this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
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Game engines and servers are great candidates for developers to collaborate their ideas into FOSS projects, but the model is harder to sustain for complete works.
While internet games can have subscription models where you pay them for doing game master type activities, moderation, and access to a hosted game server, static games are more like static art where you run into issues getting food and housing when you make your work output available for free. Crowdfunding / patreoning (in the larger sense of the word, not necessarily the app) creators / collectives can be a way for that to work, and we need to support more creators trying that model if we want to see more of it.
People generally don't want to make games free because often 99% of what makes a game good is not the software aspect. People like games for interesting mechanics, story, art, and music. Those aren't things that generally haven't worked well being free and open
FOSS generally works because people use foss to create end products, and have an incentive to contribute because it benefits them financially (and the side effects is that it benefits others too).
Making a game FOSS rarely benefits the creators since it is the end product, even if it benefits the game or community.
There are cases where it works though, such as rhythm games, where the end product requires immense collaboration, but those often exist on the borderline of acceptability (due to copyrighted music use) and they end up with a need to be foss since licensing 10,000 songs is basically impossible.
(Shout out Quaver)