cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/20011741
Hi!
As I wrote in the title I’m looking for people interested in such an endeavor. I already tried creating such a project but due to internal disagreements it didn’t pan out, still I am very interested in trying this out. Game dev is very susceptible to exploitation from capitalists which is very unfortunate given that means of production are essentially socialized already - we have FOSS software like Godot that is enough to create very elaborate projects and we can collaborate remotely so no land is needed either. This makes it I think a very fruitful direction to go, because costs of game dev are not very big and returns can be big if the game is successful. I know that there is a huge competition in game dev, but given that in worker cooperative nothing is siphoned by capitalists at the top I think it’s not impossible to get to the level of subsistence on game dev, while being able to affect the culture and promote cooperativism among the general population and among video game creators. I don’t have a specific game dev experience but I like solving complex problems and I am interested in doing a worker cooperative, I already did quite a bit of research during my previous attempt at this type of worker cooperative and I would for this coop to get inspiration from Igalia, Motion Twin and Sociocracy. At my last project people had issues that I am fine with anti-foundationalist philosophies so please consider that I like those and I like to discuss from those lenses. I am very good at self-directed learning and I could especially do stuff like coding, design, writing plot and characters, I could research some more legalistic side of cooperative but it would be nice certainly to have someone who has some expertise here. That still leave places for people interested in audio and graphics and I am very fine with redundancy in some aspects of the required “expertise”, still I am a big believer in learning by doing and getting feedback and improving based on this feedback so I am mostly looking for people willing to learn, explore and collaborate to hopefully create something cool. I would like to create games such as Planescape Torment, Disco Elysium, Hotline Miami, FTL: Faster Than Light, Spec Ops: The Line, Portal 2, Undertale, Getting Over It, The Talos Principle, Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines, KOTOR 2. If you are interested in this project please get in touch, we may correspond a bit and see if we would like to collaborate!
I somewhat wonder about trying to release those games on FOSS licenses (still with asking for “paying” for them to support the creators), that would be “purer” from anarchist perspective than using proprietary license but this is not something I have thought about that much. The pro would be it being impossible to get the license stolen how almost happened to Disco Elysium creators.
me parece una buena iniciativa, animos!
I worked on an open source roguelike years ago that’s been financially successful.
He used a donation model (similar to Patreon, but this was before), and eventually put the game up on steam for $5. I think he still works his day job but it was cool to see his hobby support him some (he also kicked me down a few grand for time I spent on the project).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Maj’Eyal
Game in question if you need some ideas on how he pulled it off.
Oh shit, that’s him? I loved Tales of Middle Earth, used to plug way too much time into that game. I should give it a look now that it’s on steam.
Yeah, I was an old ToME 2 player and got sucked into the ToME 4 Beta early on. Wanting to avoid any licensing issues, he decided to go with his own setting.
Admittedly, I had only just scraped the surface of Angband likes but I love what the game did with the feat tiering, I was compelled to keep playing.
Are you just going to team up with anyone, or will there be a criteria to pick fellow workers - as in, experienced programmers, artists, or will freshly entering newbies be allowed? What about the funding? Through merchs, crowdfunding, some other avenues? Are there government subsidies for co-ops in respective countries that workers can take benefit of?
Main criteria would be our capacity to collaborate and to have somewhat convergent vision on the types of games we would like to make. Of course I would prefer experienced creators but I am fine with newbies who are into growing a lot and trying - I am basically such a person. Funding is bootstrapping for a long time, in practice this means that everyone has to find their own way to subsist given that actual running of this coop won’t be expensive for a very long time but I am very open to avenues your proposed. I haven’t done much research on legalistic side of this coop endeavor except noting that Igalia managed to create remote flat worker coop with over 100 employees with employees living in many various states so they managed to hop through various legal hurdles, which proves that such a remote coop is possible. I’ll be honest - my approach it to try and solve problems on the go to try to accomplish the previously determined goal. I don’t treat problems as exceptions but as a fact of life.
Are FOSS licenses the best for a game & this sort of thinking tho? I am not convinced the FSF or OSI provide good enough guidance for those looking to escape corporate interest. Do you need a license that allows others to resell it? Why is the NC in Creative Commons seen with such hostility & incompatibility if upholding corporate interest isn’t a goal?
I mostly threw this out, it’s not that important, but thank you for feedback. You may be right that it’s too much hassle.
I mean I love the idea but I have had my misgivings about how the FOSS gatekeepers do their thing
Oh, could you elaborate please?
I mean check any previous discussing that happened about License Zero/Parity/Prosperity licenses, or Peer Production License, or Anti-Capitalist, etc. & how they have wording that is basically like CC BY-SA-NC where you need to share the changes, attribute, but for profit entities are not allowed to use it without contributing (in terms of money, or code, or some sort of giving back). Droves of folks crawl out of the woodwork to say that this ruins the 4 FREEDOMS as if they are written in stone or that were made perfect since inception rather than trying to test if all these rules still apply or need amendments to the modern age & exploitation in software. It would be interesting to see if any group decided to really run with one of these licenses as a major project & seeing if the public not the OSI or FSF agreed with those terms… to maybe saying we need a new definition of those freedoms.
(Just as much I have seen some good arguments about devs to stop trying to use licenses as a battleground for politics or morality & that dealing with the status quo of establish licenses & fighting in other ways is a better use of effort)
I’ll admit that I am far from knowing the intricacies of implications of various licenses. What you wrote is very interesting to me, I am far from decided on this matter, certainly publishing on a typical license is just easier. That’s a good point.
Write back if you think exploring is worth your effort & find anything new in the space. It seems a bit underdeveloped since adoption is low where it seems most end up with OSI licenses as a practical compromise rather than what they truly wanted.
Also I really appreciate the cause. If I thought I had more relevant skills to what is mentioned I would ask to join
