LogInThe open-source game market is a growing segment of the video game industry. According to OpenGameArt, there are currently over 6,000 open-source game projects in development, ranging from small experimental games to full-scale commercial releases.
There are about 10–12 core contributors who are the most active in the OpenTTDproject. There are also around 50 contributors listed on GitHub, but the level of their involvement varies from only a few commits to more active participation. Additionally, there are 10 to maybe 100 people involved in the content and modding community.
The easiest way to track contributors of an open-source game is through GitHub. The community polls feature allows for the tracking of contributors, their activity, forks, and other contributions. The wider modding community is harder to track as people come and go, with some making only one contribution and others making many.
The primary funding model of Pioneer is through donations, which can be made through our website. However, donations only cover the cost of domain names in a good year.
Building a system to distribute revenue for contributors to open-source games is a complex topic, in part due to the initial hurdles of setting up a revenue stream when the content of the game is already available for free.
However, it might not be wise to incentivize contributors to compete against each other for revenue as it could lead to egos getting in the way, resentment, and even destabilizing the project. Instead, there is a model like the Godot engine, where there is a significant revenue stream and enough donation revenue to hire contributors to work full-time.
Rigs of Rods like many other open-source games are worked on by volunteers in their spare time preferring for working on it as a side project rather than a commercial venture.
This is very important to find people who are willing to invest their time in such a project, as there is no financial incentive to work on an open-source game — but the experience can be valuable for building a resume.
The current community of Beyond All Reason is not closed and anyone can join, but developers want to polish certain aspects of the game before pushing for a larger audience. We express optimism about the growth of the player base and the positive feedback that have received from the community, which gives momentum and joy in developing the game further.