Indeed - and in fact, Free or Open Source licences explicitly allow commercial use.
It's unclear if the OP is asking whether you need to release source code to enter the competition (to which the answer is Yes), or whether using art submitted in the competition requires you to release source code?
For the latter question, there's nothing in any Creative Commons license that requires you to release source code.
And also, if it's your code or work, you're free to do whatever you like with it - you own the copyright, so you're not bound by the terms of any licence it's released under (but you can't retroactively stop other people using something you release under the terms of the licence).
>How long does it take to get onto the Ubuntu Software Center?
My experience is it can take quite a while to get on there. One of my games took 2 months in review to get on there. A second of my games has been in review since 5 May, and I'm still waiting.
Once on there, the updates seem to be approved quite a bit quicker (though still a wait, maybe a week or so IIRC).
I'm afraid it doesn't have speech samples, I agree that would be good to have! I don't have the voice acting skills to do them myself, but that would be another example of the kind of media that would be good to add :)
I've thought about adding new features, though not done that so far. There are some minor differences, e.g., ability to properly load/save games, or the on-screen health bars. I've thought about adding more weapons. Another thing I'd like to add is multiplayer support, though this will take some work.
"Using By-SA assets with closed source code is kind of a complex issue, if I remember the various discussions I've seen on it correctly (the question being, in essence, what constitutes a derivative work that needs to also be licensed under By-SA)."
That's not quite right. There is indeed the question as to whether the CC-BY "share alike" applies to the entire work. But even if it does, I don't think there's any requirement for the work to be open source - after all, CC BY SA says absolutely nothing about source code (since it's not intended for that). You could still use with with closed source, but it would have to be freely distributable, and allow people to build derivative works (including commercial use).
Good suggestions - I've added the list of libraries of Linux to the webpage, and also added estimates for the install size (a bit hard to estimate for Linux as it depends on what libraries are already installed, but I've put the size that the Conquests folder will require, as a minimum).
I'll hopefully have online source control available soon.
I've now released version 1.0. (Not that games are ever finished :) But I hope it should be playable as a game now, and from now on it's more a case of bug fixing and whatever additional features I want to add.)
I added "rebellions" (units kind of similar to "barbarians" in Civilization, but they happen within your own territory, and the chance of them happening can be reduced by building various city improvements); Great Projects (improvements specific to a single civilization); along with actually having a game ending point (winner decided by conquering everyone else, or having the highest Power). Full history at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.harman/conquests.html#history .
I am trying to submit it through to the Ubuntu Software Centre (currently going through the submission process).
From a non-legal point of view, I'd say that things like a new programming language is created, not invented. And things like algorithms are discovered, I would say.
From a legal point, I oppose software patents.
"every year a new car is created but we dont think of it as a new invention but it has a patent."
Cars may use patented technology, but I'm not sure in which sense there is a patent for each new car?
Thanks for the link - I am a bit unclear as to how one gets a Debian package included in the various official Linux packaging systems, but I'll take a closer look.
What's the reason for making media non-free, if the game isn't being done for profit? Is it because you don't want other people profiting from the media?
I'd say it's worth mentioning explicitly what licence the media will be distributed under, if you want people to contribute for no payment (especially since Open Game Art is a site for Free media, so most people here would I imagine be less likely to want to release work under non-free licences).
I'm not sure I've played an RPG that didn't behave the way I described... :)
Depends what you mean by "in the beginning" - I can see that the first level or two might be that much quicker to obtain, but I've never experienced that I have to keep waiting longer and longer to progress. Otherwise in the later stages, you'd lose interest in any progressing up the levels. I thought it was standard D&D rules that although higher levels require more XP, you also get more XP for killing stronger enemies.
"Also this method mimics reality. We learn very quickly at first, but it takes years to become a true master."
But this is only relevant if you have different levels in different areas, as you suggest. Otherwise it doesn't mimic reality at all. Another way of modelling realism would be to give the level ups in approximate constant time, but if say a player keeps using the upgrades to improve the same skill, then the improvement becomes less and less with time. Alternatively, just because the levels increase in constant time, doesn't mean that has to equate to linear improvement.
Indeed - and in fact, Free or Open Source licences explicitly allow commercial use.
It's unclear if the OP is asking whether you need to release source code to enter the competition (to which the answer is Yes), or whether using art submitted in the competition requires you to release source code?
For the latter question, there's nothing in any Creative Commons license that requires you to release source code.
And also, if it's your code or work, you're free to do whatever you like with it - you own the copyright, so you're not bound by the terms of any licence it's released under (but you can't retroactively stop other people using something you release under the terms of the licence).
>How long does it take to get onto the Ubuntu Software Center?
My experience is it can take quite a while to get on there. One of my games took 2 months in review to get on there. A second of my games has been in review since 5 May, and I'm still waiting.
Once on there, the updates seem to be approved quite a bit quicker (though still a wait, maybe a week or so IIRC).
I'm afraid it doesn't have speech samples, I agree that would be good to have! I don't have the voice acting skills to do them myself, but that would be another example of the kind of media that would be good to add :)
I've thought about adding new features, though not done that so far. There are some minor differences, e.g., ability to properly load/save games, or the on-screen health bars. I've thought about adding more weapons. Another thing I'd like to add is multiplayer support, though this will take some work.
I'm open to any suggestions of other ideas.
"Using By-SA assets with closed source code is kind of a complex issue, if I remember the various discussions I've seen on it correctly (the question being, in essence, what constitutes a derivative work that needs to also be licensed under By-SA)."
That's not quite right. There is indeed the question as to whether the CC-BY "share alike" applies to the entire work. But even if it does, I don't think there's any requirement for the work to be open source - after all, CC BY SA says absolutely nothing about source code (since it's not intended for that). You could still use with with closed source, but it would have to be freely distributable, and allow people to build derivative works (including commercial use).
Good suggestions - I've added the list of libraries of Linux to the webpage, and also added estimates for the install size (a bit hard to estimate for Linux as it depends on what libraries are already installed, but I've put the size that the Conquests folder will require, as a minimum).
I'll hopefully have online source control available soon.
I've now released version 1.0. (Not that games are ever finished :) But I hope it should be playable as a game now, and from now on it's more a case of bug fixing and whatever additional features I want to add.)
I added "rebellions" (units kind of similar to "barbarians" in Civilization, but they happen within your own territory, and the chance of them happening can be reduced by building various city improvements); Great Projects (improvements specific to a single civilization); along with actually having a game ending point (winner decided by conquering everyone else, or having the highest Power). Full history at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.harman/conquests.html#history .
I am trying to submit it through to the Ubuntu Software Centre (currently going through the submission process).
From a non-legal point of view, I'd say that things like a new programming language is created, not invented. And things like algorithms are discovered, I would say.
From a legal point, I oppose software patents.
"every year a new car is created but we dont think of it as a new invention but it has a patent."
Cars may use patented technology, but I'm not sure in which sense there is a patent for each new car?
Thanks for the link - I am a bit unclear as to how one gets a Debian package included in the various official Linux packaging systems, but I'll take a closer look.
What's the reason for making media non-free, if the game isn't being done for profit? Is it because you don't want other people profiting from the media?
I'd say it's worth mentioning explicitly what licence the media will be distributed under, if you want people to contribute for no payment (especially since Open Game Art is a site for Free media, so most people here would I imagine be less likely to want to release work under non-free licences).
I'm not sure I've played an RPG that didn't behave the way I described... :)
Depends what you mean by "in the beginning" - I can see that the first level or two might be that much quicker to obtain, but I've never experienced that I have to keep waiting longer and longer to progress. Otherwise in the later stages, you'd lose interest in any progressing up the levels. I thought it was standard D&D rules that although higher levels require more XP, you also get more XP for killing stronger enemies.
"Also this method mimics reality. We learn very quickly at first, but it takes years to become a true master."
But this is only relevant if you have different levels in different areas, as you suggest. Otherwise it doesn't mimic reality at all. Another way of modelling realism would be to give the level ups in approximate constant time, but if say a player keeps using the upgrades to improve the same skill, then the improvement becomes less and less with time. Alternatively, just because the levels increase in constant time, doesn't mean that has to equate to linear improvement.
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