$12256 / $11500
We're getting a lot of questions about what libraries and programming languages are acceptable for LPC. I'd like to be able to answer those questions, but a lot of them are way too broad and phrased in the form of hypotheticals. Given how many different languages, compilers, and libraries are out there, we cannot make an exhaustive list of precisely whic combinations are acceptable and which ones are not.
As such, if you have a question about what will make an acceptable contest entry, please supply the following information:
Just to get a couple of common questions out of the way:
While ActionScript (Flash, gnash, AIR, etc) and Mono (.NET, etc) may be legal in some circumstances, we strongly advise against using these particular technologies, as they may affect your score.
Furthermore, we strongly advise making sure that it is not necessary to use an 'emulation' layer such as Wine to compile and run your program. Again, situations may exist where this is technically okay, but the judges aren't likely to feel good about it. :)
If you're using Java, just make sure your code runs on a non-proprietary VM. OpenJDK is a safe choice.
If you're using something that compiles code to Javascript, bear in mind that we need to be able to do this from the original source using only Free software.
In short: In order for an entry to be legal, we must be able to take the original source, then compile and run it using nothing but free software, from the operating system up.
We realize that software licensing can be a confusing issue, and the idea isn't to take anyone by surprise. If you have questions about specific languages and libraries, please ask them here and we will address them.
Thanks!
Bart
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Hi.
I've read and I'm asking :
so the question is basically about clanlib. It has its own "Very liberal zlib style license". From what I understand, it seems free enough, but I'd like an official confirmation because IANAL :)
Conveniently, the ClanLib license isn't just "zlib style", it matches the text of the zlib license exactly, except for the fact that it says clanlib instead of zlib. ;)
Here's the FSF's comment on the zlib licnese.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#ZLib
Short answer: You're fine. :)
Another question regarding fonts (I was the previous Anonymous).
I am looking at fonts provided by Google web fonts. Most of them are under the SIL Open Font License or the Apache License v2.
No problems with those, I guess?
Yeah, both should be okay:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#apache2
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#SILOFL
Just to be sure:
The MPL2 from Mozilla (used in BrowserQuest) ist OK too?
http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/
Yes, it's considered a free license by GNU:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.en.html#MPL-2.0
I'll be using C++ with SDL and SDL_gfx (http://www.ferzkopp.net/joomla/content/view/19/14/) and will be compiling on Ubuntu. I will be using cmake, but will provide the make file
That all good?
rwhwilliam: Yeah, I'm confident that will work.
thanks :)
I was thinking of using LWJGL but this is the only license info I could find. Doesn't look too free.
I've released games that use LWJGL before, that weren't open source and such. I usually either use Java Web Start and JNLP files or an applet loader that they wrote that both download all the required LWJGL jars to the cache if they're not present and update your own code if there's a new version to the cache before launching. The jars are on my webserver and signed by myself which is ok apparently. Otherwise I have no other means of distributing the LWJGL jars.
TL;DR I'm clueless when it comes to legal stuff and was wondering if I'd be breaking any rules. Sorry if this has been asked before.
~Paraknight
Paraknight: Do not worry about it, that license you linked to is a so called 'three clause BSD license' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_licenses#3-clause_license_.28.22New_BSD...)
This is an open source licese (and compatible with all other open source licenses) it is just not a so-called 'copyleft license'. This means that people using and modifying lwjgl can make closed source applications with it, and even keep their own modifications to lwjgl a secret.
However, if you provide the sourcecode to the version of lwjgl that you used for your LPC entry then you are 100% in compliance, and your game will be entirely open source software.
So i guess that mean GameMaker not allowed?
So sad :(
Game programmer using Game Maker
Correct. I'm not entirely sure but game-editor.com might be completely open source and have a similar interface.
There's also ENIGMA; enigma-dev.org. It is compatible with GameMaker files, but is FOSS. I have made an entry with it with the name Artificer's Quest: the Staff of Ivalder.
that's really sad.