Case Studies/0 A.D.
Games should allow gamers to learn how their games work, change them, share them and redistribute their works. This freedom to tinker is what Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) is all about and so we hope a lot of people tinker with 0 A.D. — Wildfire Games
Overview
0 A.D. (pronounced "zero ey-dee") is a free, open-source, cross-platform real-time strategy (RTS) game of ancient warfare. It is in development by Wildfire Games, a team of volunteer game developers from all over the world, and will be available for download at no cost for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
We set out to develop this game for some prosaic reasons, like the lack of good, old-school RTS games in recent years. We feel this genre has a lot of potential for innovation and wish to explore that.
However, we are also motivated by some more meaningful reasons. For example, games for Linux and the Mac are harder to come by, and we believe truly great games should be cross-platform. In particular, the relative scarcity of large-scale, high-quality games for Linux deters many people from moving to this free, open-source operating system, and 0 A.D. could help solve that.
Next, people are spending more money, time and attention on playing computer games than ever before, and games are constantly evolving into a more nuanced medium of expression and a greater part of our culture. We think this culture should allow gamers to learn how their games work, change them, share them and redistribute their works. The source code is open and free, and modifying the game's data files is as simple as editing JavaScript and XML files, so anyone can learn how the game was developed and share their own contribution to the 0 A.D. world. This freedom to tinker is what Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) is all about and so we hope a lot of people tinker with 0 A.D.
License Usage
Everything you can see and hear while playing 0 A.D., from the 3D models and textures to the music tracks, has been made available under CC BY-SA.
Motivations
We chose to release the art of 0 A.D. under CC BY-SA to allow people to mod the game, redistribute their mods, and use parts of it for their own projects freely, while making sure all derivative works also remain free.
Media
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