myMYM and S2 Games have announced that myMYM will be conducting a series of tournaments for the real-time strategy game Heroes of Newerth, currently in beta-testing:
myMYM is proud to announce our support for the Heroes of Newerth international community with the launch of the HoN PriDe Tournament Series, sponsored by S2 Games and Peregrine exclusively in myMYM.com. We will also be providing our readers with up to date news and coverage of all major HoN LAN events s2gamesand online tournaments in the very near future. Stay tuned for some very exciting announcements in the upcoming days!
The first alpha release of the Gluon project, an open source game engine and distribution system, has been announced. The project’s current structure includes three libraries (GluonInput, GluonGraphics and GluonAudio), Gluon Creator, and Gluon Player:
The Gluon project is an open framework for creating and distributing games – supporting the flow of the idea all the way from the author to the player of the finished game. The primary use of Gluon is to create games using 2D graphics. The reasoning behind this is that the niche for this type of visual is very large and so far untapped by specialised tools. In the world of 3D games there are solutions such as Unity3D, which provide a distribution system, but in the 2D game development world there are no tools to provide a complete eco system for both the creation, distribution and feedback gathering.
Another reader let us know about their browser RPG as well:
Immortal Empire is a browser-based multiplayer RPG that can be played solo, co-op, or PvP. You control up to 5 unique characters out of an ever-growing pool of character classes in this online strategy game. Equip each of your characters with items found in your travels through four unique environments. Use spells, tactics, and skill to defeat your foes as you unravel the story of the mysterious Empire.
Immortal Empire requires no download or install. And, it’s less than $10 to unlock the entire game and its characters.
Hey people. I am 29 years old programmer from a small European country. Whole my life video games was my biggest passion. The first video game I played was arcade classic River Raid. When I was 17 almost all my dreams was about video games and approximately from that age the main dream of my life was to create my own decent game. As I am experienced programmer I understand that the game should be kind of tiny because of very limited budget. Somewhere in 2004 I have started to create first versions (later ruined) of my game. I am a fan of turn-based strategy games with RPG elements like Heroes of Might & Magic and Disciples. I just put the best from both games and the result makes me proud. The first decent release of the game was few days ago. So come play my game: Mattery Browser Strategy Game
Thanks to GamingOnLinux for letting us know that Hemisphere Games has started porting Osmos, an award-winning indie game, to Linux.
As some of you know, we had been looking for someone to port Osmos to Linux. But in the end, after mulling it over for a while (and a couple nice offers from experienced Linux folk), our very own Dave Burke has decided to tackle the port himself! Who knew he was such a masochist? ;-)
Anyways, Dave has reported back that after some initial head-banging on installation and configuration (he’s started with Ubuntu), things are progressing really well. Hooray for cross-platform libraries like OpenGL, OpenAL, libogg/vorbis, etc. and well abstracted code!
Features:
Osmos is 100% DRM and region free.
Sublime electronic soundtrack by Loscil, Gas/High Skies, Julien Neto, Biosphere, and more.
Procedural generation: play random versions of any level.
Engadget is reporting that a photograph of mass-produced Pandora open-source handheld game console units has appeared online:
You can follow the production of these first systems at the Pandora developer blog.
I’ve yet to own a Linux-based handheld (hell, my Linux laptop has been retired as of a month ago); of those that have, which would you recommend? Were the game libraries available to you compelling? How was battery life, the screen, etc.?
The Bethesda blog (as Bethesda and id Software now share a parent company) has posted interviews with two Doom 3 mod developers: Bryan Henderson of Zombie Slayer (mod site) and Gareth Ward of Classic Doom 3 (mod site). Both discuss their background and how their projects came about; it’s interesting to see them revisited now, and I think I’ll give cdoom3 another spin shortly myself.
The Vendetta Online news page has word of a new promotion for players of the space combat MMO:
New Friend Key promotion. You can send a key to a friend that they can apply to a trial account to receive 2 free weeks of time. You are given 1 additional key per month that you are subscribed up to a total of 5 keys available to give out at a time.
War convoys of NPC ships that blockade grayspace based on national victories have also recently been added.
We have been hard at work on our unannounced ports the last couple of months, and I know some of you get rather impatient waiting for news. So, to help pass the time we’d like to see if there are any particular community events that you’d like to see.
Version 1.2.2 of Mumble, an open source, low-latency, high-quality voice communication tool for gamers, has been released to add local caching of textures and comments, improved overlay quality, avatar support, and the ability to query for user information.
LinuxLinks has posted the first two parts (part one | part two) of a three-part article delineating their 24 best commercial games for Linux:
The amount of software that is available for Linux is truly mind-boggling with tens of thousands of applications available to download, including an impressive arsenal of open source games. However, it is fair to say that the amount of commercial games released for Linux continues to be in short supply in comparison with the number of titles released under Windows.
Whilst software such as CrossOver Games (and Wine) allows many commercial Windows games to be played under Linux, if Linux is going to become a force in the gaming world it needs a good supply of native games. Developing games across multiple platforms is expensive. If Linux is going to justify the extra work involved in native ports, it needs the prospect that those ports will generate significant sales for the developers. Fortunately, the Linux user base continues to increase, which increases the likelihood of more Linux ports.
On April 1st, the OpenTTD project eventually released their 1.0.0 version:
In March 2004 OpenTTD 0.1 was released. Hardly a month later in April 2004 OpenTTD 0.2. And today, six years later… OpenTTD 1.0.0. It was a lot of work, hundreds of thousands of translations, tens of thousands of commits, thousands of graphics, hundreds of patches, dozen of sounds and musics, and one goal. How many people contributed? Dozen of artists, translators and developers, hundreds of testers and bug reporters, and also the thousands of players. Looking at the readmes and credit sections only gives a small hint. Some of those who were main contributors left long ago, and there are only a few who know them all and talked to them once via IRC or the forums. But if you consider all contributors, including those of the used libraries, and the external artists of OpenSFX… Well, then most likely not every contributor actually knows OpenTTD :)
OpenTTD is an open source clone of the Microprose game “Transport Tycoon Deluxe”. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features. Version 1.0.0 is also the first stable version, where one can use the alternative graphic, sound and music data files OpenGFX, OpenSFX and OpenMSX (instead of using the original data files from Transport Tycoon Deluxe).
Generic Linux binaries as well as various Debian and Ubuntu packages are available for download.
The latest development release of Wine has been announced. Sadly there is no OS/2 Warp port of Wine but here is the change log regardless that contains the following items:
There comes a time when everything must come to an end and today, with a heavy heart, I am announcing the closing of LinuxGames. Going on our 11th year, we have grown weary of the constant egging of our houses for being Linux users.
Everyone has gone their separate ways in this world with Crusader having fallen the farthest traveling the world looking for rare stamps with his Windows Mobile phone at his side while living on a diet of sour milk and cheese.
Alkini is now mass producing his little army of hemp soldiers with his sixth kid on its way. I really feel sorry for his wife, who has the ten kids and the twelve cats to watch. Each cat enjoys crawling up your legs when you are wearing shorts.
Personally, I have given up all hope on Linux and Linux gaming and use OS/2 Warp — a much more stable operating system than Linux. It has been a pleasure but it is time to close up shop.
