CW,
My basic grip with AGS codebase is the Windows port, it has no defined way of dealing with dependencies. So if you add a dependency on the project on other codebases, if it's Linux you get it from the package manager, with MacOS/iOS, you get it from Brew, or from Apple themselves, Android, it's a POM or Java package, and alternatively when using CMake you can fetch from anywhere.
I will always prefer pulling a library that does what I need, and then throwing away when I don't need more. It's part of the idea of using a Game Engine in the first place, leverage the work of others so I can progress faster.
I am not adding a copy of a library in the codebase (that is tried and tested and performs great) because I want a copy of that code. I am doing so because my hands are tied because there's no defined process for Windows. And I keep getting criticisms for doing so while I am getting nowhere when asking how to solve the problem on Windows - I mentioned a possible solution with an AGS Dependencies repository, other possibilities for Windows are Nuget packages (for project solutions) and alternatively I am sure there are other ways, unfortunately I am not experienced in Windows development.
Other problem is even though for me the way AGS is developed on Windows is not good, YOU ARE very productive in it. So I don't really want to disturb the way you do things.
But this creates an environment that makes me uneasy, when you are NOT adding libraries on the codebase, it makes switching things much easier - say, let's try a different library for font rendering because now I need utf8 support.
Anyway, any code I produced is free to get, it's there on GitHub for this exact purpose. But this approach of building everything from scratch makes things too hard for me. During this month I have been working on my MAGS game and I noticed I was much happier... So well, I think I want to finish my game now - the bigger one, not only MAGS.
But this is mostly it. And yes, we have a communication problem, and look, I know I have a communication problem. But I don't know how to address it, the conversations on GH made me so anxious that I turned off all my notifications and on the past year I got rid of my most my instant messaging too. In the end, I don't think I am cut for doing FOSS and think I should just do games for a while until I feel better.
Edit: I recently read a book called Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software and there it mentions that most Open Source codebases work in a scenarium type, where a central dev does all the work and talks about the toll of working with others. Like, the cost of attention and stuff like that. It was an interesting read. Anyway, I just think personally, for me, it's best to stay away for a while and work on releasing games.
