Re: Direction of Linux games...

[Veljko Krunic <krunic@platte.com>]

Ingo Ruhnke wrote:
> Yes, but if you have a look at the windows world, there are lots of
> people out there, which create mods for Doom, HalfLife or other
> games. And creating a mod is not really something different than
> creating the gfx or levels for a OpenSource game.
> 

Well, depends are we talking about relative or absolute number of
people. There are many people that are creating mods, but I am not sure
that among 100 Quake players you have more people that contributed than
among 100 Flanker 1.5 (hard core simulator) players. And what is more
needed to make successful project: five thousand players or five people
that contribute (and not just talk like I do ;-). I would say that
(before game becomes really playable) five contributors worth more.

> I think the main problem is to prove that the game is worth the
> contribution, if you start with a superior idea, but its hard to get
> into your game and your self-painted gfx suck badly, than it may be
> hard to get somebody interested in your game. But if you somehow prove
> that your game is worth the effort to contribute some work, than you
> may get some contributions.
>

The benefit of the niche market could be that the credibility could be
built even before you have anything to show, if people consider you
serious. Many hard-core gamers are dreaming the games that don't have
any usable demo or even reviews if they think that developers are
serious to make niche game. Of course, people more believe SSI's word
than word of the one individual.

I think that part of the reason why it is difficult to find a people who
will contribute is that there are close substitutes for many Linux games
on the Windows, so it is hard to win that credibility - if you have
almost what you want on Windows, you are less likely to contribute to
get exactly what you want on Linux (I don't want to offend anyone by
this statement, and I am not happy that this is the case. But I know a
lot of people with the similar attitude). The situation is different in
niche markets, because there is no substitute.

--
Opinions in this message are my own, and don't necessary reflect
opinions of my employer.