Introduction

The Dark Eye

The Dark Eye is the translated version of the german pen and paper roleplaying game Das Schwarze Auge. It was first published 1984 and is, with its game world Aventurien, Germanys most successful roleplaying game. Currently the fourth version of the game rules is in place (DSA4/TDE4).
In the nineties The Dark Eye was accompanied by three successful game installements, which have become classics by now, the Nordlandtrilogie. These were released in english under the name Realms of Arkania. While other roleplaying systems - like D&D/D20 or White Wolf - had a continuous supply of computer games during the ten years after the release of the last game in the Realms of Arkania series all announced succesors failed even before getting finished.

Meanwhile Drakensang a - very likely successful - commercial alternative exists, but this doesn't stop us from creating a game that we TDE gamers always wanted to have.

Computer games

The computer game industry has a greater sale volume than the movie industry. The development of one single title is nearly as time and money consumptive as modern movies. It is predicted that these numbers will continue to increase during the next years; more and more people are trained to buy and play computer games. High tech wars are waged between producers and 'software pirates'.

Alongside the commercial sector independent or hobbyist game developers always existed. With small modifications of a games graphics, self created levels or other game extensions, but also with own, mostly smaller, games, committed developers and artists are being created around the world.

Open Source

The concept Open Source is understood as software projecte – products with are freely accessible including their source code. Prominent examples are the linux operating systems or the firefox browser. The motivation to work for open source software, frequently comes from the wish to create a perfect tool. Sometimes it is just for the fun or the gained experience.