A lot of features that are being coded in WFF (the game) and for it's engine would be enviable resources for a team building virtually any and many a 3D render game.
If you have not already read the Scratchware Manifesto, I urge you to take a peek now before reading further; a little long it should make for compelling reading for any committed game designer; you can read it here:
http://old.the-underdogs.org/v2/scratch.php
The direction I'm going here is that WFF could be a lot bigger in scope, vision and capability then just a cool future for the Weapons Factory Mod Franchise. I'm not trivializing the 'coolness' of WFF or the WFMF in any way what so ever, but for a quite a while, and now more desperately then ever the 3D render game world as NEEDED what I call 'The Linux Of FPS Game Engines'.
While my moniker probably explains a lot to some I'll spell it out more plainly then the Scratchware Manifesto -- an enormous amount of human effort, talent, brilliant art, coding, and raw 'man hours' of work are duplicated, lost and burned on 'modding' commercial engines, in essence turning the resources of enthusiasm, and hard work of the real game development community into a shrewdly exploited marketing tool for a publishing industry that is and must be by nature parasitic.
Many an aspiring game developer will see his efforts squandered with little chance of making his work visible (you compete with marketing and advertising budgets that would float and rescue many third world countries) and absolutely no future possibility financial renumeration for their work, and often even preserving the artistic integrity and copyrights to his or her work. Such is the fate of the 'little feller' under the guns licensure and corporate legal teams again with a budgets that stagger the mind.
Linux offers an excellent model for an alternative approach, venue that is ideal for amateur game and mod developers irrespective of their aspirations and game design objectives. The advantages should be obvious to many in the coding world:
· free open source
· leverages massive world wide contribution
· no or less duplication of work and effort
· autonomy of your personal projects if you desire and need it
· everyone's efforts leverage everyone's efforts
· a better mouse trap
This last 'a better mouse trap' is the measure of what is so impressive about Linux and it's approach to development and licensure; less waste, more progress -- and most importantly progress that is smooth, incremental and manageable in human terms.
Virtually any engine could be come 'The Linux OF FPS Game Engines' that's appropriately licensable, because if the engine is 'open' any feature can be added by anyone; so if enough interested and committed developers were to say rally behind the "F" engine it could (and rather quickly) become something that surpasses the most compelling commercial engines.
Obviously this would be a lot of work for SS and he has his hands full with WFF for the foreseeable future -- but even Linus had less vision for his kernel then SS has for WFF, and (I'm urging) a little more visionary consideration for the future could open not just the doors but the flood gates to something really staggering in scope, capability, and fun for the future of gaming and those involved.
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