Open Source Game development?

[Pongles]

IMO it'll just take one kick-ass game and people will start to take it seriousally.

It just takes the right bunch of people.

[Skjalg]

IMO it'll just take one kick-ass game and people will start to take it seriousally.

It just takes the right bunch of people.

the problem with a good open source game is that there would be as many versions as there are cs maps..

[Pongles]

.. Open-Source middle-ware works well though .

[Sindwiller]

IMO it'll just take one kick-ass game and people will start to take it seriousally.

It just takes the right bunch of people.

the problem with a good open source game is that there would be as many versions as there are cs maps..

Sorry, but that's a common excuse of wannabe-"1337" & "e-sports" projects (aside from the "making cheating easier"-part) (such as UrT, TCE, CPMA and what the hell not, and some other bunch of retards), for not open source'ing their project respectively not even thinking about the Open Source model as a possible model in their project, and not of someone who is clearly knowing what he's talking about. But then again most of you simply don't know the scene enough to judge correctly.

It's true that Free Software allows you to fork stuff, make a new project out of it, et cetera. But did that kind of thing happen to a living project? Especially a big one? Neither Nexuiz, nor TORCS, nor Sauerbraten, nor Wesnoth, nor Neverball, nor Warsow, nor Tremulous, nor Maryo Chronicles, nor Netpanzer, nor Wormux, nor what-the-hell-ever happened to get forked for no particular reason while the project was actually living. Keep this in mind please.

And why don't people just fork big projects? Because, game design can't be applied to jack and shit. And remaking art is a pain. And smaller mods... aren't forks.

The Open Source model has actually some really nice benefits for a project. For example, when someone contributes a piece of work to the project, he can't forbid the redistribution of his work by said project - which sounds like a right's restriction, but actually make sense, since you work for a project, and not yourself. This can also make a whole project collaps (/me points to Warsow where the lead mapper left and took all his maps with himself).

Another benefit is that reanimating dead projects is possible. An example for that are the various Tux Racer forks. The "original" Tux Racer development started in 2000 and the project died in 2001. Years after that, Planet Penguin Racer forked Tux Racer, thus making a new project. Two years ago, the project died, too. Now has Extreme Tuxracer reanimated Tuxracer again is making some nice progress (new tracks, new functionality on the way, etc.).