Unigine Starts A Linux Game Development Competition

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Unigine Starts A Linux Game Development Competition

While open-source game engines are beginning to progress in terms of features and graphics capabilities -- thanks in large part to id Software making open their older game engines -- as a whole the open-source game engines and other "indie" game engines are far behind their commercial counterparts. There is the Unreal Development Kit that is available for non-commercial use, but now Unigine Corp is getting behind a game development competition to spur Linux game development efforts.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=15502

[bulletxt]

Sounds interesting...

[Setlec]

wow that is cool, gonna submit to that!

[allquixotic]

A binary license to an engine is usually a mistake. In 99% of cases, there is some feature of the engine that is too rigid, i.e. not customizable enough to get the exact game mechanic or visual style that the developer is looking for. To work around the limitation, they have to settle for something less than ideal. Being able to customize the game engine is IMHO essential to making a game that feels "natural" and not like a piece of generic software engineering. For a prime example of a game that does feel like a piece of generic software engineering, see Star Trek Online, which got extremely low ratings despite a large budget and massive hype. Funny thing is, they use an in-house engine for STO, but their internal policies were such that the development team basically wasn't allowed to really customize the engine, and this turned out to restrict the game so much that it really feels like you are not even in space. Just saying -- you need to be able to tailor the engine to the game.

[deanjo]

I just hope the winning proposal isn't "Yet another FPS". Time for some good rpg's in linux with a great community development tools for community generated content. The last real good RPG in linux was NWN, and it's greatest asset was its community generated content.

[rogerdv]

Yes! A good RPG with a reasonably large world and quests.

[Kosava]

I think linux need alot games but after all some racing and sport games, we have on linux rpg,fps i think it will be good to have some quality race game...

[leif81]

While this is generous of them...a better contest to boost the game dev ecosystem of the linux desktop would be to hold something closer to the Make Something Unreal contest but with Unigine. The result of the unreal contest was *many* good games where the result of this contest might be 1 good game.

[Setlec]

@ allquixotic: well it would be the same thing as UDK does the binary would call the "customized libs" and scripts for the game allowing the customization... but still the customization wouldn't be that extensive indeed.

[deanjo]

I think linux need alot games but after all some racing and sport games, we have on linux rpg,fps i think it will be good to have some quality race game...

Racing games have a relatively short time where they are still fun to play where as a good RPG can be sustained for years with added content and campaigns added easily if done right.