NovaTux, the first open source videogame of Cuba

On the morning of March 26, was presented by the FreeViUX team, the first cuban videogame made in Blender: NovaTux, in the National Videogame Festival at the Central Computer Palace.

The expectation created with this product, that was made using only the free and Open Source tools: GIMP and Blender, they showed that it is possible to create materials with quality, regardless of the private tools for modeling and animation like 3D Max, that are often used in such creations.

Using the Blender game engine is a reliable alternative for all creators of videogames that are currently using OGRE, C++ and other tools to achieve the logic and the
visualization the games.

The jurors, after the meeting, met with members of FreeViUX for copy the Blender versions for Windows that they have, plus some documentation to begin experimenting with this powerful tool.

NovaTux is designed as a game for children and teenagers 9 to 14 years, where they toured worlds meeting specific objectives, all aimed at learning the main concepts of Free Software and GNU / Linux distributions, particularly making emphasis in the features of NOVA, the Cuban GNU / Linux distribution, and the importance of their use for our country.

FreeViUX left the door open for anyone looking for create other educational and  entertainment materials with free software and without needing to write large blocks of code, except if necessary, some Python scripts to add specific functionalities to the game.

The authors of Novatux are:

• David Padrón Alvarez
• Yoan González González
• Angel Camilo Guillén Guzmán
• Carlos Ernesto Díaz Torres
• Julio César Ojeda Hernández

but soon it will become a community project where everyone can contribute to its development.