And if so, what tactics did they use? Pester the devs? Crowdfunding to buy the rights to the game from the devs? Something else?

Edit: I’m more looking for instances of the actual original game being open-sourced through fan efforts or outright purchase, like how Blender was originally open-sourced as a result of a crowdfunding campaign. The open-source rewrites of games are awesome, but I don’t have the skills to build a relatively elaborate game on my own. It’s also not a popular game, more niche, really, so I’m just wondering what are the possibilities.

  • TurboWafflz@lemmy.world
    2·
    5 months ago

    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

    • simple@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      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”

  • uxellodunum@lemmy.mlEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    Not strictly the same, but one of the most amazing feats to me in this topic was done by the Sacred community over at DarkMatters.

    Apoligies for the wall of text, but I consider it worth a read.

    Sacred 2 in particular never had its server code open sourced, leaked, or anything of the like as the studio went bankrupt before anything could happen, this was around 2010.

    Over the course of a decade a few volunteer devs would pick up a project where using tools like wireshark etc they’d essentially sniff traffic sent by a client attempting connection to a server that didn’t exist, and using this, devs would literally try to GUESS what a server would respond, and what a client expected, essentially trying to build out the backend infrastructure from SCRATCH.

    Fast forward to 2020 or so and progress was still being made, not only that but things were beginning to actually take shape. In 2021 (IIRC) one dev in particular had the general frame of a working server and continued to work on it. Fast-forward and since 2022-23, you’re able to run both a LOBBY for multiple servers and an actual GAME SERVER yourself, self-hosted and code is open.

    I’ve ran a couple servers using docker since, where I played with friends, and being able to replay that childhood game, with friends, one I thought I’d never be able to share the experience for, is a dream come true.

    Another neat thing is that it was reverse-engineered in windows, but the docker containers literally run WINE to translate windows calls to Linux and it just works.

    Knowing I’m able to in 2,5,10,30 years pick this up, and not only that, but replay with friends means this work of art has a great chance at preservation.

    If you’re into power metal, there’s a band called Blind Guardian, they not only did they the main theme for the game, but the band’s members have an entire quest-line in-game that culminates with an in-game concert. Again, a work of art worth preserving, and now, it can be shared.

    • jws_shadotak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      I loved Sacred 2! I remember save scumming to preserve my 0 deaths streak. I’d hit the power button on the Xbox before it could save, risking corrupting my character every time.