Help Wanted - FreeGamage

[IllegalCharacter]

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some help with a web site project promoting free games. It follows the Ubuntu's idea that open-source should be for everybody, not just the people who are fully comfortable with the configure-make-install-libs-I-don't-have routine. It is not necessarily for open-source games, we make honourable mentions about commercial games that release good Linux versions, and games that are free of cost but the developers chose not to release the source. The majority of the games on the site are open-source since for the most part they are free and cross-platform.

Since I'm not the best writer/designer, I am looking for people interested in helping out. If you have a game you really like and want to put a description up, if you're good at making things pretty, want to write reviews/articles/descriptions, it's a community-driven site and anybody is welcome.

You can check out the site here: http://www.freegamage.com. If you're interested in helping out or want to give your two cents, reply to the post or send me a message via AIM (my username should be on this post).

[Niklas Schröder]

hey there! :D i'd be willing to help when i get the time. i'm currently working on another (paying) project, but i'd love to work on something like this! i enjoy web design, solving challenges (like stupid formatting that refuses to work ;) ), and i'm a pretty good artist. let me know if you'd like help! :D

[Niklas Schröder]

i guess i forgot to mention that i'm also a HUGE fan of open source and gaming on ubuntu. if we can nail down the gaming area, we could get thousands more to swap to ubuntu. ;)

[IllegalCharacter]

Fast response!
if we can nail down the gaming area, we could get thousands more to swap to ubuntu. ;)
You're definitely right here, although that's not really the initial aim of the site ;). I know lots of people though that like Linux and are fully capable of using it, but the lack of games are what keep them from moving over.
i enjoy web design, solving challenges (like stupid formatting that refuses to work ), and i'm a pretty good artist.
Perfect! We are in need of good designers. Do you have AIM or MSN?

[Niklas Schröder]

i actually use gmail, but i'm not on chat much. the best way to contact me would be through e-mail. i've got my address on my profile here (i think), and on my blog (link in my signature). glad you're interested! :D

[IllegalCharacter]

I'm also looking for people to do small reviews of games. If anybody is interested, for example you want to tell the world how awesome your favourite game is, you're welcome to submit a game and a review.

[KhaaL]

maybe you could work toghether with FreeGamer (http://freegamer.blogspot.com/) to reach that goal? their forums hosts a few FOSS games and they have a bunch of intresting interviews/articles/reviews...

Hoping to see combined effords in this area :)

[IllegalCharacter]

Those guys have a pretty sweet site, although we can't really collaborate too much since they cater only to open-source, whereas we include freeware and abandonware under the umbrella of "free" (we look at free-to-play, not GPL-free). Why limit ourselves?

What we're really looking for right now is help with putting up games. We want to have little descriptions about each game, including links to download it and which platforms it runs on (kinda like Sourceforge). If anybody is interested in putting up a game every couple of days, that'd be awesome. It'd be another great way to show what a community effort can do.

[ZylGadis]

A community effort can go a long way if the community works together. I see no reason for yet another game-review site, especially one with a misleading name (free in GNU land means GNU-free; besides, in your first post you mention you'll also cater to commercial games, what is free (in either meaning) about them?).
If you want to do something useful related to games (as opposed to making money from ads), either join an already existing site, or even better - help with making a FOSS game or even start your own.

[IllegalCharacter]

in your first post you mention you'll also cater to commercial games
I didn't say we cater to commercial games, I said we give them an honourable mention. However I thought about that and opted not to put commercial games in as there isn't really a good reason.

I suppose I'm looking in the wrong place, I'm under the impression that Ubuntu is trying to reach out beyond GNU-land so I figured this would be a good place to look for help.

[KhaaL]

heh, well your impression is right, but it's just that there's a lot of places thats doing this... happypenguin (though your website is infitite times sexier than theirs), ubuntu gaming (http://gaming.gwos.org/doku.php), et al.

The question here is really, what makes your website / community unique?

[IllegalCharacter]

We're working on upping the sexiness ;)

I may be wrong in thinking this, but the site is unique in that it caters to cross-platform. Of the other main gaming sites that I've seen, they're either big gaming sites for Windows games, or big gaming sites for Linux: Happy Penguin (aka the Linux Game Tome), Ubuntu games, etc. or they are more focused on reviews and/or articles (ie. FreeGamer). In short, our favourite games are ones that we could/would play at a LAN party without having to install Windows.

Our primary goals are play-for-free and cross-platform. Since the majority of open-source games are free and cross-platform - possibly due to the fact that OpenGL is cross-platform - we have them up on our site. However don't be mistaken in thinking that our goal is GNU-free. We're trying to set our sights outside of GNU-land, where the people don't really care whether the source code is free and redistributable, etc.

Who knows, maybe some people will try out some of the open-source games on the site, realize they're awesome and decide to switch to Ubuntu (or some other distro).

[Zelphien]

I'll help, I'm good with testing out games, writing reviews, writing articles, plan management, finding bugs/errors in games, and I'm learning web developement


Also, I am a huge fan on Ubuntu Gaming since I dislike Window Gaming fanboys and I want people to make Linux the most popular OS on Earth.

I'll help in anyway I can!

just send me an e-mail



PS

I checked out your site and Contacted you in helping out. I also looked around a bit and I think you guys should get a forum going on...

[IllegalCharacter]

Awesome, more help is always welcome.

PS: We're pro-Linux, not anti-Windows. You don't always have to be both ;)