Until recently, the only code I’ve released as open source has been the Magma MUD codebase.
In the process of posting the Magma source on Github, I kind of got hooked on posting code online. Since then I’ve posted the source for a handful of applications, a mix of Linux and Windows desktop apps. A 12-day commit streak so far, yay!
I’m also considering open-sourcing the Basternae 3 codebase. The main things that make it easier to work with than old-timey C-based MUDs are the use of C#, which has amazing exception handling and debugging capabilities (no more attaching gdb to a core dump), and speaks XML natively, so data files are Human-readable, portable, fairly robust, and extensible. The editor is also getting to be pretty good.
To open source Bast3, I’d need to write a lot more documentation, and I’d need to “genericize” a lot of things that are specific to Basternae. It’d be a lot of work, but I think it’d be a fun project. The source is already in a private repository on Github, but that’s the easy part.
So, what are you calling the Bast 3 codebase? And if you open-source it, are you open-sourcing the mud’s version of the code, or just a general version like Magma?
I’m tentatively calling it “ModernMUD”, which is a bit silly.
It’d be the MUD’s version of the code. Most things are defined in data files (races, classes, spells, skills), so without the game-specific files it wouldn’t be giving away all of the “feel” of Basternae, just the engine. It doesn’t seem like it’d be very useful to release a codebase that would only work for recreating one specific game. Still have mixed feelings on the whole thing, though.
I would get the mud up and functioning properly first. Why put out the source to something that will then be taken up by others who will leach whatever players might have been interested in your game. I would suggest putting off an open-source release until later. JMTC.