$20…er, Free Game of the Week: .kkrieger beta (PC)

If you got a fairly high-end PC, head over to http://www.theprodukkt.com/ and download this slick game, which was featured in last month’s Game Informer. Even though it’s only a beta of episode 1, the graphical quality is pretty good and can hold it’s own against most PC first person shooter games. The game is a bit rough around the edges when it comes to frame rate, weapons, and enemies, but it is only a beta, and hopefully the functionality will be improved in the final version. The main draw about this download is it’s size, which is only 96k! This is done by using procedural generation methods in order to process the textures and shapes. The textures are stored by creation history rather than a pixel by pixel basis. (Other PC FPS games take up so much space because of their graphical engines and textures.) You can read more about it at it’s wikipedia entry. Technological terms aside, that’s one heck of an accomplishment. It’s small enough to fit on your floppy disk and then some! The game is only one level, but if this is what the beta looks like, then I can’t wait to see the finished version. This may not be Unreal Engine 3, but it’s nice looking!

System Requirements:
Operating System: Windows
Processor: 1.5GHz pentium 3 / athlon or faster.
System Memory: 512MB Ram
Graphics: GeForce4Ti / ATI Radeon8500 (equivalent or higher) with at least 128 MB or VRAM with pixel shader 1.3 support.
Direct X 9.0b
Storage: 96k RAM
Sound: Direct Sound Compatible hardware

There may be some bugs. Read the FAQ on the site for more information. Also, your anti-virus software may detect the game as a virus or Trojan, ignore any warnings that may pop up when the game downloads.

A few notes about the technology and it’s developers
.theprodukkt is an ongoing project created by a group of German developers. It’s goal is to create a system that contains all the functions (scene management, textures, shading, etc) that developers use to create 3d computer graphics, integrate aspects that are needed for game development (i.e. AI, Interaction, and music), and is highly productive for experienced artists and programmers. .werkkzeug3, the creation tool which was used for .kkrieger, is available as a free or commercial download from their site. The game won first place at the Breakpoint 96k game competition in April 2004.