GitHub repository: https://github.com/Windblade-GR01/Ikemen_GO
License: MIT
I have stumbled upon this project during some random internet browsing fresh on this weekend, and already, it gave me some hope of making a more complete FOSS fighting game. To sum things up, this project is basically a FOSS engine clone of M.U.G.E.N (also known simply as MUGEN), a free (only in price, not free speech due to disallowing commercial use), highly customizable, 2D game engine designed by Elecbyte. At one point, there used to exist native Linux versions of this engine, but nowadays has become obsolete in favor of a Windows-only version. While are some other FOSS fighting game engines out there, most have not seen active development within the last year/365 days (IKEMEN GO has seen active development within the past month, that's one of the reasons I bring it here). With IKEMEN Go, we won't have to worry about having Windows installed, as it is possible to compile this for macOS, Linux distros, and possibly other Unix-like OSes, including BSD distros.
From https://mugenarchive.com/forums/faq.php:
[M.U.G.E.N.] allows you to build the game of your dreams, with all of your favorite characters.
Its content is created by the community, and tens of thousands of characters, both original and from popular fiction, have been created.
You can also create your own characters and skins, or edit the existing ones.
If you are satisfied with your own creation, just share it with your friends or people worldwide, M.U.G.E.N has no limit.
The vast majority of content created for M.U.G.E.N. is derived from non-free copyrighted pop culture, but there also exists some original content. The one major issue that worries me, however, is that there exists little to no content for M.U.G.E.N. that is licensed under either Creative Commons licensing or OSI-approved licenses.
Using IKEMEN Go with existing assets found elsewhere will likely result in a compilation that doesn't qualify to be wholly FOSS/Free Cultural. That's why properly-licensed assets (preferably under Creative Commons licensing that permits both modifications and commercial use) will either have to be made from scratch, or be converted from other existing ones. Additionally, a resource pack containing assets from the original M.U.G.E.N. is required (at https://github.com/Windblade-GR01/Ikemen_GO-Elecbyte-Screenpack) in order to run the engine after compilation is done. This resource pack is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. A replacement graphics pack needs to be created if it is desired to eliminate as many non-free dependencies as possible, as even non-commercial licenses are not considered to be OSI-approved.The M.U.G.E.N. engine currently utilizes SFFv2 as its primary file format for describing audiovisual assets. Specs of this format can be found at https://mugenarchive.com/wiki/MUGEN:SFFv2.
A FOSS editor called NOMEN (https://sourceforge.net/projects/nomeneditor/) can assist in editing these files. It is licensed under GNU GPLv3, using Qt4 libraries, and development of it is inactive since early 2012. Its source code is also here as an attachment for archival purposes.
Ultimate Smash Friends (GitHub repository: https://github.com/tshirtman/ultimate-smash-friends), despite being inactive for about 8 years, has some good assets that can be converted for use with IKEMEN Go (the exact version of CC BY-SA used is unclear, however). This includes the characters and stages, but not the music, as that is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA instead. For the music, OpenGameArt is likely to save the day: music, more characters, and more stages + other assets can be found over there for additional content to make a libre distribution of a M.U.G.E.N. clone. Of course, non-free copyrighted assets can be added in by end-users, but the burden will be on them if they choose to share their modified distributions.
Overall, I hope this M.U.G.E.N. clone gives hope to creating a more complete FOSS fighting game. Maybe I could try helping out by putting together the existing assets I have mentioned.
