Ask HN: Should I open source my video game?

[zadkey]

I've been working on and off on a video game in C# and raylib for a while.

It's like a vampire survivors like game. There are no true art assets. Everything is text. That and 32 colors and no mouse. In a sense, retro. Having fewer colors made it easier to decide what color to use.

Anyway, I've worked on it on and off for well over a year now. At this point, my passion and inspiration has left me. Maybe with time and resources I could finish it. But working in the shadows as a solo dev with no support isn't very fulfilling. (maybe that's the issue? would love to hear from others)

Right now it's complete enough to be considered a game. There's choice of characters, races, attributes, leveling up, spells, music, sound effects, enemies that spawn, and the framework for designing waves of enemies.

It could still use actual levels (instead of a just a big open grassy area), score, and unlocks.

It also includes a little bit of a tool chain for designing 'assets' (C# classes and methods that overlap text from raylib) and exporting files that and be used and included.

[laurentlb]

What's the downside of open sourcing it?

[zadkey]

Honestly, I'm not really sure.

I assume regret. Perhaps someone else will take it and finish it release it on steam and make bank. Who knows.

Part of the reason of asking the question is I was hoping to hear from other people who have done something similar so they can share their experience and feelings on the matter.