Steel Storm Episode I is a shooting game which its arts were done in GIMP and Blender. Kot-in-Action Creative Artel developed this game for Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux and the game is released under GPL 2.0 and its arts under cc-by-nc-sa 3.0. This nice game is their first release.
Update from motorsep: The game has never been released under GPL. It’s released under proprietary license, which refers to CC and GPL (engine is GNU GPL v2, art assets – CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
Alexander "motorsep" Zubov writes:
Kot-in-Action Creative Artel is proud to announce that the official website for Steel Storm, an episodic top-down shooter, is now live. Episode I, which will be released for free, is coming to public beta this September, for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Steel Storm is an old school top down arcade shooter with score oriented competitive gameplay, and is designed for people who like fast paced action and have limited amounts of time to play computer games.
The events of the game take place in an alternative universe where you control an advanced hovertank, packed with the most advanced and sophisticated weapons. Your task is simple, but, nevertheless, is not trivial. In the fight with presumed extraterrestrial invaders, you must prevail!
Features include:
- Deathmatch and coop game modes;
- Exploration and time-trial gameplay types;
- Score driven gameplay - master your skills to stay ahead;
- Intelligent AI knows no mercy;
- Hordes of enemies to destroy;
- Vast numbers of destroyable structures and obstacles;
- Huge territories to reclaim;
- 6 missions of various difficulty, for beginners & hardcore gamers;
- Edit or create your own missions with SandStorm in-game realtime multi-user editor (will be released as a patch for Episode I).
Coming in Episode 2:
- 6 new weapons;
- 3 huge and deadly bosses;
- 10 more types of enemies;
- 4 more unique environments;
- 2 new campaigns totalling 18 missions;
- Game Source Code;
- Mod Development SDK;
- and more!
Kot-in-Action invites all old-school shmup fans to register on our forums and join our official IRC channel and get ready for the beta. Preorders are also available for the upcoming second episode.
Screenshots, video, and further description can be found at Steel Storm website.
About Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
Kot-in-Action Creative Artel is a new independent developer based in Del Rio, TX with team members in the U.S., Poland, Russia, and Germany. Steel Storm is their first release. More information can be found at Kot-in-Action Creative Artel.
Media Contacts:
Alexander Zubov
Co-Founder, Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
Michael Lubker
Business Development and Marketing Manager, Kot-in-Action Creative Artel
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24 Comments
Wow that's cool! Downloading it now.
While I am not a lawyer, the license seems to be a violation of GPL. Or rather the whole idea of writing a restricting license which states that any conflicts will be solved under GPL is non-sensical since any restrictions should be void.
The game, however, is very cool.
Cool game!
Has every chance to be a commercial success.
The interface is a bit odd, but the game itself is really top-notch.
Nice! That's BGE you say?
wow, this high quality game made in blender. this is fantastic. love it totally. but also proud of blender.
Thank you guys for playing the game!
@Irve: While you are not a lawyer, don't start with those remarks. I spent whole day explaining to FreeBSD community why I can have such license. I can have any license I want, because I created the game. The game has proprietary license that refers to GPL v2 license for the game engine and CC license for the rest. There is no violation of GPL license whatsoever, as proprietary license covers the game as a whole. You are free to use the engine under GPL license. I further restrict CC license, which is not a violation.
@pop850: It is Darkplaces engine, not BGE. Unfortunately, BGE is not a capable engine to power Steel Storm :(
"Steel Storm Episode I is a shooting game which its arts were done in GIMP and Blender. Kot-in-Action Creative Artel developed this game for Windows, Mac, and GNU/Linux and the game is released under GPL 2.0 and its arts under cc-by-nc-sa 3.0. This nice game is their first release."
Even though I appreciate the post, it's kinda misleading :(
The game has never been released under GPL. It's released under proprietary license, which refers to CC and GPL (engine is GNU GPL v2, art assets - CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).
Linux is the primary development platform, so you can say the game is for Linux with Windows and Mac support ;)
Now I see where all that confusion with licenses comes.
The game looks great.(i understand this game isn't BGE)But on the topic of licenses, this kind of confusion is definitely a deterrent to people developing with BGE. I like many others would love to use BGE to make a game but There is so much uncertainty over where you legally stand It puts a lot of people off. There should be a definitive answer, and a convenient way to export a game exe.
This looks so f'ing awesome! Great jobs, guys! You've really amped up Blender game development! now the...not so awesome...have no excuse but to meet at least your level of Blender awesomeness! I bet Episode II will be even better.
thank you guys!
@trinitrotolulene: there will be no definite answer on the subject. But clearly, GPL has nothing against commercial exploitation, as long as you comply with terms of GPL, which means, basically to keep the source code of the app. open and accessible (which we do with the engine). Same goes for BGE. Make a game, sell it, but keep the source code open (don't have to license art assets and game logic under GPL, unless your game won't run without it).
@Brian Lockett: Episode II will definitely beat Episode I in visuals and gameplay :)
Nice work! haven't played yet but the vids looks very good :) congrats!
Its great to see that the genre of top-down shooters is going through some sort of renaissance lately!
After all the vertical shmups, bullet hell and maniac shooters kinda sank into oblivion except for japanese releases wich are often hard to obtain. I hope that Steel Storm will help to increase the popularity of such games again.
Great Work!!!
open source != Open Source license
General people are only interested whether or not the stuff they get is free as beer and don't see any difference between GPL, BSD and CC licenses.
Love top-down games (racing ones, too).
Will definitely download and support it!
Motorshep, this is possible with BGE and with more better graphics.
@endi2: I've yet to see someone to prove me wrong. BGE just not capable to handle such complex game (it is complex despite being top-down sh'mup). Also, BGE's networking code sucks and anything that relates to culling and optimizing the scene. So while the quality visuals are still achievable, BGE is not as fast and as stable as Darkplaces, across all the platforms consistently.
It's great to see you made it primarily for Linux. When will Episode II come out?
Wow man this game is so good i mean it is great i love these kind of games job well done i wish i could make something like that
@Pawel: been aiming for Christmas, but pre-orders and media coverage moving sooo slowly (I guess no one want to cover unknown game from unknown team), that I am not sure :(
I'm no expert, but I think people are not so willing to pre-order a game, even if they are ready to pay. Especially if they don't know when (and if) it will come out. I would willingly pay, but for the finished product, and not for a promise, especially if I don't know when I will be able to play. I mean it's not like Sintel or other Blender Institute project, it's a commercial game, so I'm not sure about the idea of pre-orders. I understand you need to cash to develop, but you have to see the buyer's perspective. Still, I really hope it will be a success.
I believe the game is good enough to be featured on popular downloadable games sites, but you need to have it finished. Then I think it would be no problem selling it in bulk. But that's just my view, I have no experience in the subject.
I am thinking along those line now. However, there are plenty of games that are doing exactly the same. Minecraft is one of the examples.
Alien swarm game mode O_o looks awesome!!!
"Looks too similar to Alien swarm(game mode)" by Jonathan (that's what I got in my e-mail)
Steel Storm was not inspired by AS in any way :/ I don't know why you decided that it looks to similar, because beside shooting at the enemies, there no other similarities.
Btw, Steel Storm Episode I v1.0 is out!