Games using open source technology can even be sold as long as the code remains publically available for further development. Some extra learning is often required before development can begin; most are at the alpha or beta stages of development and do not offer the plug and play solutions that middleware or commercial engines offer. Advanced projects however, like Nevrax's 7 NeL engine, The Cube 8 or the CrystalSpace 9 engine now offer a high standard of engine with powerful Application Programming Interfaces and artist toolkits for Massive Multiplayer and First Person games respectively. Moreso they are committed to developing for a wide variety of system architectures and operating systems.

So Why does Independent Game Development Need an Island?

Currently, the particalised nature of so many open source game-development projects has made valuable resources, code and conversations specific to the forums and code-repositories of each project. While the world of opensource game development is very much alive, there isn't yet a shared base of exchange bridging both the mutual interests of the community, from the artist to the developer. Secondly, opensource game-development is so often strategically ignored by the game-development marketplace, and so a bold statement of its presence is required for it become a 'visible' alternative.

DEVELOPERS IN EXILE



Consolidation of knowledge, a common groundplane and the pooling of resources are all particular to desert island life. It is for this reason that selectparks have chosen the Island as the ideal platform to support a growing community. Working with other developers and designers we have begun building a massively-multiplayer world, in the form of a fictional Island state to host the truly independent developer.

Developers In Exile is a tactical initiative to achieve strategic isolation from game-development contexts restricted by mass-market rationales, in the belief that such distinctly capital ambitions are detrimental to open and accessible explorations of the medium.

An experiment in consolidating an open source game development community, DIE will be a 'common ground' for independent game development. In an attempt to stand as a working exhibit of the possibilities and benefits of opensource development, DIE will be a fun and feature rich game-based context for discussing and problematising issues affecting the independent developer, socialising, nurturing ideas and code.

Furthermore, the DIE project seeks to exemplify this policy of openess and accessibility by making the game code and artwork transparent and manipulable by the residents of the world.

Built ontop of the open source NeL engine [Nevrax] the codebase will be configured to be 'living'; Inhabitants will have both the ability to create new territories, trial new life-forms and contribute to the evolution of the engine and its functionality.

Code repositories, for individual projects will be accessible to both visitors and local developers and will be accessed as 'mines' in user determined locations throughout the world as well as through conventional methods ['CVS' - Concurrent Versioning System].

Interestingly the vast array of persistent Massive Multiplayer game worlds [Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, Everquest, Lineage] configure 'citizenship' as a paid subscription. While I find these worlds richly rewarding to play, contribution to and privedge within the world is primarily economically determined. In gameplay this results in the expectation of "more game for my dollar" whereby the gamer's enjoyment is waged against their interest or ability to continue paying.