5 replies to this topic

[TheNut]

Would you ever offer the work you do in your personal time for something you would use in your professional career?

The reason I ask is because I'm charged with the task of building a new framework (graphics + game engine) and there is no way in hell I'm going to build another engine (I've built or maintained to many to date!). So I can either use an existing one out there (I've had bad experiences with one in particular from our last project), or I can get my company to use my own, which I know to be quite solid (subjective, I know =).

I'm trying to look at this from all angles, not just legal ones but responsibilities and expectations as well. Part of me (the kind that just wants to get things done) says do it, the other part of me says don't, you'll be sorry. What are your thoughts?

A friend of mine suggested I just open source my work and have zero worries, but then that's just another thing to add to my already busy lifestyle, which I don't want to do.

[Nick]

Talk to your superiors. If they're interested they can license it. If not, open-source it so it can benefit your reputation, and use it anyway at the company. :happy: You don't necessarily have to put extra time into it when it's open-source.

[TheNut]

I'll be discussing it with the big cheese tomorrow since he hasn't gotten around to reading my proposals yet. I'm still coin-flipping the idea.

I'm also not the kind of guy to half arse things, even Open Source. If I did do it, it would have all the bells and whistles, which is why it would consume a fair amount of my time. A dedicated site, stable + dev releases, tutorials, apps & games, etc... I wouldn't just throw some zip file on my site and say "have at it". That would probably harm my image more than help it =)

[dave_]

Personally I'd be inclinded to refactor the in house stuff.
If it was so bad why?
Was it bugs? You probably had to fix most last time.

If you need to do it from scratch just base it on your engine, rather than literally using it.

There are political influences. Management won't have much faith in something at home. If they see it evolve they'll probably take a bigger stake in it.

http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Stone_soup best described in pragmatic programmer

[Nils Pipenbrinck]

Hi Nutty.

My advice is to talk to your boss and offer them your code. Tell them that you want a reasonable compensation for the work you put into the project in your freetime. It's difficult to give an advice for how much you shall ask, but the compensation should be reasonable for all parties. Just out of the blue: If you've worked a year on it, every second day in your free-time: you should get enough for a lenghty luxus holiday or a very expensive geek-toy. For them it should be cheaper than buying a 3rd party license.

After all you're selling a more or less untested project, and I doubt your documentation is the best it could be :-). It hurts to calculate a hourly rate in such situations, but think you didn't wrote the code to make money out of it in the first place.


Don't agree into a buy-out unless they make an offer that you can't decline. It's also fair if you reserve your rights to keep the project your own property and just the "rights to use" for them. You should be able to integrate non project specific changes from work to the project. That's a fine line, but it's possible to negotiate that.


Anyway, tell them the advantages they get out of such deal:

• You know the code inside out. The time for you to get familiar with the engine/framework is nil. You can train your workmates as well.
  
• If problems arise, you can fix them next day. If the company you work for ever had troubles with a 3rd party library failing the day before a deadline, this can be the killer-argument (I had my share of experience here)
  
• You can give the best support possible, and you'll be just a room or two away if questions arise.
  
• Since it's "your" project, you're highly motivated to push it to the company standard and improve your project to make it as productive as it could be.
  
• This might not apply to your project, but usually, when I work for the same company for a while I adapt to the common code style and semantics. If your code follows (even loosely) the same semantics it's a big plus since your co-workers will feel home at the code. That's an advantage over open source libraries which all come in their own code style.

If you're one of those coders who get things done, known to write solid code and be a reliable worker, you shouldn't face any problems getting a deal. It seems like you really want your project to be used in the company.

I wouldn't just open-source the project. I'm with you in the oppinion that such a step requires a bit more than just a zip-file unless you want the project to be completely unrecognized and forgotten.

[TheNut]

Dave,

"If you need to do it from scratch just base it on your engine, rather than literally using it."
- That had crossed my mind, but there's a lot of very useful tools that will help bridge the productivity gap between developers and designers, which is the driving force of my proposal. I'd like to minimize any time taken away from that.

"There are political influences."
- That was one of the angles I was looking at. Most importantly, I don't want people to think I'm only using this to give myself more of an edge. I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, yet all I want in the end is to have a system to make games easy and fun for everyone.


Nils,

You raise the points that flew through my mind when I thought this up. It's exactly that. Those are all the pluses I see in doing what I'm doing. Although one key note is that I'm not doing this for myself (that is a bonus however), my primary goal is to improve productivity and development time. My engine isn't the next Unreal, but as an independent developer the one thing I focused on most is productivity, which requires good design and ease of use. Time and again I'm solving problems quickly and easily by using parts and pieces of my engine. I figure if I'm going to keep doing this I might as well give them the whole thing.

For me it's not about the money either. The easier this process is (ie: less legalities involved), the happier I'll be.