Good/original OpenSource games don't exist ?

[B0rsuk]

A lot of pygame games are listed on... pygame website itself. The 'games' link on the left, with subcategories like Strategy, Arcade etc.
At the moment the website says it has been attacked by gremlins.
I know there are libraries bridging OpenGL and Python (Galaxy Mage uses them, for example; http://www.galaxymage.org/index.php/Main_Page ) but I don't know how well they work with Pygame.

I'm going to work at my own pace and won't bother you until I got something resembling an alpha release. Most probably GPL + Creative Commons for gfx and sound. I prefer to write my own engine, because
1) I'm a pretty bad - or at least inexperienced - programmer judging by ease of writing C programs. Or lack of. And I've been doing it for few last months. If I write something myself, I can be sure I understand it better.
2)If I write something myself, I'm sure there are no strange parts of code I'll never use.

On the other hand, Galaxy Mage looks quite tempting... I changed my mind. It would be a shame not to use it. It works quite well, the code is understandable even for someone who didn't code in Python (!), and it has most of the needed features. I'll try to understand the code, and probably fork it when it gets to 0.4 release (it's 0.3 at the moment).
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At the moment I'm struggling with university assignment, however (simple http server). We've been programming a lot of scripts, and some simple servers in Bash and C, using lockfiles, files for process communication, named and unnamed pipes, IPC package etc.
Additionaly, I have some GIMP skills so I can do not too bad graphics given enough time, and html/css/TeX even knowledge helps making documentation.

But I'll let you know as soon as I'm finished with exams.

[seth0x2b]

Seems you'd like to keep stuff for yourself for now...and I can understand that.I was not starting a game development team here .It was just a suggestion.Oh well...I'll probably get involved with S.C.O.U.R.G.E. for now. At least fo the GFX part.

Cheers and good luck with your project!

[holomorph]

ok, three points (I think, I may ramble. . )

First, you're right, it would be very difficult to organize a project that competes on a commercial scale (especially the development time frame) in categories like FPS, RPG, MMORG. . .

Where I think there is some originality in OSS games is smaller (mostly 2D projects)

Second (and to illustrate the first) I have actually developed a game in the past year and a half, which I think *is* fairly original. Ok, I admit I did borrow the basic idea. . but from a novel (Ender's Game specifically). It is a 2d shooter, with no gravity called Balder2d. If you're running Dapper, you should be able to just go

sudo apt-get install libsdl-image1.2 libsdl-mixer1.2 libsdl-gfx1.2-4 libboost-filesystem1.33.1 libguichan0

to make sure you have all the dependencies, and then grab the zip file for
amd64
or
i386
(depending on your system), unzip and run ./balder2d (it's in the bin folder, please tell me if this doesn't work!).

So now that my shameless self promotion bit is done, I come to my third point. Funding. As has been pointed out in this thread, the traditional ways in which OSS makes sense for commercial development (ie service based) just doesn't apply to games. So it occurred to me during my local NPR station's bi-annual fund drive, maybe it's possible to do something like that for open source game development? I guess it's *sort of* how cedega is working, but they are not developing original games, and you still have to pay to buy those games anyway. But do you think it would be possible to use the membership model, collect membership pledges, and when you have enough you hire a team of developers, or even some commercial company, to produce the game, with the condition that it will be open source? That way you get professional game developers being payed to write open source games. It's an exciting prospect if it can work.

Bjørn

[B0rsuk]

Seems you'd like to keep stuff for yourself for now...and I can understand that.I was not starting a game development team here .It was just a suggestion.Oh well...I'll probably get involved with S.C.O.U.R.G.E. for now. At least fo the GFX part.

Cheers and good luck with your project!

Don't take it personally.
1. I have only 2 days to start and finish my http server uni asignment.
2. I've seen too many opensource projects start, wither and die to brag about something that's not even alpha.
3. I don't believe someone can be actually interested with hardcore gameplay/design discussion. On the other hand, pretty much no amount of such talk can bore me.

Whenever I have a bit of free time, I try to undestand Galaxy Mage sourcecode and think how to make it similar to Master of Magic combat. And browsing GM forum to see which features are going to be implemented, which makes it easier to decide when to fork.
MOM is dosboxable and can be downloaded from: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=687

[seth0x2b]

Don't take it personally.

I'm not...don't worry

Cheers

[charlieg]

I'll probably get involved with S.C.O.U.R.G.E. for now. At least fo the GFX part.

Please do! Scourge has awesome potential, and really could use some better graphics.

[seth0x2b]

Yes, it does need good GFX, and it's the most promissing game I've seen in development yet(RPG that is).

I'm not of much use at 2D graphics, but I'm "negotiating" with one of my best friends who is a wiz when it comes to 2D character design, maybe he'll put off some character avatars, and..who knows...even some nice textures for the 3D models. 3D-wise, I've already started to model some basic items(I've seen on the S.C.O.U.R.G.E. forums that some rings could be of use).
I'll look into modeling some other items like barrels, boxes, and my favourite in every game: book shelves

Cheers

[ZephyrXero]

I know there are libraries bridging OpenGL and Python (Galaxy Mage uses them, for example; http://www.galaxymage.org/index.php/Main_Page ) but I don't know how well they work with Pygame.

I would suggest looking into PyOgre for your Open GL needs

Beyond graphics, you may also want to look into OPAL & ODE for physics, open AL for your audio, and Psyco for optimization of your code.

[seth0x2b]

WOW! I had no ideea O.G.R.E. had Python bindings.Thanks for the link man

Cheers

[XVampireX]

If you people are still up to making an open source that is commercial quality game, I'd be glad to try and help, I've learned some of the basics of Python and I'm also willing after I learn Python completely to move that knowledge to C/C++

I love the Open Source model, and I've had some great ideas for a commercial MMORPG game.

If you people want, you can reach me most of the time on XVampireX@jabber.org on jabber protocol and we'll work some things out.