Introduction
As we stand now in early 2025, 7 years after launch, Gods Unchained is still in Beta and lagging in development. The biggest development push at this particular moment seems to be directed toward backend improvements to fix some pretty important issues and enable new features and game mechanics. At some particular moments though there was a flurry of player-facing client updates, but those are at the moment much less frequent. A few important ones were made about 5 months ago:
But even before that the community was very vocal about the need to improve the client. For example, there is this really long list of suggestions compiled by u/CodeRadDesign, and some were actually implemented rather quickly at the time.
But the situation now continues to be that players identify simple, apparently low-effort improvements on the game launcher application that the dev team probably agrees with, but is leaving for later because they're focusing on other more urgent fixes.
Sexy Client
Back in 2022, the player Manners released a modified launcher (client), at the time to fix a very common and very annoying bug that was creating errors when entering queues. After this fix, he also improved the forging process and other QoL issues, but this effort became unsustainable and Manners stopped working on it. Players were calling it 'Sexy Client' and for quite some time that surprising quick fix to the queuing bug lingered as an example of an incomprehensible lack of responsiveness on the part of the dev team to fix even the smallest of UI issues that required straightforward, simple and quick solutions.
https://discord.com/channels/758321747748716615/769059817628237824/1021203650556731452
https://discord.com/channels/758321747748716615/769059817628237824/1021204562096439345
https://discord.com/channels/758321747748716615/769059817628237824/981654755497611264
The game launcher is an Electron application, which means the launcher code is akin to a webpage; the minified version of the code is available in the game's installation folder and can be read and modified by anyone, although the minification process makes the code harder and more annoying to read.
The point here is that some community members have the necessary expertise to contribute to the development of the game client and their involvement would result in a better client, developed faster and with improvements in tune with the player's needs. There is however the issue of trust and the potential for creating a vector for scams and unsafety, which I will address later on.
Open source game client?
With the Sexy Client as the starting point, there was a push at the time for GU to support a community client. Another player and CoM member Birdgineer recently mentioned the idea of making part of the code open source and leveraging community expertise to speed up development:
https://discord.com/channels/457152051239976961/567957189764055050/1307011599462043759
https://discord.com/channels/457152051239976961/567957189764055050/1307063737148112998
I looked for examples of this in other games while researching this post. I found several examples of support for modding, the ability to make changes via an API system or outright releasing the entire code to the public. So this wouldn't be an original or a first, and there is a proven track record of successful cases when game developers took this route.
From the corporate standpoint of trying to protect an IP and safeguard the time and money put into developing proprietary code, it can be daunting to consider giving that all away for free. By releasing part of the code publicly, Immutable X may lose some control, but they will save time and money with further development, by enrolling talent from the community members keen on improving a game they love, while at the same time perhaps showcasing their skills.
But the client being an Electron application, the code isn't even closed-source anyway, it's just minified to save space. It wouldn't even be a significant release of proprietary code to publish the original un-minified version on GitHub. It would require a talented engineer to validate the community's pull requests though, but even that seems like a time-saving proposition instead of an additional overhead, even including the planning for a bounty board or coordinating efforts and answering questions in GitHub Issues.
How it could work
So I would like to suggest something similar to the Sexy Client, but with official support. These would be the main points:
The game client / launcher code would be made open-source.
The GU team would create a bounty board for improvements or bug fixes.
The GU team would establish a developer program that requires community developers to certify and submit code for validation via pull requests.
Definition of clear contribution guidelines and reliance on community moderators to help with discussions. This would help developers manage the support workload, if necessary.
The official build would also be available on GitHub. Having a trusted source for the executables helps prevent scams. Indicate clearly what are the trusted sources for the executables. Many other open-source projects work like this, including crypto wallets that can hold significant amounts of money.
Establish clear policies regarding using the code and disallowing unofficial builds.
Community changes outside the bounty board would be accepted, perhaps with pre-approval so that the work doesn't go to waste.
Contributors would have their names added to the credits list
Advantages of an open-source client
Accelerated development. Faster bug fixing.
Cultivates a loyal and engaged community.
Reduces tension and frustration among players caused by a sense of disregard or slow addressing of UI issues directly facing players.
Can serendipitously find hirable talent.
Maintains control of critical systems like matchmaking, anti-cheat mechanisms, etc. - the core game code remains closed-source.
Cost-effective development.
