Are there any examples of an "abandoned" game's fans successfully getting the game to be open-sourced?
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
-
System shared this topic on
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
The history of city of heroes might interest you.
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Star Wars Galaxies.
-
Star Wars Galaxies.
Thank you!
-
The history of city of heroes might interest you.
Thank you!
-
The history of city of heroes might interest you.
Came here to point out CoH!
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Not quite the same, but Total Annihilation and Beyond All Reason. It wasn't abandonware, but more like after Total Annihilation hit success, rights were sold and resold and Atari as the final owner squandered every opportunity to do more with the engine and the franchise.
The tactics were essentially receating a better engine with Spring, as the sort of newly open source upgraded version of the engine the same people built 10 years earlier. Taylor Swift did the same thing.
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Warzone 2100 is an RTS that fans petitioned a company to release as FLOSS, after support had ended.
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
OpenTTD or OpenRTC possibly could qualify here?
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
The developer of Terraria promised to open source the canceled sequel if a petition could get enough signatures but then it did and he didn't release the code
-
Not quite the same, but Total Annihilation and Beyond All Reason. It wasn't abandonware, but more like after Total Annihilation hit success, rights were sold and resold and Atari as the final owner squandered every opportunity to do more with the engine and the franchise.
The tactics were essentially receating a better engine with Spring, as the sort of newly open source upgraded version of the engine the same people built 10 years earlier. Taylor Swift did the same thing.
Thanks! That sounds more like a rewriting of the engine though?
-
Warzone 2100 is an RTS that fans petitioned a company to release as FLOSS, after support had ended.
Thank you!
-
OpenTTD or OpenRTC possibly could qualify here?
Thanks! Those sound more like rewrites though?
-
The developer of Terraria promised to open source the canceled sequel if a petition could get enough signatures but then it did and he didn't release the code
Thanks! That's lame!
-
Thanks! Those sound more like rewrites though?
Yeah I think technically they did re-write them, but the actual gameplay, graphics, and music is identical to the original
-
Yeah I think technically they did re-write them, but the actual gameplay, graphics, and music is identical to the original
That's cool. That would be something to consider if the developer will absolutely not entertain the idea.
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
-
The developer of Terraria promised to open source the canceled sequel if a petition could get enough signatures but then it did and he didn't release the code
Plenty of devs think it's easier than it is. A ton of games are built on proprietary tools, and then you get into legal hot water on whether you can even give away things like the soundtrack or assets you bought like stock sound effects.
I wouldn't be surprised if they looked at it after the petition and thought "wait, I actually can't open source this"
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Ur-Quan Masters (aka. Star Control 2)
But, it's not really abandoned anymore. The developers are FINALLY making an official sequel!
The sequel is not open source, but UQM/SC2 is.
This happened in the early 2000s, but I think they found the source code to a port of the game and said "We haven't earned any money from sales of this game in a decade [and buying digital games wasn't really a thing yet, as people generally believed that anything digital shouldn't have a price], so let's release this to the community to open source as long as they do all the reverse porting and support!"
-
And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?
Does rewriting the game count? https://2009scape.org/
