Overgrowth from Wolfire Games goes open source

It's always nice to see a game being open sourced, even if it doesn't include any assets. It will keep the game alive even if the developer is not around anymore to take care of it.

This made my day :-)

Nice to see that their codebase and build process for Linux is not some obscure afterthought and should be relatively easy to maintain in the future.

The game itself is sadly a bit meh and while there is some experimental multiplayer support, it seems like the overall engine design doesn't really lend itself to expanding that further.

Would be nice though if someone took that awesome procedural animation system and made a library for Godot out of it or integrate it with Blender or so.

Nice to see that their codebase and build process for Linux is not some obscure afterthought and should be relatively easy to maintain in the future.

The game itself is sadly a bit meh and while there is some experimental multiplayer support, it seems like the overall engine design doesn't really lend itself to expanding that further.

Would be nice though if someone took that awesome procedural animation system and made a library for Godot out of it or integrate it with Blender or so.

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

As a sandbox and mod platform it seems quite cool indeed, but the official story campaign is very lackluster.

Wolfire Games was always good about supporting non-Windows platforms, and I enjoyed the first game, Lugaru, quite a bit, so it's really nice to see this (especially since I had forgotten that there's a sequel) - I'll have to grab it when I've got a moment!

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

As a sandbox and mod platform it seems quite cool indeed, but the official story campaign is very lackluster.

So, precisely the same story as Neverwinter Nights. It's always annoying when game reviews focus so much on the campaign without noting that the original campaign is ancillary to the game's true potential as a platform.

awesome af

Great!

Does nobody remember Black Shades for Linux?

Https://www.icculus.org/blackshades/

It was simple, fun, and tricky at the same time.

Nice to see that their codebase and build process for Linux is not some obscure afterthought and should be relatively easy to maintain in the future.

The game itself is sadly a bit meh and while there is some experimental multiplayer support, it seems like the overall engine design doesn't really lend itself to expanding that further.

Would be nice though if someone took that awesome procedural animation system and made a library for Godot out of it or integrate it with Blender or so.

One always forgets that open source also makes it easy to port to previously unsupported platforms. Like maybe someone will make a native m1 macbook port!

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

As a sandbox and mod platform it seems quite cool indeed, but the official story campaign is very lackluster.

So, precisely the same story as Neverwinter Nights. It's always annoying when game reviews focus so much on the campaign without noting that the original campaign is ancillary to the game's true potential as a platform.

To be fair, it's not like they've put a big disclaimer in their marketing to indicate that the campaign is just there as an example of what the platform can do. The 'main story' gets a mention in the game's Steam store description.
I think it's quite fair for the average player to assume that the main story is the main pull of most games that they play.

I also don't think there's that many actually captivating story mods on the Workshop right now. Most players aren't modders, and Overgrowth hasn't exactly attracted a massive modding community as of yet. It certainly doesn't have a modding community as dedicated as Neverwinter Nights had, and likely never will unless Wolfire suddenly gets a big marketing budget.

I bought Overgrowth when it was in alpha, and I do love the game and I loved the game back then, but to be honest, it does still feel like there's something missing. Also, just looked up a few journalist reviews, and it seems their main gripe is the janky platforming and wallrunning, which I think is quite a fair criticism. Doesn't seem to be much criticism of the story in those few reviews I looked at, and there's lots of praise for the combat system.

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

As a sandbox and mod platform it seems quite cool indeed, but the official story campaign is very lackluster.

So, precisely the same story as Neverwinter Nights. It's always annoying when game reviews focus so much on the campaign without noting that the original campaign is ancillary to the game's true potential as a platform.

I actually kind of liked Neverwinter Nights' campaign, but I got stuck and lost my save game and have not tried to complete it since.

This is one of those games that could have HUGELY benefited from a more open-world setting instead of the micro level challenges it has now. On top of that more martial combat styles with melee weapon combat styles on top.

I played about 10 levels into the main story a couple times but kind of forgot about it. Certainly had potential but felt too much like a arcade level challenge type of game more so then a continuous interesting story/world. Also I think it was like 30GB or something which seemed pretty extreme for such a basic game.


Last edited by TheRiddick on 24 April 2022 at 4:17 am UTC

This is one of those games that could have HUGELY benefited from a more open-world setting instead of the micro level challenges it has now. On top of that more martial combat styles with melee weapon combat styles on top.

I played about 10 levels into the main story a couple times but kind of forgot about it. Certainly had potential but felt too much like a arcade level challenge type of game more so then a continuous interesting story/world. Also I think it was like 30GB or something which seemed pretty extreme for such a basic game.

This is literally a game I was excited for, for years... then when it finally released I was too busy to play it... now it's been long enough for it to be open sourced and I've only played it for like 20 min! I did play Lugaru a bit when it first came out and a bit more when Lugaru HD was released.

The game itself is awesome (and by game I mean the engine), have you never tried the editor mode? You can do a lot of things there way easier than on a normal engine

As a sandbox and mod platform it seems quite cool indeed, but the official story campaign is very lackluster.

The game itself (meaning the campaign) is short but super fun. It has brutal, challenging, natural, fluid, original combat mechanics and the opponents feel intelligent. It lets you choose a few different approaches to how you beat your opponents. You can sneak around and kill them from behind like an assassin, take them one on one or a few at a time, pull all of them to you in a giant melee, try to leg-canon everyone (kind of a built-in cheat). Enemies will go for help if they're being beaten. They'll spread out and try to take you for multiple directions. They adapt to your fighting patterns. Allies also feel strong and useful.

The platforming part is okay. The environments are beautiful and each environment truly feels unique due to level design details. Jungle levels are hazy and full of foliage, tree roots, ruins, that impede movement and visibility. Wolves are hard to see in the snow. Ice is slippery.. Different weapons feel truly different from each other. There's good signposting that looks natural. In the jungle it's shiny green moss. On stone or ice it's scratch marks. If you look around, you can always find the way from those hints.

What I would have wanted from the game is for it to be bigger. Take all those mechanics and put them inside something greater. It's still a great and unique experience even with such a short campaign.