Contributing to Open Source Games: A Comprehensive Guide

Why Contribute to Open Source Games?

Contributing to open source games offers benefits beyond altruism. You gain real-world development experience, build your portfolio, and join supportive communities of passionate developers. Many professional game developers started by contributing to open source projects.

Our games directory contains thousands of projects seeking contributors. Whether you are a programmer, artist, writer, or tester, projects need your skills.

Finding Projects to Contribute To

Matching Your Interests

Start with games you actually enjoy playing. Your enthusiasm will sustain you through challenges. Browse our directory by genre to find games in categories you love.

Consider the project's technology stack. Contributing to Python games makes sense if you know Python. Choose projects using languages and tools you want to learn or already understand.

Evaluating Project Health

Not all projects welcome contributions equally. Look for signs of active, healthy projects:

Recent commits: Active projects have commits within the past few months. Abandoned projects may ignore your contributions.

Responsive maintainers: Check how quickly issues receive responses. Projects that ignore questions will likely ignore pull requests.

Contribution guidelines: Projects with CONTRIBUTING.md files have thought about new contributors. This documentation shows organized maintenance.

Open issues: Projects should have issues labeled "good first issue" or "help wanted." These indicate active contribution programs.

Starting Points

These categories often welcome contributors:

• Actively developed games need help with ongoing work

• Educational games appreciate teaching-oriented improvements

• Moddable games have infrastructure for community contributions

Types of Contributions

Code Contributions

Programming contributions range from bug fixes to new features. Start small with documentation fixes or minor bugs. As you understand the codebase, tackle larger issues.

Bug fixes: Find bugs in the issue tracker or encounter them while playing. Fixing bugs teaches you how systems work and provides immediate value.

Feature implementation: After understanding the codebase, implement requested features. Check issues labeled "feature" or "enhancement" for ideas.

Performance optimization: Profile the game to find bottlenecks. Optimizations are always welcome and teach valuable skills.

Code cleanup: Refactoring improves maintainability. Remove dead code, improve naming, or add comments explaining complex sections.

Non-Code Contributions

You do not need programming skills to contribute meaningfully.

Documentation: Improve README files, add code comments, or write tutorials. Good documentation helps all future contributors.

Translation: Translate game text and documentation into other languages. This expands the game's audience significantly.

Testing: Play development builds and report bugs thoroughly. Good bug reports are incredibly valuable.

Art and Audio: Create sprites, textures, models, music, or sound effects. Art contributions directly improve player experience.

Game Design: Suggest balance changes, new levels, or gameplay improvements. Playtest and provide detailed feedback.

Making Your First Contribution

Setting Up Your Environment

• Fork the repository: Create your own copy on GitHub to work in.

• Clone locally: Download the forked repository to your computer.

• Set up upstream: Add the original repository as a remote to sync changes.

• Install dependencies: Follow the project's setup instructions exactly.

• Build and run: Verify everything works before making changes.

Choosing Your First Issue

Look for issues labeled:

• "good first issue"

• "beginner friendly"

• "help wanted"

• "easy"

Read the issue thoroughly. Check if someone is already working on it. Comment that you would like to work on it and ask any clarifying questions.

Making Changes

• Create a branch: Name it descriptively, like "fix-player-collision" or "add-french-translation."

• Make focused changes: Address only the issue at hand. Separate improvements should be separate pull requests.

• Test thoroughly: Run existing tests and test your changes manually. Do not break existing functionality.

• Follow code style: Match the project's existing formatting. Many projects have automated style checks.

• Commit meaningfully: Write clear commit messages explaining what changed and why.

Submitting Your Pull Request

Write a clear pull request description:

Title: Summarize the change concisely.

Description: Explain what you changed and why. Reference the issue number if applicable.

Testing: Describe how you tested your changes.

Screenshots: Include visuals for UI or graphical changes.

Questions: Ask if you are uncertain about anything.

Communication Best Practices

Being a Good Community Member

Be patient: Maintainers are often volunteers. Responses may take days or weeks.

Be respectful: Assume positive intent. Disagreements should remain professional.

Be helpful: Answer questions from newer contributors. Pay forward the help you received.

Be humble: Accept feedback graciously. Requested changes are not personal criticism.

Handling Feedback

Pull requests often receive feedback requesting changes. This is normal and does not mean your contribution is bad.

Address all comments: Do not ignore feedback even if you disagree. Discuss concerns or make requested changes.

Ask for clarification: If feedback is unclear, ask questions. Better to understand than guess wrong.

Make requested changes: Push additional commits addressing feedback. The pull request updates automatically.

Merge conflicts: If your branch conflicts with the main branch, rebase or merge to resolve. This is your responsibility.

Growing as a Contributor

Building Expertise

As you contribute more, you will understand the codebase deeply. This expertise enables larger contributions:

Architecture improvements: Propose structural changes that improve the project long-term.

Feature design: Design new systems rather than just implementing requested features.

Code review: Review other contributors' pull requests. This helps maintainers and teaches you.

Mentoring: Guide new contributors through their first contributions.

Becoming a Maintainer

Active contributors may be invited to become maintainers. This involves:

Reviewing pull requests: Evaluate contributions for quality and project fit.

Triaging issues: Categorize and prioritize reported bugs and feature requests.

Making decisions: Help determine project direction and priorities.

Representing the project: Communicate with users and the broader community.

Maintainer status is earned through consistent, quality contributions over time.

Common Challenges and Solutions

Imposter Syndrome

Feeling unqualified is common, especially for beginners. Remember:

• Everyone starts somewhere

• Maintainers want your help

• Small contributions matter

• Mistakes are learning opportunities

Start small, succeed, and build confidence gradually.

Rejected Contributions

Sometimes contributions are not accepted. This happens for various reasons:

Duplicate effort: Someone else may have solved the problem differently.

Design disagreement: The maintainers may have different ideas about how things should work.

Scope creep: The change may be larger than what the project wants.

Quality issues: The code may need significant revision.

Do not take rejection personally. Ask for feedback, learn from the experience, and try again.

Burnout

Contributing should be enjoyable. If it becomes stressful:

• Take breaks when needed

• Work on what interests you

• Set sustainable pace expectations

• Celebrate your contributions

Tools for Contributors

Development Tools

Git: Essential for version control. Learn branching, rebasing, and conflict resolution.

IDE: Use an IDE that understands your project's language. Code navigation and refactoring tools help significantly.

Docker: Many projects include Docker configurations for consistent environments.

Communication Tools

Discord: Many game projects use Discord for community communication.

Matrix/IRC: Some projects prefer these open protocols.

GitHub Discussions: Project discussions often happen on GitHub itself.

Contributing to Specific Project Types

Game Engine Contributions

Engines like Godot have extensive contribution opportunities. Engine work requires understanding complex systems but has broad impact.

Game Contributions

Individual games need gameplay improvements, content, and polish. These contributions are more focused and immediately visible to players.

Library Contributions

Game development libraries support many projects. Improving libraries has multiplicative impact across the games using them.

Conclusion

Contributing to open source games is rewarding and educational. Start by finding projects you care about in our games directory. Begin with small contributions, grow your expertise, and eventually become a valued community member.

The open source gaming community welcomes newcomers. Every contributor started where you are now. Take the first step, submit that first pull request, and join thousands of developers building the future of open source gaming.

Browse projects by programming language or engine to find your starting point. Your first contribution awaits.