I'd prefer not to get into making an official list of supported languages, for three reasons:
The inevitable "Why didn't you list Obscure Language X?" questions, and
We don't want to give anyone the false impression that something is necessarily admissible to the contest just because it happens to be written in a particular language, because that's not what the rule you're referring to is addressing. Just to be clear, even if we list certain languages as "acceptable", you could always find libraries that are non-free and use those, which would disqualify the entry.
If you have a question about the free-ness of a specific language, there's a good chance that we may be able to answer that. That said, the key isn't what language you use, it's whether or not someone can compile and run the game from the original code without using proprietary software of any kind. Also, there are a couple of languages and platforms that fit technically this rule that we're asking people to avoid, specifically Flash (actionscript, gnash, etc), and .NET (including Mono).
I understand that for people who aren't familiar with free software it might be difficult to figure out what might fit this rule versus what won't. The idea isn't to catch you off guard and disqualify you, though. If you have a specific language you'd like to use, please ask about it and we'd be happy to help you make sure you're following the rules of the contest.
Since this question has been asked in some form or another several times over, I'd like to find out from you what we can do to clarify the rule, which reads as follows:
Platform: Your code must be able to be compiled and run on a 100% free-as-in-freedom platform. It may not make use of any proprietary libraries or VMs. Just to be clear, we cannot accept games that will ONLY run on one of the following: Flash, Silverlight, XNA, Unity, Windows, MacOS (or OSX), iOS, proprietary JVMs, or similar. It is perfectly acceptable if your game runs on any of these platforms, but it must also work on an open platform (we strongly recommend making sure that your program run on modern flavors of GNU/Linux, as all of the judges will have access to it).
I've been involved with Free Software long enough that the above rule makes perfect sense to me, but if we're leaving anyone in the dark and can further clarify it with a FAQ question, please let me know. Specifically, if any part of the above rule strikes you as unclear (or you're not sure exactly what it means), just tell me what's unclear about it and I'll try to go into more detail.
pennomi is correct. It's up to the artists whether they want to release their works before the contest deadline.
I'll also point out that the development phase of the contest is also a month, and most game writing contests are a weekend. As such, you'll have plenty of time to plan when the time comes, even if you haven't seen all the art entries until the code contest starts. :)
If you can take the original source code and compile and run the game without using any non-Free software, then it's legal. I don't offhand know enough about Coffeescript or Google Dart to answer that for those two cases, but maybe someone else can.
Short answer: It can be comrpised of server-side parts too, but in order for the entry to be legal, those parts also have to be entered into the contest.
Long answer: We really only addressed HTML5 games specifically because we got a lot of questions about them. HTML5 games are legal because a true HTML5 game can be run on Free and Open Source software from the ground up. If you write a game in HTML5 (that is, HTML and modern Javascript) and do it correctly, you don't need any proprietary software to run it. For instance, you could run an HTML5 game on Firefox, running on top of a purely free and open source GNU/Linux distribution. Point is, HTML5 isn't a special exception fo the contest rules -- it fits the contest perfectly and people are interested in using it. If you have server side code, that's fine, as long as you adhere to the rules of the contest. :)
What library are you using? If I knew, I could probably give you an exact answer.
Bart
I'd prefer not to get into making an official list of supported languages, for three reasons:
If you have a question about the free-ness of a specific language, there's a good chance that we may be able to answer that. That said, the key isn't what language you use, it's whether or not someone can compile and run the game from the original code without using proprietary software of any kind. Also, there are a couple of languages and platforms that fit technically this rule that we're asking people to avoid, specifically Flash (actionscript, gnash, etc), and .NET (including Mono).
I understand that for people who aren't familiar with free software it might be difficult to figure out what might fit this rule versus what won't. The idea isn't to catch you off guard and disqualify you, though. If you have a specific language you'd like to use, please ask about it and we'd be happy to help you make sure you're following the rules of the contest.
Since this question has been asked in some form or another several times over, I'd like to find out from you what we can do to clarify the rule, which reads as follows:
I've been involved with Free Software long enough that the above rule makes perfect sense to me, but if we're leaving anyone in the dark and can further clarify it with a FAQ question, please let me know. Specifically, if any part of the above rule strikes you as unclear (or you're not sure exactly what it means), just tell me what's unclear about it and I'll try to go into more detail.
pennomi is correct. It's up to the artists whether they want to release their works before the contest deadline.
I'll also point out that the development phase of the contest is also a month, and most game writing contests are a weekend. As such, you'll have plenty of time to plan when the time comes, even if you haven't seen all the art entries until the code contest starts. :)
This is actually a duplicate of this:
http://opengameart.org/content/miaku-02
Since the previous one is an anonymous submission, I'd be happy to give you ownership of it.
Bart
Really loving all these. Keep up the good work! :)
If you can take the original source code and compile and run the game without using any non-Free software, then it's legal. I don't offhand know enough about Coffeescript or Google Dart to answer that for those two cases, but maybe someone else can.
Thanks! I added the ogg to the submission.
Short answer: It can be comrpised of server-side parts too, but in order for the entry to be legal, those parts also have to be entered into the contest.
Long answer: We really only addressed HTML5 games specifically because we got a lot of questions about them. HTML5 games are legal because a true HTML5 game can be run on Free and Open Source software from the ground up. If you write a game in HTML5 (that is, HTML and modern Javascript) and do it correctly, you don't need any proprietary software to run it. For instance, you could run an HTML5 game on Firefox, running on top of a purely free and open source GNU/Linux distribution. Point is, HTML5 isn't a special exception fo the contest rules -- it fits the contest perfectly and people are interested in using it. If you have server side code, that's fine, as long as you adhere to the rules of the contest. :)
Bart
That is correct, yes. :)
Nice work, Clint!
It's awesome to see Blender included in the pixel art workflow. :)
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