Creating open-source game engine

[MrOnlineCoder]

Hello. I have a question: how should I release game engine for public use? Should I release source code, so users will build it and link with their project, or should they just make a file which describes the game and it's resources, so user will run the engine and then it will load the game description file (like GoldSrc, you run hl -game >game folder>), or should I do it in another way?

Thanks.

[eXpl0it3r]

That's basically a thing you have to decide, i.e. how do YOU want others to use your engine?

Making the engine open source certainly has many benefits, as users can provide fixes to bugs in the engine or extend it to their own needs.

While just releasing the "binaries" will make people more depend on you providing bugfixes quickly and implement new/requested features.
But you'll retain full control ove your engine's code.