ogs-site/en/news/2023-12-25_rpg-ends.md

Title: Revised project goals
Date: 2023-12-25 00:00
Category: News
Slug: rpg-ends
Lang: en

# The dream of an open source RPG is over

In 2005 the Opensource Game Studio project started
under the name of the [Opensource RPG][osrpg], because we wanted
to create "the first competitive open free game".
In 2011 right after releasing OGS Mahjong 0.7 we have already
had the numbers that it would take us [540 years to create RPG][540y].

In 2011 we had a dream that we as a team would grow, which could decrease
540 years to someting reasonable. However today in the end of 2023 it's clear
**we are unable to create RPG**.

# Validation of the software durability hypothesis

In 2013 we have released OGS Mahjong 1.1, the last completed product as
part of the Opensource Game Studio project. Surprisingly OGS Mahjong still
shows the signs of life, albeit its [download chart][mjdlsf] resembles
death agony:

![OGS Mahjong 1.1 downloads in 10 years][mjdl]

Recently we have checked if OGS Mahjong 1.1 runs under Linux. Unfortunately,
the game did run right out of the box. We had to create a few symlinks, and
that worked. Thus, a bit of environment setup was required. That's a good
result for a 10 year old software.

In 2019 we created [PSKOV][pskov], our own static site generator to have
site articles in a convenient Markdown format. Also, we did PSKOV in web to
check web software durability. Today, 4 years from the initial release,
web software durability hypothesis proves itself right. We're sure PSKOV of 2019
will be functioning in 2029 without a single change. However, we have to wait
for 6 more years for that to come true.

OGS Mahjong and PSKOV prove that durability of 4-10 years is not a fantasy.
The durability is essential to hobby projects, because hobbyists can't catch
up to the always changing Operating Systems' requirements. **We consider the
Opensource Game Studio software has passed the durability check**.

# The portable code hypothesis

Our next step is to have portable code. That means the code is ~80%
technically identical on each platform: Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Web, Windows.

The portability is essential to hobby projects, because hobbyists don't have
the ability to regularly validate their code on each platform. **We are going
to take portability to the new level for both OGS Mahjong and PSKOV**.

Going to be interesting.

PS: Also, we now have Disqus comments here. Share and like ;)

[osrpg]: https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/general-10/the-creation-of-the-best-rpg-355858/
[540y]: https://gamedev.ru/community/ogs/articles/?id=6383
[mjdlsf]: https://sourceforge.net/projects/osrpgcreation/files/Mahjong/1.1.0/ogs-mahjong-1.1.0-windows32.exe/stats/timeline?dates=2013-05-05+to+2023-12-01
[mjdl]: ../../images/2023_rpg-ends_mjdl.jpg
[pskov]: https://opengamestudio.org/pskov/en/pskov_1.0.0+en.html