Xarn, I think you have been doing a great job this far but am worried about a couple of things relating to your project.
I'm writing this as a reaction to what I have understood as your attitude. Please correct me if I have gotten it all wrong, the internet sure doesn't help people with the subtleties.
a) You want help?
b) You intend to not make your project feature-full because you work alone on it?
c) You work alone on it and began a brand new browser project from scratch, because you had vastly different understanding and approach of the subject matter than what was going on in already existing project?
nature of open source project
I don't know how many times you have been on open source projects or part of different open source constellations. The thing is that 99,99% of all open projects need help. 99% are undermanned, lack resource, lack funding, lack time, and in many times also lack enough knowledge (but might get it during the process or will fail miserably because they never did learn anything).
Open source projects, although community driven, don't become so of a coincidence. People join forces and work together because they believe in what they do, and in the other individuals. For example, if you'd see our project and thought it all sucked or wasn't at all interested in games or whatever, you wouldn't have put in such a huge effort as you have already done into creating something playable.
People that work in teams usually do different things, else there would be little point in forming a team to begin with.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
That sad, nothing stops us here from putting 10 people on rules, 10 people on your client, and 10 people somewhere else. Or, actually, nothing does in theory, but in real world we don't have that manpower.
I hope you are not disappointed that nobody of us that have already been around for a while jumped on your project and began coding on it. As I have explained earlier all have their hands tied up with jobs, universities and families etc, which is a good and healthy sign.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)
On top of that, many of us have dedicated plenty of hours on various and very different tasks that relate to WT as a whole. For example, ishara has done some gccg stuff, aspidites is researching and preparing for desktop client, q_x is constantly art-directing and has done a million other things relating to templating, foodoo is coding on cardscape, knitter is coding on SandScape... all do what they can, when they feel like it, and if they can. Also notice that most of them work alone. Why? Bevause there is nobody there to help them. As easy as that.
Now, I would be sad if any one of them showed up and told me
"I will do half of this but then I refuse to do more, since nobody helps me." I don't think it's a constructive attitude and I don't really understand the point with it. It
won't lead to more people helping, since there is still no people around that a) have the proper skills for that specific project or b) are free to start working on that in addition to what they are already doing. Point being, that the reason people in an existing team don't help newcomers on the newcomers sub-project is that they're all already busy on their own sub-projects.
What is important to understand is that WT, although a meritocracy and havign me as benevolant maniac around, is not centrally governed in such a way that gives me possibility, incentive or authority to
order people to work on a project, for free. As an example, I couldn't order you to work on Sandscape. On the contrary, I encouraged you to pursue your own path if that's what you believe in. In the same manner I can't order anyone else to help you out, even though my wish would be that people got money from a magic source and could stay at home and code away, fully paid and all taken care of, on all things related to WT. My wish is irrelevant for obvious reasons. In the same manner, Knitters was when you decided to start a project instead of hooking up with him. And, in the same manner, your wish is also irrelevant. At least in the sense for what actions members of a team take in the end.
I am immensely grateful to all the people that are dedicating their spare time on a hobby project such as this, and surely the project would have come nowhere at all without them. In the end however, people do what they want, for as long as they want and are able to. Hopefully that will be enough to pull things through in our case.
The nature of open source projects is a shaky one. People come and go as they please as most of them don't feel obligated to stick around and follow through. Some have to go even if they would really want to stay. Such is life.
What I have said time and again is that the rate of success of a project depends only on it's members. How they work, how they plan, what they try to achieve, what competence they have and so on. A part of that is also dedication and will to follow through on stuff people initiate themselves. Again, nobody does anything in here that isn't from their own free will.
Many times though, one has to do a lot of boring stuff as a milestone towards the completion of a subproject, and every subproject is usually a huge component of the overall WT project - a free/libre CCG. In addition, many of the sub-projects are designed in a way that will maximize the world's utility of them, making them viable and interesting options even independently of WT as a game. All that is good, and very FOSS.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
All that also makes it possible for each sub.project to grow, on it's own right, independently of how it goes for WT as a game, and that is also very good.
strength of community
The strength of community shows when you puzzle together all these subprojects and pair them with a legally free game. That is what WT is about. It started off with zero ambitions when it came to code and people helping out with anything beyond the scope of rules and card creation. Yet, it proved very fast that people are interested in writing code and helping out in all other ways as well, and better still - all those efforts have an impact of how CCG:s can be used and or created in an open source world.
We're doing a lot of stuff here that hasn't been done before as an open sourced project. From what I have seen there is really only one single project that even comes close to creating a free ccg, but it's using CC, lacks the scope of what we imagine and has totally different goals and approaches, does not contribute with source code nor does it have anything that's very coherent, be it rules, crew or art.
getting help
It is of course always more fun to work on something if you have a partner. That is our main drawback in WT: We have only one person per subproject, give and take. We try to support each other whenever there is an interest and knowledge. For example, it is easier for most people to discuss background story of a faction, than to help out with code in language x.
The nature of open source makes it hard to get help. It is hard to make people interested in joining up and actually
do something else than just talk. Talking is easy. Wishing is also easy.
Delivering however is another deal.
My experience from work with people, and open source in general, tells me that most of the ones that say they will do something do not follow up. They do not deliver anything useful in the end. 90% of those that say they will do something either never start, start or abandon really quickly, or abandon it half-way through for whatever reason. Many times their work efforts, code, whatever, will be lost into oblivion since dead projects don't attract people.
What
does attract people is seeing
finished projects: A finished projects signals something. It tells people that you're serious with what you do, that you take the time to deliver and can be trusted, and just as importantly - it gives an immediate impression of what quality your work has and your own skills, as well as if the overall idea with the project is a sane one or not.
In best case scenario and in an ideal world one might deduct all that from just talking with a coder and by reading all his documentation, plans etc, and then
hope all that work will eventually become something. In reality however people won't do that. Seeing is believing. As simple as that.
I like your project. I also like the fact that you aren't just all talk, and that you did something and did it very rapidly even though you came in new and are occupied with other stuff in life, going through huge changes and all. I respect your efforts. That is why I'm going to write the stuff below, in an effort to salvage your mood and energy, and to hopefully help you with your project the way I can as a non-coder and project lead.
This is what you have to do to succeed with getting more help:
1. realization
That help must come from
external sources and not from here. We're already all busy. Nobody will drop anything and ignore his own subproject. Thus, you must realize we need to recruit for you to ever get help on your subproject.
2. documentation
You must have serious and well written documentation, of code, of design ideas, of features and milestones etc. If you lack that, no coder in his right mind will ever help you. That's just a fact. Make an effort. Document. Put some time into it. It will help you on a personal level, and also making your project more attracting.
3. more polish
If you want to get help, you need to show something
more polished. Then you will increase
the chances that you will ever get a partner. Currently what you have is a very early tech-demo, at best. It lacks much in functionality that is needed to show the world your skills and to demonstrate the potential. Make people more excited by having a more polished product. More feature rich and smoother. That will, indeed, make people more likely to contribute to the code.
4. reposition your position
Somewhere here in the forum or elsewhere you announced something that could give the impression that you really don't fell like coding at all and that you are more interested in dictating what others should code for you. If that is a correct understanding, I think you are in good company: Most people would like that. Even most coders
Problem is
nobody will ever help you out if you really have those thoughts or goals. The person that would want to be your "code slave" is non-existent. The sooner you realize that, the faster you will actually find somebody that will help you on equal terms.
The way we have solved it this far in WT is simple: Whoever initiates a project and puts down the most work in it is automagically the lead developer. As lead dev one is in charge of the codebase and major decisions. As simple as that. There is of course also the chance that whoever is lead decides to work democratically or make decisions at random, or wants to share the burden in some other way. The details are not relevant. Sufficient to say those specifics can be solved however people want to.
There is nothing wrong with a project having a lead dev. You being lead on your subproject is given. But please make sure that you, if you expect people to help, don't give signals of you sitting back, directing, and others doing the work for you. That won't happen. Ever.
Should I have totally misinterpreted you I apologize for this paragraph taking your time - in such a case just disregard it.
5. value of universality
When you code and design a project try to do it in a way which will make as many potential coders and users interested of your software. That way you will get help and attention much much faster.
For instance, writing code that can only run WT is probably not a good idea. Why? Because WT is still in dev and very unknown. Nobody will help you with you websolution because of that.
You want help? Then start writing useful code. Useful in the eyes of the world, not just me and other WT-people.
Your absolutley safest bet to attract
massive attention in an instant is to make Magic playable with your client (and still staying 100% legal by not including their text/art etc). If you show the world that you can use it to play Magic, and play a complete game of magic as it is intended, then people will become interested. You will get a partner sooner or later the, because what you are creating doesn't exist, and MtG has millions of players.
All this relates to making something that is generic and customizable. Creating a real "engine", and not just a sloppy implementation of a specific game. It all relates to giving people something that has a
high utility for them. Playing WT has, and will have in the coming year, zero utility for the world since the game is unknown and unfinished.
By attracting people that get utility since they can use your code to play the already existing and favourite games they happen to have, you get coders, moral support, energy and maybe even donations. That in the end will result in better code, more features, and something that would be playable enough so that we can use it for WT.
6. marketing
Where exactly are you asking for help? Have you tried the worlds largest CCG forums? Magic forums etc? If you haven't, I would be happy assist you with writing up an official recruitment post that we could use and post across boards.
I also think we should create a nice promotional video showing off some of your features once you have polished it some more and added somethign mroe to show up. Then I think we are in a very good position to market your stuff and actually get some help.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)