We live in an economically ruled society, no denial possible. Nearly everything is based on what you own and what you might own, compared to what others own.

Especially in such a society, it’s nice to see something ‘unconditional’ from time to time.

“Let’s make something, and not only give it away for free, but also show the world exactly how we pulled it off. Let’s allow them a look behind the scenes and allow them to work further on those principles”. Open source is what it’s called and it’s a wonderful idea. It’s the ‘spread the love’ of the modern age.

Yo Frankie! Game

‘Codename Apricot’ – Yo Frankie! for the friends – is an open source 3D platformer game, produced by the Blender Foundation. This is a non-profit organisation, that occupies itself with the development of Blender, an open source 3D modelling application.

The Blender Foundation is showing the world that open source can replace those extremely pricy, high-end applications. Starting with the production of Pixar-quality animation shorts, like Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny (both released for free in High-Definition), Blender revealed to the world that Open Source is capable of reaching the high industry standards of the current day.

FLTR: Elephants Dream, Big Buck Bunny

Then the Apricot project came along. With a budget of a mere 50,000 Euros (which sounds more than it is), a small team started working on Yo Frankie! – not a 3D movie this time, but a 3D game.

The main character, Frankie, was already featured as the antagonist in Big Buck Bunny (it’s the scared squirrel from above), but also the levels feel very familiar.

The Game

Yo Frankie! is an open source action platformer game.

You play with Frankie, an angry looking squirrel, and have a pretty rough time in the wonderful surroundings. All the animals attack you, and hot pools of magma aren’t very unusual. You can defend yourself by using your tail, or by throwing nuts (though the latter one will prove harder than expected).

Expect an addicting platformer, of unseen quality for its league. There are still several inperfections, but it’s a really fun game, and even more amazing than that, it’s 100 percent free.

The game is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. You can download it from the official site here, or order the DVD online.

The game is drop-n-play and doesn’t need to be installed.  Just decompress the archives to a folder of your liking.