At @inkandswitch.com we are starting a new project to research better version control tools for making games.
One hypothesis: collaborating on a game should initially be as simple as working on a Google Doc, with concepts like branching introduced gradually as needed.
One hypothesis: collaborating on a game should initially be as simple as working on a Google Doc, with concepts like branching introduced gradually as needed.
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Multimedia: Supporting version control across art, music, and code
Parallel work: Enabling users to collaborate without conflicts
Integrated collaboration: Making version control seamless within the game dev environment rather than a separate system to learn
We’re especially interested in hearing from hobbyists or indie game devs using Godot.
https://inkandswitch.notion.site/Version-control-for-game-development-1573b8bb00fc8066b814ded885354af0
- obviously, there's lots of big binary blobs around. and often, not ones you need to worry about merging.
- a difficult but useful thing to do is to embed a commit hash within a build automatically in some menu
- even if you can't design away the possibility of getting into a broken/bad state, allowing someone else to fix it could help a bunch (this might be learned helplessness)
i've been using Godot for a number of years, but specifically i'm thinking about my time working on A Little Game Called Mario and all the ways that project could have benefited from this https://iznaut.itch.io/a-little-game-called-mario
i don't formally maintain that project in any meaningful way anymore, but have since attempted a follow-up that can hopefully improve upon it https://new-cylandia.itch.io/little-warioware
https://bsky.app/profile/chhopsky.tv/post/3ldlx4wyplk26
If I want to work on a problem together, I just sit together (or screen share), where one drives and the other person(s) discuss the issue with me.
Some 10 years ago I got designers to use the GitHub client, which was simple and allowed to diff graphics. Don't know the current state, but might be worth checking it out for inspiration.
https://tweets.vbuckenham.com/status/959180147533533186/
Obviously, when people edit the same binary file in two different branches simultaneously, then merges might still yield unexpected consequences for one of them.
people are using dropbox or putting .zips in google drive. you can save them by giving them a non-scary alternative
The biggest barrier is learning the battle-tested tools that already exist. Most people don't want to accept the cognitive overhead of versioning (I sure wish I didn't need to) but it's essential for collaboration.