I want to develop a game and am considering collaborating with others, potentially even making it open-source.
To make this process smoother, I need to establish an easy-to-replicate development environment—one that can be set up by non-programmers (such as artists) but is also simple for me to configure so I can focus on actual development.
I’ve explored various options (Docker, Podman, Anaconda, NixOS, VMs), but the choices are overwhelming, and I’m unsure which one is best for my needs.
I’ve had partial success with a Fedora+i3wm virtual environment (VM), creating a plug-and-play experience. However, this setup requires extra space (~3GB for the OS) and includes software already installed on the host system. It also requires users to learn i3wm and possibly use the command line, which may not be ideal for everyone.
I would appreciate any advice on how to approach this effectively.
Edit: An example of things to setup:
- The right .Net Sdks version
- Git
- Git LFS
- Format Checks
- VScode (+ extensions)
- Godot (+ extensions)
Why do you need i3wm? I’m not sure I understand why that’s a development requirement.
I did it to save on space, LXDE could also be an option but with a bit more space.
No, I mean: why is a window manager a requirement? You’re developing a game. Your dev environment requirements should be DE/WM agnostic.
If you intend your collaborators to be using Linux, you should look into Distrobox/podman and have your containerfile ready for deployment. Or just tell people what tools they need installed.
Enforcing a particular DE/WM will make development harder for some people, and it will add unnecessary burden to your project.
What you are saying is correct, and why I am looking for a better way.
It was just simpler for me to set up a complete image that can be used on a VM.