Technically, GemRB isn’t the actual Infinity Engine. What it is, though, is “portable open-source implementation of Bioware’s Infinity Engine”, the engine that powered the Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale games, as well as Planescape: Torment.

Here are the listed features:

• Runs the Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment games
• Cross-platform: runs on Windows, OS X, Linux, *BSD, Android, iOS and more
• Open source under the GPL
• Nearly feature-complete
• Usability innovations, including touch based input
• Extensible plugin-based design that removes many limitations of the Infinity Engine

Now, that right there is cool in and of itself. I mean, who doesn’t want to have the ability to play Planescape on his or her iPhone or Android device?

But, as GameBanshee points out, there’s a bit more to GemRB than just the ability to play Infinity Engine games on multiple platforms.

But let’s not let the real promise be obfuscated by yet another play-through of those classics — GemRB can be used to build an entirely new Infinity Engine-based game:

While it would be great to focus development on one game at a time, ideas often occur for other games that are just too good to let go. This section is for those ideas, so that they can be recorded and not lost. If you’re submitting a completely new idea, it might be good to see if your idea can eventually be incorporated with an existing project in some way, in effect bringing to bear the best traits of both. If you’re going to hassle about licensing issues, please license your content under the GPL 2 to allow the greatest utility to the GemRB project… If indeed, you want GemRB to use it.

New game development should be modeled off the game template, this gives you an outline and a couple questions directing you where to start creating an entire world, it’s inhabitants, and major events. Other, more realistically ambitious templates include: Plots, Characters, Locations, Items, and Capabilities.

If you’re filling out a template, you should fill out the sections relating to the idea you’re adding and then provide appropriate links to the ideas in the other sections (if you’re making a character, fill out the character information, but just provide a link and short description to the town the character lives in – fill out the town’s information on the town’s own page).

Someone, somewhere, please take this and run with it before EA realizes the implications it might have. I will be indebted to you and will buy multiple copies of your game. Thank you.

Does anyone think this might be useful for…say…an Ultima-themed project?