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Hello everyone!

Today I'd like to present you an idea that is centered around free and open
source games. It was born via a discussion on mailinglists and IRC-channels
between people from Freedesktop-Games, freegamedev.net and GGZ [1] in the course
of the last two weeks.

The vision is an open, cross-platform game lounge system, used to play online
with people from around the world, browsing through and easily joining
multiplayer games. Its core elements will be:

 * a set of open standard protocols describing the communication between a
game-lounge-server, a game-server and a game-client
 * an open API for games implementing these protocols
 * a game-lounge-server including community features (user-database, statistics,
chatting, etc.)
 * a game-browser

The main goal of the project is to make the creation of an open community for
games and gamers eventually possible.

Most of you will certainly know services like Gamespy, Steam, Windows-Live,
Xfire and possibly more. It seems like there currently is no free and open
alternative to them, and this project aims to change that. Maybe we can change
that together.

A more detailed overview of how the system could look like, what the goals and
what the benefits are is available at:
http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/glou/index.php?title=ProjectOverview

Just a word about what this project is not: it is not a replacement for your
current lobby-system. It may be if you want, but it will be created in a way
that it can be used in parallel to your own system.

I have sent this mail (or forum-post, wherever you read it) to the most
influential [2] open source games. You can see a complete list here:
http://apps.sourceforge.net/mediawiki/glou/index.php?title=Projects

Ideally this project will be a cooperation between the major open source games
out there. But that's for you to decide. I invite you, game developers and
people interested in open source games, to the Glou (= Game LOUnge) mailinglist,
a place to join the efforts and discuss how this project should look like. You
can join the mailinglist here:
http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/glou-devel

To hear from you would be great. As a starting point it would be interesting to
know...
 * what features the lounge system definitely should have
 * what features the current lobby system of your game has
 * if you feel the need for an open gaming community
 * if you would use the system in your game if it is done "the right way"
 * and what you think about the idea in general

For now that's everything. Thank you all for your attention and patience :) .
Hopefully we'll see each other on the mailinglist to shape the future of this
project together.

Best regards
- Sven Pfaller (aka Noya)

[1] http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Games
    http://wiki.freegamedev.net
    http://www.ggzgamingzone.org
[2] This is obviously subjective. Feel free to contact projects that may be
missing and add them to the list.

I like the idea and hope all goes well with gathering as many interested games as possible.

can't wait to see some code :)

Can't wait to see code of the prototype as these things are impossible to build perfectly from scratch. I can offer you hosting, if you need it - nginx, php, perl, virtual server in California.

Sourceforge is a good host :)

i say the feature set has been probably exhaustively finalized by all the non-free game lounge software packages, so you won't have trouble choosing which features to implement.

imho, the most important goal is to:
   a) support popular open-source games
   b) implement the basic functionality - game servers, players, clans, instant messaging (maybe even voip), whatever else...
   c) promote your project on the gaming websites such as this one :)

it would probably be widely accepted if done right :)

in general, the idea is great, but end result will of course depend on implementation :)

when I think "game lounge", I picture something like EscOnline for UT in my head, which was basically a 'hang out' mod that took place in a bar and violence was minimal. Am I on the right track?

hl2 lobby server!

Thanks :) .




After the basic concept is up we'll write code as soon as possible. The first prototype will then probably come early :) .

If we need additional servers we'd be glad about everyone who wants to help with hosting. I can just encourage you (and anyone else who is interested) to join our mailinglist and step up to help if you see we are in need :) .


You're right, most proprietary game lounges alreade have a decent set of features we should "copy". But I don't know every game-lounge-system out there, so if Glou seems to miss some feature, please point me to it.

And yes, actions speak louder than words ;)


Nope, it has nothing to do with such a mod. As said before you can think of it as something like Gamespy / Steam / XFire, but open, not proprietary.

Thank you all for your input people :) .
See you
- Sven