Disallow derivative works in general? That would invalidate pretty much every license supported by OGA. I would even say OGA encourages derivatives... as long as the terms of the source license are adhered to.
@newera: Groovy. Glad to help. Looks like it isn't your ISP if you were able to get it ok from me. Or at least it's not just your ISP. I'll remove that link now.
I want to reiterate what mdwh said "a clear Free licence means I can use it without having to contact the author every time".
The artists might have even released their work under one of those licenses specifically so people will stop bothering them with those same questions. The problem is not 3rd party submitted works, it's failure to verify the license is clear. I still think asking the artist is a good idea just to make sure, but requiring it would uneccessarily eliminate a lot of the really great stuff on this site. Not because nobody wants to ask, because the artist can't be reached.
As capbros said, the community here is what makes OGA what it is. A major component of that community is curation. When something is submitted with unclear legal standing (which happens even when the submitter is the artist) the community says "hold, on. I don't think that's quite right. Let's get to the bottom of this."
That kinda seems like a pain, but it works. I think it could work better, sure. At least some focus could be dedicated to clarifying what should be done when licensing is not solid. Is there a reliable way to notify a moderator? What can we expect from the moderator when a submission is questionable? Should preview images be marked with a "Potential Licensing Issues" watermark at the same time? How long should the "Potential Licensing issues" hold be in place? If nothing is resolved a month later, why is it still up? Is there an avenue for OGA regulars to be interviewed as additional moderators? Or some sort of Junior Moderator that can take a second look at submissions?
Also, I agree with mdwh and capbros about putting clarifying instructions on the "Submit Art" page.
@Grahhhhh: You could always use one of the cc0 backgrounds from OGA. Surt has created some beautiful scenes that would showcase this pretty wonderfully: http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/cc0-scraps
@Surt: Sorry if you don't want me to pimp your work, I just really like your stuff.
@newera: Try downloading it from this link: [link removed, experiment complete] My server is in Provo, Utah. The OGA server is in Los Angeles, California. Not sure if that is enough distance to allow the packet stream to get around whatever the problem is, but it might tell us which end the problem is on.
P.S: I'll be removing that link in a few days. This is just for testing.
I was able to download it ok. Everything seems to be present. How long does your download take before it times out? What download speed are you getting?
That should allow you to extract specific sprites (the sub-images you were talking about) from the larger spritsheet (the png will multiple images in it)
Offering pay is a good start, but the lack of replies is probably due to the vagueness of the offer.
"Ice cream store game" is not actually very descriptive. You may know what that means in great detail, but the potential artists don't know what that entails.
The style "anything" is not terribly helpful. Its nice to be able to pick any style I want, but it's better to be specific since contrasting styles rarely look good.
Giving the example image for style is helpful... well, it would be helpful, but the image is nearly useless due to the huge "SAMPLE" pasted over it. A more subtle barely-visible watermark would be better. Better still, no watermark at all. I'm sure there is a fear of the artwork being stolen, but it is rather unlikely. However, I can understand the concern. You need to assess whether the risk of your art being stolen outweighs the ability to land an artist willing to help out.
"I need you to completely replace ripped art and IP with original work." is a scary statement to many artists. Unless the total work involved in this request is no more than a quarter the size of that sample image, $50 is probably not going to be enough to cover the huge effort involved. If you can provide gameplay footage and graphics of actual working game, you should do so in this request. Artists want to know how much art they will be replacing. Show all the art that needs to be replaced. If it's all ripped art and IP not owned by you, you don't need to be worried about people stealing it; it's already stolen. And you're doing the right thing by getting it replaced with legit art.
A lot of artists want to be sure their work will see a release day, but there is not much to convince them that will happen. You are unsure how many years it will take for a playable demo. That's somewhat normal, but it isn't helping to attract artists. If the art were to be released under a permissive license, that might be encouraging since the artist has the hope their work on this project will be put to good use by someone even if this project doesn't take off. You know your project will take off, but the artist doesn't know that.
Disallow derivative works in general? That would invalidate pretty much every license supported by OGA. I would even say OGA encourages derivatives... as long as the terms of the source license are adhered to.
Derivative works of commerical studios and non-free intellectual propery? Yes, that is already explicitly disallowed in the FAQ: http://opengameart.org/content/faq#q-submittype
@newera: Groovy. Glad to help. Looks like it isn't your ISP if you were able to get it ok from me. Or at least it's not just your ISP. I'll remove that link now.
I want to reiterate what mdwh said "a clear Free licence means I can use it without having to contact the author every time".
The artists might have even released their work under one of those licenses specifically so people will stop bothering them with those same questions. The problem is not 3rd party submitted works, it's failure to verify the license is clear. I still think asking the artist is a good idea just to make sure, but requiring it would uneccessarily eliminate a lot of the really great stuff on this site. Not because nobody wants to ask, because the artist can't be reached.
As capbros said, the community here is what makes OGA what it is. A major component of that community is curation. When something is submitted with unclear legal standing (which happens even when the submitter is the artist) the community says "hold, on. I don't think that's quite right. Let's get to the bottom of this."
That kinda seems like a pain, but it works. I think it could work better, sure. At least some focus could be dedicated to clarifying what should be done when licensing is not solid. Is there a reliable way to notify a moderator? What can we expect from the moderator when a submission is questionable? Should preview images be marked with a "Potential Licensing Issues" watermark at the same time? How long should the "Potential Licensing issues" hold be in place? If nothing is resolved a month later, why is it still up? Is there an avenue for OGA regulars to be interviewed as additional moderators? Or some sort of Junior Moderator that can take a second look at submissions?
Also, I agree with mdwh and capbros about putting clarifying instructions on the "Submit Art" page.
@Grahhhhh: You could always use one of the cc0 backgrounds from OGA. Surt has created some beautiful scenes that would showcase this pretty wonderfully: http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/cc0-scraps
@Surt: Sorry if you don't want me to pimp your work, I just really like your stuff.
@newera: Try downloading it from this link: [link removed, experiment complete] My server is in Provo, Utah. The OGA server is in Los Angeles, California. Not sure if that is enough distance to allow the packet stream to get around whatever the problem is, but it might tell us which end the problem is on.
P.S: I'll be removing that link in a few days. This is just for testing.
I was able to download it ok. Everything seems to be present. How long does your download take before it times out? What download speed are you getting?
All I've got is a "report spam" button. Is "Flag Licensing Issues" a moderator-only thing?
I'm not the most familiar with AS3 but this SpriteSheet Class looks like something that would be very helpful: http://www.bensilvis.com/as3-spritesheet-class-extracting-sprites/
That should allow you to extract specific sprites (the sub-images you were talking about) from the larger spritsheet (the png will multiple images in it)
Offering pay is a good start, but the lack of replies is probably due to the vagueness of the offer.
"Ice cream store game" is not actually very descriptive. You may know what that means in great detail, but the potential artists don't know what that entails.
The style "anything" is not terribly helpful. Its nice to be able to pick any style I want, but it's better to be specific since contrasting styles rarely look good.
Giving the example image for style is helpful... well, it would be helpful, but the image is nearly useless due to the huge "SAMPLE" pasted over it. A more subtle barely-visible watermark would be better. Better still, no watermark at all. I'm sure there is a fear of the artwork being stolen, but it is rather unlikely. However, I can understand the concern. You need to assess whether the risk of your art being stolen outweighs the ability to land an artist willing to help out.
"I need you to completely replace ripped art and IP with original work." is a scary statement to many artists. Unless the total work involved in this request is no more than a quarter the size of that sample image, $50 is probably not going to be enough to cover the huge effort involved. If you can provide gameplay footage and graphics of actual working game, you should do so in this request. Artists want to know how much art they will be replacing. Show all the art that needs to be replaced. If it's all ripped art and IP not owned by you, you don't need to be worried about people stealing it; it's already stolen. And you're doing the right thing by getting it replaced with legit art.
A lot of artists want to be sure their work will see a release day, but there is not much to convince them that will happen. You are unsure how many years it will take for a playable demo. That's somewhat normal, but it isn't helping to attract artists. If the art were to be released under a permissive license, that might be encouraging since the artist has the hope their work on this project will be put to good use by someone even if this project doesn't take off. You know your project will take off, but the artist doesn't know that.
I'm sure you've seen this already, but just in case: Here are some pretty helpful guidelines for writing an effective art request: http://opengameart.org/forumtopic/how-and-when-to-write-a-good-art-request
Then again, you might just need to wait a little longer for the right artist to come along and see this request. Either way, best of luck! :)
Game? Kickstarter? What what?
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