Greetings from Sweden.
I'm the designer of http://Gaia.li, a truly free & open source customizable card game. I have original art, legal IP, copyrights et.c. in place and nearing playtesting.
There is room for people that want to become co-developers or co-designers and that know their cardgames. Join the crusade, there are plenty of windmills ;)
Game is currently heavy MtG-inspired with the primary goal being community owned, free and legal, but it may very well develop into other direction over time in regards to rules. Mission is to create a truly free CCG with a nice ruleset and good looks. I've been doing this a while and take the costs, so only thing required of you is smarts and will.
Hopefully you like long term projects, are an adult, speak good enough English and are a somewhat experienced cardgame player with aspirations to create something great together.
Contact me on Discord for example if you want to become part of the team, would be nice with a partner to bounce ideas and do card designs and rule dev.
Discord -> snowdrop#6183 ...else mail at contact@gaia.li will work.
I'd answer questions in here also.
Random images of the game attached (WIP, nothing final currently, nevermind the cardtexts...)
Thanks for your time, and keep staying safe.
Thanks for your input, and good questions.
HOW are "WE" supposed to make monies on a FREE Open Source CCG...?
Project goal is not to primarily enable people to earn money.
Primary goal is an open source and free cardgame. The license I use legally allows you, and anyone, to sell the game should you want to, and keeping every cent of profit (if any) for yourself, without my blessing.
If somebody can make money out of it, then I'm happy about it, if not, it's not really an issue for me to solve from what I can see.
What is the market strategy? There must be one... Otherwise who is going to pay for ART and such things?
Me and another person has been paying for it from our own wallets for years now since we are passionate about it. I have no issue spending x amount monthly on my hobby, instead of me spending the same amount or more on for example buying game x's booster packs instead.
I will continue to do so while I have an income, and am currently trying out and seeking additional artist(s).
Once game is out and if people like it they who want can contribute.
Each 100 - 200€ would be enough to release one new card to the world, for free, available to everyone.
If the game is bad nobody will contribute nor play it, hence no funding will be needed. Tighter and micro-releases is one way to go about it after core set is done, but there are other approaches also - mine are not necessarily the best ones.
Personally, I already VOLUNTEER to HOST, Administer and Moderate BGDF.com
Great site, that many has great use of.
I think what you already do, for free, is not much different from what I or many others are doing in terms of proving that people do what they believe in and are passionate about, even if not motivated by profit.
I'm just curious how your Co-Designers and Co-Developers are supposed to make monies from such a project if everything is Open Source...?
Im not sure I or they will, and promise no riches, since that is not the objective. On the other hand I also don't ask anyone for money either.
If the game gets moving though then there are some ways people can earn something of it by for example selling non-essential (for the game) products or services, extra fluff, alternate or unique collectors artwork/cards, tournaments, sponsorships, co-work with LGS et.c. Whatever one would try to sell it would not give any gameplay advantage or deprive you of anything since you always have the full game for free anyhow.
If you fail to sell it, then the idea is not good enough, or the price is too high. I just dropped random stuff in here right now, not saying anything of that would lead to anything. It's mainly the imagination that sets the limit, coupled with the market, to if you can earn a profit or not from open source. There are billion dollar companies that were built on open source alone, so it is doable if one wants to (not suggesting comparing or those figures though).
As for co-developers, as in digital versions, it would probably be easier to make a profit than paper version. I have several ideas for that, which I rather not disclose in here.
XTG3
I will check this out for sure, sounds exciting.
From the summary you gave I'd say that is one way of doing it, and that it sounds as a workable one for many projects.
I honestly believe that most games, including my own, is in need of solid central management and development and quality control. I don't intend on letting that go down the drain due to being open source. Open source part just entails that people can fork it and use it all if they don't want to co-work or don't believe in the current project.
I'm not suggesting that going the open source route is good for everyone or that your way of handling it isn't. In part it is just comparing different fruits. I believe open source is very doable, depending on goals and visions.