@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?

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[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 5 points 9 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] vorpuni@jlai.lu 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 8 points 9 months ago

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.