Bringing More Games to Linux... (and maybe Mac and BSD and other OS'es)

[deadsuperhero]

I've had this idea for a while now, and I think I might as well get started on it. I don't really know that much about programming in Linux, but I can usually look at source code, and find out what everything does.
So, here's the idea: create an app that gets games out to Linux (and possibly Mac, BSD, etc) users through a client. It would most likely be based off of  the "Add/Remove Programs" app. found in Ubuntu. I figure it would use some sort of XML reader to show details about each game entry, and also an actual site where you can download the games without the client, as well as rate and review the games.

Project Centrifuge

The client would be pointed to a large repository of games in different genres:
-Adventure (Free Games made with AGS, and such)
-Demos (Demos of commercial Linux games, like Vendetta Online, or maybe some of the demos from Loki Games)
-FPS (Free First Person Shooters)
-MMORPG (Eternal Lands and such)
-Platform (Mario clones)
-Desktop (Solitaire, Blackjack, Pinball)
-RPG (Role Playing Games)
-Strategy (Games similar to Command and Conquer or War/StarCraft)
-Sports (Football, etc)
-Racing (Tux Racing, etc)
-Simulation (Flight sims and such)
-Game Makers (Startugus, FIFE, and the future ported AGS)
-Tycoon (SimCity clones)
-Other (For whatever else doesn't quite fit in the other categories)
-Engines (Required engines to play AGS games, Unreal/Quake based games, etc)

It's all just in an idea form right now. I've been playing with Automatix a little, and I would like to get this project started, and with community support, it could become a terrific product!
Sadly, I don't know all there is to coding (like I said before), so I would be more than happy to get a coding team together to:
1) Build the client so that it's not just some rip-off of the "Add/Remove Programs"
2)Maintain repositories.
3) Constantly improve the code, to make it better for the user.
Lets face it, there's actually quite a lot of free games for Linux out there. The problem is:
1) They don't know about it.
or
2) They don't know how to unpack it and run it, getting the game engines set up can be a hassle, etc.

It would be good for the Linux (and Mac and BSD and so on) gaming community in general.

If anyone's interested in this, and wants to give their time and effort to make this project into a reality, feel free to PM me. I think it'd be great.

Here is a mockup of what I think it should look like. Give me your opinions, please. Yes, I was lazy on the icons, most of them were just default ones from Ubuntu's Program Library.



I've also decided to build this off of an already existing product, known as "GetLibs", which solves dependency conflicts, and makes the games much easier to install.

In any case, I'm looking all around for help, so if you know how to code in Python/XML or would like to contribute, please let me know!

I also have a launchpad entry for it, feel free to check it out: https://launchpad.net/centrifuge/

[tube]

The mockup looks nice enough and the idea is awesome. Will be anything but simple in practice though. You might want to check Adventure Game Goddess for help on the AGS games part. The way it handles things like different versions of the AGS Linux engine seem quite useful.

Good luck with the project.


PS: I've done my share of coding in python professionally (gotta love that language) and am no stranger to xml, PyGTK and probably many other aspects of your project, but sadly there's no way I could currently spare any significant amount of time on another non-work-related coding project. I'll be available for testing though and will gladly discuss software design and coding related subjects via pm or otherwise.

[farvardin]

It would be a good idea, if it doesn't interfer with the current game repositories from the official distributions (Debian, OpenSuse and such). it should be able to detect one game is already well packaged in some distribution, and install the version of the distribution (for example Beneath a  Steel Sky on Debian / probably Ubuntu too), and add the possibility to get new games, like the AGS ones.

The database could be common for all the plateforms. It could also use the database of http://happypenguin.org/ (hint : try to work with them)

It should be secure also, and the games well tested, to prevent everyone to upload rootkits and such.

[Stupot]

I know a useful patch for Linux.

Linux Patch V.1