Humans may be the most creative species on the planet, but we spend a lot of time doing tedious things. Look at the internet: it's a revolutionary and disruptive technology, with the potential to change education, governments and scientific research, yet most people use it to post comments on YouTube videos of mobile phones being unboxed. Here in the free software world, we're familiar with the collaboration opportunities that the internet brings, and many great applications have been developed by teams of programmers around the globe. But desktop and server applications aren't the most exciting things in the world. Wouldn't it be great if all the untapped creativity of humans on the internet could be funnelled into making artistic things, such as video games? If you've followed the Hot Games section of HotPicks over the years, you'll have discovered a few notable projects involving multiple contributors; the vast majority, however, are one-man efforts. And part of the problem is this: a developer may come up with a brilliant idea for a game, but lack the artistic flair to make it look good.The world of patents explained: how they affect what you buyOr, conversely, a budding artist may love designing graphics for his/her ideal RPG, yet doesn't possess the technical nous to make it a playable reality.We've seen loads of promising games let down by inadequate artwork, and heard from designers who'd love to contribute to an open source game, but don't know where to start or who
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