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SuperTuxKart

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SuperTuxKart
Original author(s)Steve Baker
Developer(s)Joerg Henrichs, Marianne Gagnon, Eduardo Hernandez Munoz, Jean-Manuel Clemençon (graphics), various others
Initial release2006; 18 years ago (2006)
Stable release
0.9.2 / June 2016; 8 years ago (2016-07)
Repositoryhttps://github.com/supertuxkart/
Written inC++
Engine
  • Antarctica
Edit this at Wikidata
PlatformCross-platform (officially offered Linux, macOS, Windows, many more community ports)
TypeSingleplayer, Multiplayer Racing
LicenseGPLv3 (various free licenses for the content)
Websitesupertuxkart.net Edit this on Wikidata

SuperTuxKart, also known as STK, is a free and open-source kart racing video game, distributed under the terms of the GPLv3+. It features mascots of various open-source projects. SuperTuxKart is cross-platform, running on Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows systems from XP onward.[1] The latest stable version of the game is version 0.9.2 and was released on July 1, 2016.[2] As of version 0.9, SuperTuxKart features an all-new graphics engine called "Antarctica".[3]

SuperTuxKart started as TuxKart, developed originally by Steve Baker in 2000. When TuxKart's development ended around March 2004, a fork as SuperTuxKart was conducted by other developers in 2006. As of June 2017 SuperTuxKart is under active development by the game's community.

Gameplay

Screenshot of version 0.9 (2015).
Screenshot showing the four player split-screen capability (version 0.6rc1).
Screenshot showing character selection screen (2012).

SuperTuxKart's gameplay is similar to that of the Mario Kart series of games, but has become more distinctive over time. The game features the mascots of various open source projects, with Mozilla Thunderbird being the race referee. The game may be played in single player or local multiplayer mode. Online multiplayer was scheduled to be added in version 0.9.3.[4]

Game modes

SuperTuxKart has several race modes:

  • Story Mode/Challenges: Win races or complete a track under a certain time to unlocks karts and tracks;
  • Single player: Normal Race, Time Trial, Follow the leader, Easter Egg hunt, Three Strikes Battle (with AI), Soccer mode (with AI);
  • Multiplayer: Normal Race, Time Trial, Follow the leader, Three Strikes Battle, Soccer mode

Characters

Similarly to Warmux, the official characters are the mascots of free and open source projects, for instance Thunderbird (Referee) (for Mozilla Thunderbird), Tux (Linux kernel), Adiumy (Adium), Beastie (BSD), Emule (eMule), Hexley (Darwin), Pidgin (Pidgin), Suzanne (Blender), Wilber (GIMP), Beagle (formerly) (Beagle Desktop Search), ElePHPant (PHP), Gnu (GNU), Konqi (K Desktop Environment), Puffy (OpenBSD), Xue (Xfce), Sara (OpenGameArt.org), Mozilla (formerly) (Mozilla), Amanda (Window Maker), and Gavroche (Media Goblin).

An exception is Nolok[5], who does not represent a particular open source project, but was created by the SuperTux Game Team as the enemy of Tux. There are also other characters that can be downloaded as add-ons from the SuperTuxKart add-ons website, for instance Geeko (for OpenSUSE), Blinky (FreeDOS), Minix (Minix 3), Chinchila (Big Buck Bunny), Gooey (WebGUI), Kitty (AROS), Python (Python), Choqok (ChoqoK), Penny and Mr. Iceblock (SuperTux), Amiga (Amiga OS), Android (Android), Audacity Girl (Audacity), Proog (Blender Foundation), Transmission (Transmission), and Buggie (Bugzilla).

Tracks

Most default tracks must be unlocked by completing active challenges in the Story Mode. 'There are around 16 differently themed tracks included, and many more Add-on tracks.

History

SuperTuxKart is based on TuxKart, an project initiated by Steve Baker in April 2000. Due to TuxKart project internal disagreements the development stalled and collapsed ultimately, the project was abandoned in March 2004. The project was forked[citation needed] as SuperTuxKart, but remained in an unplayable and unmaintained state. In 2006 Joerg "Hiker" Henrichs[6] resurrected the project and, with the help of Eduardo Hernandez "Coz" Munoz,[6] released the game in a playable state.[4] In 2008, Marianne Gagnon (aka. "Auria") joined the project and eventually replaced Munoz as one of the project leaders after his retirement.[7]

Historically licensed under version 2 of the GPL, in 2008 the game's source code was relicensed to the GPLv3.[8]

The game's assets (textures, models, sounds, music, etc.) are licensed under a mixure of licenses: GPL, CC BY, CC BY-SA, and Public Domain.[9]

In 2010, SuperTuxKart switched away from using SDL and PLIB libraries (used for version 0.0.0 to 0.6.2) for graphics and started using the Irrlicht Engine. This change was finalized in version 0.7.[4] In 2013 and 2014, the game participated in Google Summer of Code as a mentoring organization.[10] The migration of the code repository (but not the asset repository)[11] from Sourceforge to GitHub was officially announced on 17 January 2014[12], the download site remains on Sourceforge. On April 21, 2015, version 0.9 was released which used a highly modified version of Irrlicht,[13] including an entirely new graphics renderer dubbed Antarctica.[14] This enabled much better graphics with features such as dynamic lighting, ambient occlusion, depth of field, global illumination and more.

In March 2017 SuperTuxKart was greenlit on digital distributor Steam.[15]

Reception

In 2004, TuxKart was selected by The Linux Game Tome to be their "Game of the Month" project. In 2007 Full Circle Magazine named SuperTuxKart as one of the top five racing games available for Linux, describing it as the game to try if you're "tired of realistic driving".[16] Linux Journal also praised the game, saying that "the courses in SuperTuxKart are fun, colorful and imaginative" and that "If you've played the original, you'll be impressed by the new, hugely improved, SuperTuxKart."[17] Although it did not make it into the APC Mag top five free games, it received an honorable mention.[18] In 2009, TechRadar cited it as one of the best games to put on a Linux netbook.[19]

Between 2007 and May 2017 SuperTuxKart was downloaded alone from Sourceforge.net 2.7 million times.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "SuperTuxKart Downloads". SuperTuxKart. Retrieved July 24, 2012.
  2. ^ "STK 0.9.2 release".
  3. ^ "Antarctica engine".
  4. ^ a b c "FAQ – SuperTuxKart". SuperTuxKart. SourceForge. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  5. ^ Nolok from SuperTux
  6. ^ a b File data/CREDITS from SuperTuxKart 0.4 distribution
  7. ^ Goodwin, Charles (April 6, 2007). "Open Source Games: Interview: Ingo Ruhnke aka Grumbel". freegamer.blogspot.com. Retrieved April 28, 2012.
  8. ^ "supertuxkart/stk-code Git commit ID eb482c7: Updated the GPL version to GPLv3". GitHub. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  9. ^ copying on github.com
  10. ^ SuperTuxKart participating in GSoC 2013, stkblog.net. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  11. ^ "Source control". SuperTuxKart.
  12. ^ Henrichs, Joerg (January 17, 2014): Migrating to GitHub.
  13. ^ "Antarctica: Overview". SuperTuxKart.
  14. ^ "Antarctica: Technical Details". SuperTuxKart.
  15. ^ weare-greenlit on blog.supertuxkart.net
  16. ^ Min, Andrew (October 2007). "Top Five Racing Games" (PDF). Full Circle Magazine (6). Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  17. ^ Gagné, Marcel (November 1, 2007). "Cooking with Linux – Because Nothing Says High Performance Like a Good Race". Linux Journal. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  18. ^ Sbarski, Peter (January 21, 2008). "Top 5 best (free) open source games". APC. Retrieved July 5, 2012.
  19. ^ Oxford, Adam (February 12, 2009). "12 of the best games for your Linux netbook". TechRadar. Retrieved July 4, 2013.
  20. ^ stats 2000-05-15+to+2017-05-21 on sourceforge.net (May 2017)
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