Campbell was recently interviewed about Yo Frankie! on Open Gaming Now.
"This month on Open Gaming Now Campbell Barton (Game Logic and Developer) of the Yo Frankie! project. Yo Frankie! is a fun platformer that is an outgrowth of the Blender Institute (part of the Blender Foundation.) The game was inspired by the movie Big Buck Bunny and has you play the central role of a cute (yet agitated) sugar glider name Frank. The game is tons of fun and it highlights the power of the open source community to create high quality games that are tons of fun to play"
8 Comments
Nice Interview! Well done. Always cool to listen to such podcasts.
[Hint]Campbell...[/Hint] @ Tim :)
Really nice to hear Cambell talking about it all from an insider's perspective. It's fun :)
prodcast* :)
Well, I didn't know that the Blender Foundation won't do another game project. I found that bit of information to be a let down. I understand that the challenges in game development are different from the challenges in cinematic production - but they are possible to overcome.
It was my little dream to be an artist on the BF's next game project.
He always does a great job with these, but too neutral and not enough cursing!
+peter, I wouldn't write it off totally. If the BGE continues taking off I doubt it wouldn't be considered in the (far) future. The challenges in Apricot weren't really characteristic for these projects. I mean they were mostly in dealing with two separate communities cooperating plus software compatibility with the dreaded CrystalSpace. Once we switched to the BGE, things went more smoothly. Yeah we also had a few rats on the team impersonating human beings, but you always run that risk pulling together a team from the internet. Obstacles like that can be overcome too.
+peter, Its not so clear cut, my impression is that BF wont do another game project in the near future (1-3 years), but this can change if the BGE becomes more popular, more developer interest and with other projects which push the BGE forward.
But its not only the blender foundation that can do open projects, Id like to see other groups taking on this model too.
Campbell, yeah I agree with you. It would be great if more companies took on the same open development model. But there's also something cool about the Blender Foundation projects; they are like a direct statement to the rest of the CG world, telling them about the potential of the Blender and the open model development. And I imagine the CG world tends to listen to what the BF has to say (at least that 's how it appears from my insulated perspective).
I see a ton a potential in the BGE (as countless others do as well), and I'm also a fan of realtime/interactive art. It would be awesome if the Blender foundation would continue to use it in the future for their notable productions.
... and that would attract even more artists and developers to the BGE.
(silly no edit button... grumble)