T
here has always been a part of me that wanted to get involved in the making of some video game, especially if it's FOSS and looks "promising", and to be honest it's becoming harder and harder to resist this urge. So what seems to be the problem? Well even though I really do want to contribute something I'm just blocked by the fact that it has to be something worthwhile...
To get involved, or not to get involved, that is the question.
Well... eh... damn it. I just can't decide...!
Namely it's because I'm a perfectionist of sorts. Once I decide to dedicate myself to a project I find it rather hard to let go until I'm satisfied with the results. The problem here is that I have so many games that I'd like to contribute to that I just can not decide which one to pick, or even what to do about it. It is way too easy for me to get engulfed in such work, thus putting a lot of effort into something that might be completely useless for the big picture. To be precise: I just never seem to have a clear idea what the main developer team is aiming at.
Sure sometimes there are a lot of documents about this issue, but in the long run that is just not enough. To be honest, most of those are usually extremely vaguely written, and the forums are always a huge mess. The more popular the title is the bigger the paperwork pile and with no clear writing form or a good way of sorting the ideas keep flying all over the place. It's probably no problem for people who were on the project from the very beginning, yet when someone new wants to come in and contribute, like myself, he just has no idea where to start. Even doing a keyword search doesn't give a simple answer to "So what are they aiming at?" and "Was this idea rejected and why?"
After a lot of time wasted on how to approach certain projects I have finally realized that the only way to ever contribute something is to not get too involved with them. Thus I've decided on making a single, concentrated site where general ideas for many FOSS games can be shown and shared. This doesn't mean going into details such as how much damage does a certain unit do, or what would be the storyline twist near the end (though in some cases I reckon these will be welcomed as well). No, it's more about the aesthetics, mechanics and presentation - the general overview of a game. And just so I can avoid making it into an unsolvable mess, I plan on having a post template with rules on what an article should looks like.
However, nowadays I'm thinking that there are (probably) other people out there who have a similar problem. So the question now is: Should I proceed with the making of a Blog like I originally intended to, or should I make a group here on Desura dedicated to providing game developers with interesting ideas?
A penny for your thoughts if you'd please?
