Most people with GPL games simply accept donations.
Scenario 1: Hey people I made a stick figure game with 8x8 sprites kindly donate your money for my hard work.
Scenario 2: I made this motherfucker of a game, it has 3D, it has cut scenes, it has original content, music, graphics, if you like MYST this is MYST on steroids..... But I am giving you this 4GB game FREE, BUT if you want kindly donate.......
I think you are being generous on human nature Josh. We are in 2014......People would be willing to rip off good $1-$5 games sold in app stores if they could get it free. Face it, the only donation I might get is $1 from the guy who will gladly take my source and assets and rebrand it and sell it on fucking Clickbank like the rest of the rebranded shits selling there..... FREE software sold for $100-$200 on Clickbank......it's pathetic. I think I get the point of GPL to some extent but it has a VERY evil side to it
and I don't like the smell of it.
Now I am thinking...... ENIGMA devs KNEW what they were getting into when doing open source... They COULD have just made the software a shareware (FREE edition, standard, PRO, etc) problem solved. But the team decided free open source.
So now, you are telling me that if my game goes viral and is a hit and I "do well", leaving it so vague as to what you would consider "doing well" before you join the darkside and sue me
you would go after me because even though I mentioned I used ENIGMA
but failed to provide my source code along with all game content I created from scratch....... hmmm.
Even though I did not modify or sell ENIGMA, just making games with it, and acknowledged it, but ENIGMA devs have the right to go after developers because they didn't spread the source code allowing pirates and people with bad intentions to rip your game and sell it or distribute it free ?
Under the current license I am willing to bet nobody will want to use ENIGMA for making games.
After checking, regarding GameMakerStudio, the only requirements are to include the respective licenses and IP holders along with your game. They don't require source code distribution. They do fuck developers in the ass some other ways though
So it now is a matter of picking your poison
An alternative is to have a purchase page, and offer a free download for users "who have already paid." Of course, they're not obligated to be honest, legally, but it prevents pirates from selling your game for you. You can also do some GPL trolling of your own to ensure that any third-party who is distributing your game is following the license and crediting you in the distribution.
I don't want my games to be distributed by others nor sold by others. And the last thing I want to see is my $10 game being sold for $200 on Clickbank lol.
If this forum had 1000 ENIGMA users, how many do you honestly believe would want that ?
Why do you think YYG was under lots of heat for their weak ass security and how games could be decompiled !
People don't want their source stolen or games ripped off.
If I spend 3 years making a great game why should I accept that some random motherfucker acquires my game for free and sells it and profits / makes big bucks from it, while I make pennies or nothing.
ENIGMA wants to protect its code and you mentioned the reasons why, which is fine........ But seriously, so does the game developer too. Right now the game developer has no protection.
basically it is like having a bank account with loads of money in it, unlocked and open to the public, with a sign that says "Hey, I have received an inheritance, it's in my bank you are free to come rob me at your convenience, I'll even give you the key!"
An evil ENIGMA contributor suing you is an unlikely scenario given the overhead of filing a court case, the unlikelihood of being represented by the FSF's lawyers given that the act would be contrary to the spirit of this project, and the statistical unlikelihood of financial payout. But if you are making heaps of money,
lol define heaps ? I mean seriously, how much could one expect to make, couple of hundreds at most ? if you are lucky. Some popular GM made game despite media coverage failed to earn more than few hundreds......Probably what it would cost to do the paperwork
So if my game makes millions I could just run away to some remote island (if I knew your addy I could send you a generous donation
)
Seriously I think there are good solid arguments here as to why this whole licensing thing should get resolved and resolved as quick as possible.
But if you do decide to scrap open source free and sell it, I will be your first paid customer, providing of course the software is functional.
that starts to go away, and the odds of someone evil wanting their cut is greatly increased. So users would fear their ENIGMA games growing big while they are violating the GPL.
There could be loopholes or ways to get around that.
Example, you make the core of your game, include few levels, sort of a limited edition, and make it free. If people want to buy the full version, instead of buying a new compiled EXE they would be buying CONTENT, that they could plug into your game, think of it as they are buying a DLC. You have previously coded your free game EXE to handle the DLC format you will be using. SO.....the person is buying an extension of your game as a DLC, to which you made entirely on your own without use of ENIGMA....
Now I know what you are thinking....."But anybody could see your custom decryption in the source"
lol. Well you could code your decrypter using another program and have it called from ENIGMA. So they could see in your source, calls to external programs,
but still won't know what to do.
Does providing the source code only relate to games SOLD ? or both for profit and free ENIGMA made games?
Regarding FlightGear: That's what allowing you to relicense your game is for. But I would argue that in that case, those who paid SHOULD be upset—from
EXACTLY!!! And I am glad you said that. People ARE upset. I know a few people who got had from this, I think it is called FlightSimPro, they all filed for refund, as they have a 60day refund policy.....and ClickBank has to abide.
So put yourself in our shoes.....Trying to make money, but people finding out that our games can be had for free and start charging back...What do you
think that does to a PayPal account or any payment processor ? They cut you off.
what I'm hearing, they are successfully selling it only because their brand is more popular,
They are SHIT. You can get the same software FREE, online, the core + the entire world scenary DVDs, you can order them or download them FREE. People who buy Clickbank garbage are not aware that majority of products sold in that garbage dump of a network can be had for FREE online and often with better support and faster performance as sometimes the shit they rebrand on CB have wrappers / advertising / upselling crap.
I've made couple of purchases on CB myself, in 100% of my purchases the product I received was hype and did not deliver as per claims.....so it was refund in all cases......Then I found out I could often get the same software *FREE* or at a much better price.
I see a lot of GNU software being rebranded and distributed by some network affiliates / advertisers who WRAP those apps with malware, trojans, adware, spyware and place them on offer walls
on GPT sites and advertising networks......People
downloading the crap complain and it ruins the reputation of the original developer who made the software, because people think the malware comes from the original developer......
The way I see it OpenSource was a bad idea for ENIGMA or ANY worthwhile program that can be used for evil potentially damaging the reputation of its respective authors, unless there is a solid license
that protects developers because they are the ones
who worked their ass to make the game, while at the same time protecting ENIGMA.....why the hell is it so difficult to cover both arses ? Remember ENIGMA would be nothing without people using it, and scared shitless.....the same that the game developer using ENIGMA would be nowhere without ENIGMA and stuck sucking YYG's cock.
I still can't believe that there can't be custom / exemptions particularly for developers, such as
requiring they mention ENIGMA and link to it, but
not having to release source code and game content.
and it isn't their work to be sold. In your case, however, you are the original author: people shouldn't feel cheated buying your game from you.
Yeah? And what happens when later people find out that the same game I sold them, can be had for FREE or less $...Who's going to be blamed, I WILL, I will be accused of ripping people off, and people will chargeback. Even worse, I am telling people "Hey, the game you just paid me $20 for, includes all my source code and ALL my content along with it and even a link to the FREE ENIGMA....so you can even install it and compile my source code, but wait, you could have gotten my game FREE and you were never legally obliged to even pay me !"
I don't think people would be happy... You know how internet works.......Word goes around and before
you know it it's all over facebook, twitter, youtube,
etc.
I got Cave Story for free on the PC. Nicalis teamed up with Pixel and re-released it for the PC and Wii. I bought a copy, not because I really cared about the special features, but because it was an easy way to show my support. I bought Portal 2 for $50 knowing
You have good intentions. You are part of a minority so one must always assume the worse. Piracy, game theft, etc is a major problem.....the whole idea with
copy protection is to deter piracy, obviously it dose not completely eliminate it.
But giving away source code + my game content is
encouraging it and facilitating it! Because if I were to use proprietary encryption of my external game resources, anybody could use my source code and decrypt and steal all my game assets, easily......
But anyway, I am not advocating that all of our users switch to GPL. The GPL is just my personal philosophy. I would encourage it where applicable, but getting it to where users can select there own license is still a priority. I am just trying to make sure that any further proprietary game development environments are not my fault.
It's sad. Essentially GM is getting stronger and ENIGMA is ..... well I read some people using the term "vaporware" before ! is this true ?
So I guess I have to make sure my game are shitty enough never to be a major hit that can get me
sued but at the same time not too shitty enough to be sold and make a few bucks.....
Imagine once you will be able to render video /cut scenes inside surfaces and make those myst like games on steroids, it's not improbable that under the right hands a developer could make good money.....
but once they see that ENIGMA has potential but
its weakest link is its license, then they will look
elsewhere.
@TKG: How would you feel once your Dungeon Blabber game is done, it takes you 3 years of hard work, then you release it, but with the current license it gives people the right to RIP off all your content, pirate and re-sell your game. Would you accept that ?
Would you be happy ?