory.tv?
(Mattc0m) The idea is to simply bring the competitive experience to the everyday, casual ETQW player. We try to make it as exciting and easy as possible to enjoy a live, shoutcasted match. The entire idea is to make the community larger and more exciting.
Speaking of Blender, the open-source game project, Yo Frankie! has gone gold:
Just a short note! DVD is done, we’re still doing some tests, and we need Campbell for final blessings, but tomorrow it will be ready to go to the DVD reproduction factory!
Printing takes 2 weeks, shipping will happen during weekend of 1-2 november, customers will then get the copy within 1 (europe) or 2 (rest of world) weeks.
The project was conceived as a way to validate open source 3D game creation and features third-person perspective platforming.
Blender, the 3D graphics creation suite is now at version 2.48 with many feature improvements:
There’s a guide to using Blender here.
Download: [ blender.org ]
Platinum Arts sent in the following update concerning Sandbox, their educational game design tool:
The project also sent along links to a demo video and a tutorial.
Download: [ platinumarts.net ]
Version 0.4.2 of Odamex, a free software multiplayer DOOM engine source port, is now available. Changes include singleplayer save/load support, improved gametype control, maplist shuffling, and standard deathmatch support for teamplay-oriented maps.
Download: [ odamex.net ]
Linux Game Publishing sent this press release regarding Jets’n'Guns from Rake In Grass:
We are extremely pleased to announce that we have finished talks with indie developer RakeInGrass to publish the Linux version of their popular arcade shootemup Jets’n'Guns. We will be opening applications for the beta test in the next few days, and all going well, expect a release within a matter of weeks!