Some News (good and bad)

[Jacob__mybb_import1]

As you probably have heard, I started college last week. The college I'm going to has a reputation for being extremely hard, so I'm not going to have as much time to work on Buildism. Because of this, I'm going to have to close the site in the near future. (If this sentence shocked you, go read the good news below before replying!)

Reasons why I am doing this:

• In addition to lack of time, the game is also a lot more complicated than it was 10 months ago. It hasn't reached critical mass yet, but adding a major new feature always introduces a bug or two, and sometimes they don't show up until later.
  
• I don't hate anyone here, but the community did end up being a lot more high-maintenance than I had planned. After studying biology for 3 hours I don't want to have to break up a fight on a forum.
  
• The game is actually fairly close to being finished (except for multiplayer), but user-created games are still not what I was hoping for, and although quality was improving during the spring and early summer it seems to have flatlined in the last month or two.
  

Now for the good news...

I don't think it would be fair to leave everyone with a bunch of game files that they worked hard on and can't open anymore, so I'm going to make the code to the game and website open source. This means that anyone that knows how to program can make their own version of Buildism, then add or change whatever they want to.

I'll post the code as soon as I get it ready! Hopefully it will find its way to someone who's willing to continue the site.

I'm currently working on another game that isn't anything at all like Buildism (not even in the same language). I have been creating websites for 5 years now and it seriously feels weird if I don't have a website online, so I'll wait until there is a playable version of that game before closing Buildism for good.

[noob007]

I'm sorry you're closing your site...

But, I also have to admit I like the fact that the game is becoming open source. I may be able to continue it. Don't forget to put a license and a repository and all that xD

Mind telling me what language your other game is in? C++?

[ProffesorT]

Sad to see that happen.
Happy to see it open source >

Why not just hand the site down to someone else?

---

I'm sorry you're closing your site...

But, I also have to admit I like the fact that the game is becoming open source. I may be able to continue it. Don't forget to put a license and a repository and all that xD

Mind telling me what language your other game is in? C++?

It's in Java.
Wait, it's in Java.. Oh, I'm going to have so much fun with the source.

[Jacob__mybb_import1]

I'm sorry you're closing your site...

But, I also have to admit I like the fact that the game is becoming open source. I may be able to continue it. Don't forget to put a license and a repository and all that xD

Mind telling me what language your other game is in? C++?

JavaScript and PHP, it's a browser game.

I don't really care about licensing, so it's probably just going to say "do whatever you want" or something similar.

[noob007]

I'm sorry you're closing your site...

But, I also have to admit I like the fact that the game is becoming open source. I may be able to continue it. Don't forget to put a license and a repository and all that xD

Mind telling me what language your other game is in? C++?

JavaScript and PHP, it's a browser game.

Oh, well that's probably gonna be fun.

---

When will you be closing the site?

[ProffesorT]

Hmph, well I made that theme song for nothing...
Actually, I think I'll take the code myself and create a whole new game out of it..

[noob007]

Hmph, well I made that theme song for nothing...
Actually, I think I'll take the code myself and create a whole new game out of it..

But you still gotta give credit

[ProffesorT]

Oh, and hints on what the new game is?

---

Hmph, well I made that theme song for nothing...
Actually, I think I'll take the code myself and create a whole new game out of it..

But you still gotta give credit

Ye- Yea, I was going to do that..
:3

[Jacob__mybb_import1]

http://buildism.net/source/ (view online, this doesn't include the website)
http://buildism.net/source.zip (download)

[CoderRyne]

Jacob - I'm so sorry to hear that you are closing Buildism. I really thought that this project had great potential, so the last thing I expected (even with the rumors) was that you would close down Buildism and give out the source.

I support your decision, but I do have a suggestion: why don't you allow another programmer to continue working on Buildism while you are in college? Instead of giving out everything to everyone who wants it (even though that could be beneficial to the learning experience of Java programmers), why not pick one of the following two options?

1.) Keep the project but hire a volunteer programmer to continue working on the game.
2.) Give the project to someone that you feel is qualified enough to handle taking it on and working on it on your behalf (under contract of course) until you are ready to take Buildism back.

I don't quite think that giving out the source to this huge project to everyone who wants it is the best idea, but then again, that's up to you, and either way, you have my full support.

Best of luck to you in your decision, Jacob.