On May 6th 2010, an earth shattering announcement was made to the MMO community. The online science fiction game known as Ryzom (formerly Saga of Ryzom) is now open source. "Developers can now access the source code of the end-user client, content creation tools and server in order to make modifications, enhancements or to create their own virtual worlds." Official Developer's Blog Open source means opening up a software's source code for copying, and modification by any user. Anyone in the world can now download, modify, and share these files without worry of infringing on copyrights or intellectual property laws. So fans of Ryzom and science fiction are now free to create their own MMO worlds from the Ryzom engine. So far, there are few commercial games that have gone open source in the gaming industry, much less entirely developed MMO's. It has been a known practice in the industry to create entirely new games off of an existing game engine, and many gamers in the communities have also developed alterations to the games they play, known as mods. But, in either case, developers always will run into engine limitations, either system-wide or system specific, creating obstacles extremely difficult to move around. The team behind Ryzom wants to bring its engine to a higher level by beginning work on a project to convert and streamline as much of the game's source code into a more "generic" and "reusable structure" for easier development and use in any project. While it may take some time for the team to finish the project, for anyone who cannot wait they can now access the original unedited source codes and game assets here. "The source code released totals over two (2) million lines of source code and over 20,000 high quality textures and thousands of 3D objects." The signal of the MMO becoming open-source does not mean the end nor shutdown of the game's current official servers. Interestingly enough, developer Winch Gate plans to keep certain data of the game exclusive only to their official servers. We can only speculate that the data being withheld is probably the data that makes Ryzom, Ryzom. Information such as weapons, or monster stats that form the core of the game and its intricate system is likely an investment any company would want to retain exclusively for themselves. Of course, while the data of the game remains private, the models to which the information pertains to would be available to the public. And it makes sense too, as the game is currently subscription based, thus forcing players to stay subscribed with the official game if they want to get their fix and not on a clone running on a free server. So why open source you might wonder? By open-sourcing the entire game it "encourages" the adoption, and integration, of its code into many other projects, thus turning it into a widely used platform. This, also allows the developers to track any bugs or glitches still in their game's system by allowing users who use Ryzom's source code to report it on the team's project webpage where they can review, assess and fix the problem. Instead of profit and revenue, Winch Gate is looking for recognition from their product. "By having more eyes on the source code and being more transparent in the development process there will be fewer bugs and security flaws. By having a larger community base there will be more individuals scratching an itch, to turn a phrase, the community and Ryzom game players will begin seeing features and functionality that a traditional game company may not have the time or desire to implement such as native Linux or Mac OS X support." The Ryzom development team and the game itself have seen several hardships after the game's launch in September 2004. The first terrible news was the announcement of bankruptcy by the original French developer Nevrax, followed by the game being shut down shortly afterwards. However, almost as soon as the game went offline a mysterious message was posted on the main site stating that "Ryzom will be back soon." Now Winch Gate Property is the new developer behind Ryzom composing of several members from the original team and continues to provide solid support for the game by releasing updates as well as patches for bugs. About Ryzom Ryzom is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing or MMORPG Game set more than 3.000 years into the future, on a living, evolving virtual world: beautiful Atys, where after creating your own personal avatar you will guide it through this strange fantastic planet to uncover its mysteries. The game boasts a unique science-fantasy setting, a distinctive and artistic visual style and a sophisticated plot based upon the conflict of two mysterious supernatural powers. The storyline was awarded “Mmorpg.com Best Story” award. Gameplay is highly adaptive to your personal preferences and the actions/skills system is remarkably unique, sophisticated and profound. Ryzom Ring (R²) is the proprietary innovative free expansion that brings MMORPGs to a new level. Ryzom Ring allows you to create your own role-play and RPG Adventures on the world of Atys. Official Developer's Blog First spotted over at Massively.com
Interesting developments. Thanks for shring this +rep. I wonder if this may set a trend for a few others to follow ...
Wow. This is incredible. It is probably what I'm going to work on this summer, while all of you are hanging at the beach
Who knows... I know I'll be watching with earnest to see how much of an impact this open source will have though. Really?! Sounds like someone's planning to do a Calypso already! :p ;)
This is interesting. Funny that I was just now cleaning out my PM inbox on EF and there was a link for this game that someone had sent as an alternative to PE me back in '06 when I was selling out.
Yeh I read this article. A friend forwarded this to me on Facebook right after the announcement. Interesting indeed. :)
Great first article, VcBoy And very interesting development of a game. I tried Ryzom YEARS back (actually only 4-5 years back) - and it's fun to see how that grow. Maybe I should try it once more to see what all this fuss is about?
