Open Surge

[Alexandre]

Hi,

We need some serious help for an open source game. We hope you can help? Do you know where, besides FreeGameDev, we could ask open source enthusiasts for help?

What is the project?
Open Surge is a jump'n'run similar to classic "Sonic" games also featuring team play and RPG elements. Open Surge is developed collaboratively by an Internet community. Philosophy, roadmap and planned elements can be found at http://opensnc.sourceforge.net/wiki/ind ... n_Document

What contributors are needed?
Artists. The style of art needed is described in http://opensnc.sourceforge.net/wiki/ind ... n_Document

Project page
Forum: http://opensnc.sf.net/forum
Wiki: http://opensnc.sf.net/wiki

Screenshots (some of these graphics are used as placeholders)

[charlie]

Glad to see you introducing original content and moving away from the legally shakey ripped graphics.

Have you considered increasing the resolution of the game? Is it easy with the engine?

[Alexandre]

Glad to see you introducing original content and moving away from the legally shakey ripped graphics.

Have you considered increasing the resolution of the game? Is it easy with the engine?

Thanks for your response, charlie.

There are two reasons why we do not increase the resolution of the game. We're making a retro game. Increasing the resolution would limit our target systems (older or newer machines). Still, one can use a "smooth graphics" option in the menu to make it look bigger and better. More importantly, we do not have manpower to make nice looking high resolution graphics. If you take a look at the threads in our forums, you'll see that the community is struggling a lot to make retro graphics and to adapt free art obtained from places like opengameart.

But hey, retro graphics can look nice too.

[charlie]

They certainly can!

Actually I'm resurrecting this topic after coming across Shinobi Densetsu (opensnc thread).

For those who don't know, its a samurai-themed game created with Open Surge, see the trailer for 0.3 release for a taster. Not sure if it is FOSS (doesn't appear to be) but it shows how capable Open Surge is - that it isn't just limited to Sonic-like games. SD a combat system, for example.

Btw you should update the SD video on the OpenSnc front page as it looks considerably better now.

Back to Open Surge - I think you guys should register a new project on Sourceforge (i.e. opensurge.sourceforge.net) and move all Open Surge aspects of the project there, and leave OpenSnc behind as simply the "Sonic" mod for Open Surge.

The main reason for doing this is to protect the project from potential cease & desist type problems. This is what Stratagus had to do. It was originally Freecraft but the relation to the Blizzard games made them an easy target for Blizzard. If you were to get a C&D for Open Surge, it is vulnerable due to all the Sonic-related material on the project/website.

Make a clean split, and have Open Surge a unique project with Open Sonic simply a mod and have opensnc.sf.net for that mod.

[TeamSD]

Glad to know OS has a thread here too

Charlie, as stated in SD's website through a reply to your comment, SD is Open Source just like Open Surge, and i must add, even if we move on to a commercial platform (which will surely need a commercially-compatible engine), the current version built with Open Surge Engine will always be FOSS.

the name opensnc is not directly associated with Sonic, in fact SNC now stands for the character's initials - Surge, Neon and Charge

And Alex, I must agree, the main page should be stripped of all Sonic-related material. While Sonic is the main force of attracting visitors, we have no more Sonic, except in the (now obsolete) v0.1.4 release.

[dulsi]

Sorry SuperTux. Fedora added OpenSurge. I asked my son if it is as good as SuperTux. He said "Yes but Sonic."

Still looking for a platformer with 2 player simultaneous.

[TeamSD]

@dulsi

it can be heavily modded, as far as making a completely new game in another genre.

If that isn't your cup of tea though, someone in the community may come up with something in the future, as the game/engine are improving at great speed

[TeamSD]

Also for people wondering about my Shinobi Densetsu Mod/game, it's frozen. It was a great showcase of the potential of the older engine but ultimately life got the best of me and I can't focus for such long hours as before.

The game saw other appearances in OpenBOR, Construct 2 and even UDK back in 2012/13 but It's in a phase of finding its identity and appropriate engine.

[dulsi]

it can be heavily modded, as far as making a completely new game in another genre.

I've downloaded it before with the intent to try it out but never found the time. I will probably attempt to make a 2 player platformer at some point if I still can't find out I like. I don't know if it would use OpenSurge's engine or something else. I play with a lot of games.

Have you checked out my Gamerzilla project. Achievements/trophies in OpenSurge would be a nice addition.

[dulsi]

I offered to demo Open Surge at the next Linux user group meeting I go to. Since I generally prefer to use a controller, I tried out Open Surge with a PS4 controller and eventually a PS3 controller. It's not working right. There are times when he doesn't move or fails to recognize the jump button. It's not all the time. I tried a simple allegro joystick program and don't see the problem there. I'll try to debug it more when I get a chance.

[dulsi]

5.1.2 has controller code that doesn't work well. I tried the latest. The controller works great with that version. Looking forward to the next release.