supertux/README.md

SuperTux - http://supertux.lethargik.org/

Last update: February 26, 2010

Description

SuperTux is a jump'n'run game with strong inspiration from the Super Mario Bros. games for the various Nintendo platforms.

Run and jump through multiple worlds, fighting off enemies by jumping on them, bumping them from below or tossing objects at them, grabbing power-ups and other stuff on the way.

Story: Penny gets captured!

Tux and Penny were out having a nice picnic on the ice fields of Antarctica. Suddenly, a creature jumped from behind an ice bush, there was a flash, and Tux fell asleep!

When Tux wakes up, he finds that Penny is missing. Where she lay before now lies a letter. "Tux, my arch enemy!" says the letter. "I have captured your beautiful Penny and have taken her to my fortress. The path to my fortress is littered with my minions. Give up on the thought of trying to reclaim her, you haven't got a chance! -Nolok"

Tux looks and sees Nolok's fortress in the distance. Determined to save his beloved Penny, he begins his journey.

Documentation

Important documentation for SuperTux is contained in multiple files. Please see them:

INSTALL.md : Requirements, compiling and installing.

README.md : This file

NEWS.md : Changes since the previous versions of SuperTux.

LICENSE : The GNU General Public License, under whose terms SuperTux is licensed. (Most of the data subdirectory is also licensed under CC-by-SA)

docs/levelguidelines.txt : Very useful information for those that want to design levels for SuperTux.

data/credits.txt : Credits for people that contributed to the creation of SuperTux. (You can view these in the game menu as well.)

data/README : Licensing information about the data.

Running the game

SuperTux makes use of proc to see where it is. In other words, it does not have any need to be installed and can be run from anywhere. This makes it possible to click in the executable in your filemanager (i.e. Konqueror or Nautilus) as opposed to many other Linux games.

Options can be reached from the menu, so you don't need to specify arguments, but if you want, type supertux2 --help to check the ones that are available. Also, notice that SuperTux saves the options, so it's often enough to specify them once. For example, fullscreen mode causes problems on some setups, so just run supertux2 --window and you should be set.

The game uses OpenGL to render the graphics. You will either need a CPU with about 10 GHz or an accelerated video card with the vendor's drivers. (On Linux, the team recommends using cards from NVidia with the proprietary drivers, but ATI or another vendor should do.)

Playing the game

Both keyboards and joysticks/gamepads are supported. You can change the controls via the Options menu. Basically, the only keys you will need to use in-game are to do the following actions: jump, duck, right, left, power and 'P' to pause/unpause the game. There isn't much to tell about the first few, but the "action" key allows you to pick up objects and use any powerup you got. For instance, with the fire flower, you can shoot bullets (note that this is the only power currently implemented).

Other useful keys include the Esc key, which is used to go to the menu or to go up a level in the menu. The menu can be navigated using the arrow keys or the mouse.

In the worldmap, the arrow keys are used to navigate and Enter to enter the current level.

Development status

This version of SuperTux is still under development, even though the 0.3 line of versions is somewhat aged. This means that badguys, features, levels, graphics or anything else may be removed in the future.

Especially the Forest world included in this package may be subject to drastic changes. These changes may go as far as removing the world altogether. Currently (February 2010) there is no consensus within the SuperTux development community regarding the fate of the Forest. Don't get too attached to it ;)

The End

Thanks for trying out SuperTux.

The SuperTux development team