Release Spellrazor

[Dene Carter]

Amazing game, everything is better with Neon ligths,

Would it be possible to port it to desktop GNU/Linux and release it on itch.io?

Sooooo... this is an interesting one. I have a friend who got his build working on some variant of Linux by my providing him with the .love file. The .love file is embedded in the Mac version (just look in the app contents) so you can use that with the official Linux Love2D app by dragging the .love file over the application.

Or you can wait for me to push the official 'Spellrazor' update with the fixes kindly provided by ptitSeb (one hang less!).

Regarding an 'official' Linux version: I won't get around to doing that until this current game is done (it's already been far too long). Even then, I don't really know a thing about packaging up Linux Love2d games properly, so it'll take me some time to make that happen.

As for making it open source: I was a bit scared of showing my exceptionally shoddy source to people at the outset, but since it's never going to make a ton of cash on Steam, I'm increasingly thinking this might be a good idea, whether I charge for the game or not!

 

[shaddim]

but since it's never going to make a ton of cash on Steam, I'm increasingly thinking this might be a good idea, whether I charge for the game or not!

To give you some more motivation for open sourcing: there are already several games on steam which are fully open source, e.g. Jason Rohrer's games, Arx Fatalis, or Vulture for nethack . Open source does not mean necessarily that you can't sell it anymore.

 

[levi]

If this is still accurate after three years, it would suggest that while the engine of Arx Fatalis has been open sourced, the game data still requires buying from somewhere. That's quite a popular model, although I personally have quite the backlog of games that need purchasing for data to test their pandora ports, while stuff with open source data as well that I can simply pull from the repo and try out tends to work much better (although I still intend to try this out, just not quite got round to it yet).

 

[shaddim]

If this is still accurate after three years, it would suggest that while the engine of Arx Fatalis has been open sourced, the game data still requires buying from somewhere. That's quite a popular model, although I personally have quite the backlog of games that need purchasing for data to test their pandora ports, while stuff with open source data as well that I can simply pull from the repo and try out tends to work much better (although I still intend to try this out, just not quite got round to it yet).

You are right, it is possible to only open source the code (and keeping the assets proprietary / Freeware / CC BY-NC licensed) or fully freeing the game like Jason Rohrer does who put everything into public domain.

As nowadays most value of a game lies in its assets, and you want to have a legal lever against scammers who take your creative work and resell it, protect the assets and keep them prorietary (as Arx Fatalis or Doom). If you want more freedom and conveniece for your game's users (e.g. for adding it to linux repos, redistribution) make them CC BY-SA. And if you are an open content enthusiast like Jason Rohrer, who wants to see derivative works and cultural spread of art and creation make it public domain (CC0) or CC BY.

In either case, open sourcing the code (or developing in the open: e.g. on github) hurts not, and brings many benefits, like ports and bugfixes from the community.

 

[Dene Carter]

CC BY-NC sounds doable - at least for versions that 'exist'. I'd hate to see 'Spellraisin' out there being sold by some huckster. Where there's no official support (e.g. my Unix versions) it seems trickier; someone will have helped make something that didn't exist, exist (much the same way I'm not charging/asking for money for the Pandora version), so... yeah, will take a while to get my brain around that.

I'm kind of an old dev, so a lot of this open source 'show your horrible code!' stuff is a bit alien to me.

 

[levi]

In either case, open sourcing the code (or developing in the open: e.g. on github) hurts not, and brings many benefits, like ports and bugfixes from the community.

FWIW, developing from scratch in the open and not publishing your assets in the open along with it all would be rather tricky I suspect. If your engine was abstract enough, you could develop a small test game that's actually playable, which would make it worth other people to download and build that game, and provide defects on your engine and so on. But I've developed libraries myself which I developed to work with another project that I haven't opened up yet, and developing test code and data to use that library externally from the original project has turned out to be a whole chunk of work that I hadn't initially planned for.

 

[canseco]

Sooooo... this is an interesting one. I have a friend who got his build working on some variant of Linux by my providing him with the .love file.

In this case, it would be something like this on any distro:

- Download the .love file.
- Open the GUI package repository manager (Pamac on Antergos, Synaptic on Debian, etc)
Type love and install the first package (love in my case, maybe love2d on others)
- Double click on the .love file.
- Done.

Don't be worried about your code, nobody is perfect, and every time someone releases it, they fix it before,

About the possible clones, even without source code, people did copy the mechanics back in the day, changed the name and the graphics, levels, etc, and another game was released.

And Unix is still a thing? I know BSD distros exist, but didn't know you had a version avalaible.

 

[ptitSeb]

Your code is nice, and I had no special difficulties navigating and understanding what does what (that doesn't mean it's simple, there are some complex and clever stuff), I sincerely didn't see anything horrible in it.

 

[Dene Carter]

Your code is nice, and I had no special difficulties navigating and understanding what does what (that doesn't mean it's simple, there are some complex and clever stuff), I sincerely didn't see anything horrible in it.

I count multiple pages of global variables as pretty horrible, but thank you for your kindness.

 

[kuru]

I sincerely didn't see anything horrible in it.

And I didn't understand half of it, but that's not exactly a seal of quality

I am impressed by all of this. Befuddled and nonplussed, gobsmacked even.

 

[Dene Carter]

Out of interest - anyone 'finished' the game, yet? You'll know if you have.

 

[ptitSeb]

Not yet on my side, I haven't spent enough time in it, and I haven't used the console enough.

 

[shaddim]

Out of interest - anyone 'finished' the game, yet? You'll know if you have.

I played it (on PC) and enjoyed it ...for game mechanic, representation, creativity and complexity (not unlike Dwarf Fortress)... and I'm nowadays able to shift a game to the stack of: "nice. intriguing challenging... I will enjoy more of it later..." (weeks or month or... but will at a time!) ;P I guess I was never a real completionist.

 

[Dene Carter]

Thanks to ptitSeb, there's now a new build for everyone else in the world with faster shader-use and one bug less.

 

[ptitSeb]

Nice!

(But I think there is a "bug" in the Windows package: the zip contains Speelrazor 2 times, one in the root of the zip, and one int the SpellrazorPC-1.0.1 folder).

 

[Dene Carter]

Ha. Foooool of a Dene! That's because GameJolt and and itch have slightly different packaging requirements. I did GameJolt first and forgot to clean it up. Apparently it's amateur-night in Dene Land.

 

[_jr_]

Ha. Foooool of a Dene! That's because GameJolt and and itch have slightly different packaging requirements. I did GameJolt first and forgot to clean it up. Apparently it's amateur-night in Dene Land.

In my experience making errors and living with the fallout is the prime occupation of software engineers

Anyway that doesn't make the game any less impressive. Thanks and keep up the good work!

 

[Dene Carter]

Do you guys know that this is the healthiest, nicest internet community I've found? Seriously. It's creepy. Stop being so nice.

 

[sebt3]

Do you guys know that this is the healthiest, nicest internet community I've found? Seriously. It's creepy. Stop being so nice.

We're just trying to lure you into buying a pandora and a pyra
otherwise we're a bunch of a**h*le like everywhere else

 

[Dene Carter]

Well, it's working.