Yo Frankie! For Linux

After Orange and Peach, Blender Institute continues with a new open project: Apricot. This time it isn’t a movie but a 3D game! Starting february 1st 2008, a small team of again the best 3D artist and developers will develop a game jointly with the on-line community. The main characters in the game are based on the short 3D animation open movie Peach. At the end of July 2008 the production ends and August is used for DVD and documentation making.

The team members will get a great studio facility and housing in Amsterdam, all travel costs reimbursed, and a fee sufficient to cover all expenses during the period.

The team will work on a cross platform game (at least Linux, Windows, Mac OS X), using Blender for modeling and animation, Crystal Space as 3D engine and delivery platform, and Python for some magic scripting to glue things together. It is not only the purpose to make a compelling 3D game experience, but especially to improve and validate the open source 3D game creation pipeline, with industry-standard conditions. At this moment we only know that the game characters are funny and furry, and the game environment is outdoors in a field and forest. Once the team is together - February 2008 - they will define the game concept and game design.

- Validation: create full functional game prototype, industry quality

- Crystal Space development: HDR lighting, game logic, character animation

- Blender development: animation prototyping, pipeline improvements

- Realize in Open Source (GPL/LGPL), deliver in Open Content (Creative Commons)

- Education: Training/workshops, presentations, documentation, DVD

The Blender Foundation and Crystal Space community will be the main financiers for Apricot. Additional support will be by Grupo Ikusnet and the Dutch Game Days Foundation. Subsidy funds or other concerned sponsors are being sought as well. As for the previous open movies, a pre-sale campaign to purchase the DVD set in advance will be organized by the Blender Foundation as well as by Crystal Space. After the great success of Peach, Apricot will be the second Open Project hosted by the Blender Institute in Amsterdam.