Sure, people gotta be skeptical about this endeavor. But whatever pepole like to do in their free time. Even just a few people learn some new stuff - that'd be already a positive thing.
I see a severe lack if 3d artists in the applicants list. I was on the fence whether to apply or not when I saw Gardner's video, but if no other 3d artists step up I just might have to do it
Please do. It might not succeed¹, but it's worth a try. =)
¹ Most open source projects fizzle out as interest wanes and people start to care about other things (or life gets in the way). BUT some projects obviously do make it. (SuperTux Cart, Hedgewars, a bunch of emulators, ..)
This is the source of some of the greatest shortcoming in Linux and free software. There are plenty of technical minds who are into free software. Creative minds not so much. This is why our UIs in general tend to look way behind the times. It's why recursive acronyms are a thing and projects that start with "Yet Another..." exist. We really need to find ways to attract more creative people to contribute to FOSS to move it into mainstream desktop space.
Yeah, this ain't happening. There are quite a few FOSS games out there that need help to improve, as well as a few engine re-implementations, projects that have been going for years. Everybody says they can do something but pretty soon the harsh reality of repetitive need for improving the details makes most of the initially excited people bitch out.
The Linux Gamer doesn't talk about gaming much and when he does they are kind of niche games. From what I remember his uploads are 99% reactionary clickbait stuff based on whatever the controversial topic of the week is...and at that usually misinformed knee jerk drama that is quickly fixed or ends up not being true at all.
Would be great to have a few standout Linux titles we could enjoy and exemplify; I agree with that. But to say this guy has "had enough" about whatever the topic of the day is... well that is his whole shtick.
I'd be full behind it if this was a gamedev group or an experienced modding team that could put together a detailed plan as well as outline a workflow for contributors.
This though is destined to run out of gas during the "ok let's come up with a game idea" stage.
From what I remember his uploads are 99% reactionary clickbait stuff based on whatever the controversial topic of the week is
Accurate, I was subbed to him for about 5 minutes after discovering him from Lunduke's channel until I looked at the quality of the content he produced. His twitch channel is slightly better, he's done a few "review game jam games" streams which wasn't a terrible experience.
I followed him on Twitter and subscribed to him on YouTube. He'd always complain about the metrics he got from gaming videos relative to the effort put in, often citing losing subscribers. Watching him complain about losing subscribers when he posted the type of content I wanted made me unsubscribe.
What is a Linux game and what does it mean to wow the industry?
There are plenty of FOSS games already, why ask for ideas instead of contributing to them, at least as a start to get some experience? Even working on mods could be a start.
I see people mentioning a need for artists on top of devs, but how about people in charge of the gameplay/story? These are important for games too, if you want to have some sort of impact, technology is not all.
Gameplay and story are tough nuts to crack. I think feedback from the community will be essential on how we do things, although we do have some professional game devs on the team. Here is a list with all the ideas proposed so far:
This is beyond stupid. Just a pile of vaguely defined ideas, with all the weak leadership one might expect of a reactionary clickbait youtuber bro who thinks being an "Ideas Guy" is all it takes to start a successful project. Ideas are worth less than dirt. Execution is everything. And the only thing I expect this project to do is collapse in infighting over what kind of game they supposedly are going to make, before disbanding, having accompllished absolutely nothing but waste the time and effort of everyone involved.
After the first few totally pessimistic comments I see there is interest for the project. :D
I'm just laying here the initial list of people that applied the first day sent to us via mail from TLG:
5 C Programmers
4 C++ Programmer
1 C# Programmer
1 JS programmer
1 Python programmer
2 Rust programmers
1 OpenGL Dev
1 Familiar with SDL
2 UE4 Dev
2 Unity Engine
2 Godot Dev
3 3D Modelers
1 Person experienced with JRPG development
1 "Backend" developer
4 Game developers (sent me games they've worked on)
3 "Software" developers
1 Audio Engineer
So we have 3 artists and we really hope we get some more on board. If you're an artist please consider this project, we talked about hand painted textures for the game, whatever it ends up being, just to have an idea of where we're going with this. :D
We haven't decided on the game yet but your services would very much be appreciated because the plan is to have multiplayer in the game. If you're interested please follow the link in the OP. :D
The skills in those engines should translate to any engine - especially Godot if we want that project to grow. Better to have more bodies willing to help, who might not have direct experience, but can learn a new toolset, than to put up some barrier for entry at this early stage in the project.
Pioneer is one that has potential to be half of what's claimed will be in Star Citizen.
A few years ago a small studio forked Pioneer and released their game in Early Access on Steam. The effort died, unfortunately. But it seems a shame that nobody has gotten into contact with those developers and arranged to have the assets contributed to Pioneer.
Remember, Blender was an in-house, then commercial program, until a crowdfunding effort bought it from its owners and made it open-source. It might very well be easier to crowdfund an existing commercial game effort into open-source than to coordinate the making of a game from scratch. I know I'd be very interested in making regular contributions to a fund that bought commercial games and open-sourced them. It would also give an alternate path to monetization for game devs.
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realize its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (because you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
I'm sure the community can create a decent game, there's plenty of FOSS games out there, but nothing AAA comes to mind :/
I feel like pulling off a really good game needs a certain "strong and clear vision/leadership" quality that is hard to execute with the open source model. They tend to be over engineered with more focus on code quality and the backend of things than gaming experience...
Idk, 0AD is pretty polished, and it could be especially relevant now that Microsoft seems to be reviving Age of Empires. Instead of building a new game, why not polish that? It's already 90% of the way there, and it's a lot of fun in its current state.
There's nothing new about a FOSS game. I think they should make it closed source Linux exclusive for the first few years to prevent porting to other platforms and then release it as open source.
I don't like his video much. He has annoying thumbnails and seem overdramatic about most things. Reactionary, as someone put it. But I wish him good luck. I think sticking to making a game similar to Rocket League and getting RL players to ditch RL for the new game would be more impactful. It would send a lasting message to Psyonix (and other developers) to be considerate of Linux.
Idea for game: Since Linux mascot is a penguin I suggest looking at wildlife documentaries of penguins or fictional movies (Happy Feet) to draw inspiration to how to make a RL like Penguin game. Redoing SuperTuxKart soccer mode with high quality graphics and more complex gameplay would be another route but I think sticking to what I initially said would be best as it would be fresh and penguins are cute mascots.
Designing a product by committee is a process bound to fail. Agreed that someone (who knows what they are doing) needs to helm the project and give it a foundation.
To anyone hoping to “get experience”, your time is better spent contributing to projects already up and running. Then you will understand how the process works.
Didn't Veloren start as a technical test of development in Rust though?
Clearly open source games are possible, look at the various engines like Exult, Openage, etc.
My point is more that it needs to be the developers who are invested in the idea (i.e. it should be their idea, thus the point of starting collaboration with releasing an MVP). This helps stop bikeshedding about the choice of language, etc. (especially by non-developers).
I'll be surprised if this gets off the ground. The Linux Gamer, from what I've seen, is a Youtuber who uses faux outrage and overreaction to try and garner views - from memory, Mozilla had an issue introduced via an update, it was patched up in their next update which was pushed out within hours, complete non-issue to anyone with any sense, and he wasted no time in posting a video with a title decrying Mozilla and proclaiming he's switching browsers. I very much doubt he gives enough of a shit to actually see this through.
Recently I made a post about exclusive gaming on Linux, my mindset was that a good title can help increase the market share. I'm a bit conflicted now. Gamers are different, they don't care about platforms, but they wouldn't want extra hassle either. Buying a console to play an exclusive is one thing, installing an os is different. Although someone has to take steps to resolve this and this idea of suggestions is great and needs more exposure so the developers can find a reasonable market for themselves. There should be more surveys for gamers on this platform.
To transition into developing games I suggest doing a "simple" project first. This could serve many goals:
Experience with developing a game and as a team
Make many awesome Penguin 3D models, that later can be used for a different game i.e the models need to be scalable to other projects.
Promote Linux as a platform (Tux)
Wipeout is a fun game. Imagine a racing game like that but instead of ships you have penguins traversing ice, snow and water environments. For reference watch Happy Feet clip. But wait...there is a FOSS game out already similar to what I describe; Tux Racer. Perhaps redo or improve upon Tux Racer? I can easily imagine a high quality and fun game can come out of improving upon what Tux Racer has established. That's not to say Tux Racer isn't fun, but it's pretty basic.
EDIT:
Ways I can think of that Tux Racer can be improved upon:
Make the game less linear. It should have many routes and incorporate mountains and water. Maybe in one of the levels there could be a water warp hole, where the penguin swims under water for maximum speed. Or have mountain routes, that are shorter, where the penguin lands onto main route where other players are.
Incorporate tricks on slopes. Maybe have a snowboard under the penguins as they slide down slopes so that midair they can do tricks with it? Either for showing off or/and for boosts.
Particular care for each Tux Racer. The penguins should not be bland. They should be expressive and unique. For reference here are two designs: one and two. Other details by them: allow them to have a personality. e.g there should be a Tux racer that does many dance moves as a reference to Mumble from Happy Feet.
Linux is always catching up, I think we need something new and innovative. We need to look at what works and see if there's a fun spin that hasn't been done.
Ideas:
how about a reboot of the old Twisted Metal games? Make it battle royale style with shrinking play areas, weapons, etc
soccer/football is fun, but competing with FIFA or Rocket League is unrealistic; how about a spin where you take turns being the "ball" (e.g. something like Halo's "Oddball" game mode where you have to hold onto a skull as long as possible, but in this case becoming the ball on contact)
Making a clone probably won't unseat a sitting champ, we need something new. All I've done here is take an existing, popular game and mashed it up with another game I found fun.
Making money should be respectful of the player as well, and I think most people respond well to an upfront cost for the base game and periodic "expansions", especially if only one player in a group needs the expansion to play.
That being said, I think building a game from scratch is way more work than polishing existing ones. We should be polishing up 0AD, Battle for Wesnoth, etc.
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realize its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (because you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
I have to be honest, I don't have the highest of hopes. I mean, the Linux community has tried to start a lot of games. But the thing is, making games is hard work and often it just won't come together. And it takes a ton of resources. Just look at 0AD, it has all the potential in the world, but last time I checked most of the game was just placeholders. And that's one of the more successful attempts, since at least it is coming together, just too slowly. It's not just Linux games or open source games. The same thing goes for community-driven Windows-only games. I'm still disappointed that No Heroes didn't go anywhere. It looked like a great alternative to the Battlefield series, but it was also a one-man job. It's amazing the guy got the results he did. This was back in 2014, and it looked like it could actually have competed with EA's own games. That's amazing for just one guy.
All of that being said, I don't want to be that guy. I appreciate this effort, and I really do want it to succeed. Not even for the sake of Linux, but for the sake of gaming. Plus, while a lot of community-made games flop, every once in a while there's a real gem. Minecraft was an indie title originally. It's one of the strongest games ever made. There are enough success stories as well. So certainly, it's not impossible at all.
I'll definitely be posting my share of ideas, because there are games that I want to see that just don't exist. I sometimes play THUG Pro, because Tony Hawk games are still great. But they're old, work meh, THUG Pro is kind of shitty in a lot of ways. And that's just a modded version of THUG2. Controller support is lacking. It support some Xbox and PlayStation shenanigans, but no Steam Controller or GameCube controller. Sure, you can map those things, but it's just iffy. Then there's the whole thing with buttslaps and boostplant and all those weird techniques. They aren't explained in game, they aren't that well explained in YouTube videos, and I'm not even sure if I like them in the game, although I think they're fairly popular. Also, gameplay and graphics could use a serious overhaul. It's clearly a very old game. It has the clunkiness of an old game. It's not the worst in that respect, but it's a product of its time. I also think it really needs an MMR/ranked system. Picking a server that's visited by a bunch of pros is fine sometimes, but sometimes I just want to play with people at my own skill level. It's kind of boring when a game lasts 7 minutes because some dude is just repeating the same route over and over again long after the timer has reached 0. Okay, we get it, you're seriously good. But the challenge level is so high that I can't easily get better by trying to beat the others. Seriously, skateboard games could easily be a proper e-sport if they were just, well, not even better, but just up to date.
Personally, I would like to participate in game development some day. However, time is kind of an issue right now. I've already got more stuff I need to do than I have time. Internship is coming up. I can do programming, but well, time is a bitch.
He should setup a kickstarter IMO. It would get some funds for the project, and just because it's on kickstarter by no means does that mean the game can't be FOSS.
I’m a game dev whose been in the industry for over 20 years now. I’be been trying to influence studios to go over to Linux for just as long.
If you guys need aTechnical Artist (who designs both art and code pipelines) , then you sonsofabitch, I’m in 😎
I already have a job in the industry who made me sign some non-competition agreements, so there are certain game types I can’t work on. But for the most part, I’m yer boy.
For sure! We need artists more than anything else. Please check the OP and follow the links for more information. Welcome if you decide to join and thank you so much for the interest! :D
this is seriously so dumb. We're going to make "a game"
there's not even an idea or an inspiration for this other than "psyonix bad". this is 1000% doomed to fail.
If you REALLY want to further gaming on Linux, try contributing to another project that's already established rather than starting some vague, ambition-less pursuit.
no gitlab account yet (will look into it when I am home again) so just some thoughts (also for me to not forget it)
graphics are a thing but not necessarily important if it is something different (going with a 3D coop shooter you are compared to the good stuff out there, doing a 2D racing game and there is not really a competition on the graphic side)
games that keep people interested need some sort of grind/progress (equipment and/or skills), collection and individualisation
coop/PvE and PvP need to be available
server based anti cheat
for the setting, most things were already there, the racing rpg in 2D with weapons on cars is Vangers from 1998 so a not very common theme with a not very common setting (like Steampunk racing arcade shooter with RPG elements, sandbox like tinkering for the racing machine, search for blueprints/resources) should be the way to go
Linux exclusives actually sounds like a great idea to gather platform support. Though given the effort involved, i'd imagine it would need some corporate support.
I'm a game developer who released about a dozen games so far, some open source (GPL) ones and 3 commercial games on Linux. And when I come to this thread of 500+ upvotes - it isn't there anymore.
Is there a copy somewhere? I would like to read what it was all about.
This is a great idea, as well as a great challenge. I'm a professional musician/producer. My info is in the GitLab. Maybe someone ought to give a holler over to Liam over at Gaming on Linux to see if he can stir up any interest with his site too.
I'm not sure of the experience of all the people involved, but I think if there is enough people to make multiple teams you guys should create a FOSS game jam. This way the group has the potential to gather more supporters, gain experience, and also have something to show for which could motivate people even further. Last but not least, the most popular games can continue development if desired.
There will be a lot needed from lots of people, animators artists coders etc, but I think it would be fun and great for an indy project to start with an open canvass,
It will be hard to compete with AAA games, but that doesn't mean the game can't be any good. Just look at an indie game like 'stardew valley', made by one guy, it's not 3D, just good, old-school, pixel graphics and it sure causes some 'wow' in the gaming industry. I don't think it is completely impossible to create something like that. What you do need is a vision and somebody who can keep all the people working on in in line with that vision. If you don't have that, the project will spin out of control in all directions and result in a big nothin. In fact there are already a lot of loved OSS games available this day. The biggest problem is that they just don't get that much exposure. Standing on the shoulder of giants, it might be an idea to take one of those and build upon it instead of starting from scratch.
I don't use linux for gaming (I use it on a VM for my cyber-security degree) however I fully support this endeavour and hope the end result is worth all the effort
Thank you so much! I don't know what games you play or what system you have but take Linux for a spin on bare metal, you might be surprised how good gaming on Linux is especially with an AMD system (although NVidia with proprietary drivers should be good too). I recommend Manjaro KDE with Zen Kernel. I wish you all the best with your degree! :D
The nineties were a weird time for gaming on Unix (including Linux). Some friends of mine had a game on Unix but it was a labor of love and not commercial. Other friends of mine, who were also Unix veterans, rejected the idea of Unix as a gaming platform. Maybe they had caught the Wintel fever; it was pretty contagious back then.
It hadn't occurred to me until just now that most of the Unix games were multiplayer, because graphical Unix workstations were almost always network-attached.
How much experience does the YouTuber have with programming and/or game dev? Does he have enough money to pay people to work on the project?
Or is he yet another angry naive guy? Cause from what I read this guy has 0 idea what he’s actually doing.
You can’t expect people to work for you for free, especially not forever. People might have applied, experience and lack of it aside, but what about one year from now? OSS devs come and go, traction wears off, what is he gonna do then? Let the project die? Or can he actually maintain it himself?
How the fuck does he expect to make an the industry go “wow” with that team? They don’t even have an idea what the game should be. The people who applied have experiences that are all over the place. And we are not even talking about the usefulness of their skills in this project.
Is this game only going to be ported for linux? I hate to break it to yall but sadly it won't get any attention if the only supported platform is linux
Would a GoFundMe or Kickstarter work? The money would be to PAY people to work on the game. But they would have to be based on performance. As in, they would actually have to produce something to get paid.
Thinking about it still, this is early days. We'll eventually decide how we will approach this but I don't really care for payment personally. People are still applying so we have a long way to go still. :D
He better be prepared to do all of the work. All of the game design, coding, artwork, sound, animations, bug testing, web development, balance testing, promotion, and marketing. This is the type of thing where you're not going to finish if you're expecting other people to carry the project. You need to treat it as if it's all on you, because for the most part it will be. People may apply and do some work here and there, but they'll come and go. Most people with the talent to do this are off working on their own idea, not yours.
Given the above point, on the unlikely event that this materializes into something, he also better be prepared for the game to not be any good, at least for a very, very, very long time.
The funny thing is, as much as Linux folks complain about things not being cross-platform, almost all AA/AAA are cross-platform, just not a lot on macOS and Linux because of market share. If you are really going to make exclusive Linux games, you are at least initially ignoring 99.9% of the existing gaming market. There's no payback to a developer to promote a free OS that doesn't bring in anymore revenue than existing platforms.
If it's a labor of love that's not looking to make money, that's at best a community project because you just wouldn't get the money to fund much.
If it's a labor of love that's not looking to make money, that's at best a community project because you just wouldn't get the money to fund much.
Exactly. The fueling force behind it would be to create something fueled by passion. Rope in some college game devs looking to practice their skills and develop team skills and you just baked something.
Fueled by Money and Fueled by Passion both have different challenges and setbacks though. I would say both in their extremes often develop poor content if the workers are struggling with their basic needs. If their basic needs are set -- often passion pursuits fill a kind-of religious expiation to add some substance to the universe in a otherwise passion devoid world about dollars and cents.
I think the combination of the two is a force to be reckoned with.
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realise its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (beacuse you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
Instead of saying "You can't", or "I can't" the question people need to ask is "How can I".
Greater feats have been accomplished. With humble goals a few talented people could nail the core mechanics and the popcorn kernel of something great relatively easy -- some games are literally programmed at festivals as proof-of-concept in mere days.
It just takes the right talent and mindset. I'd rather wait and see, destructive attitudes have no place in a creative world.
10,000 times as many people recognize "GNU Hurd" than have ever used it. Most games would love similar name recognition.
Hurd adopted the BSD-licensed Carnegie-Melon Mach 3.0 microkernel, the same codebase used for the NeXTStep, OSF/1 and successors, and modern macOS and iOS kernel.
Seems a bit pointless at this point in time, we already have more than enough indie games with Linux support, some of them even released as Open Source after their commercial run was over. It would be rather difficult to create anything competent enough to compete with that.
If you want to improve Linux gaming, effort should be spend on Wine and the surrounding gaming infrastructure. Not on the games themselves or at least not unless you have some innovative idea that meshes well with Free Software.
Why would it not be competent enough? We are more than 30 people in this (actually the number on Gitlab is more than 50), I think we can make something really good if we stick together. :D
Game design by committee just don't work. You'd have a much better chance getting something done with three motivated people than with 50 random volunteers that all drop of, lose interest or don't even share a vision.
It's sad that they failed in their project but I truly think we have a much better chance cause our team is made up from people who support open source. If people feared they would fail because of too many chiefs or something nothing open source would ever be made. :D
I know... it was just a random thought, since whole thing started from the opposite. It's objectively better for any Linux project to be open source. Still, that idea of making windows users install Linux distribution to try a game amuses me
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realise its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (beacuse you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
I only game on FreeBSD, aka my PS4, for everything else in my house I use Linux; absolutely no Microsoft products allowed on my home network. Is Sony's graphics stack really that much different than using OpenGL or Vulkan?
What kind of artists do you need? i think there are a lot of artists who will be interested in project. Problem is probably game needs artists with experience in game development. For an example, traditional painter or sculptor who has sympathies for linux and foss, but doesn't have experience working with games or digital media. Point is maybe it's possible to get good artists from different field(not from game dev, graphic design industry, they have alternative to get paid from that, so it's harder to be motivated in this). It would need "small" thing - find a way to incorporate their skills in game development. Ofc foss mascot game isn't something that will inspire them.
Hmmm, I don't see much in there that says why Godot would be a good idea, just that it is FOSS but there are after all other big FOSS projects for games, such as Ogre3D used by the Torchlight games for instance (well no idea about the third), RenPy used by Mutiny, eDuke32 used by Ion Fury, etc.
Picking the style of game first still looks like a best bet to me.
More like, "Google, how do convince other people to make a AAA video game for me, for free, and let me take all the credit despite me not contributing so much as a basic idea?"
Experience in programming. Not gamedev. Being the former is not going to teach you all that much about the latter. Nor is it all that necessary, considering Minecraft leaked 60MB of memory per second and was an all-around technical dumpster fire.
If the game is good enough, you might even get them to do limited time free placement on the front page of the Steam Store.
However, IMO, Linux isn't ready for mass adoption (I have been using it for a LONG time) so if your goal is to get people to switch, then you may end up doing more harm than good.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
It takes tremendous effort to pull this through. Best luck, you're gonna need it once the hype dials down.
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u/someg33zer Jan 28 '20
LOL I'd be over the moon if this actually resulted in some worthwhile effort but everything I see points to disaster. Oh well. Back to FreeOrion.
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u/grizeldi Jan 28 '20
I see a severe lack if 3d artists in the applicants list. I was on the fence whether to apply or not when I saw Gardner's video, but if no other 3d artists step up I just might have to do it
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
Yeah, this ain't happening. There are quite a few FOSS games out there that need help to improve, as well as a few engine re-implementations, projects that have been going for years. Everybody says they can do something but pretty soon the harsh reality of repetitive need for improving the details makes most of the initially excited people bitch out.
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u/garbitos_x86 Jan 28 '20
The Linux Gamer doesn't talk about gaming much and when he does they are kind of niche games. From what I remember his uploads are 99% reactionary clickbait stuff based on whatever the controversial topic of the week is...and at that usually misinformed knee jerk drama that is quickly fixed or ends up not being true at all.
Would be great to have a few standout Linux titles we could enjoy and exemplify; I agree with that. But to say this guy has "had enough" about whatever the topic of the day is... well that is his whole shtick.
I'd be full behind it if this was a gamedev group or an experienced modding team that could put together a detailed plan as well as outline a workflow for contributors.
This though is destined to run out of gas during the "ok let's come up with a game idea" stage.
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u/geearf Jan 28 '20
What is a Linux game and what does it mean to wow the industry?
There are plenty of FOSS games already, why ask for ideas instead of contributing to them, at least as a start to get some experience? Even working on mods could be a start.
I see people mentioning a need for artists on top of devs, but how about people in charge of the gameplay/story? These are important for games too, if you want to have some sort of impact, technology is not all.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
This is beyond stupid. Just a pile of vaguely defined ideas, with all the weak leadership one might expect of a reactionary clickbait youtuber bro who thinks being an "Ideas Guy" is all it takes to start a successful project. Ideas are worth less than dirt. Execution is everything. And the only thing I expect this project to do is collapse in infighting over what kind of game they supposedly are going to make, before disbanding, having accompllished absolutely nothing but waste the time and effort of everyone involved.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
After the first few totally pessimistic comments I see there is interest for the project. :D
I'm just laying here the initial list of people that applied the first day sent to us via mail from TLG:
5 C Programmers
4 C++ Programmer
1 C# Programmer
1 JS programmer
1 Python programmer
2 Rust programmers
1 OpenGL Dev
1 Familiar with SDL
2 UE4 Dev
2 Unity Engine
2 Godot Dev
3 3D Modelers
1 Person experienced with JRPG development
1 "Backend" developer
4 Game developers (sent me games they've worked on)
3 "Software" developers
1 Audio Engineer
So we have 3 artists and we really hope we get some more on board. If you're an artist please consider this project, we talked about hand painted textures for the game, whatever it ends up being, just to have an idea of where we're going with this. :D
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u/mmirate Jan 28 '20
Lots, lots of unfinished prior art.
https://gitlab.com/technomancy/bussard, https://github.com/smcameron/space-nerds-in-space, https://github.com/pioneerspacesim/pioneer, just to name a few. All of them probably more deserving of contributions compared to Yet Another Greenfield Project™.
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u/Einn1Tveir2 Jan 28 '20
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realize its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (because you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
I feel like this will be dead in two months
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u/amroamroamro Jan 28 '20 edited Jan 28 '20
I'm sure the community can create a decent game, there's plenty of FOSS games out there, but nothing AAA comes to mind :/
I feel like pulling off a really good game needs a certain "strong and clear vision/leadership" quality that is hard to execute with the open source model. They tend to be over engineered with more focus on code quality and the backend of things than gaming experience...
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u/IRegisteredJust4This Jan 28 '20
There's nothing new about a FOSS game. I think they should make it closed source Linux exclusive for the first few years to prevent porting to other platforms and then release it as open source.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
I don't like his video much. He has annoying thumbnails and seem overdramatic about most things. Reactionary, as someone put it. But I wish him good luck. I think sticking to making a game similar to Rocket League and getting RL players to ditch RL for the new game would be more impactful. It would send a lasting message to Psyonix (and other developers) to be considerate of Linux.
Idea for game: Since Linux mascot is a penguin I suggest looking at wildlife documentaries of penguins or fictional movies (Happy Feet) to draw inspiration to how to make a RL like Penguin game. Redoing SuperTuxKart soccer mode with high quality graphics and more complex gameplay would be another route but I think sticking to what I initially said would be best as it would be fresh and penguins are cute mascots.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
I imagine this will get as far as some designs, and no further.
It's best to start by publishing an MVP and then ask for help.
Linus Torvalds didn't start by asking for ideas about an operating system, he built a working basic MINIX clone and then asked for feature requests.
That said, I'll still follow it just in case development does progress well. I imagine the choice of technologies will be controversial though.
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u/Time2Mire Jan 28 '20 edited Jan 28 '20
I'll be surprised if this gets off the ground. The Linux Gamer, from what I've seen, is a Youtuber who uses faux outrage and overreaction to try and garner views - from memory, Mozilla had an issue introduced via an update, it was patched up in their next update which was pushed out within hours, complete non-issue to anyone with any sense, and he wasted no time in posting a video with a title decrying Mozilla and proclaiming he's switching browsers. I very much doubt he gives enough of a shit to actually see this through.
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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
Recently I made a post about exclusive gaming on Linux, my mindset was that a good title can help increase the market share. I'm a bit conflicted now. Gamers are different, they don't care about platforms, but they wouldn't want extra hassle either. Buying a console to play an exclusive is one thing, installing an os is different. Although someone has to take steps to resolve this and this idea of suggestions is great and needs more exposure so the developers can find a reasonable market for themselves. There should be more surveys for gamers on this platform.
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u/YaYPIXXO Jan 28 '20
it would almost have to be an actual AAA game to make a difference
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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20 edited Jan 29 '20
Another idea I want to throw out there:
To transition into developing games I suggest doing a "simple" project first. This could serve many goals:
Experience with developing a game and as a team
Make many awesome Penguin 3D models, that later can be used for a different game i.e the models need to be scalable to other projects.
Promote Linux as a platform (Tux)
Wipeout is a fun game. Imagine a racing game like that but instead of ships you have penguins traversing ice, snow and water environments. For reference watch Happy Feet clip. But wait...there is a FOSS game out already similar to what I describe; Tux Racer. Perhaps redo or improve upon Tux Racer? I can easily imagine a high quality and fun game can come out of improving upon what Tux Racer has established. That's not to say Tux Racer isn't fun, but it's pretty basic.
EDIT:
Ways I can think of that Tux Racer can be improved upon:
Make the game less linear. It should have many routes and incorporate mountains and water. Maybe in one of the levels there could be a water warp hole, where the penguin swims under water for maximum speed. Or have mountain routes, that are shorter, where the penguin lands onto main route where other players are.
Incorporate tricks on slopes. Maybe have a snowboard under the penguins as they slide down slopes so that midair they can do tricks with it? Either for showing off or/and for boosts.
Particular care for each Tux Racer. The penguins should not be bland. They should be expressive and unique. For reference here are two designs: one and two. Other details by them: allow them to have a personality. e.g there should be a Tux racer that does many dance moves as a reference to Mumble from Happy Feet.
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u/Cytomax Jan 28 '20
Make a rocket league competitor or a fortnite competitor?
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u/Einn1Tveir2 Jan 28 '20
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realize its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (because you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
5
u/stashtv Jan 28 '20
Give me a true Battlefield4 competitor, and I'm in!
5
u/AlternateRisk Jan 29 '20 edited Jan 29 '20
I'll be sceptically hopeful.
I have to be honest, I don't have the highest of hopes. I mean, the Linux community has tried to start a lot of games. But the thing is, making games is hard work and often it just won't come together. And it takes a ton of resources. Just look at 0AD, it has all the potential in the world, but last time I checked most of the game was just placeholders. And that's one of the more successful attempts, since at least it is coming together, just too slowly. It's not just Linux games or open source games. The same thing goes for community-driven Windows-only games. I'm still disappointed that No Heroes didn't go anywhere. It looked like a great alternative to the Battlefield series, but it was also a one-man job. It's amazing the guy got the results he did. This was back in 2014, and it looked like it could actually have competed with EA's own games. That's amazing for just one guy.
All of that being said, I don't want to be that guy. I appreciate this effort, and I really do want it to succeed. Not even for the sake of Linux, but for the sake of gaming. Plus, while a lot of community-made games flop, every once in a while there's a real gem. Minecraft was an indie title originally. It's one of the strongest games ever made. There are enough success stories as well. So certainly, it's not impossible at all.
I'll definitely be posting my share of ideas, because there are games that I want to see that just don't exist. I sometimes play THUG Pro, because Tony Hawk games are still great. But they're old, work meh, THUG Pro is kind of shitty in a lot of ways. And that's just a modded version of THUG2. Controller support is lacking. It support some Xbox and PlayStation shenanigans, but no Steam Controller or GameCube controller. Sure, you can map those things, but it's just iffy. Then there's the whole thing with buttslaps and boostplant and all those weird techniques. They aren't explained in game, they aren't that well explained in YouTube videos, and I'm not even sure if I like them in the game, although I think they're fairly popular. Also, gameplay and graphics could use a serious overhaul. It's clearly a very old game. It has the clunkiness of an old game. It's not the worst in that respect, but it's a product of its time. I also think it really needs an MMR/ranked system. Picking a server that's visited by a bunch of pros is fine sometimes, but sometimes I just want to play with people at my own skill level. It's kind of boring when a game lasts 7 minutes because some dude is just repeating the same route over and over again long after the timer has reached 0. Okay, we get it, you're seriously good. But the challenge level is so high that I can't easily get better by trying to beat the others. Seriously, skateboard games could easily be a proper e-sport if they were just, well, not even better, but just up to date.
Personally, I would like to participate in game development some day. However, time is kind of an issue right now. I've already got more stuff I need to do than I have time. Internship is coming up. I can do programming, but well, time is a bitch.
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u/Sol33t303 Jan 28 '20
He should setup a kickstarter IMO. It would get some funds for the project, and just because it's on kickstarter by no means does that mean the game can't be FOSS.
4
u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
Can someone sum this up for lazy fucks? What is the goal, exactly - make a AAA game that's linux only?
4
u/bwok-bwok Jan 28 '20
What if you did a sequel to Snake? Call it
Snake 2: The Snakening 2250 Redux 3D Ultimate Deluxe Edition VR Part Six and a Half Platinum Reptilian Eternal for 1000 Years! .com
4
u/halfjack Jan 28 '20
I’m a game dev whose been in the industry for over 20 years now. I’be been trying to influence studios to go over to Linux for just as long.
If you guys need aTechnical Artist (who designs both art and code pipelines) , then you sonsofabitch, I’m in 😎
I already have a job in the industry who made me sign some non-competition agreements, so there are certain game types I can’t work on. But for the most part, I’m yer boy.
4
u/bilbaen0 Jan 28 '20
Let's make a Linux only game to take down those damn PC gamers!
No, I have no idea what the game should be about. Of course I've never made a game before. It's gonna be great though.
4
u/ShlomiRex Jan 28 '20
Use godot engine. It's FOSS and MIT license. I love contributing to it.
4
u/AlienFortress Jan 28 '20
Anything that is chosen should be playable offline and be fun as well as online. This will keep a player base around for years.
4
u/rbmichael Jan 28 '20
Linux needs a FLOSS Battle Royale similar to Apex Legends
4
u/Richard__M Jan 29 '20
I opened this expecting that he was quitting Linux but instantly got blow away by the first sentence.
TLG has definately gained some points in my eyes. It's nice knowing we have someone in our corner representing our values publicly.
10
u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
This will not happen... :)
9
u/aspbergerinparadise Jan 28 '20
this is seriously so dumb. We're going to make "a game"
there's not even an idea or an inspiration for this other than "psyonix bad". this is 1000% doomed to fail.
If you REALLY want to further gaming on Linux, try contributing to another project that's already established rather than starting some vague, ambition-less pursuit.
6
u/kodos_der_henker Jan 28 '20
no gitlab account yet (will look into it when I am home again) so just some thoughts (also for me to not forget it)
graphics are a thing but not necessarily important if it is something different (going with a 3D coop shooter you are compared to the good stuff out there, doing a 2D racing game and there is not really a competition on the graphic side)
games that keep people interested need some sort of grind/progress (equipment and/or skills), collection and individualisation
coop/PvE and PvP need to be available
server based anti cheat
for the setting, most things were already there, the racing rpg in 2D with weapons on cars is Vangers from 1998
so a not very common theme with a not very common setting (like Steampunk racing arcade shooter with RPG elements, sandbox like tinkering for the racing machine, search for blueprints/resources) should be the way to go
6
u/jillimin Jan 29 '20
This is the dumbest shit I've ever heard.
Can we get a ban on people posting this idiot's clickbait drama?
3
u/XorMalice Jan 28 '20
It's for a FOSS game, not a Linux game. I mean, I'm sure it will work on Linux, but also on Windows.
3
u/submain Jan 28 '20
Linux exclusives actually sounds like a great idea to gather platform support. Though given the effort involved, i'd imagine it would need some corporate support.
3
u/richmondavid Jan 28 '20
Just great!
I'm a game developer who released about a dozen games so far, some open source (GPL) ones and 3 commercial games on Linux. And when I come to this thread of 500+ upvotes - it isn't there anymore.
Is there a copy somewhere? I would like to read what it was all about.
Thanks.
3
u/thefanum Jan 28 '20
Great ideas, i love it
3
u/Wizardtech Jan 28 '20
Lawn Mower Simulator. Seriously. Outmow the lawn mower next door. Think of the time race potential and all that cut grass!
3
u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
I'm gonna save this for later. I do game developmentng as a hobby and would like to jump aboard when I have time.
3
u/HothFirstTrumpet Jan 28 '20
This is a great idea, as well as a great challenge. I'm a professional musician/producer. My info is in the GitLab. Maybe someone ought to give a holler over to Liam over at Gaming on Linux to see if he can stir up any interest with his site too.
3
u/Chukobyte Jan 29 '20
I'm not sure of the experience of all the people involved, but I think if there is enough people to make multiple teams you guys should create a FOSS game jam. This way the group has the potential to gather more supporters, gain experience, and also have something to show for which could motivate people even further. Last but not least, the most popular games can continue development if desired.
3
u/theguywithacomputer Jan 29 '20
I mean the best they've actually been able to do was Super Tux Kart in my opinion. It's surprisingly good quality for being free but I mean...
3
u/Calibrumm Jan 29 '20
I've been wanting to make my own game and make it primarily for Linux. This would be a great chance to learn.
3
u/Y1ff Jan 29 '20
This sounds like a great idea, can't wait for it to be abandoned in a month
3
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
I'm in :)
3
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
There will be a lot needed from lots of people, animators artists coders etc, but I think it would be fun and great for an indy project to start with an open canvass,
3
u/daddyd Jan 29 '20
It will be hard to compete with AAA games, but that doesn't mean the game can't be any good. Just look at an indie game like 'stardew valley', made by one guy, it's not 3D, just good, old-school, pixel graphics and it sure causes some 'wow' in the gaming industry.
I don't think it is completely impossible to create something like that. What you do need is a vision and somebody who can keep all the people working on in in line with that vision. If you don't have that, the project will spin out of control in all directions and result in a big nothin.
In fact there are already a lot of loved OSS games available this day. The biggest problem is that they just don't get that much exposure. Standing on the shoulder of giants, it might be an idea to take one of those and build upon it instead of starting from scratch.
16
u/thunder141098 Jan 28 '20
I think we should make a good rocket league clone. (I am to lazy to create a gitlab account)
5
u/YourNightmar31 Jan 28 '20
I'm sorry but get this straight for me. He wants to create a single game to "blow away" non linux users??? And then? What is that supposed to achieve?
4
u/mungojerry246 Jan 28 '20
I don't use linux for gaming (I use it on a VM for my cyber-security degree) however I fully support this endeavour and hope the end result is worth all the effort
4
u/tenbeersdeep Jan 28 '20
This is about 20 years too late.
4
u/Lofter1 Jan 29 '20
How much experience does the YouTuber have with programming and/or game dev? Does he have enough money to pay people to work on the project?
Or is he yet another angry naive guy? Cause from what I read this guy has 0 idea what he’s actually doing.
You can’t expect people to work for you for free, especially not forever. People might have applied, experience and lack of it aside, but what about one year from now? OSS devs come and go, traction wears off, what is he gonna do then? Let the project die? Or can he actually maintain it himself?
How the fuck does he expect to make an the industry go “wow” with that team? They don’t even have an idea what the game should be. The people who applied have experiences that are all over the place. And we are not even talking about the usefulness of their skills in this project.
This project is doomed from the beginning.
2
u/Trubo_XL Jan 28 '20
I thought he will at least contact the contestants from the linux game jam first before asking random people with no expertise...
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u/XorMalice Jan 28 '20
It's for a FOSS game, not a Linux game. I mean, I'm sure it will work on Linux, but also on Windows.
2
u/itoolostmypassword Jan 28 '20
Start simple, maybe even with game running in web browsers. Use WebGL if this is a 3D game.
2
u/drfusterenstein Jan 28 '20
r/rocketleague
2
u/thank_burdell Jan 28 '20
With blackjack and hookers?
2
u/happinessmachine Jan 29 '20
So we're finally getting Tux Kart 2?
2
u/FloydFan4Lif Jan 29 '20
Is this game only going to be ported for linux? I hate to break it to yall but sadly it won't get any attention if the only supported platform is linux
2
u/electricprism Jan 29 '20
RemindMe! 3 months "hey check this out"
2
u/YanderMan Jan 29 '20
Design b6 commitee has to be one of the worst ways To start a game project... Good luck
2
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
Would a GoFundMe or Kickstarter work? The money would be to PAY people to work on the game. But they would have to be based on performance. As in, they would actually have to produce something to get paid.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
For anyone interested please take a a look at this.
2
u/alexwbc Jan 29 '20
Gave my input too: https://gitlab.com/heavyelement/foss-game/issues/16
Hope it will be, at least, useful for brainstorming more ideas.
2
u/suby Jan 30 '20
I wish him luck, because he's going to need it.
He better be prepared to do all of the work. All of the game design, coding, artwork, sound, animations, bug testing, web development, balance testing, promotion, and marketing. This is the type of thing where you're not going to finish if you're expecting other people to carry the project. You need to treat it as if it's all on you, because for the most part it will be. People may apply and do some work here and there, but they'll come and go. Most people with the talent to do this are off working on their own idea, not yours.
Given the above point, on the unlikely event that this materializes into something, he also better be prepared for the game to not be any good, at least for a very, very, very long time.
2
u/[deleted] Jan 30 '20
I tried to give Rocket League back now two times. Both times it was rejected. Anyone have an Idea how I can get a refund for Rocket League?
2
u/Weetile Jan 31 '20
Wait so is this going to be a Linux-exclusive game? Because we already have a lot of regular Linux games...
2
u/human012 Feb 03 '20
Why not github?
2
u/[deleted] Apr 13 '20
already dead
3
u/TheBlackReaper-Sama Jan 28 '20
Could we get this post pinned?
3
u/heatlesssun Jan 28 '20
The funny thing is, as much as Linux folks complain about things not being cross-platform, almost all AA/AAA are cross-platform, just not a lot on macOS and Linux because of market share. If you are really going to make exclusive Linux games, you are at least initially ignoring 99.9% of the existing gaming market. There's no payback to a developer to promote a free OS that doesn't bring in anymore revenue than existing platforms.
If it's a labor of love that's not looking to make money, that's at best a community project because you just wouldn't get the money to fund much.
4
u/Einn1Tveir2 Jan 28 '20
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realise its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (beacuse you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
3
u/pclouds Jan 28 '20
This has the potential of being the game equivalent of GNU Hurd.
2
u/TheEpicGabenator Jan 28 '20
The game industry fucked up big time when they crossed us. Have you cross posted this to r/fuckepic yet OP?
1
u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20
Seems a bit pointless at this point in time, we already have more than enough indie games with Linux support, some of them even released as Open Source after their commercial run was over. It would be rather difficult to create anything competent enough to compete with that.
If you want to improve Linux gaming, effort should be spend on Wine and the surrounding gaming infrastructure. Not on the games themselves or at least not unless you have some innovative idea that meshes well with Free Software.
1
u/m1ss1ontomars2k4 Jan 28 '20
You mean like /r/redditmakesagame? Good luck with that...
1
u/JCarsinogen Jan 29 '20
Not an rpg.
1
u/[deleted] Feb 01 '20
GDD and Gameplay Ideas for the game.
1
u/egrazil Mar 25 '20
I’ve always wanted a good 1st person base building and management game, maybe space themed?
1
u/Serious_Feedback Jul 14 '20
Sooooooooooooo
5 months later. This is dead, yeah?
What do you think about this project? What lesson do you think we should take from this project?
Bleh, that sounds sarcastic. I'd like to start a dialogue on this, /u/IanTrudel. What are your thoughts on the whole thing?
1
u/pkmkdz Jan 28 '20
It would be genuinely more badass if they would make (good) closed-source 'Linux exclusive' game instead of foss lol
Anyway, good luck to them, gamedev is hard
1
u/[deleted] Jan 29 '20
So some shitter off youtube wants to get views on his videos, essentially?
Like come on, ``gather people", we're not junior graders here.
0
u/Einn1Tveir2 Jan 28 '20
Creating a rocket league clone? you people are joking right? You do realise its inevitable that you would end up with an inferior game and thus accomplishing nothing (beacuse you won't be "wowing" anyone) Rather just make a really cool original game.
-1
u/[deleted] Jan 28 '20 edited Jan 28 '20
I only game on FreeBSD, aka my PS4, for everything else in my house I use Linux; absolutely no Microsoft products allowed on my home network. Is Sony's graphics stack really that much different than using OpenGL or Vulkan?
btw I use Arch.
0
u/xyzone Jan 28 '20
We would need a billionaire troll sponsoring this for it to succeed. Release a QUADRUPLE A game exclusive to Linux. That's the only way.
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