We need a Steam-clone for free games

I was chatting with someone on IRC about an idea that could help Open Source and free games in general - a clone of Steam, as in Valve. Imagine a single application that would fetch, install and load any free game for you. You would no longer have to search websites (like this one ), follow install instructions or even wait for FilePlanet downloads to play free games. That would be great, right? Some might argue that we have that already with x (x = your favorite Linux packaging system, etc...), but would limit the audience to *nix and *BSD systems, which is not the best for free gaming or gamers. I for one like playing my favorite games on my Ubuntu box and my work PC (hehe boss i'm j/k if you're reading this).

The need for this Steam clone is important for free games to survive and grow. Most of us know that free games are only as good as the communities behind them, and those communities need a constant supply of fresh players. In case you didn't know, it's the main reason this website and others exists. Those new players bring ideas, support and marketing opportunities that are vital for health of a game. The trick part is how to let people know about new games. Remember that if you didn't know about a particular game, it's still new - to you.

Interestingly enough I decided to do a quick web search to see if anyone else was working on this idea and found a cool project called Djl. Djl is a free game distribution system inspired on Steam. With it you can download, install/uninstall and run games that are in their repository. Anyone can submit new games to the repository using a website form. I must say I was surprised with its features.

Portable code - written in python and PyQt:

djl_liste_jeux.png

Healthy repository of games, with descriptions and shots:

djl_depot.png

Integrated IRC client:

djl_irc.png

Integrated RSS feeds to popular free gaming websites:

djl_rss.png

Also, it supports plugins which makes it very versatile. It comes with several useful plugins.

I think this project is a great step in the right direction. I was disappointed to find out it was not available in the Ubuntu repositories. Like all open source projects, it is still work in progress but their progress is phenomenal. I would suggest you to try it. Not all is rosy here though. Out of the five games I tried to install through Djl, two failed. And apparently it assumed I wanted all games in 32bit (x86) even though my system is 64bit (x86_64). The IRC client is rather simplistic and still has some quirks. I'm using Linux, I would like to know if anyone can manage to get it working on other systems like Windows and MacOSX. These systems are not officially supported by Djl but it would be a nice exercise.

Nonetheless, Djl makes it a lot easier for anyone to try new free games and build interest through community recycling. It is another great tool to keep during our perennial quest for: What should I play now?


[1] Djl - http://en.djl-linux.org/