[IGDA_indies] open source commercial games

[Ben Sawyer]

I've found with open/public source that the reason most people don't
like it is that they don't understand it.

Now in the case of a AAA huge budget title that you're going to land in
someones lap - maybe not, or at least they'd prefer you wait a couple
years.

At the same time unless you realease other aspects of the game along
with the source, it's not like you just created a perfect competitor
you'll see in 2 days.  Open Source somehow IMHO is wrongly associated
with a 100% handover of IP which it is not.  It's also not a 100%
timesaving tool for others who get it.  It's not a lot of things it's
accused of being (good or bad).  It also isn't necessarily a handover to
pirates either - WAREZ guys will crack stuff regardless and they're
going to pirate it no matter how closed or open.

So the value add to competitors of open source while useful isn't
necessarily as humongous as people are lead to believe.

Now does that mean a publisher would turn you down?  Well perhaps -
because they're understanding of open source is probably fairly binary
and simplistic or they have other technical reasons like hacking, etc.
that may be valid.  I certainly wouldn't open up the source to a project
until after I determined it's distribution method (in case the myth or
valid reasons might get in the way of agreementst) unless I was using
open source as a strategic means of building the project to begin with -
which may be the case.

In terms of distributor which is different I don't think they give a
rats ass - if something is selling, they don't ask the reasons - they
take it and move it.  If it's not - they cut you faster then a New York
Minute.  How many copies of Linux do you think sell @ retail these days.
It's a lot.

- Ben

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jango Fett" <bounty_hunter@softhome.net>
To: <indies@igda.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2003 6:33 PM
Subject: Re: [IGDA_indies] open source commercial games


> El jue, 08-05-2003 a las 14:57, Brian Hook escribió:
> > I'm unaware of any, but I do think it's a viable business model for
a
> > smaller company.  You can use open source code and copyright the
> > assets, and in all likelihood the assets (including scripts, etc.)
> > are going to be what's valuable.
> My doubt is: if some day we manage to get a commercial quality
product,
> would distributors complain about selling an open source game?
>
> --
> Roger D. Vargas
> ICQ: 117641572
> Linux User: 180787
> * Much to learn you still have *
> Master Yoda, AOTC
>
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