Year Unknown on Steam
store.steampowered.com
A story-based exploration game about the very far future. With the help of two Artificial Intelligences, explore a universe conquered by humanity, uncover your purpose in it, and try to stop it from falling apart.

(tldr, open source software has come a long way, and it’s more than possible to create a full game without leaving Linux.)

So I’ve been a full Linux user for a couple years now, and a hobbyist game dev for way longer. I’ve always tried to make the most out of free tools, so I’ve used a lot of FOSS tools for game development before.

Going with that philosophy, Year Unknown’s development has cost $0 (not counting store fees or my time), and the development is done with almost entirely FOSS software like Godot, Blender, GIMP, and Audacity. The only exception is Reaper, which is my DAW of choice (but to be fair, it’s a really good DAW).

The game itself is a narrative-driven exploration game set in the very far future, where humanity has found a way to make the universe last forever. The game’s story covers a lot of existential issues that come from the premise, revealed through two characters you can talk to through terminals.

I know there’s other developers who have done the same, but I thought I’d share my experience, and I can answer questions about the workflow if you’re curious, or trying to do something similar. Also, if the game seems interesting to you, a wishlist would be very appreciated!

  • Noo
    5•1 month ago

    You can have a closed source version on console and a libre or open version for PC.

    • Haijo
      2•1 month ago

      true, but this would make it difficult to update the console version because i can’t include contributions from the pc version in the console version. i’d have to maintain two versions instead of just one. or not update the console version, but that’s not a good solution either.
      say a contributor fixes a bug, i wouldn’t be able to use the same code in the console version because this code is property of the contributor and is GPL licensed. but the console version would make references to a proprietary console API of which i can’t share any information, thus can’t add the code. so i’d have to find a different way to fix the same bug or leave it as is

      • @kevincox@lemmy.ml
        4•1 month ago

        You can make contributes sign an CLA to allow the licenses you need for the console release. Some people may not want to but it seems like a reasonable compromise if you want to support consoles.

      • Noo
        3•1 month ago

        Well, I’d say libre software comes with an activist approach on this kind of non-sense. It would be appropriate to make some kind of statement regarding this issue.