Open source games roundup

Week of August 24 - 30, 2014

In this week's edition of our open source games news roundup, we take a look at Screencheat for Linux, Script Kiddies' pledge to go open source, and the newly available source to Unity's Test Tools.

We celebrate that games are for everyone. The act of playing a game and having fun is an open experience that should be as inclusive as possible. Safe and happy gaming out there!

Go ahead and Screencheat, it's part of the game

If you played split-screen multiplayer shooters like GoldenEye 007 or Perfect Dark , then you fell into one of two camps. You either kept your eyes glued to your own screen partition, or you screen cheated. Couldn't find your opponents? Just glance down at their section of the screen, locate them, and take them out. Screencheat , an upcoming game from Samurai Punk, takes that concept and makes it a key mechanic of the game. You're all invisible, so sneaking peeks at each other's screens is absolutely necessary for finding and dispatching your opponents. The game is currently in beta with a planned October release for Linux, Mac, and PC.

Hacking game and open source game assets on Kickstarter

Script Kiddies is a cute little pixel art game that celebrates programming and open source culture. As one of the titular script kiddies, you attack and defend computer terminals, hopping from floor to floor and punching in button sequences faster than your opponent. The developer of the game, Austin Dixon, is looking for $8,500 on Kickstarter to finish the game, and will open source the whole thing when he's done:

"...it makes sense that I do something to give back to a community I benefit from everyday. So I'm making this promise: when Wcite is released, I will also open source the following: all my scripts, functions, sprites, backgrounds, and credit card infor... wait, wait, wait! All that but the last one! It'll come with documentation, maybe a tutorial or two and all the code will be released under the GNU Public License v3."

Unity opens up

In an effort to engage their community and improve customization, Unity Technologies is opening up the source code to its popular game engine's components. As of today, the source for Unity Test Tools is available on the company's BitBucket repository. They hope to add the new UI system in the near future.

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