6 ms·

I run a small MMORPG and I'm considering open-sourcing the whole thing but the code is a complete mess. The source code of VVVVVV is a work of art in comparison

• tim-- 7y ago
  Definitely open source it! The world needs more open source games!
• clarry 7y ago
  Most games' source are real messy. And it's ok. Don't be ashamed. When I find an open sourced game engine that has been patched and improved by the community, ported to OpenBSD, made run smoother on my hardware, etcetra., I don't think "what a shame the code is so messy." I think "I'm so glad they released the source code and allowed this to happen!" It's very sad to see so many games that I'd potentially like but then I run into little issues that nobody is ever going to fix without the source (or a complete remake, as in the case of e.g. OpenMW, but these projects are not very common and few of them ever mature). Game developers often think of gamers as very entitled people, but flip side is that gamers are usually left on their own with their problems and they aren't given the tools to fix them while the developer is too big or busy (or both) to care.
• friendlybus 7y ago
  Could you take pride in rewriting the code? Maybe as an open source adventure with others? Going through the shame of showing it off is more valuable on its own merits than leaving it as is, regardless of the code quality or social outcomes.
  • seren 7y ago
    I believe that as code "writers", we tend to have a bias that code should well-written. And I don't think it is that important. If you are working in a global company with a distributed workforce, well-written code is mandatory because it is a way to communicate and to maintain the code in the long term. Even more so if this is a critical code that could kill. But if you started as a lone developer for a game hobby project, the achievement is not about the code quality, but more about the product as a whole you managed to ship and have users or customers. So I don't think there is anything inherently shameful in writing bad code, it highly depends on the context
    • Jaruzel 7y ago
      If I could upvote this x100, I would.
    • AstralStorm 7y ago
      Well, there should be a bit of shame in writing code that's buggy or not working at all... Of course if you avoid that while still writing a mess, it's mostly fine.
    • friendlybus 7y ago
      The shame is a personal thing. Being in a community of people that value high quality implementations or having high personal standards for work is a good driver for code shame. It's a choice to go through that shame. Code is a neutral medium.
• iagovar 7y ago
  Everyone knows this, you shouldn't be ashamed.
• cpv 7y ago
  I'm curious: Are you running it as full-time, or a side project? How much time does it take for maintenance in a month? Can you share a link?
  • hopfog 7y ago
    Side project but will actually go almost full-time indie developer now in February and continue my regular job as a part-time consultant. Really stoked about it! It doesn't require much maintenance and I'm running it on the lowest tier Digital Ocean droplet so almost free. In December I didn't touch it at all while having a break between patches. Here you go: https://canvaslegacy.com/ https://canvaslegacy.com/ A player has painted the whole starting mine yellow so it looks like a mess in the newbie area but will address that in next patch. :) Also, mobile version is severely lacking so desktop is highly recommended (actually just wrapped up the new mobile client but haven't released it yet).
    • cpv 7y ago
      Thanks, will check it out!
• nkrisc 7y ago
  Messy code that produces a valuable product is better than beautiful code that does nothing.
  • dleslie 7y ago
    Or worse, the pursuit of beautiful, well-tested, aesthetically-pleasing code that is never finished and never shipped.
  • bytematic 7y ago
    Imagine how many billion dollar ideas are just sitting on peoples hard-drives
  • RookyNumbas 7y ago
    That's true. Except when interviewers see your profile and they suddenly care a lot about the hacky code you wrote at 3am on a saturday for fun. sigh...
  • rafaelvasco 7y ago
    True. It's a balance that we as developers must always seek; Some people say that premature optimization is evil. Premature code refactoring can be just as damaging.
• bdickason 7y ago
  I was working on something similar (small mmo) a few years back and would have killed for at least one example that had been shared. Part of this was to see how they did gongs, part of it (more importantly to me) was to know that there were other crazy people out there doing the same thing!!
  • cpeterso 7y ago
    > Part of this was to see how they did gongs What is a "gong" in this case? An actual (in-game) gong? :)
• robodale 7y ago
  The fact you have it out there and shipped is what matters.
• sbarre 7y ago
  Perhaps consider opening it up in a limited fashion to start? See if you can find some vetted contributors first, and then work towards eventually open sourcing the whole thing once you feel it's in a better place and it's been (sort of) peer-reviewed for bugs etc.. There are plenty of people looking to get into the games industry, and working on a shipped/existing project can be much less daunting than building your own thing. It might take a bit of time but I'm sure you could find some collaborators, maybe through game jams or meetups? Also, everyone writes messy code. I wouldn't stress too much about that part. p.s. Congrats on shipping it! :-)
• ndesaulniers 7y ago
  No one will care (that it's messy). This is a common reason people don't open source software, and it doesn't matter.