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Re: Withering on the vine (was: [ANN] Volley)

To: "REALbasic Games" <REALbasic-Games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: Withering on the vine (was: [ANN] Volley)
From: Pepe <pepe at macmoguls dot com>
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 22:22:24 +0200

Joseph J. Strout wrote:

But still, the source is out there and anybody with an interest could develop it further. Which brings me back to what I was going to suggest for Whiplash (or any other RB game): if you reach a point where you no longer have any interest in finishing it, please consider making it open-source.

Well, on the one hand this is a good idea. Other developers can learn a lot from open source projects (open source was what made me learn RB). On the other hand I would recommend to really make sure if this is the only option. For example, I sometimes lose interest for one or two weeks, but then - when I feel the need to code - I'm glad that I can code on a game that doesn't need to be developed from the very start. Moreover: if you really lose interest or have the feeling not to make it alone, why not team up with another developer? Sometimes developing a game together can be really fun (and if it doesn't, then you still can make it open source). Or maybe just throw out a test version for other developers to get some more ideas or motivation, etc...

I say all this, because at the moment it is - like Joe said in a previous mail - almost as much frustrating than helpful to see open source projects. I always get the feeling that "if these great projects don't make it to be released, how will my project ever make it?"...got the point? As much as I respect and love open source, I'd rather have a really polished, finished and released RB game that has made it to enter the Shareware-Game market. That would be really motivating, because then you see what's really possible with RB. And nontheless it would be helpful for other developers, because the author of the shareware game would surely be happy to help other developers if they got problems or questions.

I, for example, would probably add shadows immediately and would probably even spend an evening or two trying to develop an AI for it.

Well, experienced developers like you need one or two evenings, guys like me need one or two weeks ;-).


Others might add other things. Or maybe nobody would bother to do anything at all -- but if so, then that's their fault, not yours!

That's true. But like I said above: doing nothing with a dropped project is surely not helpful, open source is helpful, but what would really rock is a finished game!


Cheers,
- Joe

Greets,
Pepe


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