The Free Game Alliance Initiative


A new gaming initiative launched today, the Free Game Alliance or “FGA”. What is it? In their words: The Free Game Alliance (FGA) is a great collection of Open Source games, one per genre, which will keep you busy for years to come.

The founding members are MegaGlest, PlaneShift, Rigs of Rods, The Battle of Wesnoth, and Xonotic. Two of which I started playing years ago, The Battle of Wesnoth and Xonotic (formerly known as Nexuiz) (with reviews coming but I have to update it).

Follow up:

There isn’t much information about the Free Game Alliance yet, like their objectives or goals, what their plans are, how ordinary gamers can help and contribute (by ordinary I mean: non-coders, non-gfx artists, and so on). For example, why restrict the FGA initiative to one game per genre? What is the idea behind it? Wouldn’t it discourage other Free/Libre Open-Source Software (“FLOSS”) games from joining?

Regardless, this organization looks promising and may well keep FLOSS game developers encouraged to keep going and developing great games – cross-platform. Since this is their first day, we’ll give them time to introduce themselves to the public.

With that said, let’s look at each founding games from FGA’s own words:

A 3D real-time strategy (RTS) game where you control the armies of one of seven different factions: Tech, Magic, Egyptians, Indians, Norsemen, Persian, or Romans. All action is real time and you have to be quick and take the right decisions for your army to be successful. The game can be expanded with new armies and new functionalities.

Official website: megaglest.org

A Role-Playing Game (RPG) immersed into a 3D virtual fantasy world. PlaneShift is made by a group of RPG enthusiasts who decided to make the impossible: an MMORPG built from scratch! The game is not completed, but playable with dozens of players online you can partner with. Many playable races, a large world to explore, magic, quests, and combat. Invent your alter-ego and role-play him with your friends, increase your skills, find new rare magical items or weapons, become a famous crafter!

Official website: planeshift.it

Started as a physics engine and then evolved in a playable game! What makes Rigs of Rods different to most simulators is its unique soft-body physics: vehicles, machines, objects, etc. are simulated in real-time as flexible soft-body objects. Plenty of vehicles to choose from made by the community are multiplying the fun. You can drive race cars, cranes, monster trucks, 4-wheel drive cars, rock-crawlers, boats, planes, and many more!

Official website: rigsofrods.com

A tactical Turn-Based Strategy (TBS) game with a high fantasy theme. Build up a great army, gradually turning raw recruits into hardened veterans. Being turn-based it gives you the chance to think about all your moves and greatly enhances the strategy element. There are at least two hundred unit types, sixteen races, six major factions, and hundreds of years of history. The world of “Wesnoth” is absolutely huge and only limited by your creativity – make your own custom units, create your own maps, and write your own scenarios or even full-blown campaigns.

Official website: wesnoth.org

A fast-paces First-Person Shooter (FPS) providing addictive arena shooter gameplay which is all spawned and driven by the community itself. Xonotic is a direct successor of the Nexuiz project with years of development between them, and it aims to become the best possible open-source FPS of its kind.

Official website: xonotic.org


Free Game Alliance official website: freegamealliance.com


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