Zero-K PlanetWars meta game

Not sure how recent this news is, but the website of the SpringRTS based FOSS RTS Zero-K states that their online campaign metagame PlanetWars is now in BETA.

This is a screenshot of the webbased planet overview, which shows how well you (and your clan-mates) are progressing in taking over the galaxy.
Game-play of Zero-K does not change much with this game-mode, but it puts each game into a greater perspective so to say ;) But check out their own description of what PlanetWars is here.

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OpenDungeons 0.4.8

OpenDungeons also jumped on the release wagon, with 0.4.8. This adds an actual menu system, a new gui, working traps, and normal maps. The team needs more modelers to add to the already large bestiary, there's a lot of faction creatures still unimplemented. Also, a shoutout to Venn from LinuxGameCast for contributing voice acting snippets

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Naev 0.5 beta

Naev, the excellent 2D space combat and trading game, recently released a huge milestone (0.5 beta). It adds a far larger universe with more planets, more gameplay aspects such as electronic warfare, gui improvements and lots more. It also added new features to the game's engine giving developers more tools and features to play around with.

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Vertigo Beta

Vertigo is a rather awesome and visually stunning 3d tunnel racing game. It has multiple gameplay modes that give the game quite a bit of variety, although the core gameplay still essentially consists of rolling down a tunnel and dodging/colliding with things :)

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Humble Indie Bundle's Source Releases

The Humble Indie Bundles (HIB) have a tradition of at least part of the bundled games releasing their source.

While four of five games released source code under FOSS licenses in HIB1, only one released the source in HIB2 under a FOSS license (according to this comment, a license similar to LWJGL's).

No assets were released under Free-Art-compatible-terms, except for demo objects in Penumbra.

In HIB: Frozenbyte, two (or three) games have source releases, but all of them are non-commercial only.

This is not a complaint/demand/whine and I discourage any whiny behavior reactions. :)

I have no mind-reading ability or technology but I do have a theory, that shy source releases are missing out:

1. When a game has a source release, which is not FOSS-compatible (shy source), contributions will only come from people with high interest in the game. This will improve the game.
2. When a game has a FOSS-release, in addition contributions will come from people who think that the game enriches the community. This will improve availability and usability of the game.

#2 might be perceived as a problem by a game studio if they plan another sequel, because the prequel might become a stronger competitor to it.

Frogatto: open game & editor, closed art

Another game which is commercial (on iDevices) and has FOSS code and closed art (old art has been donated to OGA!) is Frogatto.

Star-filled Sky: 100% public domain

A revolutionary breakthrough were all of Jason Rohrer's commercial games, which are 100% public domain. My feeling is that assets are less of a focus for him, which makes releasing everything less of a risk.

Nikki and the Robots: open & closed

On the middle path is Nikki and the Robots, which is foss-code and has a functional foss-art version and will have a closed/for-pay-story. For now they activated paypal donations, flattr and T-shirts.

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Panda Engine Book, Blendswap Upgrade, Avoision Ad

Available as Paper, PDF, epub or PacktLib

Panda3D 1.7 Game Developer's Cookbook has been published.

Blendswap UI: Who needs links when I can do a screenshot?

Blendswap has more features now. Artists have more control for one thing and can edit their submissions for example.

I suspect that many visitors use Adblock, so let me share this ad that appears on Free Gamer today:

Avoision

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STK 0.7.1, CC to OF, SaRII 2.2.0,jCRPG, CC TXT, OSM and TitA

1. SuperTuxKart 0.7.1 released! [great changelog!]
2. Former CubeCreate lead dev will now work on OctaForge (so far #octaforge chat is the only piece of infrastructure)
3. Search and Rescue II has improved sound and uses OpenAL now
4. jClassicRPG's developer wrote short-term goals for the project (also forum registration now works)
5. Creative Commons licenses are now officially available in .txt format (for easy inclusion in Your Game Project)
6. Adam Drew of Red Hat will webcast about Linux/Open Source music production April 20
7. Steampunk MMO project Tempest in the Aether will have an OpenGameArt-featured art contest during Weekend of April 30th - a todo list will be released on April 20th

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