uDevGames Source Code Available

Geert Poels writes "Kiki the Nanobot was the deserved winner of the uDevGames Mac Game Programming Competition. Entrants had to submit their game along with its source code. Provided with open source licenses like MIT, GPL, ... and written using OpenGL, some games will prove a fairly easy port. The source code to the 41 entries have been prepared and are being made available for download. Last week, GameSpy made a round-up of '02 Mac gaming by publishing a 2-page editorial 2002: The Year of the Mac Gamer."

Comments

Black Shades

[Time Doctor]

Some friends and I already ported David Rosen's incredible Black Shades to Linux. Which is reasonably similar to my last port, Orbital Eunuchs Sniper.

Good Stuff

[dave1212]

Played for about 20 minutes, it's pretty different!

Check it out, it's a nice break from all the arcade games out now..and getting the code is a nice bonus.

kiki

[paradesign]

if you have a mac and you havent played this game you are a loser. well maybe not, but it is a good game. try it, and support the local guys.

Further info and clarification

[Griggs]

This story is a bit old, the source code has been available for some time now. Nevertheless, its a truly amazing resource to have the complete source for 41 games. You can also see all the uDevGame 2002 source code here, and read postmortems by the winning developers.

Games? On my Mac?

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost every Mac owner I know plays their games on an X-Box, a PS2, or a separate windows PC... if they play games at all.

Given that the Mac is now a platform that gamers have almost completely abandoned, it's not surprising that there isn't much excitement about this contest.

Nothing really new has happened in the world of gaming in the last three years anyway, except for maybe NWN. Now that Spring is here, I reccomend going outside instead.

open source games are kind of like socialism

[xluserpetex]

it's a nice idea, but doesn't really work out to well.

i've not been to impressed with many uDevGames. i think maffia is the only one, and that's just amusing. a lot of the rest (including that nanobot one) are okay at best. maybe i'm spoiled by consoles and commerical games, but the graphics on all of them are pretty lame. open source may be a great way to make everyday applications, but not really a good way to make a game, at least a commercial-quality game. the resources just aren't available. sure you can probably get enough people to actually write the game, but you people willing to dedicate countless hours designing the characters and the levels and such. and the motivation just isn't there when there's no money involved.

Re:open source games are kind of like socialism

[TheEnigma]

You should learn to enjoy the game instead of being fixated on the surface quality. Kiki is a great game. I don't know what complaints you could have about the graphics.

Clearly you have totally missed the point. This was a 3-month make-a-game contest in order to get people to be creative and contribute to the community. Did you try Astro Squid? Or Raptor? If you are prejudiced against 2D action games, well, that's one thing, but the graphics quality of those is quite high.

Now, Mac and other game developers have access to 3D code, input code, game logic code, and more, to help them get started on making their own games.

I don't deny that there is a shortage of artists for open source games, but what do you think people can manage in three months? Also, have a look at PlaneShift, the Crystal Space game -- amazing art content.

Re:open source games are kind of like socialism

[Griggs]

As has been said, with a time frame of only three months, hobbyist developers and a niche platform I think the quality (and quantity) of the games is actually above my expectations. Another thing to note is that uDevGame 2002 was only our second time running the contest, but we saw roughly twice as many entries, prizes worth three times as much, more community interest and involvement, and (in my opinion) a higher level of overall quality. A time-frame of three months doesn't allow for Quake 3-beater graphics, frankly I think the community would be suspicious of such an entry, instead we tend to get some unique concepts or a new spin on the classics. On the technology front we had a cross-platform, Rendesvous (zeroconf) enabled game, an entry using C++ and Python using SWIG and a number of OpenGL entries. Using mainly C/C++, but also Basic and even MetaCard. And all the source is available.

Re:open source games are kind of like socialism

[Anonymous Coward]

Well actually Astro Squid wasn't made in 3 months, it was released the first week of the contest. Well maybe it was made in 3 months, but not necessarily during the contest. The rule is : no showing the game before the contest, giving the dev 3 months to get feedback, make changes, update, and win! Given the rule change, this years games should be some killer stuff.

Games On my Mac? YES

[igame3d]

MAC GAMES YES INDEED!

About 32,000 Mac users downloaded Antack!
Another 50,000 PC users have played it since.

The excitement about the contest has doubled in a single year. 20 games in 2001, 41 games in 2002.

To all critics of uDevGame, let's see you do something more than troll message boards.
Where's your source code?
Where's your product?
Let's see it.

Open Source doesn't mean free...

[IvanMilles]

Open Source doesn't necessarily mean free. It just means that you share your industry progress with the community - and this is essentially what created IBM. I, for one, made a little money on my uDevGame 2002 entry, since a lot of people don't have time/will to get source code, sift through it to make it compile and then draw all new graphics (or rip from original application) just to play a $10 game.