OLPC Games
Dear Lazyweb: Please Make SFCave for the XO. kthxbye
The Gnash list recently discussed games on the OLPC, and that as Gnash supports running more and more software, the proprietary nature of almost all Flash software becomes a serious challenge for the free software movement.
Zeth Green pointed out that the “solution is not for Gnash or the OLPC to support these proprietary [flash games] but to provide free software [games], preferably using Etoys, Python or Gnash.” I totally agree.
Creatures was similar to this and was very advanced. Well, in the mid 1990s it was; I have no idea how elite AI for computer games is in 2008 :-) But virtual pet games doesn’t even have to be all that complex to be compelling for kids, proven by the billions of Tamagotchi sold to date.
Probably the best networking feature is a “battle” feature that works on simple Top Trumps mechanics and allows players to breed with others’ avatars to get better plays.
Of course there are tonnes of simple non-network games too, from the old ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 days, that were hugely addictive, er, wonderful to play.
SFCave is an all time favorite from when I was a kid in high school and James had a Palm.
I was too young for a Barcode Battler although I remember them in the news, but using the funky analog input features potentially available from the microphone would be awesome - and that kind of direct input is quickly making its way into the Python-powered logo-like Turtle activity and eToys :-)
The OLPC Wiki has a good page on games and on game development, and olpcgames.org also has tonnes of stuff.
The OLPC Games by David Crossland, except the quotations and unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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