[Non-Profit] [Open-Source] OS Dev Tycoon!

xanrer

Heya! Have you ever wanted to play a tycoon game about making operating systems? Well, I'm working on one!

I'm good at learning and writing code but when it comes to designing it I'm struggling a lot. So if you also want to make this game a reality please contact me.

To demonstrate my skills in coding I'm sharing an old project I have worked on: https://github.com/agoodfellow123/DNA

That project was a bit too complicated for a first-time GODOT user (basically tried to make Baldurs Gate 3 in a text-based environment) but that wasn't the reason I gave up on it. The reason was the ever-evolving code design. Simply put since I can not design code I was just writing new things that came to my mind... That made it into a spaghetti code from the start so I decided to settle for something simpler to design.

The current game that I want to create will be non-profit and open-source. I'm not sure of the exact license yet but it will probably be one of these MIT/Apache/BSD and not GPL variants.

I don't intend to change the license after it's settled but the non-profit part might be changed later if you wish. If that happens you are welcome to get your fair share of the money. Honestly, I don't care about the money that much I just want to play an OS Tycoon game.

There is no code yet and that's intentional. I want to design it carefully with someone who knows what they are doing.

As for game design, for now, it's planned as:

You research things such as kernel types, CPUs to support in kernel, windowing technologies (such as tiling, stacking or window effects) and then you make projects such as kernels, window managers, and such. You can make different parts of your project open-source or proprietary. For example, making Userland closed and kernel open-source. In early game making open source software has a disadvantage over proprietary since there is no internet. The game starts in February 1975, just after Ezio 8800 (Altair 8800), which will be the only system that can support your operating system from the start.

As of now, this is the UI I came up with:

As you can see I like simple, almost TUI-like UIs a lot. But I know a bit of GIMP and Photoshop (Although I have no Photoshop license at the moment so I'm gonna settle with GIMP for now) so if you suggest something a little more flashy I'm all ears.

By no means I'm a great programmer let alone a game dev, but I'm willing to learn. So if you want to work with me please comment below so I can get in contact with you and share my contact info in DM's. I'm open to using Discord or Skype. If there is something else you prefer I'm sure we can work it out.

AlexanderGodot

tycoon game about making operating systems, sounds interesting. maybe the player has customers that they are targeting like personal computer(mac/os/consumer linux like), university/military/CIA/credit processing/penetration testing(hacking)/computer repair. So the player has one thing they are trying to optimize for but then get tempted with opportunity of another customer to redesign around. do they optimize for the new customer or the old, blend and let feature creep spiral out of control. it should have component parts to the operating system that make it impossible to optimize for any one customer's needs. so each run maybe different choices could have been made to keep replay-ability. just some ideas you can use them or not regardless.

you like permissive open source licenses me too, this opportunity seems like a good fit for me. I like MIT because it gives credit it seems somehow Honorable in this way.

for your other game I have forked your repo and fixed the Stats.log issue and explained somethings to help you with your future projects. I am AlexanderLife on Github, but my projects on it are old and in my early learning from a different time in my life, so don't look too closely.
I am good at GDscript but I like to obsessively type everything so hopefully that's not too annoying, but it makes it really nice and easy for auto-complete that speeds up things.
I also know python3, and some C++. I can have built the Godot engine in a Linux system and added modules like the voxel engine to it. Unfortunately I have not successful made any modules of my own, but I didn't use Visual studio so debugging is slower and harder as a command line compile. I know Inkscape well and can do some ok quality pixel art.
I have no CS degree and taught my self programming, but I like concepts of thinking.
I like the idea of being part of ragtag swagger independent game dev team, that we all have different things we bring and make something that gives the world lots of fun.

xanrer

AlexanderGodot

Your ideas are most welcome Alexander! I am a Linux and open-source enthusiast myself (you may have noticed that I'm using Linux from the screenshot I shared) I think we should talk about the game some time and get all the ideas ironed out. I mean sure we can add things later as well but I want to plan most of the things from the get-go.

About the other way, thank you for fixing my mess. I haven't planned everything from the start and now it's a mess. For example, I want to make a YAML file to house all the dialogue but I made it built into the code and now it's hard to re-do everything. I also don't use Visual Studio I just use Godot's built-in editor since it's quite comfy to not change editors differently for the engine and the code.
I also know some python3 and C# (I wish I had learned Java instead but they are close anyway). I also don't have a CS degree. I am planning to change that next year so I'm getting a few special courses almost every weekday. Because of that, I'm a bit hard to reach at some hours of the day but when I'm at home I love to work with coding experiments.

If there is any way I can reach you and discuss the game I'd love to! Like I said I do have Skype and Discord but if you dislike those we can get something together like an IRC room or a Signal. Just PM me so we can exchange info!

AlexanderGodot

so I did misread this job posting a bit, so you don't work for a non-profit organization that wants to make a game, it instead is a non paying job. anyway I had some spare time to flesh out some of the structure before design, I added it to GitHub and invited you to it, it's MIT and you are free to use it and not have anything to do with me, just fork it and it's yours. it's not optimized to make the code nice and easy to understand but it's also not pretty. I started a design doc and if you want we can brainstorm from their by just posting to it. I do not really know YAML but regardless I would recommend that Godot does have CSV support include and you can edit CSV with office programs, but if you want to make yaml support or I think their is a 3.4 godot plug in in the asset store. one thing to watch out for is that you make backups of the non .gd files outside of the godot project. because it's really easy to simply overwrite something like a csv or png file in script and their is no undo it's just gone and that might be lots of work. one thing I learned making the prototype was it would be better if I had put parts of OS that would require research not with the parts of the OS that do not require Research. anyway just use github and keep everything their. anyway I hope at least in someway I was helpful, let me know if you need help or advice with anything.

xanrer

AlexanderGodot

so I did misread this job posting a bit, so you don't work for a non-profit organization that wants to make a game, it instead is a non paying job

Nope, you misread it now actually, not before, what I meant by that was "I want to make it non-profit however if my partner wanted to make a profit I'm open to the idea of selling the game but I will never change the license from an open-source license and since you don't want to make a profit just like me the game will be non-profit and open-source" sorry for my previous wording if it wasn't clear.

I will enter the github as you suggested but we need a common place to speak. I'm up for suggestions.

xanrer

I couldn't find an invite for a group on GitHub.

AlexanderGodot

oh That's weird I made a private project and added you as collaborator to at https://github.com/AlexanderLife/OSDevTycoonGame.
you are agoodfellow123 and are signed in, because it's currently private so it will not show up if you were not signed in. that's the account you shared your other game on so I assumed that would be the account you would be using perhaps you had another?
I made a DesignDoc at https://github.com/AlexanderLife/OSDevTycoonGame/blob/main/OtherFiles/DesignDoc.txt
I made a discussion for you as common place to speak.
https://github.com/AlexanderLife/OSDevTycoonGame/discussions/1#discussion-5816676

AlexanderGodot

oh if you want to sell the game you can sell the game that is the beauty of MIT is it is free for everyone to use even for commercial purposes, I only met you are not paying me. lol never said this "don't want to make a profit" gas lighting is why some dislike talking over messaging. but don't worry I will still help out some even for free for a bit. while and when I have some random time to spare. As for changing the licence paint dot net and audacity had that scandal and tried to change their licence, their code was forked successfully and they went off unsuccessfully in a different direction, it proved to the world that it is not a successful business model to try to take over a permissive licence. I know as you have assured me many times that you will not be changing the licence, I respect this and thank you for your assurances. the only reason I made the repo private is because it is just a quick thrown together just to test some ideas. again you can fork it and at any point even selling it that's how MIT works, provided licence is followed. my idea is to quickly help you get started so that you can expand on, on your own. lets do a good quick game jam style for you to expand on. ok the design discussion is on gethub. I liked your UI work on your other game, great layout.

Ozzik

Hi, I'm Linux embedded engineer with bachelor's degree in IT. I've always been trying my strength with gamedev (started messing with Unity when it was still using JS) but I kinda lack some kind of
artistic imagination and simply manpower 😛. I want to help you with your project.
GitHub pretty outdated. Most of my code is done for my daytime job. I am experienced in Linux kernel and userspace, drivers, memory management, compilation toolchain. Most proficient in C++, C, Python. I am familiar with Godot Scripts and engine itself. I despise languages C# and Java. Also know fair share of Photoshop and networking.
Please PM me so we can exchange more contact details.
BTW I use Arch.

xanrer

Just sent you a private message, sorry for the wait.

krcd

Hey there, are you still looking for members? I've actually been working on something somewhat similar- a game that will be partially open-sourced- so I'd be very interested to join in.