Cooperation with getdeb.net

Good news for all getdeb.net users! In the future, all UbuntuGamer packages will also be available on getdeb.net. The packages may take a little longer to appear on getdeb, but they will be available, and they will have the same contents. So no need to come back here for those who would browse through getdeb anyway. Great thanks at this point to getdeb – they are a very open and really great project.

Game: LordsAWar

The third package by UbuntuGamer is called LordsAWar (Package name: lordsawar)

Description

LordsAWar is a clone of Warlords II.

Screenshots

For screenshots it is best to visit the official LordsAWar homepage, they have several wonderful screenshots.

Game: Pillows

The second game in the collection: Pillows (Package name: pillows)

Description

OUR PLANET IS IN DANGER!
An unknown aggressor has launched several nuclear warheads.
Unfortunately, our only hope for survival is you.
You’re armed with an unusually large catapult and several ridiculously overstuffed pillows. The plan is to launch the pillows so they will land under the warheads and cushion the impact.

Be quick, and remember … only one pillow is enough to save Earth from certain doom!

Screenshots

Gameplay

The nuclear warheads slowly fall from the top of the screen, one at a time. You have time to shoot the pillars below the rocket while the warhead is still falling. Once it reaches earth, you loose the game. In every level, the rocket drops a little bit faster, so you have less time for throwing your pillows on the earth.

Control

You can control the game with nearly any key you like, there is just one key needed. I use the space key. Just wait until the display in the top right of the screen reaches the angle with which you want to throw the pillow, then press the key of your choice until the display shows the force that you want to use for shooting your pillow. Once you release the key, the pillow gets fired away and lands somewhere on the earth – if you are lucky it lands below the warhead. If the warhead falls too slow, you can use the down key to temporarily accelerate it.

Game: Dynamite Deluxe

The first game package for UbuntuGamer is Dynamite Deluxe (Package name: dynamitedeluxe).

Description

The evil potentate is running everyone’s lives! Use the power of dynamite to destroy his strongholds.

Detonate dynamite by the blue load bearing pillars to bring down the castles. Watch out for the guards. Hide next to the walls, but not too close to guards. Escape via windows.

Screenshots

Gameplay

You have to place bombs that blow away the load bearing pillars. Once you have blown away them all, you must go to a window in order to finish the level. Beware of the guards. As soon as they see you, they shoot at you. Of course you can blow them away with your bombs if you are clever enough. But be careful to not waste your bombs – you only have a limited number of them in every level.

Control

You can control the game either using the mouse, the keyboard, or both.

• Left Mouse Button: Walk to a point
• Numeric Keypad: Walk in a direction
• Ctrl or Right Mouse Button: On first click, the bomb is placed where you currently stand. On second click, the bomb detonates, or if you stand directly above the bomb, your hero picks it up again.
• Arrow Keys: Peek around in the level
• F10: Switch between fullscreen and windowed mode.

Starting Ubuntu Gamer Project

May I introduce… this is the Blog for the Ubuntu Gamer Project, which aims to bring many new games to your Ubuntu box. The games will always be packaged for the current stable Ubuntu release. They are published by the new PPA (Personal Package Archive) service from Launchpad which allows us to publish games in all available Architectures at once.

The goal of this project is to bring as many open games to Ubuntu as possible. In order to be packaged by UbuntuGamer, they must be licensed in a way that they can be published over the PPA (see PPA Terms Of Use for more information), so no closed-source games can be published.

Every package will be announced here in this blog so you always get informed about the latest packages. I hope I (and maybe some other volunteers) will be able to create many game packages. Maybe the one or other package will be adopted by the Ubuntu Universe or Debian.

In order to use the UbuntuGamer repository, simply add this line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntugamer/ubuntu gutsy main

If you have any wishes which game we shall package, or if you find a bug, please do not hesitate to submit a report to The Ubuntu Gamer Bugtracker at Launchpad. If you want to help out with packaging, just email me.

Have a lot of fun with gaming on your Ubuntu Box.