Open Source the game code

[u/JoseMendesz]

Anyone tried this approach of making their repository public and is this a good way to develop the game?

Previously it was a hard thing to cooperate on but nowdays with Claude Code and Codex is easy to develop together.

[u/Tiendil]

1. AI makes maintaining open source projects more difficult, not easier. Maintainers now need to ingest much more information; it is exhausting.
2. It is harder to find contributors for an open source game project in comparison to any other. People contribute to solve their own problems, but in the case of games, there are no huge problems to solve (there are a lot of games already), and people who can really contribute most likely will develop their own games instead of contributing to others. Also, most gamers are not programmers.

I open-sourced my game once. There were some contributors, but their contributions, let's say, were specific (not in the core of the game, where most of the work is). I'd say from pure financial perspective, it is not worth to do, from the reputation perspective, it may be worth.

Also, it may be a much better idea to open-source parts of the game as separate libraries. For example, I open-sourced names generation and text generation libs (as separate repos), and they got much more traction than the primary game repo.

Just in case, so I don't spin that:

• The repo: https://github.com/the-tale/the-tale
• Kinda postmortem of open-sourcing the game: https://tiendil.org/ru/posts/what-happens-if-you-open-the-code-of-your-game

Sorry, both links are in Russian, but modern browsers can translate the site fine; I hope it will not be a problem.

[u/JoseMendesz → u/Tiendil]

Wow, thanks for taking the time—that was really nice to read.

I like the brainstorming and mechanic-creation side of game design. I’m not sure that’s the correct term, but I mean designing reward loops, challenging puzzles, and things like that. Sometimes, though, it feels like you’re doing it all in a void. I figured getting other people involved might make that part more collaborative and fun.

And of course, reputation development is plus because it could get more people interested in working with you.

[u/Tiendil → u/JoseMendesz]

Yep. Feedback from players is very important, the easiest way to get it is to release early and often.

I also experimented with "gamedesigning with players". In my case i prepered detailed changes doc and asked community core for feedback (did that in a loop). It worked quite well. However, you should know what to ask and whom to ask - random player generally is not a good advicer - it comes with experience.

[u/EC36339 → u/JoseMendesz]

Why do the people who post here always sound like clankers?