I admittedly differ from the position of the FSF on this, as I don't personally take any issue with proprietary software. It's just that the contest is about Free (as in speech) Software. That was intended to be clear as part of the rules, and I'm sorry if it wasn't. I've updated the About page to be clearer about this too.
If a Flash games contest refused to accept non-flash games, would you feel that they're being zealous or inflexible?
Yes, but some works are licensed differently from others. Please check the licenses to be sure what the conditions are. :)
If you need help with a specific license, feel free to ask.
Bart
P.S. Just some basic info: The "easiest" licenses are CC-BY and cc0. CC-BY just requires that you credit the author, and cc0 doesn't even require credit (although as a courtesy to the author I'd recommend crediting).
I need to revise my statement. Even if Stencyl produces HTML5 or native code, we can only accept it if the version of Stencyl being used to generate the code is also 100% free and open source.
After spending some time looking at Stency, I can say pretty conclusively that we won't be able to accept it. Here are the relevant rules:
License: Code entries must be free and open source, and must be available under the GNU GPL 3.0. You may optionally release the code under any additional license(s) that you choose.
Source code: You must provide the complete source code for your entry. Any code you have written for your game prior to the beginning of the contest must be made available at the beginning of the contest.
Platform: Your code must be able to be compiled and run on a 100% free-as-in-freedom platform. [...]
Meaning: If your game is distributed with Flash player, we would need the source code for Flash Player under a FSF-approved free software license, and that's something that Adobe would have to agree to.
If it's distributed without flash player (and instead assumes the existence of Flash or its libraries, or iOS) those would still need to have the source code available under an FSF-approved license.
I noticed on the site that in the future Sencyl might create native executables and/or HTML5 code. Depending on how everything works, there might be a chance that would fit in with the rules (it would depend if there are other dependencies on proprietary code, etc), but I can't make any sort of guarantee about that without getting some technical and licensing details and speaking with the other judges. I'm responding now because since those features aren't available yet it may be a moot point (if html5 and native executables will become available before July 31st, let me know and I'll check around some more).
For what it's worth, the idea isn't to exclude people -- it's just that the purpose of the contest is to create more 100% free and open media. Also, as the admin of OpenGameArt, I'd like to point out (so as to avoid any confusion) that much of the art we have on this site is perfectly fine for use in Stencyl games, and I'd be happy to answer any licensing questions that people have to the best of my ability.
That's a good question. In retrospect, if a judge recuses temselves from scoring a particular game, the scores would pretty much have to be normalized in order to be far. So the answer is yes, if it comes to that. (Now, in the event that no judge needs to recuse themselves from judging a particular work, for simplicity's sake, we won't.)
> What could that be? is anything really robust out of beta?
I'll be doing highlights on the LPC site blog in the near future (actually done one already). The Frogatto engine, which it's not specifically geared toward JRPGs, is versatile enough to handle the genre. I'll be going over others as well.
Realistically, I don't think there's going to be anything JRPG-specific that's as usable and polished as, say, the RPG Maker series, so there may be a little more programming involved.
I'd rather avoid highlighting engines that would have to be shoehorned into 2D support. :)
@Nushio: That really comes off as kind of a blatant plug, particularly since jMonkeyEngine isn't really meant for 2D stuff. :)
I'd definitely like to see a full set of these. :)
Nice work :)
Didn't know you did 3D stuff too.
@DoctorMikeReddy
I admittedly differ from the position of the FSF on this, as I don't personally take any issue with proprietary software. It's just that the contest is about Free (as in speech) Software. That was intended to be clear as part of the rules, and I'm sorry if it wasn't. I've updated the About page to be clearer about this too.
If a Flash games contest refused to accept non-flash games, would you feel that they're being zealous or inflexible?
@Anon:
Yes, but some works are licensed differently from others. Please check the licenses to be sure what the conditions are. :)
If you need help with a specific license, feel free to ask.
Bart
P.S. Just some basic info: The "easiest" licenses are CC-BY and cc0. CC-BY just requires that you credit the author, and cc0 doesn't even require credit (although as a courtesy to the author I'd recommend crediting).
I need to revise my statement. Even if Stencyl produces HTML5 or native code, we can only accept it if the version of Stencyl being used to generate the code is also 100% free and open source.
Hi.
After spending some time looking at Stency, I can say pretty conclusively that we won't be able to accept it. Here are the relevant rules:
Meaning: If your game is distributed with Flash player, we would need the source code for Flash Player under a FSF-approved free software license, and that's something that Adobe would have to agree to.
If it's distributed without flash player (and instead assumes the existence of Flash or its libraries, or iOS) those would still need to have the source code available under an FSF-approved license.
I noticed on the site that in the future Sencyl might create native executables and/or HTML5 code. Depending on how everything works, there might be a chance that would fit in with the rules (it would depend if there are other dependencies on proprietary code, etc), but I can't make any sort of guarantee about that without getting some technical and licensing details and speaking with the other judges. I'm responding now because since those features aren't available yet it may be a moot point (if html5 and native executables will become available before July 31st, let me know and I'll check around some more).
For what it's worth, the idea isn't to exclude people -- it's just that the purpose of the contest is to create more 100% free and open media. Also, as the admin of OpenGameArt, I'd like to point out (so as to avoid any confusion) that much of the art we have on this site is perfectly fine for use in Stencyl games, and I'd be happy to answer any licensing questions that people have to the best of my ability.
Bart
That's a good question. In retrospect, if a judge recuses temselves from scoring a particular game, the scores would pretty much have to be normalized in order to be far. So the answer is yes, if it comes to that. (Now, in the event that no judge needs to recuse themselves from judging a particular work, for simplicity's sake, we won't.)
> What could that be? is anything really robust out of beta?
I'll be doing highlights on the LPC site blog in the near future (actually done one already). The Frogatto engine, which it's not specifically geared toward JRPGs, is versatile enough to handle the genre. I'll be going over others as well.
Realistically, I don't think there's going to be anything JRPG-specific that's as usable and polished as, say, the RPG Maker series, so there may be a little more programming involved.
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