Good/original OpenSource games don't exist ?

[Sindwiller]

Anyhow...

I personally think, too, that most FOSS games are either very badly made - especially when it goes to art and gamedesign - or are just a bad clone of a popular game. But I think the reason is somewhere else.

Most projects were initiated by programmers, who had a cool idea and wanted to make a game out of, so they digged out some webspace out of the internet and went onto the game. That leads most of the time to... nowhere. Two problems lie behind that failure:

1) Games are drawn, not coded.
2) Games get designed using a specific model.

FOSS world lacks artists in general. Especially talented and/or experienced artists. Only a few projects can count on the experience and talent of artists. Most media in FOSS projects are made by unexperienced people. I don't want to say that it is a bad thing when people want to start with digital art respectively game art - though said media is a keyfactor in the lack of "quality" in FOSS games imo.

So, why aren't artists getting attracted by such projects anyway? Linux and Open Source in general has having a boost of popularity, lots of new users, different kind of users. Where the heck are those artists?

In my opinion, said artists avoid using FOSS software - due to it's lack of quality as a tool for game development. My spotlight goes to a specific set of tools. For the Quake 3 engine. And actually for any other game or game engine using the Quake 3 BSP format (such as Nexuiz/Darkplaces, Transfusion, Warsow/QFusion, XreaL, etc...). Those builtin-tools are... well... ****, litterally. They are nothing compared to the tools of commercial engines (Source, Unreal, any other engine...). Buggy, circumstantial, bad code. Sure, the tools for Source aren't less buggy (Steam and stuff) or less circumstantial, but hey, they work. I as an artist wouldn't want to work with such an engine. And I don't.

[Takmadeus]

Actually, the 1982 Tron arcade game from Midway was first (after the movie, of course). All others are just copies/updates of that.

ouch! touché

[vexorian]

So, is opensource even remotely viable way of developing games ?

Are you implying, licensing somehow prevents game designers to do original stuff? What's the relationship between opensource and originality of games? I don't think there is any technical limitation that would stop a good game designer from getting something original... And the clones are very good clones so I don't think that there are limitations in graphics or anything. Regardles, is any of the latest proprietary games original at all?

...
To say that there aren't original open source games out there, is ... an overstatement. Want me to list them? If DROD didn't begin as opensource, doesn't really matter, it is currently a good open source game regardless of its roots.

I love escape, and to me it looks pretty darn original. Dunno about you.

Then there's planet penguin racer, I can't think of much proprietary games that had that gameplay, I can't think of any, actually.

And I really think that it is not the clones' fault, I really think that if it is not broken don't fix it, adding things would be fairly worthless in my opinion, and generailizing the quality of the clones doesn't sound fair to me, I have found some really cool clones out there.

If you want recognition or fame, Open source dev. is not for you. Open source games are games from the community for the community, authors can screw themselves (I am a game author and my brother is making plenty of the art, we know that besides of an entry in the AUTHORS file we won't get anything else )

[Rhubarb]

IMHO Warsow is an original open source FPS game, true it's based on the quake 2 engine from id, but it is heavily modified, and it does have a very different style of gameplay.
http://www.warsow.net/

Sauerbraten uses the open source cube 2 engine, the game play isn't that original (but it's a nice 'n' fast FPS), but its in-game map editor is very easy to use, and very easy for artists to make textures / maps.
http://www.sauerbraten.org/

Another game you shouldn't forget is World of Padman.
This game is quite unique (again, based on the quake 3 engine - a FPS game aswell), and has some very good artists that work on it.
http://padworld.myexp.de/

[vexorian]

Oh yes, has anyone heard about Glest?

[cogadh]

Sindwiller, I sort of agree with what you are saying, but I disagree with some of your statements. Games are not drawn, game assests like textures may be drawn, but the game itself is pure code.

Good art does not make a good game, good gameplay does. Some of the best games in the world are at best, ugly. Just look at Tetris. It is the most successful game ever made, but its only a bunch of colored blocks falling down the screen. Not much art involved or needed to make that one, yet it is still played today.

That being said, it is true that there seems to be s significant lack of good digital artists in FOSS gaming. It would definitely be nice to have the good, innovative gameplay and a nice looking game in a FOSS product.

[Shaddox]

Hey

After a few years of observation, I reached a disturbing conclusion. I'd like nothing more than you to prove me wrong.

There are Open Source games of impressive quality. Especially no original games.

If you're looking for good opensource linux full games, you should keep tabs on a new project I've just announced. It should be what you're looking for, if you're willing to wait (up to) quite a while for development. Details are here, though the game is still fresh in planning phase.

[Sindwiller]

Sindwiller, I sort of agree with what you are saying, but I disagree with some of your statements. Games are not drawn, game assests like textures may be drawn, but the game itself is pure code.

Sure, textures, models, levels, effect GFX, GUI graphics. Everything done (more or less) by an artist.

Good art does not make a good game, good gameplay does. Some of the best games in the world are at best, ugly. Just look at Tetris. It is the most successful game ever made, but its only a bunch of colored blocks falling down the screen. Not much art involved or needed to make that one, yet it is still played today.

Yeah, sure, but most FOSS games fail in terms of gamedesign aswell. The best example for that failure is Glest. It would pass as some sort of techdemo, but shipping that as a whole game, with all those technical and gameplay inconsistencies is just... dumb. Glest is simply no fun because of that.

That being said, it is true that there seems to be s significant lack of good digital artists in FOSS gaming. It would definitely be nice to have the good, innovative gameplay and a nice looking game in a FOSS product.

I actually had to shorten my post, because otherwise some people would get impatient. What I also wanted to say is, that most FOSS games lack professional (or at least good) management, planning and the most important thing: Gamedesign. A fun game doesn't get designed head first. It becomes fun if the constellation of all gameplay elements is right.

[vexorian]

The fact remains, the whole games industry has recently failed at providing fun games, so FLOSS is not the only to blame

[Sindwiller]

The fact remains, the whole games industry has recently failed at providing fun games, so FLOSS is not the only to blame

Most games are recycles of old gaming concepts and elements, true - thought there are some really bright shining gems - like STALKER, Gears of War etc. Additionally, the mod communities out there aren't sleeping too. Best exampe for that: Insurgency

But otherwise, your statement is true.