The Czech studio Bohemia Interactive has unexpectedly decided to open the source code of one of its games. It uploaded the source code of the military simulator Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, now known as Arma: Cold War Assault, on GitHub.
Arma: Cold War Assault
The repository also includes the source code of the engine used to create the game.
Bohemia Interactive indicated that before publishing the source code, they upgraded all the original code to the C++20 standard. Additionally, they added support for modern versions of Windows and Linux.
As explained by the studio, they shared the source code as a token of gratitude to the gaming community that has supported Arma: Cold War Assault for more than two decades. Bohemia Interactive hopes this will encourage fans to create even more new content and perhaps someone will find a way to further enhance the game.
The source code is distributed under the GPL 3.0 license. This applies only to the engine and executable files of the game. However, fan projects are prohibited from using the simulator's name and Bohemia Interactive's logos.
It is worth recalling that Arma: Cold War Assault was released in 2001. For the first ten years, it was called Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, but due to a split with the publisher Codemasters, the developers were forced to rename the game. Currently, Bohemia Interactive is working on a full-fledged remaster, a demo version of which is already available to try on Steam.