Highly suggest connecting with one of the lead developers, Charles Dang/Vultraz, if you have any C++ jobs in the USA.
He's been a developer on Wesnoth since 2012 but only graduated university in 2024. Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates. Even if you're a maintainer on one of the most popular OSS C++ projects on GitHub.
Even with 5 (albeit small) linux kernel patches, 2 Firefox patches.. employers weren’t interested. I’ve stopped contributing to open source completely. I’m considering switching fields. It was interesting but these days I need some ROI, personally.
Thanks,our company is in the DC area so I just reached out with an offer to chat. Wesnoth is an incredible project, I can't believe he doesn't have a programming job.
> Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates.
Furthermore, more and more companies are looking for "professional" devs using AI tools such as Claude Code. By "professional" I mean proficient in using those AI tools, not actual knowledge. And they don't even specify this in the job offer and you learn this during the interview.
I am very surprised if he can't find a job, as an American, in DC, with 12 years of C++ experience. Sure companies aren't great at assessing open source experience, but there is one area its easy to find a job as a dev: work that requires a clearance.
I work on the mapping team at Zoox (self driving) and we have c++ roles at the entry and mid levels. Requires onsite in the Bay Area though. Charles, if you're reading and would like to chat, I (Carl Chatfield) have sent you a linkedin request.
Thank you for your work on Wesnoth, I spent many hours playing back in the day. There's also a good android port.
My only gripe with the game is that healing doesn't give XP to the healing units. This means you need to place them in combat to level up instead of placing them behind the fighters like they are intended to be, and with them initially having low health they are very squishy. I know you can kinda cheese it by reducing a monster to 1-2 HP and then getting them to attack, but it feels like going against their role.
If that's your jam then there's also a (non-open-source) "Hero's Hour" which tickles the old Heroes of Might and Magic stylings, works reasonably well on Xbox, where I've been doing most of my gaming lately.
As far as Open Source gaming success stories, I'd put this up there in the Top 5 for "Original IP and Concept" (if that makes sense). Just a stellar labor of love, worth giving it a shot to play!
I loved this game playing on an Arch Thinkpad in university with budget graphics capability.
The best part is being able to pin locations on the map for your teammates, so we were able to plot the adventures and battlegrounds of a goated unit by naming the pins "Ronant's Triumph," "Ronant's Revenge," "Ronant's Folly," and ultimately "Ronant's Last Stand." Great times with a few beers and the lads.
RIP Ronant, Wesnoth will never see another hero of your like again.
An absolute gem I came across randomly many years ago. Picked up Mewgenics and it left me wishing it had some mechanics from Wesnoth like faster animations (Mewgenics caps at 4x), undo action (at least if the action doesn't trigger any rng/damage behavior), skip enemy turns.
I only wish they added more campaigns into the official lore.
Because of the level-up mechanics of Wesnoth, I don't think its really possible to balance a long-running campaign. The tier3 or tier4 units are just so much more powerful than the earlier tiers... and yet a "recall" costs only 20G.
I'm not sure how I'd balance the game. You want the feeling of progression, but its too "slippery", the game gets easier if the player feeds their units and lets them grow. But it feels like the player could get "trapped" if they had unfortunate or unlucky losses at the incorrect time.
On the other hand, I always thought the "single map" or "scenario maps" of Wesnoth were excellent. I mean, I like the campaigns its just... tough to figure out the proper design scope there.
What kept Wesnoth alive for twenty years is the same thing that kept BBS door games alive in the 80s: the content was community-created. Trade Wars 2002 was different on every board because the sysop configured it differently and the players made it their own. Wesnoth's WML scripting language lets anyone build campaigns, factions, entire rulesets. Most open-source games die because the core team burns out and nobody picks it up. Wesnoth survived because thousands of people have a stake in their own content inside it. The game is a platform, not a product.
It's been probably 20 years since I played this game. But I still think it's the best Open Source game I've ever played. I had lots of fun, and more than a few late nights, running through some of the campaigns.
I would love to see a Nintendo Switch port of this game, if anyone is interested in making one!
I heard about this game many many times due to software developers showcasing it as an example of a good libre videogame. However, I don't know a single person who played it and I have never seen anyone recommending it for its gameplay.
What is pretty cool is how long-living the project has been. I have seen many open source games die over the last 2 decades; some were quite cool. So wesnoth staying alive is pretty epic in itself.
Just downloaded Wesnoth due to this post. I'll try it out this weekend maybe. I was wrong in my other post -- I believe I played it around 20 years ago.
It's been a long time ago since I last played and I was one of those rng haters (that's why i never got hooked... i want to have fun, not some pseudo random roll the bones simulator). I just took a look and I see three different "rng modes"... i have to laugh and give credit to the devs for sticking to their guns.
Great game. I only wish there were more "one off" or even random scenarios - I like playing against the computer but I find campaigns become a bit of a grind with the whole "OK we need to level these units for the scenario coming up..."
only missing point about this game is some of the real word parameters like moral,flanking etc. Maybe a real history mod would be amazing like ancient era or medieval ages.
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He's been a developer on Wesnoth since 2012 but only graduated university in 2024. Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates. Even if you're a maintainer on one of the most popular OSS C++ projects on GitHub.
I can't recommend him enough.
edit: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-dang-10994b1b4
> Unfortunately, it's been an absolutely brutal market for new graduates.
Furthermore, more and more companies are looking for "professional" devs using AI tools such as Claude Code. By "professional" I mean proficient in using those AI tools, not actual knowledge. And they don't even specify this in the job offer and you learn this during the interview.
That it doesn't get him instant hired is the sad part, what are we coming to.
Thank you for your work on Wesnoth, I spent many hours playing back in the day. There's also a good android port.
So, uh, I'm now one of the leads of Frogatto and boy howdy could I use a job too after a recent mass staff reduction at my day job.
edit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roberts-b9410654/
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-battle-for-wesnoth/id14507...(this may be the "Mac" version, see:https://www.reddit.com/r/wesnoth/comments/1pjkwbw/i_had_wesn...).If that's your jam then there's also a (non-open-source) "Hero's Hour" which tickles the old Heroes of Might and Magic stylings, works reasonably well on Xbox, where I've been doing most of my gaming lately.
As far as Open Source gaming success stories, I'd put this up there in the Top 5 for "Original IP and Concept" (if that makes sense). Just a stellar labor of love, worth giving it a shot to play!
(Subjective interpretation, but something like, "I couldn't believe it's free, I would have paid for it anyway.")
In the meantime so many other favorite games have disappeared or become obsolete.
There's no absolute reason great games can't be as immortal as chess. Maybe Wesnoth can be.
The best part is being able to pin locations on the map for your teammates, so we were able to plot the adventures and battlegrounds of a goated unit by naming the pins "Ronant's Triumph," "Ronant's Revenge," "Ronant's Folly," and ultimately "Ronant's Last Stand." Great times with a few beers and the lads.
RIP Ronant, Wesnoth will never see another hero of your like again.
I only wish they added more campaigns into the official lore.
I'm not sure how I'd balance the game. You want the feeling of progression, but its too "slippery", the game gets easier if the player feeds their units and lets them grow. But it feels like the player could get "trapped" if they had unfortunate or unlucky losses at the incorrect time.
On the other hand, I always thought the "single map" or "scenario maps" of Wesnoth were excellent. I mean, I like the campaigns its just... tough to figure out the proper design scope there.
I would love to see a Nintendo Switch port of this game, if anyone is interested in making one!
Oh, and I'd really like them to be in the original style of Heir to the Throne. I'm a sucker for the old anime style of 1.10.
Thanks for that.
My first distro was a live cd with Knoppix.
It had this game, I played so much. This, and Kobo deluxe.
So many good memories