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Posts published in “Gaming”

The State of Open Source Gaming on Linux

In the month of October, the spotlight seems to have been on Indie games, and for the open source/Linux developer there were some exciting things happening. On October 26, the 2016 Independent Game Festival (IGF) had its last call for independent game submissions. The IGF is basically Sundance for game developers and student designers who create for Linux, Steam, Mac, and Windows as well as virtual reality and consoles, with over $50 thousand in prizes up for grabs. The competition takes place March 14-18 in San Francisco, for those interested.

Ludum Dare LogoA few game jams, contests for developers to design a game in a short time span, usually between 24-72 hours, have just passed or are soon to be underway as well. Gaming on Linux just concluded its very first game jam last week. Ludum Dare recently finished its “October Challenge,” and as a result eleven more games have been added to the Linux roster. Their next challenge begins in four weeks, with the theme not yet determined, so feel free to visit and suggest a theme. Ludum Dare also has a mini-challenge, Fusion, scheduled to start on November 20 — so keep checking those links for updates.

Solved: The Case of the Missing SteamOS Icons

Over the last week, many Linux users on Steam were left in a state of confusion when noticing that some Linux games have had their SteamOS icon removed. For those unaware, the SteamOS icon certifies that a title is playable on Linux, including SteamOS, and soon, on Steam Machines.

A reddit user, mykro76, took note of this in a post last week:

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

GameCredits: A Digital Currency for Gamers

GameCredits LogoOn September 3, Bitcoin Magazine’s Joseph Young reported on GameCredits, or GMC, one of the first crypto currencies specifically designed for use in games. The secure open source currency will be supported on multiple platforms, including Linux, Windows, MAC, Android, iOS and Windows Mobile. The goal is to eventually replace the current model of in-game purchases.

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

Linux Gaming Keeps Getting Better

It wasn’t long ago that gamers avoided Linux like the plague, citing the lack of games as their main reason. When I was growing up, there were next to no major games to play on Linux and it seemed no developers cared to try. However, with the help of companies like Valve, 2K, and Aspyr Media, that’s quickly changing. More and more games are becoming available, with even some being Linux exclusives, including a launch on Steam of Don’t be a Patchman this past July.

Batman: Arkham Knight
Batman: Arkham Knight is one of many games that will soon run on Linux, in addition to the more 1,500 titles already available.
Recently Valve hit a landmark, with over 1,500 commercial games available for Linux. A list of recent and pending releases can be found on the Gaming On Linux website, as well as Valve’s full list on the Steam database. While that’s not up to the level of Windows, which boasts over 6,000 titles, there have been a stream of releases over the past few months with no end in sight, which should have Linux gamers feeling quite optimistic.

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

Virtual Reality & Open Source

When the Oculus Rift first debuted as a kickstarter project in 2012 it brought the possibility of virtual reality (VR) gaming back to the public at large. Nintendo tried it’s hands at virtual reality when it released its Virtual Boy in 1995. The Virtual Boy was an ambitious project that just didn’t find its market at the time. According to critics and testers at its preview, among the primary problems were “its high price, the discomfort caused by play…and what was widely judged to have been a poorly handled marketing campaign.”

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

Five Super Cool Open Source Games

In 2014 and 2015, Linux became home to a list of popular commercial titles such as the popular Borderlands, Witcher, Dead Island, and Counter Strike series of games. While this is exciting news, what of the gamer on a budget? Commercial titles are good, but even better are free-to-play alternatives made by developers who know what players like.

Some time ago, I came across a three year old YouTube video with the ever optimistic title 5 Open Source Games that Don’t Suck. Although the video praises some open source games, I’d prefer to approach the subject with a bit more enthusiasm, at least as far as the title goes. So, here’s my list of five super cool open source games.

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

Everywhere a Linux Fest, Linux Gaming Good to Go & More…

FOSS Week in Review

Steam logoFirst things first: When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town down around San Antone, it’ll mark the start of Texas Linux Fest, the sixth annual two-day Linux/FOSS hoedown deep in the heart of the Lone Star State, this year about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Lots of great speakers with lots of great sponsors give this show a more local feel than the one earlier this week in the Pacific Northwest, so if you’re in the neighborhood, you should give the fest a visit.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Making the Switch to Open Source Gaming

There was a time years ago when Linux and gaming weren’t fit to be in the same sentence. I first made the jump to Linux around the late ’90s with a copy of Doom II. There were glitches at times: the occasional crash, loss of sound and lack of some features. The flaws of the Linux version in contrast to its Windows counterpart turned me away from Linux gaming at first.

Mugen
Homer Simpson fighting Giga Bowser, illustrating one of the many ways the game can be customized.
It wasn’t until around 2002 that I discovered M.U.G.E.N, created by Elecbyte, which was one of the most successful games for open source platforms available. A freeware 2D fighter game, with free customization for fans of all kinds, M.U.G.E.N was my first taste of gaming on open source, and it made me a believer of the future of open source. It was also very user friendly for those with a minimum of tech skills: If there were any issues in how a character behaved or performance slowed due to an error, a quick search was all that was needed.

Hunter Banks

Hunter Banks has been a part of the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE) Family for the past 13 years. When not writing about open source gaming, he’s working on creating his own games. Follow him on Twitter @SilvrChariot

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