Re: Choosing a Linux development platform

[Pierre Phaneuf <pp@ludusdesign.com>]

Pedro Medeiros wrote:

> >Wouldn't creating nearly identical data be a copyright violation?
> 
>  I don't think so. Why would it be nearly identical? Suppose he
>  used common bmp bitmaps and wav files for graphics and
>  music. Why can't someone create an entire different version
>  of them? For instance, an independent artist could put his
>  own music.
> 
> >Besides, if the game uses scripting for plotline, etc, that could be
> >copyrighted differently, since it doesn't link with the game code.
> 
>  Well, but the portion of the code for rendering those file formats
>  will be bundled inside the game. Anyone can create an editor
>  with them.

I think you are right Pedro, but this isn't much of a problem I think,
except for the most technologically bleeding edge developments (like the
Quake3 engine), as most of the real work in many game is actually
creating the artwork, levels, sounds, music and so on. Just look at how
ID Software licenses the Quake engine to other companies and those other
companies still manage to expense multiple hundreds of thousands of US
dollars on that stuff (and they get rather good results sometimes, like
Half-Life, that has the Quake1 engine underneath).

So, the thing to consider here is what was the most work and helps the
most your game to be itself. For Quake kind of games, the engine was a
lot of work, so they keep it under wrap (that's okay by me), but they
are demonstrating that the bulk of the Quake experience wasn't a 3D
rasterizer, but the game data. There's the other extreme, where Quadra
is, that the game isn't so high tech that it could be released, but that
most of the work was in the programming rather than the artwork (Quadra
would work without background images or sounds effects).

-- 
Pierre Phaneuf
Ludus Design, http://ludusdesign.com/
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you. Then you win." -- Gandhi