Tales of the Rampant Coyote

The Golden Age of Indie

2009-11-06T06:54:00.000-08:00

So we've got the Unity 3D engine free for indies --- the Unreal 3 engine now in the price range for indies --- a new version of Torque that looks pretty impressive (and still priced within the "professional" indie level of affordability), an upcoming less-restrictive license for Ogre 3D (still free), and a host of existing engine choices from the usual suspects.

While those who have trained with the more expensive commercial counterparts complain endlessly about their difficulty getting used to them, Blender 3D and The Gimp are outstanding content development tools that are absolutely free. Blender 3D is readying for its big 2.5 release very soon now.

We've got indie games on consoles. Downloadable games are becoming the norm. Indie MMOs are competing head-to-head for dollars with the big boys (at least all the ones not named World of Warcraft).

The latest copy of Game Developer magazine lists the fifty most influential people in the industry over the last year or so - and indie developers (and evangelists) made up a reasonable chunk of the list.

Indie games are being talked about by mainstream press. Not just the token mention in a list in half-page columns near the back of the magazine like they used to get, but real honest-to-goodness attention. Two or three years ago, an average gamer had no idea what an "indie game" was. Now, they might not have played one, but they've at least heard of them. This is significant.

It sounds to me like the Age of Indie has fully arrived! (Jussincase we hadn't figured that out in the last two or three years.)

So what is the Age of Indie? Heck if I know. It's up to the indies themselves to define it. But what's cool is that those guys defining it are the folks with gumption, skill, and the willingness to put in a lot of hard work. NOT just the folks with the big bucks or publisher contracts.

ANYBODY can make a game now. That's been true for a long time, but technology is becoming even less of a factor. And anybody can sell it. Yeah, marketing and selling a game is even harder than making it, in many ways. But it is happening. And web-based gaming --- I have no idea how far that rabbit hole will go!

I doubt indies will ever be in the same league as "the big boys" again, as they were when indie "shareware" shops hit their peak in the early-to-mid 90s. But I think the dividing line is going to get even blurrier. It's becoming more and more of a spectrum.

But the excuses are gone. Tools, training, support, opportunities, even console releases are now available within an indie's grasp. Gaming is now back in the hands of the gamers.

Take us to cool places, please.

Din's Curse - Screenshots Now Up

2009-11-05T10:28:00.001-08:00

For those following Soldak's new indie role-playing game:

Din's Curse - First Screenshots

Yeah, it does look a bit like Depths of Peril and Kivi's Underworld. Are you at all surprised?

I'm excited about this one, personally. It sounds like its got more Depths of Peril-ish-ness to it.

Unreal 3 Engine - FREE! Er, kinda...

2009-11-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

Well, if you weren't planning on selling your game, you can now use the Unreal 3 engine for free. Have at it!

Unreal Development Kit

They have also released a more "indie friendly" commercial license. It's a royalty-based license - 25% (YIPE!) of your revenue after the first $5000. That could eat into an indie's profit margin by a pretty significant amount... or not. Your business decision, folks!

Dragon Age: Origins - Hype Overload?

2009-11-05T08:01:00.000-08:00

Okay, I do intend to get Dragon Age: Origins. For the PC, of course. That's been in the cards for a long time. I remain a Bioware fan, even if you can see traces of their Borg implants.

But holy crap, guys... the hype / marketing for this game is off the scale. We're talking near Halo-levels, here. It's been on TV, all over the web - for months. We've been inundated with previews, interviews, press releases, and now reviews.

So is it worth all the hype? I'm interested in hearing what real RPG fans think who have had a chance to play it. While I have some faith in Bioware and I'm sure the game has a great story and is fun to play, it so far has come off sounding pretty generic to me. Yeah, it's pretty tough to make traditional sword-and-sorcery / high fantasy sound fresh and new, but it still happens. Just not here.

So - what's the scoop? What are your first impressions, those of you with more money and time than me? Is it truly heir to the legacy that was Baldur's Gate? And, I ask again - is it worth the hype?

Game Design: Overwhelmed By Choice?

2009-11-04T07:10:00.000-08:00

As a player, I'm a guy who loves open-endedness in my games. In role-playing games, I may as much of a goal-oriented player (the "Dungeon Upwardly Mobile Professional," as author / designer Tracy Hickman once called it) as any hardcore gamer, but I love to approach a goal my own way.

In dice-and-paper RPGs, I can be every game master's worst nightmare as I deviate from the script and start asking questions and manipulating parts of the GM's world that were never fleshed out beyond being the flat cardboard background setting. Consequently, my efforts frequently come to naught, as the players who take the conventional, predictable, and prepared-in-advance approach get rewarded.

I really loved the magic system in White Wolf's Mage: The Ascension. Apparently, we're a weird, strange animal. The magic system in that game was apparently incomprehensible and subjective for many players. While there were "rotes" - predefined spells - for the most part magic was something you created on-the-fly within broad guidelines. It was a very goal-oriented, open-ended kind of thing. Instead of looking over a menu of options and picking the one that might be most effective in this situation, you really had to think outside of the box, come up with a plan of action based upon some very broad powers, and then custom-build a spell that would both meet your objective and (preferably) appear to be nothing but a coincidence to any observer. It was very fun for those who got into it. Practically impossible for anybody else. It has little to to do with intelligence, and a lot to do with preference for style.

Not everybody likes to play that way. And frankly, a "sky is the limit" approach can be frustrating to players regardless of style. Especially without being provided concrete sub-goals, as I learned to my detriment running a recent pen & paper campaign. An infinite number of choices often results in no choice, and players will simply drift, feeling rudderless, overwhelmed, confused, and frustrated.

I wouldn't exactly call that "fun."

In general, I've always been of the opinion that more choices means more fun. But even for me, I do have my limits. The Elder Scrolls series is perhaps the best known for being open-ended games. While I am apparently one of the few players to ever actually complete the storyline in the second game, Daggerfall, I admit I got lost in the open-ended world of the follow-up, Morrowind. The open world led me further and further from anything resembling the games' goal (and I never really understood what that was), and so I just played until I got bored.

How could I possibly get bored? There was so much game left for me - so many more choices and opportunities! But I did. I, too, found myself rudderless and confused, and not entirely certain what my end-goal was for the entire game. At least Oblivion solved this last problem, making the end-goal almost TOO obvious throughout the game.

I'm a fan of open-endedness and having plenty of choices, but it seems there's a limit. In my pen-and-paper games, it seems that - as a group - more than two or three major options to select from causes the group to get bogged down with indecision. I think with individuals, the number might go up a bit more, depending on style. But there seems to be a "magic number" after which the number of options becomes a detriment, not a benefit. Or players adapt by ignoring many options.

Hmmm - maybe that's why I keep ordering the same thing when I go out to favorite restaurants.

There is a tendency - especially by less experienced game sesigners, to try to include everything (even the kitchen sink) - in their game. While the increased breadth sounds cool and fun and all, it's important to note that besides the obvious difficulties of increased development and balancing work, the end result may actually be less than the sum of the parts for many players.

I Want To Get Rich So I Can Take This Vacation

2009-11-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

While I loved going to Hawaii again last month, here's where I'd really love to vacation at some point in my life:

Space Hotel To Open in 2012

So, uh, do hotel guests get any training on what to do in an emergency? Pressure leak, anything like that?

And most importantly - does it offer free cable TV and wireless?

Stonesense - for Dwarf Fortress

2009-11-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

This looks... way cool.

Cool enough to make more people Dwarf Fortress fans? I dunno. The game is pretty hardcore regardless of graphics. And unfortunately, it "kills the framerate." But I do love seeing stuff like this.

Stonesense (At TIGSource)

Free Indie Game Today Only

2009-11-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

Tale of Tales is offering the full version of their indie game and last year's IGF finalist, The Graveyard, for free - today only.

Tale of Tales: Visit The Graveyard Today - For Free!

As per its description on the website:

The Graveyard is a very short computer game designed by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn. You play an old lady who visits a graveyard. You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words.

I haven't even played the demo version yet, so I can't offer any opinion. But hey, the price is right, so if you feel so inclined, today is the day to check it out.

Castle as Malcom Reynolds

2009-10-30T06:52:00.000-07:00

This week's episode of Castle didn't just offer a nod to fans of Firefly & Serenity - it treated us to a full 35-second inside joke (and then another couple minutes of Nathon Fillion walking around in a Captain "Mal" Malcom Reynolds-esque costume).

Has it really been five years?

I'm often wary of that heavy of an inside joke placed inside a show. I can just see someone unfamiliar with either Firefly or Serenity scratching their head. But hey, I guess I'm a fanboy. I loved it.

Happy Birthday, Internet!

2009-10-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently, October 29th was arguably the 40th birthday of the Internet.

Happy Birthday, Intertubes. Life would not be the same without you.

GarageGames Exits, Unity Enters?

2009-10-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Jeff Tunnell, one of the founders of GarageGames, writes a few words about the passing of the "GarageGames" name into history, and some of the magic of the company's first years.

Jeff Tunnell: GarageGames Name Joins Torque Game Engine In Retirement

An excerpt:

"We got paid back in so many ways though. Like our first booth at GDC, a wooden concoction I had a friend make for us. Our little 10 X 10 booth was the busiest per square foot of any booth at the conference, with people lined up 10 deep just to get in to talk to us. Or like seeing employees at big companies like EA walk by and thrust their clenched fist in the air and shout, 'GarageGames!' with us knowing that they were using Torque in their off hours trying to escape the Man."

He does note that while he can't see the name of the company retired without feeling "tugs on (his) heart strings," he completely understands their move and can't disagree with the "Torque Technologies" crew in their decision to rebrand the company.

In my opinion, the company-formerly-known-as-GarageGames is now adapting to a world Jeff Tunnell and the other founders helped build. The line between "indie" and "mainstream" is becoming increasingly blurred, and the barrier to entry for game developers has been almost entirely obliterated. Now, instead of "haves" (supported by mainstream publishers) and "have nots", we have an entire spectrum of game development studios. This now includes a professional, commercial "indie" tier that was only in its infancy ten years ago.

But now that Torque is focusing on this growing niche and in some many ways leaving the "entry level" game developers behind, another company is jumping in... with a vengeance. The Unity game engine has grown in popularity among indies, particularly due to its iPhone support, browser-based-app support, low price tag, and popular titles from Flashbang Studios like Off-Road Velociraptor Safari*.

But now they've announced that the "indie" license option has a new price:

Free.

In an interview at GamaSutra, Unity CEO David Helgason explained, "The thinking was that Unity Indie isn't generating a significant portion of our revenue, and we've always had this vision of democratizing our tools. We have over 13,000 customers using our product, so we figured, let's take Indie and just give it to everyone. Whether that becomes a cash flow positive or a cash flow negative -- and some people will upgrade -- is not really important. What's important is to get this in the hands of as many people as possible."

Now, I don't know that part of the business. It seems to be the similar strategy GarageGames used to pursue with the dirt-cheap $100 Torque Game Engine (and one currently employed on a wider level with Microsoft and their "express" edition of their compilers). A strategy they have now abandoned to focus principally on the "pro-sumer" audience. Is Unity jumping into a fallow niche with a great deal of potential, or has GarageGames (soon to be Torque Technologies) learned hard lessons that the Unity team is about to discover?

From a business perspective, I don't know what to expect. They know their business way better than I do. But while there are some license restrictions that may give indies pause (and no source code), the free indie option for Unity can't be anything but good news for indie and hobbyist game developers. It may not be the be-all, end-all - and no game engine is or will be - but there's a lot that can be done with it.

So get to work... and have fun!

Unity 3D Game Engine

* If you haven't played it, DO SO! It's a blast. Their other games are pretty cool too, but that one remains my favorite.

The Button

2009-10-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Heh - I could see this guy as a player-character in an RPG all too easily...

The Button - watch more funny videos

The Story of the Millennium - Er, I Mean, Millennium's Story

2009-10-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, I offered my first impressions of the new indie RPG, Millennium - A New Hope. I was (and still am) pretty excited about this new series from now-veteran studio Aldorlea Games. It shows a greater level of polish than previous titles, and (from what I can tell) is much more story-driven.

And that latter part is both a blessing and a curse. You won't find me criticizing the story of Depths of Peril or Knights of the Chalice much, because --- well, there isn't much there. 90% of it exists only in my mind. But in these more story-heavy games, the writing plays a much bigger role, and even small flaws are more noticeable.

As I indicated - and maintain even after playing it a bit further - the core conflict just wasn't washing with me. The story designer (I assume we're talking Indinera Falls here) seemed to be assuming some kind of intuitive step of logic that just didn't exist for me. My naive assumption was that this was simply in need of a quick fix easily applied with the next update.

Indinera and a fan of the game took up my invitation for a discussion, however, and shared some of their thoughts on the story. And while I don't feel my misgivings on the story are significantly lessened, I think the discussion did me good and demonstrated to me that it wasn't a quick-fix kind of situation. I think I held some flawed assumptions.

No, what I think may be going on here is somebody took up the call to mix things up and do something experimental with the plot. It's not just that city of Mystrock was a poorly presented foe. Indinera suggests that it's really not intended to be the "foe" at all - in spite of all the mustache-twirling on the part of Lord Dragon and his adviser.

Wow - that's kinda like finding President Shinra savagely impaled, after expecting him to be the Big Boss of the game in FF7! Okay, maybe not, but it does shine an interesting light on things. Indinera is not going for a traditional plot-line here. And that is to be applauded, even if the first few minutes of play left me with the feeling that the writing could have used an extra editor. The envelope does need to be pushed, and I'm pleased to see indie authors trying to do something different with their stories.

And so, at this point I'll defer to people who have played the game through further towards it completion to comment on plot development. And I'll direct you to the discussion taking place in the forums:

Forum Discussion on Millennium - A New Hope

And encourage you to check it out yourself and let me know if I'm on drugs:

Download Millennium: A New Hope

You Must Use The Force...

2009-10-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

A Capella group Moosebutter (who I have seen live performing at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival) has a medley of John Williams movie scores - sung by quotes from Star Wars.

The twist? Not a single piece of music from Star Wars...

And the best part - the "Joss Whedon is my master now" comment at the end... ;)

Adios, GarageGames

2009-10-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

GarageGames, the company that in many ways pioneered the indie game movement (is it a movement?), has changed a lot since they started. Arguably, with the sunsetting of their flagship product - the original Torque Game Engine - and its immediate successor in a few days, and the departure of the founding members, and their change in focus, there's really not much of the ol' company left.

That's neither good nor bad. It's just the way of things.

But now it looks like the name, "GarageGames," is being retired. They are focusing on the Torque brand name, and the website will be "Torquepowered.com."

Feels kinda like the end of an era, doesn't it?

Still, while I miss the old GarageGames, I can't really fault the vision of the new crew. While they no longer emphasize making game development "dirt cheap" for anybody, they are shooting for the low-budget professionals' pipeline - getting games from concept to market as quickly and easily as possible. A noble goal.

But it seems GarageGames is soon to become just a historical note.

Millennium - A New Hope

2009-10-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

I played through the first few minutes of Aldorlea Games' latest RPG offering, "Millennium: A New Hope." I am actually in the process of adding it to the Rampant Games site, but due to illness I was unable to finish this weekend (UPDATE: It's up here now). I still want to play a bit more of it and get a better feel for how it plays.

Visually, the game is beautiful. There is some very striking pixel-art at work here, and some pushing of visual effects that push it beyond the typical RPG Maker fare. The character art is an improvement over past offerings from the indie studio. Even the user interface has been customized a bit more to make it "pop" and stand out from the RPG Maker crowd.

The story and dialog - well, that's the part I'm having trouble with. While all of Aldorlea Games' titles show some artifacts of being written by a non-native English speaker, the more story-heavy nature of this title makes the weakness a bit more apparent.

And the premise of the story, so far, has fallen pretty flat for me - at least in the first twenty minutes. It's a story about Marine, a young girl from a very poor village. In theory, her village is struggling against the oppression of a rich town. Aside from some pretty despicable behavior by the town guards against her father, however, so far the only crime the town seems to be committing is the sin of ... uh, having money. And leaving their neighbors alone. But her father grudgingly begins passing the torch of revolution over to his daughter.

Of course, this could be a bit of chilling set-up for young Marine becoming sort of a cute teen-aged Maximilien Robespierre later on in the series as her little revolution goes out of control. Maybe that's the way the story is heading, which would actually be pretty edgy. I don't really see it happening, but it would be cool, wouldn't it?

The fairy encounter early in the game has also seemed pretty forced, and the dialog clumsy. It tries to hard to be cute. And granted, it is explaining a weird situation. I realize I may be throwing bricks from within my own glass house here, but it feels like the story and writing could have used a little more time and editing.

The gameplay is pretty straightforward for jRPG-style games. Like many of Aldorlea's games, skills and items are sometimes used to expand upon non-combat actions. And the boss combats against the animal kings (guardians of the existing ruling class) are reportedly quite challenging. Unlike many games of the style, Millennium: A New Hope has opted to have unintelligent monsters yield semi-realistic items or body parts when slain - which can then be sold for gold - rather than dropping gold coins when defeated. It's an extra step for players, but a nod to some level of verisimilitude. I don't find it to be an unwelcome change.

I'll probably have more to say on this one later, but as always, I invite you to check these out on your own during the free trial. It's a fairly meaty download. I'll have a page up on my site later, but for now you can grab it directly at this link:

Download Millennium - A New Hope

Let us know what you think!

This Is Pretty Much My Eternal Backlog and Me

2009-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

This too eerily reflects my own gaming habits...

One day I may actually get back to playing games on Day 1 of release. But it's iffy.

(A) The big hit games tend to come out around Christmas, and my wife has threatened to kill me if I pick up something she intended to get me for a gift. So I have to wait until December 26th to buy any games.

(B) I'm not as plugged into the mainstream hype as I used to be. That, or I'm too jaded and cynical to believe that the upcoming New Game That Will Revolutionize Gaming is going to be any more earth-shattering than the last 10,000 attempts.

(C) Back in the day - when game reviews tended to appear in magazines a month or two after release - a popular game could still be current and worthy of talking about six months or more after release. Nowadays, a game is relegated to historical insignificance in under six WEEKS. So if you don't pick up a game the week it is released, you may as well be playing a five-year-old game as far as anybody else cares.

(D) Thems that wait six months or more get to play with the worst bugs patched from the get-go.

(E) Them's that wait long enough years get the "Platinum Pack" with all the expansions fully integrated in and patched to the latest level for a big discount.

Frayed Knights: Why Is This Game Taking So Long?

2009-10-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

And here are a few words of update on the making of Frayed Knights, the comedic indie RPG in development by Rampant Games.

If there's a single common thread linking several of these updates together, it is, "Things are taking longer than I expected." I've yet to hear of a game getting done significantly faster than expected. Making games is hard. You'd think that after fifteen years of doing it, I'd know this by now.

You know, when I was working on the pilot episode of Frayed Knights, I had a couple of ideas. Really silly ideas, in retrospect. I should have known better. While I've never made a full-fledged RPG before, I've made plenty of games. So I don't have an excuse. Maybe it's some kind of suppression of bad memories taking place that made me believe these things.

But here were my beliefs: That when I finished the pilot, I'd have "most" (75%+) of the code for the game finished, and that my job from there on out would just be cranking out content, which would be easier and faster than code.

Wrong on BOTH counts. But I'm just gonna talk about the code part today.

My existing code, in many cases hastily thrown together just to get the pilot out the door, was woefully inadequate for the true rigors that would be demanded of it. Or the demands of players. In some cases (like the inventory UI), I've completely replaced the earlier code. In other cases, I've had to augment the code to something like quadruple its original size.

And then all the little "bits and pieces" that were ignored / shoved under the rug? That was a lot more than 25%.

Then we have something that programmers jokingly call "bit-rot." It's how we describe our code seemingly "wearing out" and developing bugs as it gets older and remains unmaintained. Naturally, code doesn't rot or change at all with age. But it doesn't exist in a vacuum. As its environment and dependencies change, it may fail. Or we may expose bugs that were always there but never visible. Or we call functionality that was never 100% done in the first place. Or... something.

So what happens is that code that was "working perfectly" (hah!) before suddenly, inexplicably, begins failing. New bugs crop up in old code that hasn't been touched in MONTHS. In several places. And as you fix the code in one place, something else breaks elsewhere.

"Bit-rot."

So I've been spending a lot of time stitching things back together again. And integrating "proof of concept" code into actual working code that functions as it should in a real game.

Of course, there are other explanations, like my playing the Three Musketeers RPG or Knights of the Chalice instead of coding. I guess that's how those guys take care of their competition.

But hey, enough grousing. Here's what's new:

I've taken the visible "wandering monster" thing and made them actually part of the game instead of a tech-demo. So now you can dodge enemy patrols that you can actually see. But their respawn rates are dependent upon how well you've cleared the local area. There are still a bunch of issues to be ironed out there, but it's functioning.

I keep enhancing my dialog scripts to provide greater functionality within conversations. Now talking with people can give you XP or drama stars, give or take away items, set or modify game flags, or call an internal game function.

The area surrounding the Caverns of Anarchy is --- well, not done, but the principle geography is laid out. With a stagnant lake and everything. It's kind of a dismal place. But then goblins and lizard-men were never known for being brilliant landscapers. We've got two of the caverns "done," but they don't look much like caverns. That's kind of an issue when using the kind of CSG geometry we're using for interiors - organic-looking spaces are VERY VERY HARD to do. It's much better at representing regular, man-made locations.

Our explanation is that these caverns began as smaller, natural locations, and were later further excavated and built upon by their residents - who ended up living there for generations.

In spite of bug-fixes, all quests involving the Tower of Almost Certain Death should be completed this weekend (they should have been completed LAST weekend, but I kept getting distracted by other tasks), and I'll be working on some of the other quests and locations in the eastern wilderness and the "follow-up" scripting back in Ardin. The party gets (temporary) access to a major artifact and clues to a major mystery in the tower, and thus sets off the main storyline (although it was hinted at in the earlier parts of the game). This opens up the Caverns of Anarchy area, and Fishy Stuff Starts Happening.

Indie RPG News Round-Up, 22 Oct 2009

2009-10-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

Indie computer RPGs are those games created by small, independent game-studios which have not been funded by major publishers. As the holiday season draws nigh, their counterparts in the mainstream have been releasing a flood of press releases, interviews, and previews. While the indies don't typically cash in on the holiday season, there's been a lot of activity on that front as well. Here's a really quick, short run-down of things going on over the last couple of weeks:

Knights of the Chalice
Knights of the Chalice has become a recent addiction of mine. Both the demo and full game have been upgraded Version 1.21. The big addition in this version: Turn Undead. My clerics always felt a little naked without it. Also, I posted some tips to playing Knights of the Chalice earlier this week that might prove useful for new players who feel overwhelmed by the depth of the game.

Din's Curse
Steven Peeler's taken the show on the road. We've got an interview here, another interview here, the first preview of Din's Curse here, and a blog article about cave-ins in the game.
Depths of Peril
In spite of working on Din's Curse, Mr. Peeler has also gone back and made some changes to his award-winning freshman RPG, Depths of Peril. The changes are mainly bug-fixes, though there are some improvements in adventuring with members of other covenants, and a decrease in the difficulty of kidnapping quests. You can download the patch here.

Aztaka
The version 1.04 Patch and new demo is now available here. This update adds new setup utilities to support wide screen resolutions, mouse speed adjustment as well as increasing the game’s stability.

The Three Musketeers: The Game
This RPG, based an the Alexandre Dumas novel, has now been released. I wrote my quick-take on The Three Musketeers yesterday. And you can snag your copy of The Three Musketeers: The Game here.

Scars of War
Gareth is posting a short story about the world entitled, "Magic's Price." Part 1 and Part 2 are already up. Part 3 is due out soon.

Legie
This is a very unique 3D Adventure / RPG Dungeon-Crawler from Czech developer Sudokop Games. I'm actually putting this one up for sale at the Rampant Games store soon (tonight?). But it's different. The demo doesn't provide any of the dungeon crawling, for which I'm not too thrilled. And the text dialog seems very - uh, translated - and strange. You are an apprentice bartender in a town that going through rough times. There is no magic, and no elves. The demo has you serving beer and cleaning up vomit with a rug which starts soaking through before you are done. It's got a weird name that still doesn't make sense to me after the playing through the demo (UPDATE: Gee, a little actual research, and I discover that Legie is Czech for LEGION. Now that makes much more sense). And the movement system is... different.

And yet, something about it is intriguing and compelling enough for me to shell out the clams for the full version to see what it offers. If you want to check it out yourself, you can check it out here: Legie , by Sudokop Games

Cyclopean
Cyclopean is a Lovecraft-inspired horror RPG. They've posted an "annual" update here. At least now they have a game engine and honest-to-goodness programmer. And a LOT of writing.

The Broken Hourglass
They aren't dead yet! Jason Compton reported to me in an email that he's spending WAY more money than he'd like on this Baldur's Gate 2 - inspired RPG by hiring a full-time implementer (huh, harkening back to the old Infocom "imps?"), and frantically working towards making the "critical path" of the game complete and playable. Once that's done, they'll be re-evaluating what needs to be done with all the side-quests and additional content.

Doublebear's Zombie RPG
Doublebear has been posting a weekly series of Design Updates for your enjoyment and edification. The latest is on skill perks, but I'm just gonna link to the entire forum.

Legend
Aldorlea games has announced the title (and precious little else) of their next RPG, Legend. Man, Indinera Falls & cohorts sure crank 'em out, don't they? Legend will be a one-off game with futuristic elements, and not part of a series (at least, not planned at this point). And it's supposed to be funny. I think it is safe to assume it will be a jRPG-style game using the RPG Maker engine. The closest thing to be had for official information can be found here.

Eschalon: Book 2
The box art for the physical edition can be viewed at the official site. Okay, it's just freakin' box art, but MAN does it bring back the feel of late 80's / early 90's computer RPGs. Which is, of course, the whole idea.

Got more news to share? Let us know in the comments or in the forums! Or PM me in the forums. Or email me. I've got, like, contact information on the "about" page and everything. Which nobody ever visits. *Sniff*.

Hey folks! Have fun! That's what it's all about, right?

New At Rampant Games: The Three Musketeers

2009-10-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hey! Look! A new indie RPG that is not in the 16-bit jRPG style! Huzzah! (And I have another one coming up in a couple of days). And - get this - it's for the Mac as well as PC! See, it does happen once in a while...

Dingo Games has released The Three Musketeers: The Game, now available in the Rampant Games Store. That's right, a game inspired by the famous candy bar! Now you too can enjoy chocolaty goodness in a role-playing game...

Er, oops. No, sorry, that's not right.

No, this is a game based on the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas, which has gone on to spawn countless movies, stage performances, TV shows, and other incarnations. It is the original master prototype of all swashbuckling tales of adventure. I'm fairly partial to buckling a few swashes myself, and became an immediate fan of the book when I read it in the sixth grade. While not the first game based on the novel, it IS the first computer RPG.

You play young d'Artagnon, off to seek his fortune and join the Musketeers. The game has you covering quite a bit of territory in 17th century France, though fortunately travel by horseback is fairly speedy. The game consists (as far as I've played) of a linear arrangement of quests. A path of yellow footprints are provided by default (I think you can turn off this option) to help you find the next quest So you won't get lost. While that feels a little like being led by the nose (and it is), the game also encourages you to go off the path and explore. By doing this, I found one subquest (which I didn't yet qualify to undertake), and I found some thieves, ruffians, and men being very impolite to women who needed to have their ways adjusted by the tip of my blade and / or a gunshot.

Man, it's like being Batman, but with a fancy plumed hat.

The game does have unavoidable "cut scenes" in the form of comic pages. One thing I liked about these scenes is that you can mouse-over the speakers to find out their names, just to make sure you keep the characters all straight. If they haven't been identified yet, they may only be referred to as the "Man from Meung" or something like that.

While I'd rather see these scenes play out in-game, there's just a lot of cases where it just isn't feasible. Especially on an indie budget. They work. That's the important part.

One of the more interesting points of the game that I want to explore more is the concept of honor. You have four major stats (besides health) - your attack skills with firearms and sword, your defense ability, and "honor." Honor comes by leveling, and also by your equipment. While a new, fancy collar might only give you a minor defensive benefit over a cheap, dirty one, it may grant you a significant bonus to your honor. I'm not sure all what honor is used for, but I do know that you need a minimum level of honor to qualify for undertaking a subquest. People in Paris do not just let ANYBODY run their fed-ex quests... no, they need someone who looks professional and has a good reputation.

And really, there is some sense to that. It's just kinda nifty to me that your clothing and gear is important beyond combat. This was also the case in Cute Knight, where I found I had to maintain two separate outfits - one for social occasions, and one for exploring the dungeons. Hey, at least this time I get to play a guy when I do that...

And when I play Tennis. Yeah, there's a tennis mini-game in this thing. The game of French nobility.

Combat is ... well, I hesitate to call it an "action RPG," because it's not the traditional click-fest. But it does happen in real-time, and you have to time your usage of healing ointments or timing a click on an opponent during the brief moments in which he is most vulnerable. But otherwise you click to start the combat and watch them go at it, trying to time other actions when necessary. It won't tax your tactical skills or anything, but it does take some active participation and skill.

Guns take time to reload, dependent upon the type of firearm you own. They reload even slower if you are busy doing something else. So normally you open a combat with a pistol or musket shot, and then go at it with swords.

I've had fun playing it so far, and I encourage you to check it out if it looks anything like your cup of tea. Actually, I encourage you to buy it from Rampant Games to help me support my indie game habit. But only if you like it.

How do you know if you'll like it? Why, by playing the free demo, of course! It gives you enough time to get into a lot of trouble, fight a bunch of duels, and become buds with Athos, Porthos, Aramis (after your duel to the death with them is so rudely interrupted by the Cardinal's guards...)

Download The Three Musketeers: The Game at Rampant Games
Available for Windows and Mac.

Have you tried it? What did you think? Did I miss anything cool or clumsy? Let me know here, or in the forums!

Knights of the Chalice Tips & Strategies

2009-10-20T05:10:00.000-07:00

Knights of the Chalice is officially responsible for about 15 hours of lost development time so far. I found a profound sense of victory upon defeating the slave lords. It is not an easy game, but I'm having a blast playing it. From what I have heard, it sounds like I am not quite halfway through the game yet.

I thought I'd share a few tips I've picked up along the way for people just starting out:

#1 - Character creation is critical. If it's your first time playing, I'd recommend not settling for an average character. Wait for a character with at least 10 in every characteristic, at least one score of at least 17, and a reasonable spread of abilities otherwise. THEN you get one re-roll and one swap. Take advantage of them. And then tweak the character further through race. Half-Elves tend to make good wizards, and a Mul (half-dwarf) is a good choice for a Knight.

#2 - Your party should consist of a Knight, a Wizard, and a Cleric. The fourth character class is up to you. I have a second cleric in the party. They can hold their own in a fight, but more importantly if one goes down, the second cleric can heal or raise them back up again.

#3 - Superior Concentration is a very valuable feat at lower levels. Also click on the option in the spell screen to always cast defensively when threatened in melee. This avoids attacks of opportunity (and the way melee characters like to swarm your wizards, this is an important thing!), and Superior Concentration reduces the chance of spell failure when doing this. Don't worry - at higher level, spell failure becomes less and less frequent when casting defensively.

#4 - The game has an option in the settings to get maximum hit points when you level. For first-time players, I recommend this setting. Otherwise there are some battles where getting surprised or losing the initiative will likely kill off half your party before you get your first turn.

#5 - Do NOT neglect item crafting feats for non-Knights (Knights don't seem to get any crafting skills, even though Forge Weapon or Armor doesn't seem to be magic-related). Particularly at lower levels, your casters will need scrolls or wands to supplement their limited spell slots, and those things are NOT available in plentiful supply via loot or merchants. Make sure that you have all of the crafting feats covered somehow between all party members by 8th level or so.

#6 - Note that there is a difference between "Forge Weapon or Armor" and "Craft Magic Weapon or Armor." The former lets you create non-magical equipment, and the latter lets you enchant said equipment with magical powers. You can instead enchant items that you loot (as long as they are of masterwork quality), but it's far easier to make exactly what you need when you need it.

#7 - The AI enemies really, really like to attack your wizard(s). Hey, when I'm fighting groups of bad guys, I go after their wizards first, too. You can either grouse about it, or take advantage of it. I try to position my wizard defensively so that enemies have to approach and go around my other characters (thus drawing attacks from readied actions and attacks of opportunity). It helps to load up the wizard with good defensive gear as early as possible. Bracers of armor, rings of protection, cloaks of blur, and rings of fire (or ice) to defend against those pesky enemy wizard spells and dragon breath weapons.

#8 - Enlarge Person is the single best arcane spell a low-level wizard can have. Forget the piddly damage a Magic Missile can do at levels 1-4. And Burning Hands will usually just hit friendlies, since you'll be hiding behind them so much. No - Enlarge Person makes your fighter bigger, stronger, more likely to hit, do more damage, harder to grapple (the enemies LOVE to grapple in this game!), and most importantly - a bigger obstacle for your low-hit-point self to hide behind!

#9 - Likewise, while spells like Fireball and Cone of Cold are really important for higher-level wizards to "clear the room," against single, powerful "boss" encounters, your wizard is best off letting the knights dish out the damage. Instead, the wizard should focus on debilitating the major foes. Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, Enervating Ray, and so forth can be FAR more powerful and battle-winning than direct-damage wizard spells. Plus, there are few things as satisfying as dropping a fearsome, mighty opponent down to only hitting half the time for 5 points of damage or less.

#10 - Silence and Insect Plague are awesome cleric spells, but require some management. They don't exactly neuter enemy spellcasters - they force them to move. Combine it with good tactical positioning to force them around corners or whatnot, and you can reduce their ability to fry you with long and medium-range area-effect spells.

#11 - Speaking of good low-level spells - the Summon Elemental spells are 1st level divine spells that scale with the caster. These have been key to winning many combats for me, and they are just as useful at first level as at 13th (and I assume at 20th and above, but I'm not there yet). I'd say Cure Light Wounds and one kind of summoning spell should be your very first spell selections. You'll eventually want at least two elementals eventually (or you'll be hating life when your fire elemental HEALS an Iron Golem).

#12 - Blind-Fighting is a lot more useful than it sounds. My knight has only occasionally been blinded (or stuck in darkness) in combat, but is frequently attacking blurred or displaced or invisible opponents, and it's nice to hit them a lot in spite of their defenses.

#13 - When in doubt, stick close to a wall. When combat starts, you'll have at least one side protected. In at least one combat, sticking close to the wall AND near obstacles changed the combat from being practically unwinnable to straightforward when battling giant intelligent spiders.

#14 - The universal advice - save often, using multiple slots.

#15 - If you find yourself needing a little extra XP or cash, simply wandering about the world map will help you pick up some a trickle of both. This is helpful if you are right on the cusp of leveling, or if you need to build a few more magic items.

#16 - Do NOT agree to go to the slaver's stockade until you have an ample supply of wands / scrolls to sustain you. I'd recommend not going until 5th level, too, as you may be stuck there for a while without access to a place to rest and heal / replenish spells. Having a wand of fireballs and a wand of cure serious wounds will really, really help see you through to a campfire.

Hopefully these words of advice will help you through the first several levels of the game. Veterans of the game, feel free to chime in with your own tips and suggestions!

Have fun!

More Scary Movies For October

2009-10-19T04:42:00.000-07:00

Long-time readers might remember that October was the reason I joined Netflix a few years ago. I like *scary* movies, but not necessarily gory movies. I like the really creepy-scary-spooky films. The ones that creep you out instead of gross you out. While I have a place in my heart for Freddy Krueger (and yes, I will probably watch the remake, but probably not until it comes out on DVD), the 80's slasher flicks don't do much for me.

I've posted my list of creepiest Halloween movies in the past. Plus scary addenda. And a few one-offs. But I've missed a few, and wanted to share some suggestions (or warnings) for this October if you are looking for something scary over the next two weeks.

Carrie (2002)
This is a made-for-television remake of the original schlocky classic. The very, very end kinda sucks, but up until that point it's pretty dang good. Hmmm.... I felt the same way about The Mist, too...

In case you have never heard of the original movie or novel - it was Stephen King's first novel (well, the first published novel anyway). It's about a girl who is an absolute misfit, horribly picked on in high school, who... uh... also has powerful telekinetic powers. And then, one night, she snaps.

(Really awful trailer here)

Ju-On (The Grudge)
This is the original movie - not the American remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. We started watching it with English dubbing, but it was awful and drove us crazy three minutes in. So we switched it to Japanese with English subtitles.

This movie was awesome but a little confusing trying to track of who is who and the timeline. See, this movie is effectively a collection of short-stories. Each story is loosely connected with each other by intersecting relationships, but they all have to do with a house. A really horribly haunted house. With a curse. The curse is basically a viral infection --- it spreads. As more people die, the curse gains more power.

The only reservation I have is that the format does make it a little hard to follow. Maybe if I spoke Japanese it would have been easier. But with that (significant) caveat in place, I think this is one of my favorite scary movies of all time.

Note: My wife has seen the American remake, but I only half-watched it. She felt the original was MUCH better than the remake. Though both of us preferred the American remake of "The Ring" over the original Japanese film, "Ringu." Go figger.

(Trailer here)

Supernatural (TV Series)
My wife is obsessed with this TV series. I'm caught up to it through season 4, and I have to agree it's excellent. I'm just not as obsessed as she is. Plotwise - it's about two brothers who are "hunters" - hunting ghosts and demons - around the country. It's a road-trip show with supernatural horrors. The show has evolved with a literally apocalyptic story arc, including demons and scary Old Testament-style angels.

Suspiria
We actually saw this one some time ago. It was supposedly very shocking when it came out. Compared to werewolves, vampires, and especially zombies, witches don't get very many movies. But this is one of 'em. A lot of critics rate this one really highly, but I can't. But it had some pretty interesting ideas in it. (Lame 1970's trailer here)

What Lies Beneath
By comparison, this movie - featuring Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford - got pretty weak reviews by critics, but I really enjoyed it. (Trailer here)

Omega Man / I Am Legend
The Omega Man is a 1970's movie starring Charleton Heston. I Am Legend came out just a couple years ago starring Will Smith. Both are based on the same story. I enjoyed I Am Legend more - it was definitely scarier. But if you want a movie about what happens AFTER the end of the world, both are enjoyable.

Archon Classic Preview

2009-10-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

At the Utah Indie Game Night, I got the chance to play the upcoming title from React Games, Archon Classic. It is still unfinished, but quite playable.

I'm old enough to remember playing the original. *Sigh*. I was excited about the chance to play this new version. We ended up having a four-player team game which lasted a half-hour or so. And after having played it, I can only say that I'm even MORE excited about this game now. I had that much fun.

And it's that faithful to the original. So faithful you'll want to play this one with a gamepad. So faithfulthat you can choose to play with old-school graphics from the original 8-bit game and capture some nostalgia if you are old enough to have it about the original game.

If you do not remember the original, it was one of the original action-strategy games. The game is played on a gridded board. At first blush, it looks a little like chess. Some squares are light, some dark, some neutral, and some change color between light and dark over time. Each piece has a different range of movement and some other movement restrictions. Two of the figures on the board can cast spells to do things like reverse the color cycling of tiles, resurrect defeated pieces, and so forth.

The goal of the game is to possess all five special squares on the game board, or to be the last man standing. (As one of the developers told me, it's amazing how often it comes down to the latter in the new game)

The big difference between Archon and chess is what happens when a piece lands on an square occupied by an opponent. In Archon, it's not an automatic victory. It means a action-based battle must take place. One side may get an advantage if the square color favors their army (the dark army gets bonuses on darker squares, etc), or they have bonuses obtained from possessing goal squares.

The health lost by the piece in battle remains lost, however (except for the shapeshifter) - which means it is possible to "wear down" a tough piece with weaker pieces over the course of a couple of fights.

This old-school gameplay is faithfully re-created by the new game. It's everything the old game was, but better. These guys were clearly fans of the original, and have taken great care to keep the original game intact.

But then they've added upon it with additional options and gameplay modes. There are quite a few variations, of which I think the original designers would approve. The boards have some different layouts. You can have power-ups that appear randomly on the battlefield that may give your piece health, spread-shot fire, and so forth. Another mode allows your pieces to level-up by defeating enemies - which counters the weaker health they normally. You can choose from several different game boards.

You can have up to four players in either a team mode (each player controls half an army) or in a free-for all. In team mode, you can "double up" pieces on a square. Battles don't begin until everybody has moved for the turn, so you can end up with a 2-on-2 battle over a particular square. I did not play free-for-all, but with each player taking a "corner" and a half-sized army, it should be interesting.

I personally feel the introduction of pick-ups in the game mode we played did wonders for the action sequences, which I always felt was somewhat lacking in depth in the original game. I did not play it against the AI, so I cannot vouch for the AI's ability in either strategy or action mode.

We ran into a few little bugs, but the game is still a couple of weeks from going beta.

As it is a hybrid game, it may not appeal to action gamers who hate strategy / tactics, or strategy gamers who hate real-time action. But if you don't mind a mix of gameplay styles, it's a pretty dang fun game. A good strategy can cover for less-than-stellar gaming reflexes or vice versa. Hey, I'd pretty much lost the game last night, but still managed to take on all comers with my remaining unicorn until the final battle against the sole remaining dark piece, so I feel good about how I did!

It looks like React Games has done a very nice job with the classic license. Go indie! I really look forward to playing the final version.

Utah Indie Game Night - Fall 2009

2009-10-16T05:05:00.000-07:00

Best indie night ever? Maybe.

If it wasn't our best-attended night, it was pretty dang close. It was a huge group, and I had an awesome time. And came home energized, feeling like being an indie game developer was quite simply the coolest gig possible. It was a night full of FUN. And that's what games are about. Oh, they can be about a lot more, but they are primarily there for fun. And it seems like the indies are getting more empowered to create fun than ever.

So it started low key. I had an impromptu before-the-indie-night meeting with the Frayed Knights team. Or the ones who were willing to come. The meeting didn't go quite as planned - we meet face-to-face so infrequently (unfortunately), so there was a lot to cover. But since some of our team had never met each other before in person, it was good. But we mostly just looked over maps. We need to do this again somehow, sooner.

Succeeding in a Game-In-A-Day Project
Then we had a presentation by Steve Taylor of Wahoo / Ninjabee on making a Game In a Day. He spoke very quickly about a lot of things. I thought it was brilliant. And not just because he referenced my Game-In-A-Week project, Hackenslash. :) Steve is a convert to the Game-In-A-Day on a level well beyond me.

How much of a convert is he? These days, he actually has the entire studio make a game in a day as an exercise. Seriously. It's a team-building exercise on business hours. They put their "real," paying projects on hold and for the entire day, the job of the studio is to make a game in a day.

Why? Steve listed a pretty long list of benefits. Among them were the chance to experiment with new technologies or new production techniques. It's a chance to test some game design ideas quickly, developing a rapid prototype. He believes it really helps the team improve their skills - programmers, artists, designers, and even the managers. They go through the entire development lifecycle of a project in nine hours instead of twelve months. While the pressure is high and the time frame is extremely limited, the exact same issues come up in a one-day project as a one-year project.

And the ultimate fringe benefit, Steve pointed out, was discovering enough of a seed of awesomeness in your game-in-a-day that you feel you can turn it into a real commercial project. This is what they did with one Game-In-A-Day project, "Rome," (get it? It was built in a day...) which became their hit XBLA game A Kingdom for Keflings.

He went over the rules variations on various Game-in-a-Day competitions (such as they are), and why they were important, especially in shaking things up and getting people outside their comfort zone. He discussed strategies for having a successful GID project, and the types of things you can learn from both success and "failure." One thing he mentioned was the importance of having milestones *AND* fallback positions. Yes, even in a one-day project (or especially in a one-day project), having a milestone schedule is critical to keep progress going.

I think more game studios would do well to follow Wahoo's example here.

The Return of Archon!
After that, we broke for GAMES! Well, games and Chinese food from Panda Express (mmm.... orange chicken!) sponsored by indie developers React Games. Who I'd like to talk about a bit. They have the license to the classic game Archon. They just released two Archon games for the iPhone - Archon and Archon Conquest - and are currently working on a PC game entitled Archon Classic.

I'm gonna have more on this game in a later post. I normally just kinda browse the games at Indie Night, but I had a chance to play this one in a bit more depth. It was definitely one of the evening's highlights. They turned it into a tournament, with prizes. Great idea, and a great game.

More Games
I also saw a bunch of cool, rapidly-developed titles from various indies (and I apologize if I'm not associating titles with names properly). Greg Squire should have more of the details at some point today, but I ended up not taking notes and promptly forgetting the names of the indie studios after being shown their game. I suck.

I played a tic-tac-toe game on the Android phone using black and white (well, dark gray and light gray) stones. I saw side-scrolling zombie game with an amusing hand-drawn style which had only been in development for about two weeks. It was showing a lot of promise, with some very cute-gross animations. There was also a tentatively untitled tower defense game in Flash that was looking very sharp, and a couple more games on display that I only barely got to glance at with everything going on.

Daz Links

I met with representatives from Daz 3D and Mogware who are partnered together for something special called Daz Links which looks extremely promising. When coupled with a more agreeable license from Daz 3D, Daz Links can create a very simple-to-use pipeline to create usable reduced-poly-count, reduced-bone-count, single-texture models suitable for use in real-time 3D. They demonstrated by taking a female ranger character who clocked in at something like 125,000 polygons with her clothing, and generated a 2,000 poly count version with a very simple interface. With models and clothing packs ranging from as little as $12 on their site, this could be a significant source of cheap content for indies. With multiple levels of detail! All rigged for animation.

The results were still a little rough - but the tools aren't in beta yet, and are still very much under construction. The final result was probably not QUITE ready to drop into a game and play (except as stand-in art). As a developer, I might still have to go in and tweak a few polygons. And add hair - they warned that hair can be really resistant to decimation, and it's quite plausible that half the poly count could be eaten up by the hair.

So - were I to use the system - I'd probably want to make my characters bald, make multiple LODS, export them into Collada, import them into Blender, add hair and tweak the polygons, add mount points, and then export. Oh, and pray that I could preserve the animation data working with Blender. One day I will figure that last bit out.

So no - it's not a complete be-all, end-all, no-work-required solution for indie game content. But what is? I think it holds promise.

Conversations and Rumors
As usual, for me, the highlight was talking with other indies. It's fun to hear what they are doing, what approaches they are taking, what they've been working on, and their past experiences. Some tidbits that were shared or became apparent after comparing notes:

Josh Jones is working to bring the Global Game Jam local. This could be pretty excited. He also pinned me down to committing to at least be there if possible, if not to be a fer-real participant.

The iPhone is getting less exciting as a commercial game platform by itself. However, many indie game developers continue to see it as being a solid component of a multi-platform release plan. Many are breaking their games into multiple parts, and selling each part separately (to get around the iPhone fans' apparent allergic reaction to anything being priced at over a dollar. Why they are so willing to pay top-dollar for a phone but nothing for apps is confusing to me, but I'm not an iPhone owner).

Greg Squire and I had a nice conversation about the return of the adventure game to a level of prominence. Not that it was ever dead, or that it will ever occupy the same tier of popularity it enjoyed in the 80's and early 90's. But thanks to indies like Telltale Games and Wadget Eye Games, the genre does look like it has gotten a shot in the arm.

Flash remains a popular tool for indies. For obvious reasons. A lot of game developers - especially artists with limited coding skills - can really do some amazing things with Flash very quickly. I was impressed with how many games were getting rapidly prototyped and developed in Flash.

A lot of indies these days are also former game mainstream developers (many are refugees from a former employer of mine). The recession has really taken a bite out of the games biz, and some are responding by going indie - taking their skills on the road as indies. The era of the "big studio" may never come to an end, but it seems like an increasing number of game developers are realizing that there are a lot of opportunities out there beyond the traditional big-studio model.

Overall, it was an impressive night. I left feeling energized and thrilled to be a part of this community - even more so than usual. I dunno if indies are gonna change the world or anything like that - but I think, in our own tiny ways, we're making it a more fun place to live in.

UPDATE: Greg has a write-up with a lot of details that I missed. Check it out here!

Ogre 3D Going "Even More" Open Source

2009-10-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

Ogre 3D is a popular 3D graphics engine - and definitely the most popular Open Source 3D graphics engine. It has been used for numerous indie projects, and has started to gain traction on more "mainstream" game projects such as the upcoming RPGs Venetica and Torchlight.

It's gained popularity in part because its licensing - the "LGPL" - was a lot more friendly to commercial developers. The LGPL requires any changes or statically linked additions to be made available to the public in source code form. In practice, this has meant that so long as you dynamically linked the code to your game (for non-programmers: It was a separate file installed with the game), you only had to publish the changes / addition to the engine itself.

Ogre 3D announced a few weeks ago that it was changing the licensing on the next version (1.7) of the engine. The new licensing will be the MIT license - which lacks even the limited "viral" component of LGPL, which Ogre has used up until now. (Ogre also had a "commercial" proprietary license - the OUL - for those companies that wanted to use it without the source code commitment).

The new license does away with the requirement to release source code, and the OUL will be phased out for version 1.7 and beyond. Will this hurt Ogre 3D's growth as an open source project? The project leaders think not:

"While not requiring modified source to be released might initially seem like giving up an important motivator to contribute code back to the community, we’ve noticed something in recent years: 99% of useful code contributions come from people who are motivated to participate in the project regardless of what the license tells them they have to do. It’s our experience that a certain percentage of the user community will always participate and contribute back, and therefore encouraging adoption via simpler licensing is likely to result in more contributions overall than coersion via complex and restrictive licensing does. In addition, people who are internally motivated to participate tend to provide much higher quality and more usable contributions than those who only do it because they are forced to."

An interesting observation on their part, and it makes sense. And as Ogre 3D is a fairly popular (and most technically hard-core) open source projects that has been kicking around for a while now, they'd probably know. Anybody who's had to work with code written by someone who either didn't know what they were doing, or didn't care who would have to maintain it after them, can probably understand where they are coming from. Grudgingly-provided source code is not much better than no source code at all.

So if that percentage of quality providers can remain constant, it makes sense that the best way to grow it is to increase the size of the user base. The less restrictive license may do that, especially for larger, commercial studios (who have an automatic allergic reaction to GPL and LGPL, and not entirely without reason).

The biggest concern here might be that some company might then make some minor, proprietary changes to the engine and then sell it as a competitor to Ogre 3D. But to be able to sell it, they'd need to make some pretty substantial changes to be worth the price difference, and the Ogre 3D's team hopes that this approach will make bigger advances in the quality of their own team's output.

Anyway, here's hoping this new approach will help catapult Ogre 3D to new heights as a free, fully-featured 3D engine!