Do you find open source games interesting/good thing as a gamer?
@games I am a game developer working on game called Mushy Score. I decided that my niche would be to create open source games. I think these could be helpful for developers or teachers to teach about games and how they are made. Most open source games are small game jam games, but there are few “real games” that are open source like 0 A.D. and Doom. As a non-developer do you think open source games could be good thing?
A game with open source is better than the same game with closed source, basically by definition.
A problem open source games tend to have, is that they often have an overly democratic development process. Art by committee can at best closely resemble another piece of art. It also makes it hard to reject ideas and kick out people who pull in the wrong direction.
The focus also often ends up on the code being presentable rather than the game being engaging. Real games that are made in reasobable time and have the necessary tons of little tweaks and adjustments needed to be fun have HORRENDOUS code as a result. Few developers are willing to settle for that if they know the world will scrutinize their code and judge them for it.
So yeah, go for it! But beware the pitfalls :)
It’s nice my unreadable code is getting the attention it deserves
The only open source game I know is Pixel Dungeon, and I love that one because it has spawned so many derivatives. So I guess I’d support it if it were more common.
Whether I find an open source game interesting is whether or not it’s good, so my opinion isn’t very helpful since what’s good is subjective.
Games like Mindustry, SuperTuxKart, Super Tux Advance? Great!
Games like FreeCiv? Don’t like (mostly because I can’t even figure out how to end a turn or do anything despite looking up how to play).
Yes, but you have to remember that the developer community is absolutely tiny compared to the number of gamers.
It’s a neat gimmick, but 98% of the people who could be your audience will get nothing out of the game being open source.
I would really like it if certain specific games were more open source and more moddable, for example stellaris has an annoying formula hard coded that makes combat balancing and weapon modding very difficult. On the other hand, games like openRA exist and I’m not playing that and I’m not doing anything with the source either. That one even has fully functioning multiplayer, but it’s so built in that it’s hard to reuse for anything else. So you might end up being torn between making the game really good and making the tools and code really good.
I think the biggest appeal of open source games is as a learning resource. Maybe. idk.
Also, may I suggest panda3d, which I’m shilling for at every opportunity that I get, because it’s neat, 3d, open source and runs with C or python?
I don’t have any input as a dev but I do enjoy finding, learning about and playing open source games. There is something about it that I find interesting and although most of them are not great I check back every so often on my favourites.
Open source is better for the longevity and distribution of games, also for knowing it isn’t malware. I wish more games were open-source, the industry likes trade secrets and DRM but that isn’t sustainable (most games have been lost over time, and we’re probably close to 99% of source material and documentation being extinct).
There are several open source games that I love and have played regularly:
- Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart
- Veloren
- Xonotic
- Super Tux Kart
I wish more games were open source.
Some open source games I love
- Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead
- Panzer Marshal
- Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Shattered Pixel Dungeon is the best mobile game I’ve played since FTL and that was only available on tablet. It’s a wonderful game. I like it so much that I sent the developer $10 just as a sign of appreciation.
Absolutely, I honestly find the trope of penetrating into repetitive grey dungeon a really unappealing theme for an entire game but Shattered Pixel Dungeon just has such a tight core gameplay loop I end up enjoying myself.
Doom’s engine was made open source in 99, which was instrumental for opening up modern source ports and the current modding scene which I’d argue is one of the strongest.
You have Beyond All Reason which has both an active development cycle and player base, because it’s basically the best classic RTS available in years.
Long Live The Spring Engine
I started building games thanks to open source.
It’s why I open source all my demos.
So the least it can do is inspire future developers.
I’ve only tried open source games once or twice, but I support any open source software, so as a concept I totally think it’s a good thing.
If you actually want to make games for a living, then don’t do open source. Have people pay for enjoying your work. If it is a hobby, open source may be beneficial, because you can then team up with other hobbyists.
You can charge people for open source software. Most people on Steam won’t bother building your game from source even if it’s not difficult and you distribute the assets freely.
Fair point. But then, would anyone actually care that it is open source? I am not sure if there is a larger target group that would be more inclined to buy a game because of that. Maybe you can use it for marketing though?
Marketing would be one and open source, democracy and freedom (fediverse anyone?) are kind of getting popular I think. Probably good to jump in now.
Besides that, open source means your game will probably outlive you. For example, the assets are mostly what the game looks like and they often are excluded so you cant just build it from source but you can help make it better.
And if your game is good, people will just clone it. See gta and minecraft.
although I’ve searched for specifically FOSS games in the past it’s not really a niche, i would still pick out games in genres i liked.
still as you have said there’s a real lack of “good” FOSS games, because most people make games with engines that do not facilitate open sourcing your game, artists unfortunately think copyright is good and you can’t open source your game without also giving away your art or making your game free, or the most common case is that devs don’t know/care about FOSS.
i think FOSS games are good however i also think games need to be very opinionated pieces of software, so do not delegate your design to other or “also open sourcing your design”. the dev should ultimately be in control.
one thing I’ve seen even non FOSS games do is to use their repo as a public bug tracker, so in addition to that accepting contributions for bugfixes could also work. although i think it goes against the spirit of FOSS software you could also separate your artwork from your source code.
Yeah, that is my current approach, the code is open source, but assets needs to be bought (that’s how for example Doom is “opensource”). There are many ways to do open source and I guess I need to find out what is best way for me.
Examples of different types of open source games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games