FreeGameDev

I've written quite a few games in the past (as a hobby), but am in the mood to contribute or fork an existing game (with existing assets). I'm a Java dev and like multiplayer games, and I can't bothered with all the extra complications that 3D games bring, so I'm looking for a 2D game, probably a platformer. I've tried looking for one, but it seems very hard to find a project by these parameters. In particular, being open source, surely the language is one of the first thing potential contributors will be looking for, but that seems to be the last things that gets specified. Anyway, I digress; can anyone point me in the right direction to a game that fits these criteria?

Thanks in advance!

Yeah, good luck with that. Platformers are insanely plentiful everywhere else, but among libre games they're a rarity for some reason, and I'm not aware of any that support multiplayer or that are programmed in Java, let alone both at the same time. I'm guessing you'll have to start from the ground up if those parameters are strict.

Is there a particular reason it has to be Java?

That's a pity. I'm looking for Java as I've been using Java professionally for almost 20 years now, so I know it well enough to do most things; I've only dabbled in other languages and am nowhere near as proficient. I could always start with a single-player and retro-fit the multi-player aspect. I have written my own multi-player 2D games ( one is at http://team-tactics.blogspot.co.uk/ ) but to be brutally honest I'm too lazy to promote it or improve graphics, so I was hoping for an open-source game that already had those covered.

SteveSmith {l Wrote}:That's a pity. I'm looking for Java as I've been using Java professionally for almost 20 years now, so I know it well enough to do most things; I've only dabbled in other languages and am nowhere near as proficient. I could always start with a single-player and retro-fit the multi-player aspect. I have written my own multi-player 2D games ( one is at http://team-tactics.blogspot.co.uk/ ) but to be brutally honest I'm too lazy to promote it or improve graphics, so I was hoping for an open-source game that already had those covered.

It is indeed a pity, help like yours would be welcome for many open-source projects. I just don't know any that is written in Java, though.

You could try asking on http://www.java-gaming.org as there are (obviously) a lot of Java games there.

This would probably be a good starting point: https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com/ no? Seems plenty active and they even have a game making competition right now.
Edit: yes, mostly close source games in that community... but there is lots of activity and the framework is fully open source as far as I can tell. I am sure you could find some like minded people there.

Freecol (http://www.freecol.org) almost fits: it's developed in Java, open source, 2D and has multiplayer support, but isn't a platformer.

Newton Adventure is a 2D Java platformer, but doesn't have networking as far as I can tell.

Recently Vandar posted here about MapChat, a "multiplayer 2D" chatroom a bit like you could find in MMORPGs, but only meant for chat and small interaction with the world. He also has several other Java open source projects running currently.

Wograld http://www.wograld.org or http://wograld.sourceforge.net/ uses a Java client. We could use some help on improving the user interface.

im surprised that nobody mentioned Stendhal
https://stendhalgame.org/wiki/Main_Page