Development
Tux Racer was originally developed by Jasmin Patry, a student attending the University of Waterloo (UW) in Ontario, Canada, where he aimed to begin a career in the video game industry by pursuing a computer systems analyst (CSA) degree. Development of the game as a project began in August 1999 as a final computer graphics project in Computer Graphics Lab (CGL). The game was completed and presented in three days; a webpage for the game was then started, when one of Patry's classmates, having enjoyed the presentation, suggested he released the software as open source. Patry felt releasing the game as open source "made sense" due to Tux being the mascot for Linux, an open source software, and continued to work on the game throughout the year, hoping fellow students would join in on developing the game.
In December 1999, Patry and his former classmates Patrick Gilhuly, Eric Hall, Rick Knowles, Mark Riddell, and Rob Kroeger announced the foundation of the company Sunspire Studios to develop a video game project. Patry stated the game "would feature a massively multiplayer, persistent universe with real-time strategy and first-person shooter components," " something that would make the Quake 3 or Unreal engine look tame in comparison." Fine arts undergraduate classmate Roger Fernandez was chosen as the artist; however, the project was eventually abandoned due to limitations in current graphical software. In August 2000, Knowles suggested the company resume working on Tux Racer, which became their first official project. The game was released as free software under the GNU General Public License on October 2, 2000.
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