A lot of old games have become unplayable on modern hardware and operating systems. I wrote an article about how making games open source will keep them playable far into the future.

I also discuss how making games open source could be beneficial to developers and companies.

Feedback and constructive criticism are most welcome, and in keeping with the open source spirit, I will give you credit if I make any edits based on your feedback.

  • pop@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Be the change you want to see. Make some games worth playing and release it as a FOSS and prove it can be a commercial success as well. See how it goes.

    Asking people to release their work for free while providing very little incentives other than your own benefit aren’t going to convince people who need to put food on the table NOW, without relying on miniscule probability of popularity or success after pouring years of your time.

    • PopOfAfrica@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      Well, one of the alternatives is what ID Software used to do, where they would sell the game for a period of time and then open source the code Once sales dropped off.

      • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        Yee, you’re mot going to be hurt by open sourcing your game 5 or 10 years later. By that time practically nobody will buy your game anymore. And of the ones who still will,.they likely aren’t the ones that would even bother with looking for alternatives other than a big sale on a store page

        But then, open sourcing adds to human culture, it lets others modify the game, or use it as a foundation for something new. And those things will credit you, and you will still get some extra benefit/good pr.

        It’s just a good thing to do, imo.

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      Can you explain that? Are you saying there are modern engines using parts of quake 1 source code?

      • Kushan@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        The engine Can of Duty uses is effectively a heavily modified quake 3 engine.

        By this point it’s so modified it may as well be a different thing, but make no mistake it has evolved from the quake 3 engine.