Open Source Games Roundup 2005
Whew - so it's been over a year and a half since I last looked at open source games at glitchnyc.com and the landscape looks quite different than it did in early 2004.
In January 2004, I was wowed by:
- bust-a-move clone Frozen Bubble
- Tron light-cycle game Armagetron
- the obviously named Bomberclone
February 2004 brought:
- the Arkanoid clone LBreakout2
- lemmings clone Pingus
I would have liked to continue doing monthly spots on great open source games but the truth is that I've been too busy to play many games at all aside from killing time with my GBA on the subway.
One of the difficulties in writing this article is that there is no real resource for finding great open source games. What I'd love to be able to do is sort games by release date, user rating, and other measurements such as look+feel, gameplay, and addictiveness, but currently I have not found such a site. Happy penguin makes a good go of it, but you can't sort all titles by average rating or even really browse past entries. Ideally, I'd also like to be able to filter by titles that have been rated by 10 or more users so that the games rated "5 stars" by the developer or a single excited fan don't float to the very top of the list.
That said, there is quite a bit of development going on the open source game world, if poorly publicized. As with all open source projects, 90% of them don't really get off the ground and stagnate after the lead developer gets bored or hits a development hurdle. I'm a big fan of the SDL engine, which is the multi-platform, open source answer to DirectX. SDL has been stable for a few years now, and the games built on top of that engine which are the exception to the "90% rule" are starting to emerge.
I've found some fun diversions by browsing the games section of sourceforge.net, so without further ado, here's some new ways to waste time on your computer (be it Windows, Mac, or Linux).
Globulation 2
This realtime strategy game is part risk, part civ III, and part boogers
No really, your army consists of little red slimeballs which walk around and build inns, hospitals, cities, and more. The tutorials are a bit slow, so you might have better luck just starting in and figuring it out as you go, but I definitely had a fun hour creaming the blue army as my cities and armies grew to massive size.
- Gameplay
- 6 of 10 - Too slow for my taste, but being able to give general commands and let the little units get to it was fun.
- Visuals
- 7 of 10 - Fun colors and clean graphics, but nothing spectacular
- Addictiveness
- 6 of 10 - When I have another hour to kill, I'll revisit this game
Armagetron Advanced
Ride your light cycle, and trap other riders with the wall you've left behind
Everyone gets busy, and the lead developer of Armagetron had to take a year off developing the game, which brought about a new fork called Armagetron Advanced and a flurry of development activity. A year later, the lead developer is back and has joined up with the "AA" project.
The result is a much more slick game than I reviewed last year, and the online play has been tweaked and perfected. Battling against other players no longer depends on your luck in "making the turn" but is now back on solid strategy and good reflexes. To compensate for network lag in this precision timing game, when you're playing online, if you go headfirst into a wall, you get a short window of time to turn.
Turn the wrong way or fall asleep at the wheel and KABLAM! If you manage to tap out the right direction in time, you'll "just squeak in" and get another chance to go after your opponent. It's really addictive, and if I wasn't writing this article, I'd be playing right now.
- Gameplay
- 10 of 10 - it does exactly what it should, and it's dead simple
- visuals
- 8 of 10 - depending on the 3D card in your computer, this game can look anywhere from okay to fantastic. It's still simple colored walls trailing from a "cycle", but the cameras are intuitive and don't distract
- addictiveness
- 10 of 10 - There's always someone better than you waiting online to whup your butt and teach you some new tricks. I think this game is as much fun as Unreal Tournament or Halo without the headache inducing jump-strafe-fire madness. Left and right are the only keys you really need to know, although the brake (back arrow) helps.
Secret Maryo
http://smclone.sourceforge.net/
This Super Mario Clone will feel very familiar to anyone who ever owned a Nintendo
Super Maryo is an SDL powered Mario clone which does more than pay homage to the original. If this were any company other than Nintendo's material, they'd be looking down the barrel of a lawsuit right about now. Luckily Nintendo has been fairly tolerant of fan projects, providing they change the name of the project enough to not be a total rip-off.
I have a few pet-peeves with this clone, as the art seems a bit slapdash and the physics are a bit off from the original (most notably, Mario jumps quite a bit higher than he did in the original games.) I only got a chance to play through the first few levels of this one, but it seems like a fun throwback to have on your laptop.
I'm also excited to see the engines and code behind this one develop further and be available for use in new, creative side-scrolling platformers. Some of the best games ever were built in 2d, and frankly, it hurt my head less when the 3D camera wasn't flying around willy nilly trying to follow the action.
- gameplay
- 4 of 10 - The controls react well, but I'd like to see the physics either match the original or be based on the real world.
- visuals
- 5 of 10 - The hand-drawn feel is okay, but this could be a much better looking game. I feel like the graphics are a place holder while they get the rest of the game in place.
- addictiveness
- 6 of 10 - I can't get enough Mario, so I'll probably play this one again, but I'd rather be playing with a joystick.
Scorched 3D
The classic DOS turn-shooter is back with great 3D graphics
Turn your tank with left and right, raise and lower your turret to aim, and increase or decrease power with plus and minus. All set? FIRE! Be careful though; if you miss, your enemies get a shot at you before you get another chance. There's tons of different weapons and levels to play here, and this is a great game for 2 or more players on a single computer or online.
If you can't see, hit the number keys to go through the different cameras. I would have certainly liked some of these key-hints in game. I'd say any game with more than just the arrow keys and spacebar to use should pop up an overlay with the keys when you hit F1 or escape, but that's just me.
Once you get the hang of it, the game is a ton of fun, and it can be a hoot to play with a bunch of friends online, taking aim at each other. If you've ever played worms, that game was actually a fun-filled clone of the original Scorched Earth.
- gameplay
- 8 of 10 - there's a bit of a learning curve as you get adjusted to all the keys, but it's pretty simple at the core.
- visuals
- 8 of 10 - lush 3d landscapes are an awesome improvement over the 16 color DOS game from 1992, but, at least on my comp, the frame rate was a little low. Maybe I shouldn't be running at 1400x1050 on my laptop.
- addictiveness
- 9 of 10 - This is another one that keeps bringing you back. You can pick up this game and play a 5 minute set or play for hours and hours online. Scorched 3d is also a great game to play with a group while chatting.
Battle for Wesnoth
Turn based overhead army command in a world of fantasy
I've actually played this game the most of all the ones reviewed here. Launched into different scenarios of war, you must summon troops, deploy them, and then complete your mission.
Part of the reason I've spent so much time on this game is the fact that it's too damn hard. Even on easy it takes me almost an hour to complete each mission, and I consider myself a fairly able tactician. I'd like to see my troops be a little more autonomous, and be able to build up to more and more challenging enemies and tasks, and I'm sure that as the game matures the balance between challenge and fun will settle out. There are already a considerable number of downloadable quest files which are a bit more fun than the tutorial mission. Anyone who enjoys risk will probably enjoy this game, but be prepared to sink quite a few hours in.
- Gameplay
- 6 of 10 - the game does what it's supposed to, but it could really be a lot more intuitive. Right clicking on everything to select a menu is okay, but the troops should be able to think for themselves when not directly told what to do. It'd help if they weren't total wimps too.
- visuals
- 8 of 10 - I actually really enjoy the looks of this game's top down perspective, and my complaints about the story-art were put to rest with the most recent revision. This game is really starting to look professional.
- addictiveness
- 7 of 10 - Considering that I want to get back to playing this one and try to find a quest that I can actually succeed at, I'd say the replay value is pretty good, and it can only get better as more players and developers create quests.
The Quake III Engine
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/20/1329236&tid=112
ID Games classic FPS is now free and open source
I'd be remiss not to mention this development in an open source game roundup. Quake III Arena, the game engine that has powered the last few years of great networked first person shooters is now available for anyone to build upon. The announcement was only made in August 2005 at Quakecon, but being able to build on top of such a robust, mature game engine is going to be a boon to the open source game community. I expect to see quite a few games based on the QIII engine by the time I get to the next OS game roundup. I've never been a great fan of First Person Shooters myself (I burned out on Doom and Heretic back in 1997), but fans of the genre will love getting to play this game again tweaked for their system (you should see what people are doing with Quake II, open sourced a few years ago.)
There's also the potential for this to power non-fps games like MMORPGS, much in the way the Crystal Space 3D project has spawned the game Planeshift. There's nothing playable to rate here yet, but I'd keep my eye on any derivative projects in the next few months.
Stacker Blocks 3D
http://stacker-blocks.sourceforge.net/
Tetris with beautiful 3D graphics
Who doesn't love Tetris? Who doesn't love beautiful 3D graphics. This is a rehash of a classic, but it's quite playable, and you really just can't mess up familiar falling puzzle blocks. If you like the game, this is a slick little desktop version.
- Gameplay
- 7 of 10 - Plays just like the classic using the arrow keys. Fast response, nice grid and highlighted drop column make it hard to mess up.
- visuals
- 8 of 10 - The 3D here is both tasteful and serves a purpose. Getting to see the sides of the blocks helps your brain put together what goes where and whether you're lined up with the correct column or not
- addictiveness
- 8 of 10 - Come on. It's Tetris. This is one of the most addictive games on the planet
Open Mortal
http://openmortal.sourceforge.net/
This parody game fulfills one of my boyhood dreams
Mortal Kombat once ruled the arcade, packing kids around to see the real lifelike bloodsport controlled by joystick wielding, button mashing 13 years olds.
Mortal combat was obviously just a collection of images crudely blue-screened and then played back to match the action on screen.
We had a photo developer next door to the arcade in the mall where I grew up, and I always thought they could make a killing by taking the proper snapshots of you in different poses and then put them into a "skin" file to create your own custom Mortal Kombat.
That idea has finally come to pass, and you can play as any one of a bunch of nerds, dorks, and dweebs as they knock eachother about in true Mortal Kombat style.
Best of all, now that we've all got digital cameras, you can take the proper pictures and you and your friends can star in your own Mortal Kombat game!
- Gameplay
- 5 of 10 - It's a bit clunky, and I don't know any of the combos yet, but it plays just like the original MK did. If it's going for accuracy to the original console, it's probably more like an 8 of 10.
- Visuals
- 9 of 10 - Let's be honest. I don't love this game for the beautifully rendered 3D. I love it for the plethora of funny pictures, and the ability to add your own.
- Addictiveness
- 6 of 10 - MK was one of the most influential fighting games of all time, and I'll certainly be back to this one. Once you get your own characters loaded in, I bet this is one hell of a game to have at parties! (Author's Note: it appears that some coding is needed to actually load the characters in. I'd be great to have a "character editor" much like the quest editors available for many games.)
Roundup Wrapup
Well, that does it for this Open Source Games Roundup. Thanks for reading, and hopefully you found at least one diversion in this bunch that suits your fancy. If not, check back at Glitchnyc.com in the next few weeks. There were a lot more games than I could feature all in one article, and I'll have another roundup on the way once I get some time to take them for a spin.
