Terminology Glossary

 4X Games

4X is an abbreviation of Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate. It is a genre of strategy games where the goal is to build an empire (e.g. a civilization, a company, a kingdom, a space colony, and so on) with emphasis on managing resources and developing technologies.

One prominent example of a 4X game is Sid Meier's Civilization, which would become an inspiration for one of the game we review, Unciv.


Beta and Stable Releases

In software development, a beta release (or "beta version") means that the release is already feature-complete but is not fully tested for any potential issues or bugs. Beta release software is likely to contain bugs, in the worst case causing data loss.

Beta releases are usually released for testers to check for bugs so they can be reported to the developer before the stable release is released to the public.

In contrast, a stable release (or "stable version") means that the release has passed all stages of verification to check for defects and issues. Software in stable release are considered acceptable enough for public release. Of course, even stable release can still have bugs, as no software is perfect.

In this blog, our review will focus on the stable version of games whenever possible.


Forks (or Project Fork)

In software engineering, making a (project) fork or forking is the process of taking a copy of the source code from one project and starting a new, separate development of it. When a project is forked, it usually means that a different entity (person or group) has taken the original software and develops it separately from the original development.

Forking tend occur for one of the following two reason:

  • The original version of a software is no longer being worked on or maintained, so someone decided to revive the project as their own.
  • Differences in ideas or vision on a software causes another developer to create their own version which suit their vision better than the original.


By definition, free and open-source can be forked from the original version without permission and without violating copyright law (as long as the developer does not violate the software license (e.g. GPL, AGPL, MIT, etc)). For this reason, FOSS software and games are sometimes forked.


Some example of games in this blog that are forks of another project include:

  • SuperTuxKart (fork of TuxKart)
  • Mineclonia (fork of VoxeLibre)

In other words, forking is the process of taking one software project and creating a separate version of it under a different development.


Source Code

One term that you likely see/hear often when talking about FOSS software (and games) is "source code". But, what is it exactly?

Source code are simply a set of instructions written by a programmer to create software. These source codes are the recipe which is then turned into software that people use.

Source code is an important part of creating software (and video games by proxy) as it allows you to create and modify the software.

Most companies and developer restricts access to the source code of their software in order to protect their intellectual property. However, in some cases, the source code for a software is released to the public (i.e. made open-source), allowing anyone to modify and distribute the source code freely under a certain license.


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