I have an idea which I think could benefit both stardock and the community in general.
How about a sort of mentoring program for open-source games?
One of the problems with open source stuff in general is that unless you really know what you are doing to start out with, then you'll quickly find yourself getting distracted, losing steam, vaporware.
The only guys who really know what they are doing, generally don't even have time to sleep, let alone spend more than an hour or two a week on a side project.
But what if you brought the two together? That is, the expert who is willing to oversee a project for an hour or two a week and the dedicated novices who have the time but need the guidance necessary to see the project through.
Dedicate some space on the main website to this, and it will encourage novices to see a project through to completion. Furthermore, if they know you'll allow people to download their game from Stardock central, word will get around and that in itself will give you good press (not that you need it).
You could weed out the guys who are serious from the guys who are just mildly interested by having a small coding contest. It doesn't have to be about games either. For example, a calendar program, or a contest to make a mod, or a contest to come up with cool icons, etc. If Object Desktop has an extension API for third party modules, then you've got your contest right there. ( If it doesn't have such an API then go to http://www3.get-e.org/ check out the modules section and get your Desktop working like that! Your stuff is too good to not be perfect! )
Anyway, the expert can set standards and since he knows what he's doing he can give the design a much needed boost (and that is nothing to sneeze at). If you got four people who are novices but have more than a few hours apiece to spare every week, you can really get something done, provided that the games are small. If you did this for a while with success, then you could end up with four or five small games and a pool of dedicated part time developers.
What would those developers be good for if they aren't working for you directly? They'd be good for a modding community, in the future if you decide to enable more scripting in your games, such people would be certain to dedicate their time to your games. Furthermore, for all you know, you might come up with some nifty ideas that could be developed. Although it is unlikely, it is possible that you might find yourself publishing a full, enhanced version of a game by those same guys you guided in a smaller project.
Finally, who says these even have to be games? I have a feeling that a lot of code monkeys here would love to write stuff that would interact and enhance stuff like Object Desktop, etc. Bottom line is, if you have the time to do it, I think it's worth considering.
-ronny
Anyway, I just want to say that as much as I like galciv, I like the other stuff you do as well. I only wish galciv ran on Linux (since that's where I do most of my work).
later,
-ronny
