As well as Featured Games and Showcase, we could do with something like a “Featured Open-Source” to show off the best Java open-source games. There’s lots of open-source out there, but finding something decent can be a challenge. And IMHO, any developer who’s created something decent and is giving it away deserves some extra publicity, as it’s something all of us could use.
[quote=“SteveSmith,post:1,topic:57779”]
Yep, exactly. To create this featured board, we (read: Riven) would have to somehow find these gems. It’s a bit of a chicken and the egg problem.
You could help jumpstart this by coming up with your own list, but like you said, that isn’t as easy as it sounds.
If the forum was created. then as users come across open-source games we can post them. I’d also assume/hope that a few people here must have written some open-source games in their time?
I don’t disagree with your desire to see more open-source Java games (that’s part of why I started Static Void Games in the first place), but I also think you’re overestimating the manpower we have here. The forum is run by one person, and we have a dedicated but pretty small user base. The stuff you’re proposing takes time and interest. You could start by creating your own list, maintaining a thread of open source games you find, but that probably seems like a lot of work. If it seems like a lot of work for you, imagine how much work it feels like to other people who don’t have as much of an interest as you do.
I actually like your idea, I just don’t think it’s going to get much traction.
If you’re looking for open-source Java games, you might check out Ludum Dare, which is a game programming competition where entrants have to release their source. Do a search for Java and you’ll get a ton of results. But please note that open-source does not mean no copyrights, so make sure you contact anybody before using their source.
Hi
The source code of my main game is under GPL. By the way, KevinWorkman is a bit right, you talk about giving away, it’s a bit more complicated than what you mean. Some projects clearly state that their source code is open source or free but mentions nothing about their artworks, there are tons of licenses with different terms, some licenses are viral, some others are permissive, some licenses can only be used for the documentation, some others can only be used for the source code, some others are only for artworks, … Giving everything away is close to the terms of the Creative Commons Zero Public Domain Dedication license but it’s not completely legal in some countries in which you cannot abandon or cease your paternity rights (typically in France).
Why not simply creating a new page in the wiki to store your list of free / open source Java games?
Perhaps create an awesome list and curate it and take pull requests from others and open a thread on JGO.
@gouessej , you’re right, licenses do complicate the issue and it makes finding usable source (that even compiles which is often not the case) more challenging.
I’ve just been going through some old Java4k games, and about half have free source and gfx included. (However, I notice that Notch is particularly annoying; he shares the source code but then says you’re not allowed to use it. Gee, thanks. /s)
In my humble opinion, mentioning the license isn’t difficult, I do it for my contents and those I reuse too, it helps 
There are tens of free or at least open source Java games in the archive of the FGF but you can still find most of them in the Java Game Tome.
I think we may be at cross-purposes. I meant, finding a good game that is relatively complete and with source that compiles is a challenge, but finding one with a licence allowing it to be used is even harder.
I’ve not come across the Java Game Tome, that looks promising.
Scratch that. I couldn’t find a single game’s source code.
Tesseract, Spider Experiment, Jake 2, …