Future Glest Development

[MatzeB]

Now that the linux port is done, we suddenly have some interest from the "OpenSource-Community" it seems. (Despite lots of annoying I can't get it compiled on linux, and why don't you care more and create a blender plugin and mapeditor post types) There are some people now who'd like to contribute things, be it new translations strange new techtrees, writing a blender exporter or simply some fixes to the code. Having a customizable 3d RTS engine is a great thing to play around with. This raises questions on how you as the glest team would like to handle outside contributions in the future.

Maybe you (the glest team) would like to open up the development process a bit more? Just using your sourceforge account to pull the code into a public cvs (version management) system, so that everyone can follow the development and has access to additionals like new translations. Maybe you could also give more people write access to maintain the linux port and such things Using the bug-tracker at sourceforge would probably be a good idea too.

I hope this doesn't sound too demanding. I'm actually very happy that you have released glest code as GPL in the first place, it's just the project management style I'm used to from the linux world and which has proven to handle outside contributors well.

I'd also be happy to hear some more statements on the future plans from the glest team. Are you trying to leave the project as it is (with this additional bonus pack) or are you planing more fundamental changes like adding real missions and a story or multiplayer mode?

[martiño]

Hi Matze,

- First I want to thank you for your interest in the Glest project. It seems you've done a really good job in the linux port that has attracted many people to this board.

- As you may already know I'm now relocating in the UK, that's why I don't have much time to make decisions or take direct actions, but let me tell you about the thoughts of the Glest Team:

- Our original idea was to totally stop working on Glest and concentrate our efforts on "Glest: Duelfield", but some unexpected events made us change our mind. I now don't have the amount of time to make "Glest: Duelfield" a playable game, and what it will probably happen is that we come back to Glest. I really don't now how much time I will have to work on the programming side but it seems that the artists on the team will still work on adding new content to the Game.

- What I will surely do is to work on a new and easier to port Glest version, and to fix the ATI card crash. Just in the case I'd decide to spend some more time working on Glest the first priority would be multiplayer support. Even a LAN multiplayer more would be a huge step.

- We also have to decide what development model we will choose for Glest. One option would be to totally open Glest development to everybody, but even if this kind of open source development has proven to be very effective for some types of software projects it may not be the best option for a game project, and maybe to restrict the development of one official version of Glest to a selected group of developers is the best choice. This is yet undecided.

We are now in a transition time, but we expect to make some clear decisions by the end of next month. If you have any comments about this, let us know.

Regards. Martin-o.

[TrasheR]

i love the fact that glest is open source and stuff, but this should really be as far as the open source should go.

to make a game that will have an impact on the gaming world, the game needs to be its own. you cant have alot of versions of a game floating around or it will not be stable.
you should concentrate on making a really nice game that people will enjoy to play. and those who want a nice engine, well they will have the current open source engine and can take it from there.