Clockwork Alpha
Skeletron Prime
I am proposing that once 1.4 is released, as well as any bug-fix updates that follow soon after, the Terraria developers should make the decision to release the source code.
As Terraria would be a finished game and not likely to receive any future updates at this point, releasing the source code for everyone would have the following benefits:
* People would be allowed to use the source code for educational purposes and experimentation
* Programmers could use Terraria's source code in their own projects
* People could make their own versions of the game or develop it on their own
* While Terraria may be mostly forgotten in 5-10 years, its source code could remain indefinitely in future projects, positively influencing various future games and programs for more years to come.
"But will it encourage piracy/enable people to play without purchasing it?"
Compiling an entire game requires technical expertise and setup far beyond the average computer user or pirate. There are also much easier ways to pirate this game than compiling the entire thing from source, anyways.
As Terraria would be a finished game and not likely to receive any future updates at this point, releasing the source code for everyone would have the following benefits:
* People would be allowed to use the source code for educational purposes and experimentation
* Programmers could use Terraria's source code in their own projects
* People could make their own versions of the game or develop it on their own
* While Terraria may be mostly forgotten in 5-10 years, its source code could remain indefinitely in future projects, positively influencing various future games and programs for more years to come.
"But will it encourage piracy/enable people to play without purchasing it?"
Compiling an entire game requires technical expertise and setup far beyond the average computer user or pirate. There are also much easier ways to pirate this game than compiling the entire thing from source, anyways.