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Cat Mother Open-Sources Game Engine

Posted by simoniker on from the no-comment-from-dog-father dept.

Mr.Oreo writes "According to Flipcode, Finnish videogame development company Cat Mother Ltd. has now closed its offices, but in their last meeting the company board decided to publish all company source code as open source. A large part of the game assets are also available. Published material includes a fully playable prototype of a 3rd person action/adventure game, and a commercial quality in-house 3D-engine (C++/DirectX9). The source code is published under the BSD license, and the content is published under the GPL license. Just downloaded the engine and snooped through it - it looks pretty complete, and definitely worth having a look at if you're a 3D code monkey."

10 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. It's things like this ... by Kleedrac2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    that really make me renew my faith in open-source. This is what it's truly good for in the private sector. I get annoyed every time I hear some kid say that Half-Life should be open-sourced just because the sequel is coming out and it's based on Quake II which is open-source anyways. This is what Open-Source should be though ... the company is defunct and the technology would go to waste otherwise ... why not give it away under the BSD liscense so you can still get the kudos. Hell, maybe the original developers will get to finish their dream in their spare time!!

    --
    Sure we wang, can.
  2. OS games by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I would like to see what benefits accrue to this company in mods and improvements over the next year. This is interesting stuff. I hope they release their in-house documentation too.

    1. Re:OS games by rlowe69 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I hope they release their in-house documentation too.

      This is a game development company. What documentation? ;)

      --
      ----- rL
  3. What happens next? by IM6100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The question I have to ask, and maybe I am being skeptical, is 'what happens next?' I see that they've shut down the company web page, and there's downloadable code available on a sourceforge page. I don't see any links on the sourceforge page for anybody involved in an ongoing project. Does that sort of thing 'grow' out of the code eventually? How?

    --
    A Good Intro to NetBS
  4. i hope other companies follow this path by incubusnb · · Score: 5, Interesting
    not only older finished products, but cancelled products that didn't make it to the world should be presented in Open Source.

    i remember when certain games that i was looking forward to would get cancelled, if more companies released the source, at least there would still be a chance for it to be a finished product.

    for example, EA's Motor City was a great game, now its closed the doors on the server, why can't they release the source code under the GNU and allow people to setup their own servers, or to re-program on offline mode. now my $60 product is useless and my Faith in EA is damaged. just because they can't use the soucre anymore, doesn't mean nobody else could.

    I applaud Cat Mother's innovative ideals, the world would be a better place if more companies saw Open source the same way.

    --
    /. is overrun by bed-wetting elitist nerds
    let it be known, for anything other than servers, a *nix OS sucks
    1. Re:i hope other companies follow this path by Oddly_Drac · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "my Faith in EA is damaged"

      Seriously, if you had faith in EA Games, you'd be quite late in renouncing them now. They're rapidly becoming the most generic gaming brand on the planet.

      --
      Oddly Draconis
      Too cynical to live, too stubborn to die.
  5. Check out their news timeline by stoborrobots · · Score: 3, Funny
    what's funny is that the news on their homepage suggests that their company timeline was:

    1. Get seed funding from Venture Capitalists
    2. Become a registered Xbox developer
    3. go bust!
    So now their trying the slashdot principle:
    1. Release all code as open-source
    2. ???
    3. profit!!!

    --
    "Go to CNN [for a] spell-checked, fact-checked summary" -- CmdrTaco
  6. Anyone else see the irony in this? by madaxe42 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They've gone bust, and gone opensource. Since this, their site and product has probably received more interest than it ever has. This is an excellent business move... Expect these guys to produce The Next Big Thing(tm).

  7. Kudos by Quill_28 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    For releasing under the BSD license and not GNU.

  8. Golgotha by pragma_x · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Its interesting to note, this is not the first time a game company has decided to give the world their unfinished product.

    Crack.com opened up 'Golgotha', along with 'Abuse', back in 1998. Everything about this, including the source is located here.