I just posted the first development video of my open source multidirectional tactical space shooter/conquest/rpg 'Zero Point War'.

I created Zero Point War because I wanted to create an open source game that is about the open source movement. Many open source games feature mascots and imagery associated with open source projects, but do not actually attempt to integrate the open source ideals into story or gameplay.

With modern scientific advancements in areas such as speech recognition, search engines, nanotechnology and 3d printing we are rapidly approaching an age where Star Trek style Replicators will be a reality. The only thing that will prevent a person from ordering their computer to print a hot el grey tea or a pair of Nikes will be copyright laws and licensing fees.

I think legislature such as SOPA is only the beginning; as technology advances there will be harsher and more draconian laws. Copyright can not exist in a world where material goods can be pirated at will. A world where food and clothes can be downloaded off the internet, a world where shelter and transportation can be printed out. Unrestricted access to such devices would effectively destroy the value of all accumulated wealth on earth.

The central plot in Zero Point War is the struggle for control of this technology. Taking place in the year 5,000, missions pit corporate copyright enforcers against space pirates in high speed interstellar battles using highly advanced unmanned space probes called "remote presence vehicles".

Check out the video, and tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UF1YrnWybg&list=HL1328932354&feature=mh_lolz

I recently created a Sourceforge project for Xenos Engine. Check it out if you are bored.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xenosengine/

I have been working on my game recently. It is coming along rather nicely... I will have to package a demo soon.

So I have been working with the open source CMS drupal for the last year or so. It is ok. It shares many design aspects with the cms system that I designed back in 2001, such as a node graph of content, omni-generic content types, and heavy use ov theme engines.

It does however have many flaws, mostly relating to it's partial oop implementation and its archaic callback function hooks.
The issues will not be addressed in the upcoming version 6, nor in the proposed version 7, but rather in version 8+.
A steady release schedual means that maybe in 2 years my issues will be addressed.

That is ok, I guess... but on irc earlier I was told rather bluntly that I am a dick for bringing it up.

Today I bought my 2nd copy ov retail Quake wars. For full price (60$). On Friday when I get pay check I am going to buy 2 more copies. Also at full price. Just so I have a copy for every PC on my LAN that is able to play it.

And I am going to buy a copy for every person I know that has a computer. And if someone I know doesn't have a computer that can play it, I will buy them a new computer.

(Ov course, I have an agenda - any pc I buy for a friend comes with Slackware Linux pre-installed by me.)

Anyway, at lunch today at w0rk I was thinking about running down the side ov a cliff, into the crashed strogg ship and capping the last energy cell with only seconds remaining.

I almost started crying. Not figurative crying, but literally actual tears started to well up in the corners ov my eyes. I do not know if it was the images burnt into my retina from staring at the on screen carnage for too long, or if it was the sheer awesome joy that is Quake Wars..

But I do know I love this game.

:)

Here is my game after one full year ov development. (see my last journal entry). Not quite done, but here is the demo. Built using the following the following technology: c++, Boost, gcc, kdevelop, mingw, code::blocks, Ogg Vorbis, OpenAL, OpenSteer, Open Dynamics Engine, Irrlicht 3d engine, The GIMP, Blender, SLackware Linux, Windows XP.

http://xhrit.com/8-bitHELL/demos/zp3_a6_xp.zip
http://xhrit.com/8-bitHELL/demos/zp3_a6_lx.tar.gz

There are still some issues with it however: multiplayer doesn't work yet. sound screws up on some windows boxen. It has some issues with the timestep that makes it jerky on slower machines. And it has not been tested on all versions ov linux or windows, so I am sure there are issues that I don't even know about. It is still too hard for most people - I included difficulty settings, but if that is not enough every object in the game is stored in ini files, so the game is easily modable. If the homing missiles are annoying you, just open the file called 'proto_missile.zpp' in a text editor, and change some stuff around - lower the damage, make the missile slower, make it turn less, etc.

I started to work on an indy game. Here is what I am using : irrlicht for graphics, open dynamics engine for physics, audiere for sound. I plan on using raknet for multiplayer if I can figure it out - and I might end up using SDL for joystick support (but I have not done much research into it yet). Blender to make the 3d models, the gimp to make the textures, kdevelop to code in.

I don't know what I have to use to make the game work on a mac - but when it comes time to dust off my spare PC and make a windows build, I'll go with devc++.

As for the game itself, it is a first person 6dof space shooter w/ zero-g physics. The goal is to make the most realistic space shooter possible.

I'll put a demo up on Happypenguin.org when it becomes a bit more playable.

I have a game I am writing for linux. It is not done. I have not worked on it in a year or so... but i will finish it someday.