Following Elephants Dream and Peach (to be released in April), both open-source movies sponsored by Blender, Blender, an open-source 3D modeling application, and CrystalSpace, another open-source project relating to 3D graphics, are starting out a new project - a 3D open-source professional game.

The project, called Apricot, will release the final game at the end of July, if all goes according to schedule, for Linux, Mac, and Windows along with all the models, sounds, and code used in it. The game will be mostly developed by a group of developers who will be paid to work in Amsterdam.

Based on the quality of Elephants Dream, I think it is safe to say that whatever comes out of Apricot (the only decision made about the game is the use of the characters from Peach) will be a truly professional quality game. Based on my list of the most popular wishes for Linux and other similar lists around the Linux community, professional games for Linux are clearly important for many Linux users and if they happen to be open-source and use only open-source tools, what could be better? You can help out Apricot by pre-ordering the game (as well as all the graphics, music, code, etc.) on DVD. Hopefully, Apricot will be big success and there will be many more similar professional open-source games developed in the future.