If I would make a game using the example quake3-engine (belive it's open source now), what programs would I need, how many people should help, is there a page with toturials that can come in handy and so on?

Does anyone know if there is any open-source game-engine project somewhere?
Or if it is any game project of making an open-source counter terrorists vs terrorists game like CS:S, SAS, Strike Force...?

Take a look at http://www.gamedev.net/

Cube is an opensource game engine, albeit a little crappy compared to modern games. You can write mods for UT2004 and Doom 3 that allow you to use a complete engine and just wrap your own code on top. It's not opensource but it's probably significantly easier.

However something like that would be no small feat, start reading some OpenGL tutorials and learning C. Best of luck

I second cs-cam's idea. Unreal 2004 has a edition called "Editor's Choice". It comes with 2 DVD's. One disk is the actual game and the other one has hours of tutorials telling you how to use the Unreal Editor. I started watching, but never finished. It's really long

It doesn't mather if it isn't up to date with modern engines, I would just like to see an open source engine grow and end hopefully up in the top spots of open source software. I would really give something back to the community since it lets me use everything for free. Another thing that is important is that it's released under GPL, that's not the case for Cube though (I quess).

Yeah I know, I've started reading a lot of definitions and some articles on wikipedia... doesn't sound like something that happends over night

BTW: Now that Quake3-engine is out under GPL, is legal port the mods of quake3-engine to a native open-source game that doesn't require the game Quake3?

One more thing, can I use the Cube engine to make my own games?

I have it, I started wathing the tutorials and came a long way, though I never got to start on the scirpting tutorials... I didn't bother since the Editor isn't released on Linux... maybe I can learn something anyway

No... try years .
Just think how professional game development companies can take months or years to finish a high quality game. And those are professionals working 40+ hours a week on it.

Even large community driven game mods can take years to finish.

I'm not trying to discourage you, just trying to make sure you know what you're getting into .

I'm getting pretty aware of it

I even have a kinky problem... I don't know where to start

Try to make something simple, like a randomly generated maze. That was my first real SDL game, after playing around with putting images on the screen and causing sound effects.

Do you want to make games or mod games?

If you want to make games please learn C and OpenGL, you will need to use and open engine or make one from scratch ( i like the scratch me self lol ), i did work making games for a bit, i didnt like it.... i also spent most of my childhood modding old games and such... waste of time... engines change every version and most of the time you use getting good at making levels sprites characters goes down the toilet lol ( wolfenstein, doom, duke nukem, etc.) lol

Hope my 2 cents help

>>spellcheck<<

Very true.

Modding and using other's premade engine is generally considered a waste of time if you plan to get into game development.

Start from the ground up, learn an API (I recommend SDL of course) then move up to more complex games and APIs.

the man has a point, i suggest starting with a 2D engine, like the old sierra games off days past. lol

Start simple and make it more complex, then move to the 3d models and you'l be set.

If you do start up from scratch i suggest posting the project up at sourceforge or some public place like that.. you will learn allot faster with help.

I don't know how much I agree with the modding comments. There're a lot of successful modifications (Counter-Strike, TacticalOps) where those "modders" are making some serious money. It's also a known fact that a lot of peoples creating good levels one day or another got hired by companies as level designers.

On the top of it, it's common that big companies use an already existent engine to create their games. A lot of the games I have are powered by some heavily modified ID/Carmak's engine: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (and expansions), Jedi OutCast/Academy and one of my all time favorite shooters: Call of Duty. These games were not created by some lousy companies out there, but Lucas Arts, Activision and Electronic Arts. See, not even big guns as those started an Engine from scratch.

Still, it all depends what you wanna be. If you want to create games as a hobby, there's nothing wrong in starting a engine from scratch and/or make it open source. If you want, however, to be a designer (texture, modelling, etc) modding a game can be a good way to get in the field.

I still believe that Open Source and games don't go together. The code can get very good, but a game needs artists to create some funky eye candy for the game. If you ever met a musician or modeller, you also would know that they won't work for free...

And C as language is not very useful anymore. Except for Nintendo and their little GBA, everyone is moving to C++. Again, latest ID-Software engine (Doom 3) is written completed in C++ (previous ID engines in C).

The games today are very complex. I doubt a single guy behind a monitor using a vim will go very far into game dev... no pun intended.

i dont know about that.. what makes a game great is not always the depth of 3D realism, great physics and such.. but it is more of the concept of the game and the playability.. i have played some fun games that are so simple.. even sprite based.. (ha, i still think bomberman is one the best concepts ever for a game.) so dont count yourself out of making a popular game just because you are one person, but also definately dont plan on competing with EA or Rockstar for the next big market game either.. get some experience with games concepts and then apply for a job.. its like the old saying "if you cant beat 'em, join 'em".

also.. using an existant engine still leaves alot of game to be written.. it isnt like you are just dragging and dropping players in and they run around.. some of the best games i have played are mods of an original.. (EDIT: and are better than the original game) Q3 rocket arena, RTCW Enemy territory are the first two that pop into my head.. those guys who modded those definately have skills, imo..

agreed that SDL is a great start
here is something else to check out..
http://www.clanlib.org/