The Future of the Video Game Randomizer List
- Video Games, Programming, Anecdotes
It's hard to believe that it's been almost 8 years since I first posted on the ROMhacking.net forums a list of video game randomizers that I found online, and that it would evolve into the massive project it has become today, with almost 900 entries currently being listed. It's always a strange feeling to see a personal passion project of mine being referenced in serious news articles, recommended to thousands of people on social media by influencers and random gamers alike, and even inspire many people to learn programming in order to create their very own randomizers. I've even been interviewed twice about it, which is unprecedented for me!
Today is going to be the next chapter of this project. Namely, The BIG List of Video Game Randomizers is going open source!
This is something that I had wanted to do for a long time, but never got around doing as it never seemed to make sense at the time for various reasons. However, many things have been going on behind the scenes, and circumstances changed. Specifically, I've recently started thinking about retiring from this project for personal reasons, and by coincidence there has been recent vocal interest by other people to volunteer as maintainers for the very first time since I started this project.
Therefore, today is going to be the very last update I am going to make to the list by myself, and will be the beginning of a transition towards an independently-managed community project. During this transition, I will continue to manage this project as an administrator and perform basic integration and deployment tasks, but I will no longer actively contribute content to the list. I may still continue to offer my expertise and help the community in other ways, but that will remain to my discretion.
Will this soft retirement be the beginning of the end of this project, or will it be the beginning of a new era? I do not know yet, but regardless of its future, I am proud of what I accomplished, and its legacy in the gaming community.
The future of The BIG List of Video Game Randomizers is now in your hands.
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