Forums > Game Talk > Open Source Games, playable games or tech demos?
BdR (7206) on 1/22/2017 2:47 PM · Permalink · Report
I was checking out some open source games, seeing as some of them aren't added to MobyGames yet. For example SuperTuxKart, Super Tux, TORCS, Turtle Arena etc.
Given the continuous updates of these types of games makes them hard to catalog, because the game/levels/models etc. change a lot between versions. For example Super Tux Racer is in ongoing development for 12 years now.
Besides that, I would hesitate to call some of these "games", they're more like tech demo's. I mean the overall design has a distinct amateurish quality to it; weird level design, bare-bone menu's, ugly textures, font colors etc.
I guess I'm wondering; where do you draw the line between a techdemo or an amateur game prototype, and a fleshed out playable game ? Any thoughts on this?
Rwolf (23137) on 1/22/2017 6:06 PM · Permalink · Report
I'd like to see some game elements completed, at least beta versions release, with public downloads, even if v1.0 might not always be available. The 'game' aspect has been spread rather thin these days, with stuff like 'Idle Quest', so I guess the field is rather open.
<hr />I've also looked at TORCS some time ago, but not got around to document it yet, and it has some independent spinoffs, but I'd just take a current functional release and add a changelist for whatever older versions were much different.
TORCS is single player at the moment, with AI competition, but multiplayer has been mentioned I seem to recall; whether it appears in TORCS, or in a spinoff first, who knows. They do have competitions, but only for offline races, as far as I know. (Much of the competing is about controlling the AI bots.)
Virgil (8563) on 1/25/2017 1:01 PM · Permalink · Report
I think that's the nature of open source projects - people haven't got deadlines and don't know here to stop. They approach the games sometimes the same way as general applications. The goals are either very amibitious or too unspecific. They would continue to polish and add features after you could say that the game is completed. Take a look at one of the most popular game, Battle for Wesnoth. It's been around for quite a bit time and could be considered completed: has graphics, sound, music, AI, maps, multiplayer and a campaign(s). Yet it's still "in development".
BdR (7206) on 3/1/2017 3:18 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
You're right, games do need some sort of deadline in order to bring it into focus. For example the open source platformer game "SuperTux" (12+ years of development) compares unfavourably even to some of the worst SNES platform games.
And remember the last time some innovative new open source game was released? Yeah, me neither. Games like Portal, Minecraft, Snakebird, Tumblestone, Firewatch etc. will probably never originate as open source projects. The reason being these games require vision and consistency, which is impossible when you design by committee. Also see this old reddit post which describes the problem pretty good I think: The problem with open source games
Pseudo_Intellectual (66423) on 3/2/2017 3:58 PM · Permalink · Report
Hey, if all we got out of the open source movement was NetHack, it was still enough!
