FreeGameDev.net Outage (Fixed)

**Update 2014-08-12 22:17**

It seems all is back to normal! Thanks 123-reg for sorting out it quickly although nobody emailed me or updated the support ticket, but stellar support nonetheless.

If you want a domain name host, then I can happily recommend 123-reg after this experience.

**Update 2014-08-12 11:14**

I've been in touch with 123-reg and was told the following:

This domain has entered in a renewal phase at the registry, it will be completed on the 15-Aug-2014, during this phase you cannot make any DNS changes.

I asked if it would return to as-was once this is phase is completed and if they could do anything to speed it up, response:

Yes, they will return to the original ones, we have encountered these situations before and we can speed up the renewal process.
I will need to escalate this chat to a support ticket to have my colleagues assist you further, is that ok?

So it is being escalated. I'll keep this post updated.

**Original Post**

I'm not sure (as I've not heard from anybody, really) of the exact extent of the freegamedev.net outage (especially the forums which projects/people depend upon) but it is currently down for me and others if isup.me is to be believed.

I forgot to renew the domain. I would cite lots of excuses but I don't have any!

Don't panic! It is now renewed, but perhaps because I renewed it after it expired (on the 9th - I noticed the forums down this morning which is the 10th) it seems I don't have access to the admin tools and it hasn't recovered yet. They have taken my money though so I expect normal service to resume soon and my provider (123-reg) says the 16th at the latest.

To everybody that this impacts, I am sorry. It'll be back soon. Also, it should auto-renew next year.

 - Charlie

Stunt Rally now comes with spaceships and cool ancient cities!

Stunt Rally 2.4... talk about feature creep, but I am not complaining ;)

See more pictures of the release here, and don't forget to give some feedback on our forums.

Oh and you can now browse cars and tracks online.

First public release of Terminal Overload!

You might remember the crowd-sourcing campaign from the beginning of this year to make a fully FOSS remake of a rather unique game.

Well, a bit later than promised, but really awesome never the less:


Note that this is a really early alpha and most of the art still has placeholder quality. It is quite playable multiplayer game already though, and there is a Linux and a Windows version for download on their website.

Please don't forget to give feedback on our forums (also if you are interested in helping out).

This is by the way to my knowledge the first FOSS game utilizing the open-sourced version of the Torque3D engine and also the only one that uses the work in progress Linux port so far.

Support the development of the Terra Centauri RTS

Not exactly hot of the press, but the developer behind the MegaGlest based RTS Annex: Conquer the world has started a new project:

In a lonely planet circulating a distant star, a war of survival rages on. There a sentient race, the Valkyries struggle to protect their world and themselves against the parasitic organisms Devourers. Explore large maps for resources, treasure, and other advantages to fight back the relentless horde of Devourers.

Terra Centauri: The Last Stand is a new unique MG based game. While game shares a similar art style to Annex, this game has radically different gameplay and much higher quality models.

He is also running a funding campaign on Patreon and you can give feedback on the Megaglest forums.

Speaking of Megaglest: while development has slowed down a bit lately, the work on the CE-GUI based new menu and HUD is looking great.

Duck Marines, FOSS remake of ChuChu Rocket

Thanks to Tangram Games for pointing out to us that they just released version 1.0 of their local multiplayer game Duck Marines.

They describe it as:

Duck Marines is a cross-platform free software PC remake of Sonic Team’s ChuChu Rocket.
Duck Marines attempts to recreate the magic from the local multiplayer of ChuChu Rocket while adding new elements like mini games, a level editor, colorful pixel art and more.

But see for yourself:



For those not familiar with the original on the Dreamcast here is a small description of the gameplay:

The goal of the game is to get as many ducks into the submarine of your color. Gray ducks give you one point, gold ducks give multiple points and pink ducks will trigger an event or mini game.
Guide the ducks towards your submarine by placing arrows on the ground. When walking over an arrow ducks will instead walk in the direction the arrow is pointing.
Beware of the blue predators. Predators love to eat ducks and will kill a large number of your ducks if they reach your submarine. Try instead to guide the predators to the other players’ submarines using your arrows.

Source-code (zlib) can be found here, assets are licensed under the CC-by-NC-SA/ND. Build with the great Lua 2D game framework LÖVE by the way.

DevCorner: GameDevelop goes open-source

Thanks to GamingOnLinux for pointing out that this crossplattform *no-programming* 2D game development suite has gone fully FOSS.
It can export games to HTML5 and native code (x86 Linux and Windows).

Read the original announcement here. The github repository is here.

License infos:

• The IDE (in the IDE folder) is licensed with GPL v3. 

• The Core library, the native and HTML5 platforms (respectively Core, GDCpp and GDJS folders) are LGPL v3. 

• Extensions (in the Extensions folder) are using zlib/libpng license. 

• The name, Game Develop, and its logo are the exclusive property of Florian Rival.

Here is a small video to get you started:


& you can find some example games here.
----
By the way: I also recommend to have another look at the Godot engine which has had many improvements since it became open-source a few months ago.

Winner of the Linux Game Awards PotM July 2014 announced!

See full announcement here.



Congrats to Unvanquished, they are doing a great job for sure!

While they won by a clear lead, the follow-up projects are also very much worth mentioning: