Linux for Designers

Carsten Wartmann, main author of the first edition of the book "Blender Gamekit", started his work on a fully updated 2nd version. The Apricot blog ("Yo Frankie" open games) described it with "...cover all new functionality, glsl materials, multilayer texture, character animation and logic states and bricks".
The first version, published in 2003, is now freely available for download. The 2nd version of the Blender Gamekit will be available at the end of this year at the Blender eShop.

So much is going on at the Open Game Apricot Project:
* New levels
* Name and Logo announced: Yo Frankie!
* New Apricot Blender builds available
* Apricot files available
* Optimized GLSL features

Check out the blog to get all the flavored details

The first playable demo of the Apricot Game Project is ready to rumble. Grab it at the project blog and try it out with a Blender Apricot Build from Graphicall.org.
Here is a preview:

The first game project of the Blender Foundation "Apricot" and makes a huge progress of developing the Blender Game Engine (BGE):
* GLSL is now integrated in the BGE
* Support for nodes, multiple uv layers, all blending modes, stencil maps for splatting, color ramps for that precious falloff, and much more
* Support for shape keys has been added
* Really impressive speedups to the game engine
* Real Time Shadows in Blender’s 3D View

Read all the details at the project blog and watch this first preview of the Apricot game