Game developer Terry Cavanagh announced that the 2D puzzle game VVVVVV is now open-source. The game features Captain Viridian as the protagonist and playable character. He finds himself in an alternate dimension, called VVVVVV, and has to rescue his crew.
The game, released on January 10, 2010, was an unexpected success for Cavanagh. The young developer was unemployed and just considered VVVVVV a side hustle while looking for his next job. In 2009, the retro-inspired game was featured at Eurogamer Expo, so Cavanagh could get from hundreds of players. The indie game creator sold 312 copies of the game on the very first day after launch. He eventually became a full-time developer. Now, he is credited with other amazing games like Super Hexagon and Don't Look Back.
On January 10, Cavanagh decided to celebrate VVVVVV's 10th anniversary by releasing the game's source code on GitHub. "VVVVVV is such an important game to me, I barely even know where to start," says the developer on Distractionware, his official blog. "I wanted to do something special to mark the occasion." The code, however, only contains the texts and level content from the game, as all the graphics and music were are under a proprietary license and had to be left out as a result. According to Cavanagh, the purpose of the source code is demonstrating "that VVVVVV is not a technically sophisticated game. [...] Maybe the best thing about VVVVVV’s source code is that it stands as proof of what you can hack together even if you’re not much of a programmer." The repo contains both the C++ desktop version and the mobile version of the game.
Also, game developer Sergio Cornaga announced a contest on Glorious Trainwrecks to celebrate VVVVVV's 10th anniversary. Using the game's Make and Play edition, the fans will be able to create their own levels and submit them to Glorious Trainwrecks until January 30. Then, Cavanagh will create a round-up post on Distractionware, highlighting the best fans had to offer and celebrating the game even further after a strong decade that helped launch Cavanagh's career as a game developer.
VVVVVV's success demonstrates that the more and more opportunities to independent developers, and the net result has been an incredibly strong few years for the genre - especially 2019, which say games like Disco Elysium come out of nowhere to challenge for game of the year awards.
VVVVVV is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch, Mac OS, Linux, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, PS4, iOS, Android, Ouya, Commodore 64, and Pandora.
Source: Distractionware