Hey,

I'm not sure how many people here visit the Linux Game Tome (probably not many), but every 2-4 months (it varies), there is a new "Game of the Month"* where everybody with the time and skills contributes to an existing project to try to make some nice improvements.

*The "Game of the Month" Project has been renamed to the "Help Wanted" project

Past GotM's include:
* SuperTux
* Pingus
* TuxKart, which got forked into SuperTuxKart

SuperTux is probably the biggest GotM success. Check out the screenshots for an idea of how much it improved:
* Old
* New

Pingus didn't have too much visible progress because most of the work done was back end stuff and, as such, didn't have a very good turnout and never resulted in a new release.

With TuxKart a lot of progress was made, but there was some disagreements with the current maintainer so the project was forked into SuperTuxKart so that each game could co-exist. There was never really a release with this, except SuperTuxKart 0.0.0 because near the end of the project it lost momentum. This project will eventually be picked up again sometime and completed, since there was a lot of work put into it and has come a long way.

If anybody here wants to help out with Lincity, that would be great. The more help there is, the better the game will become. The main thing that is going to be done for Lincity is a new iso-2d engine and graphics (instead of the old, ugly, top-down view), and a new GUI/menu system.

Seeing as how this project is from the Linux Game Tome, you can probably guess that this is a Open Source Linux project. However, ideally, we want Lincity to be cross-platform (which I think it currently is). The game will be using the SDL library.

For more information you should check out the following places:
* News posting about it: http://happypenguin.org/newsitem?id=5203 -- no need to read the comments here, it's mainly people bitching about the game not being 3d
* Wiki: http://netpanzer.berlios.de/lincity/index.php
* And the forum thread on it. You'll probably want to skip to the third or fourth page for more recent info.
* IRC channel: #lincity on irc.freenode.net
* Mailing lists: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=33390 -- there's not currently any traffic on mailing list though, but that's likely to change soon

Sorry to make this so long, but I thought I should explain the project to everyone .

_________________
Ryan

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" - Gandhi

Ah, I had wondered if there was an open source SimCity yet... you've answered my question It sure could use a graphics overhaul though, you're right.

If I weren't unemployed and desperately trying to finish my own game, I'd definitely help out. It would be a great opportunity to learn some more about SDL, and to see what it's like working on an open source project.

I hope some other folks respond and join in!

I'm playing OpenTTD right now. It's multiplayer up to 10 people (hmm ). and open source too. (It's Transport Tycoon Deluxe)

_________________
Serious game developer

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