For the last several months, I've been following the progress of Wolfire Games - an independent game developer who is taking a different approach to game design. They maintain an active blog, detailing their progress with their newest game as well as articles on game design and theory. Yesterday they released their first game Lugaru as an open source project. For those reading this that don't comprehend what that means, (I'm looking at my sister - my only subscriber) it means that the foundational code that was used to create the game has been posted on the web with the intention that it be read, changed, improved, and used!! Normally, that is a closely guarded company secret, but some will release it for various reasons. The motivation for Wolfire releasing the source of Lugaru is a commitment to continue being awesome!!
I spent some time today reviewing their code. It was the first time I had looked at the source for a decently sized application. Opening a few files, I began to pick up on their coding style and design. Over the last year, I've privately studied the concept of refactoring, the process for improving the design of existing code. My hope is that I can use those concepts to improve the design of Lugaru and use this blog to document my thoughts and progress. Here we go...
1 comment:
Great idea! I learned recently that Starbucks adopted the same open book stance by publicizing its leadership principles and marketing strategies early on. Employees aren't ever "employees" in their eyes, but "partners," who are encouraged to take ownership of whatever sect of the company on which they might leverage influence. Same is true for Starbucks customers. "Some of our best innovations have come from customers or partners," said company founder, Howard Schultz.
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