''Nexuiz'' is a free

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

video game developed and published by

Alientrap Alientrap Games Inc. (commonly referred to as just Alientrap) is an independent video game developer led by Lee Vermeulen and Jesse McGibney. It has released the games ''Nexuiz'', '' Capsized'', '' Apotheon'', '' Cryptark'', and '' Wytchwood''. G ...

. The game was released under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

(GPL) and uses the

DarkPlaces engine The ''Quake'' engine is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game '' Quake''. It featured true 3D real-time rendering and is now licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License v2.0 or later. After relea ...

, a modified ''Quake'' engine. A

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...

, also called ''Nexuiz'', has been released for

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

using

CryEngine 3 CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in ''Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...

. The original game was released on May 31, 2005.

Gameplay

''Nexuiz'' is primarily

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

(though it includes a full single-player campaign, which allows one to play through the various multiplayer game types and maps with bots), and allows for hosting and joining of games. It supports new gametypes, or whole conversions quickly applied to it (much like '' Quake'').

Development

''Nexuiz'' development started as a ''Quake'' modification in the summer of 2001 by Lee Vermeulen. Soon afterward the project moved to the

created by Ashley Hale, who later also joined the project. The original design called for a simple deathmatch project with a few levels and one character model to be released the next summer. After four years of development with no budget, ''Nexuiz'' 1.0 was released on May 31, 2005, completely under the

GNU GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general us ...

, and by the end of June had over a quarter million downloads. Development continued after the initial release, with 1.1 released soon after, 1.5 released February 14, 2006, 2.0 released June 14, 2006, and 2.1 September 9, 2006. On February 29, 2008, nearly three years after the initial release, version 2.4 was released and brought major improvements to both the GUI and the graphics engine. This includes all new GUI graphics elements, as well as reflective water and improved particles. In October 2008, a call was made for more developers for ''Nexuiz'' by the main (and only)

QuakeC QuakeC is a compiled language developed in 1996 by John Carmack of id Software to program parts of the video game '' Quake''. Using QuakeC, a programmer is able to customize ''Quake'' to great extents by adding weapons, changing game logic and ...

developer, who identified organizational issues associated with many users. Responses to this call highlighted the need for better documentation of QuakeC and the Nexuiz code, while also acknowledging the difficulty that documentation of this placed on the small team of Nexuiz developers. From mid-November 2008, a number of people expressed interest in continuing development of Nexuiz. On March 1, 2010, it was revealed that IllFonic purchased the rights to the name ''Nexuiz''. On March 22, 2010, the fork ''

Xonotic ''Xonotic'' () is a free and open-source first-person shooter video game. It was developed as a fork of'' Nexuiz'', following controversy surrounding the game's development. The game runs on a heavily modified version of the Quake engine known a ...

'' of ''Nexuiz'' was announced. Many of the core contributors and community members of ''Nexuiz'' moved to this new project as they felt that sale of the name Nexuiz mishandles the original project. On July 13, 2010, Crytek announced that it had licensed the

Cryengine 3 CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in ''Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...

for IllFonic's ''Nexuiz''.

Reception

In the September 2006 issue of the magazine

PC Gamer ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

, ''Nexuiz'' was included in an article on Internet developers and free games impacting the industry. It also featured on the March 2007 Maximum PC and (version 2.4) was released on the May 2008 and August 2009

PC User ''TechLife'' (formerly ''PC User'') is an Australian general computer magazine, published monthly by Future Australia. The magazine's regular content consists of computer hardware and software reviews and previews, technology news and opinion a ...

cover disks. Upon the release of version 2.5 in April 2009,

Phoronix Phoronix Test Suite (PTS) is a free and open-source benchmark software for Linux and other operating systems which is developed by Michael Larabel and Matthew Tippett. The Phoronix Test Suite has been endorsed by sites such as Linux.com, LinuxP ...

deemed the game to be "the best open-source first person shooter we have ever played."

Competitive play

GameStop GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operates 4,5 ...

locations across the US held an in-store Nexuiz "PC gaming challenge". Interactive kiosks were set up in 10 different stores in 8 US cities. The kiosks gave users 2 minutes to earn the high score by doing the most damage possible to their AI opponents. The highest monthly scorer in each location won a $100 GameStop gift card. There were new maps every month, and each player was allowed one game per day. Game play was open to GameStop customers ages 13 and up, and ages 17 and above were eligible to win the monthly gift card for the high score. Cities with the Challenge were: Dallas, Miami, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Remake and fork

On March 3, 2010, it was announced the name Nexuiz had been licensed to

IllFonic IllFonic, LLC is an American video game developer based in Golden, Colorado, with further offices in Tacoma, Washington, and Austin, Texas. The studio was founded by Charles Brungardt, Kedhrin Gonzales and Raphael Saadiq in 2007. IllFonic is b ...

for commercial release. This version was released on

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

and

. While the game uses the same name, it adopts a futuristic, Victorian art style. It is based on

, instead of the DarkPlaces engine used in the original game. The main page of the game changed to reflect the commercial version of the game, rather than the open source PC game although it remains accessible. Community changes to the Nexuiz project initiated two free

forks In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods ei ...

called ''

'' and later Rexuiz.

References

External links

''Nexuiz Classic'' official homepage

''Nexuiz'' for consoles official homepage
{{Quake series 2005 video games Amiga games AmigaOS 4 games AROS software Articles containing video clips Linux games MacOS games Open-source video games Quake mods Shooter video games Video games developed in Canada Windows games