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Barony, a 3D first-person roguelike goes open source

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Barony, a pretty cool looking 3D first-person roguelike has opened up the engine under the GPL license and is now on github.

Note: While the engine is now open source, the assets are not. You still need to own a copy to use the now open source engine.

See the announcement here.

I really do wish more developers did this. It can really help a project, as plenty of people would be willing to help out lots of games get better Linux support for free because they like it.

Find Barony on Steam and the github for it here.

About the game
Barony is a 3D, first-person roguelike with cooperative multiplayer that brings back the cryptic and intricate designs of classic roguelikes such as Nethack and melds them with RPGs like Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Daggerfall. Challenge is the calling card of this hard-boiled dungeon-crawler. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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8 comments

TheGZeus Jul 8, 2016
The official version's had some issues with library mis-matches, so I hope any forks are more flexible.
etam Jul 8, 2016
"I really do wish more developers did this."
This.

But looking at this source code gave me cancer. It's like it was written in plain C and someone made a last minute decision to turn this into C++. I call such code "C+-".

EDIT: Well, I should read README before:
QuoteThis project was a first for both of us in many ways and it shows. Since all of the original code was written in C and hastily converted to C++ in the past few months, experienced C++ programmers may be horrified at some of the kludge we had to write to get some of the more basic systems working properly.
I forgive them :)


Last edited by etam on 8 July 2016 at 4:54 pm UTC
Mountain Man Jul 8, 2016
The interesting thing with commercial software that is often at odds with open source projects is that it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work.
TheGZeus Jul 8, 2016
Quoting: Mountain ManThe interesting thing with commercial software that is often at odds with open source projects is that it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work.
Yeah, especially with games, where the focus is on mechanics and assets, and maintainability and optimisation are far lower on the list of priorities :I
GustyGhost Jul 8, 2016
Don't forget that it is also available on GOG. I'm not sure what changes "Cursed Edition" refers to but it looks otherwise identical.
InverseTelecine Jul 9, 2016
I've heard about this game before and it sounded fun already! If you community gets a hold of it and really polishes it (like the modding community is great at) it starts to sound really awesome!

The only problem I have with open-sourced games (but not assets) situations like this is all the confusion with versions from different sources. Like setting up something like Zdoom could get complicated if the instructions you're reading are intended to be used with the Steam version of the game, but you have the GOG version.

There has to be a way to streamline this process like mods have been streamlined on Steam, but Steam never seems to want to do that; I've never seen Steam take advantage of Zdoom or anything like that. I'd be ecstatic if GOG could offer an officially-unofficially fully patched version based on the eventual open-source version! Here's hoping.
Code Artisan Jul 9, 2016
That's an opengl 1.1 based renderer (~1997 technology).
marcelomendes Jul 9, 2016
LOL I just bought it on sale, barely played, but I welcome every effort to bring more games to the "dark" side :)
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