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Linux-Based Gaming Handheld To Rely On Low Material Cost, Indie Apps
dartttt writes "Robert Pelloni and his team are working to develop an indie handheld gaming console, the 'nD,' which will run a number of indie games. The device will support 2D games only, and will run a custom-developed, embedded Linux firmware. It will have its own Game Store, which will allow users to download games. The SDK will be released soon, and is based on open source gaming standard SDL. Developers are being told that they can actually start making and compiling games on Windows, Mac and Linux using a 320x240 resolution."
Here's the thing - pure open-source games will never work. Not just "will never" - can never.
The bazaar works well for programming. It works well for logical, scientific stuff - you can have an open-source telescope design, or an open-source car, or an open-source operating system. But it works less well for art stuff - I have yet to see an open-source novel, or open-source sculpture, or open-source opera. I've sort-of seen an open-source character, but that's about it.
Games are a weird thing. They're art - not just legally, but philosophically. Designing the gameplay itself is an art, just as writing a poem or painting a portrait is an art. It's something that needs a real artist in charge. The bazaar model doesn't allow that, especially when almost everybody thinks they know how to do it, but almost nobody actually knows how to do it. It's really one of the areas where the cathedral model works better.
Here's how it should be - a hybrid of the two. The engine is open-source, community-developed. Put it up on Sourceforge, let the bazaar do its thing. Make it read gameplay data from something modular (this is a good idea anyways, but extra-important here). Store levels as XML. Write the game-specific code (how weapons work, how movement works, etc.) in Python or Perl or Lua. Store the art assets in PNGs and .Blend files or something. Take all those, the stuff that turns the engine into a game, and wrap it inside a compressed archive. Wrap some light DRM around it if commercial - nothing much, just enough to make piracy more difficult than getting the game. The game data becomes the game - that's the part that gets sold, gets copyright protection. The good games will use the cathedral model for this - dozens of skilled, dedicated people, with minimal outside control, led by some visionary. Or just one focused guy in his basement. There will probably be a bunch of bad, or at most decent, games made using the bazaar model as well. They'll be decent, maybe even some good free fun, but they won't be the Good Games. Maybe they'll serve as tech demos of the engine - showing how well it works and so on.
That's how I'd like to do it. That's how I think it will work best.
PS: I'm not worried about software patents. The issue with my game is that I'm parodying/satirizing/whatever a bunch of major companies, and using a lot of product names and such. Trademarks, really, are more my problem than copyright or patents. I'll probably submit a story on the game when I make a proper website for it and all, hence why I'm being vague about it.