Practically every week, one of the projects that we feature is a game. Some weeks – like this week, we feature more than one game.
And this makes a lot of sense, when you think about it. People are involved in Open Source because it’s fun. Open Source involvement, for most of us, is a hobby. Our specific reasons for participating vary greatly, but in the end we all do it because it’s enjoyable. Projects that aren’t enjoyable either get abandoned, or become commercial so that they can hire developers.
So it’s no surprise that a huge number of the projects at SourceForge are games, ranging from traditional games like chess and Mega Mario, to the more involved games like Zero AD and Planeshift.
Then there’s the wonderfully unexpected and addicting games like Me And My Shadow and Enigma.
And one mustn’t forget the enormous number of educational games, like The Number Race, GCompris, Schoolsplay, PySioGame, and many, many others.
SourceForge is also a treasure-trove of game engines. By developing and giving away a game engine, game designers are freed up to focus on their artistry and story-telling. Engines like Spring, Arianne, Game Editor, and Castle gather incredibly talented game designers who have an idea for a game but don’t want to have to muck about with the internals. (More game frameworks here.)
While many of the games are reproductions of existing popular commercial games, many more of them appear to be completely original creations. And the creativity and originality is truly beautiful.
So the next time you’re looking for a new game to play, instead of getting out your wallet, head over to SourceForge and see what you can get for free, from people doing it just because they love it.