Lately I have seen a lot of talking on the open source side of things and for now have noticed a lot of independent open source city simulators:
-Simtropolis
-CityMania
-Metropolis( still in theory )
-Cities of [the] World
When I think about the quantity of work that all these projects will need the issue of human resources arises in my mind.The community is big and willing to help, but this resource is almost limited and the more projects there are the less people working on one project. That gives us a smaller chance that ANY project will succeed.
This is a thing to worry about. If one project can get 20 volunteers to work, 2 projects will have to split them, 3 even more, 4… 5…etc.
Sure you can find more people outside the community, but will there be enough motivation for them? There is also the issue of community support:If there are too many choices, won’t that confuse the community?
I’m not sure that people will support any project if the number of developers is small. Also if most DO succeed I’m not sure you’ll get enough support to continue development, because different people will take different sides and that means the supporting community will get smaller.
Maybe find some common compromises in a Universal Design Document and unite all the project starters, their developers and the work already done. It is better to do this now when the work is fresh and easily modifiable, people are more open to this. Later the projects will separate themselves more and more.
First discuss all the details and debate the most serious ones, then plan the development and share work. If you don’t like something, argue your choice or work on it yourself as a plug-in or an option, the more choice the better. Most people have a very resembling idea on what are the base features of their project, and everyone should unite their efforts to at least create that common base. A single game with different options is better than many weak games. First develop a powerful base that everyone will like and then develop the other features.
I call every project to unite and create the best open source game ever.