Clearing up a couple of misconceptions about platform and licensing

Clearing up a couple of misconceptions about platform and licensing

bart's picture

So there are a couple of misconceptions about the LPC rules that seem to be along a common theme, and I'd like to clear them up.

Misconception #1: Your game must only run on a 100% free-as-in-freedom platform, and may not run on a proprietary platform.

While it's true that your game must run on a 100% free-as-in-freedom platform, you are welcome and encouraged to make it run on any other platforms you want.  The idea here isn't to restrict users; it's to make sure as many people as possible are able to play your game.  If you build your software on an open stack, it will compile and run all of the major platforms.

With specific regard to OpenGL drivers, there are working FOSS OpenGL drivers, and the judges will be expected to have modern machines that support OpenGL and have appropriate drivers installed.

Misconception #2: We're pushing the GPL on people.

It's true that code entered into the contest must be released under the GPL; however, the reason for doing this is to ensure that all of the code entered into the contest has a bare minimum set of freedoms associated with it.  Note that the rules explicitly allow you to license your code under whatever additional licenses you want.   You are more than welcome to release your code under a BSD-style license, the public domain, or any other license you want in addition to releasing it under the GPL, and will not be penalized for this.