1st Official Gp2x Game And Application Development Contest

[Dzz]

Thank you for not getting extremely mad Dzz! I was just trying to make a point....

No reason I'd get mad. If GPH only got rights to the entries that got the big prizes I'd say your point is a good one.

This whole thing MIGHT just mean that GPH gets the right to distribute the entries, and they don't actually get ownership. In that case it would be just like the coding contest held earlier this year (or my demo competition for that matter). That would be fine... we could still put our entries on archive.gp2x.de once the competiton is over, and make new versions and so on. The only people who wouldn't like those terms are people who were planning to sell their game commercially. For example, I don't know if Epicenter is planning to sell Stargazer, but if he is, these terms cannot look good.

I posted a note asking for clarification on their site. I hope that the issue is clear to them; given that we speak different languages they might not understand the question.

 

[Magnulus]

I wasn't necessarily thinking of selling Bork (I simply hadn't made my mind up. Besides, I don't know yet if it's going to be any good.) but the prospect of losing Bork is not a good one in my eyes. I might also lose rights to create games in the same "series", and to port the game, should I want to do this for my non-GP2X friends (filthy traitors.)

My point is: I won't enter until I see some clarifications.

 

[jmetal88]

From what I read, I was under the impression that for homebrew entries the coder would retain the right, and that it was only for games entered as commercial that GPH would have the rights to...

 

[Dzz]

From what I read, I was under the impression that for homebrew entries the coder would retain the right, and that it was only for games entered as commercial that GPH would have the rights to...

There are two separate contest categories. One is commercial games. That's the one with the big prizes (5k and 3k). This is the category where "Applicants agree to assign the copyright to Gamepark Holdings"

The second category is called "open source". The entries are to be released under the GPL. The prizes for this category are $500, $300, and a gp2x. They do not appear to want ports: "All submitted programs should be new. If you submit an already existing program, this will be taken in consideration and you might have a lower mark."

So I agree with your statement, the news is that "homebrew" if that means "open source" does not qualify for the big prizes.

 

[nickspoon]

I don't particularly want to release source for my games, nor do I particularly want to sell them, so which category would they go in, exactly?

 

[Magnulus]

What we COULD do is simply organize an alternative competition.

We'd allow for both open and closed source (though I'd prefer to not allow ports, since that's using someone else's work.) and could base the prizes on donations from individuals (and interested organizations, of course, like Lik-Sang or other distributors) which would potentially raise the prizes to higher levels.

If any distributors get engaged in it, they could probably even help with distribution deals for the best games if the games are good enough.

I dunno, I kinda like the thought of that, but maybe it'd be too difficult to make it big enough. I have some ideas regarding implementation and rules, but I'll hold those off until I see if there's any interest.

 

[Epicenter]

The only people who wouldn't like those terms are people who were planning to sell their game commercially. For example, I don't know if Epicenter is planning to sell Stargazer, but if he is, these terms cannot look good.

Exactly. As of right now, Hydralancer and I are in agreement to not enter this contest unless the terms and conditions dramatically change. We could do a better job of selling Stargazer than GPH ever could, and neither of us is willing to give rights to our hard work to anyone.

 

[jbrodack]

Giving GPH the right to distribute and sell the winners is fine but the author should retain any and all copyright over the game and any related intellectual property.

If they don't change this I doubt they will get many quality entries.

I was hoping this contest would bring a lot of new quality gp2x software but that won't happen if everyone is driven away by the terms of the contest.