![]() I decided to try and change that and so became a translator.” Says Aldarisvet (forum nickname), a contributor from Moscow. “Since my son knew little English, I tried switching the language to Russian only to find that the translation was far from perfect. Translations to other languages are also done by volunteers and sizeable forums exist for quite a few of the other languages Wesnoth has been translated into. A very detailed guide on how to critique others’ art submissions also sits at the top of the Wesnoth Art Workshop, which is, in all fairness, a useful read even for those outside of the Wesnoth community who would like to engage any artist in a conversation about their work. Richard Kettering, the current art director for the game has written a lengthy article explaining how the community should talk to artists and make them feel welcome. In addition to people hunting for bugs and implementing new code, Wesnoth has needed the expertise of those with other skill sets. Tweaking the core Wesnoth code involves working either in Lua or WML (a scripting language developed for Wesnoth) and extensive care has been taken to streamline the process of learning their basics so newcomers can start contributing as soon as possible. Chief among the reasons for such longevity, according to Ignacio, has been Wesnoth’s design principle to “cater to the content creators in our community by making the game engine more moddable”. Morelle, a long-time contributor from Chile.Īs a completely volunteer-run project, the fact that Wesnoth has survived for over 13 years and still boasts an active community of developers is impressive, knowing how much the gaming landscape has changed over that time. “I wanted to contribute back to the project as a way to thank the devs for the time and effort they had invested in such a wonderful game, as well as to implement some of the things our community wanted that other devs didn’t have the time to work on,” says Ignacio R. Since then the game has grown into a polished, complex beast with 16 official single-player campaigns that have been translated into about 50 languages, charming artwork and an abundance of fan-made content. A few weeks later, a new release went online, packing improved artwork by Francisco Munoz, a Mathematics student from Spain, who became the first of many collaborators that spilled onto the scene shortly after. While making quality products according to this model might sound utopian, there is at least one game out there that has proved this is possible.īattle for Wesnoth got its first release in June of 2003, after David White spent two weekends making the turn-based, hex-grid strategy game set in a high-fantasy world with two playable factions: elves and orcs. Their relative obscurity hides a game-making model that is completely unique in how it blurs the line between playing a game and developing it, fosters long-lasting communities and does it all without a lick of profit in the crosshairs. This niche is rarely discussed in mainstream media as many of these games are rudimentary code-sketches, with art and gameplay light-years behind their commercial counterparts. ![]() The one part of gaming that can lay claim to true, untarnished ‘freeness’ is the open-source world, where other incentives besides profit drive creativity. Haunting stories of shady tracking and flat-out player manipulation by Freemium game companies and accounts of people obsessively spending inordinate amounts in virtual marketplaces designed to feed off the easily-hooked have done a good job of filling in the picture of how these games twist the meaning of ‘free’ to still fit their monetization strategies. It’s funny how the word ‘free’ has become almost pejorative when it comes to gaming. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |