This project was inspired by this blog post on FOSS games' need for a distributed content management platform.

Why?

Lack of good content is the #1 impediment for FOSS games. Most developers are not artists and the challenge of content creation is much more difficult than code. The need for FOSS content is the same for code, but current platforms that exist for code do not offer features needed for content. Code is all text and much easier to handle, while content is difficult as you cannot “diff” a picture or a blender file. On top of that, while distributed code development has been refined since computers were invented, content is a much newer ground, especially to apply FOSS distributed development to, and it simply hasn't received any of the focus and effort that code has.

Not Just Games

Distributed content development is the #1 hindrance to the development of FOSS games, but a platform for such would additionally serve pure content projects, unlike games which are code + content. Audio and video, especially computer animation, production would benefit greatly from such a platform.

Platform base

A base for such a platform must be chosen.

• Launchpad
• Sourceforge

• http://opengameart.org/

  • Too much focus on games.
• New platform, start from scratch

Big Investment

This project requires a huge investment in coordination, time, code, etc. Support from companies and organizations would be extremely helpful in propelling this project so that FOSS gaming can reach the same tipping point other FOSS software is on the verge of. Canonical and The Blender Institute may be prime contenders. Blender lacks a large amount of hard cash to accelerate the field but they are highly organized and Canonical does have such financial resources. Others should be considered as well.

What's needed