Licensing Woes and “I don’t need Open Source”

Posted by santosj on December 15, 2006

*Updated* I rewrote most parts for clarity.

Sigh.

I had a recent discussion about using Astrum Futura for Battle Machines and Earth 3045 with the lead developers of the projects. It did not turn out as I had expected. Really it boils down to that the original developers don’t want to have their product open source and available for free download. It isn’t in my power to persuade the developer of Robotechnik (aka Battle Machines) to switch over to open source. The lead developer already has a team of developers for it, so there isn’t anything right now that I can offer.

The conclusion of both conversations was mostly what is in the title, “I don’t need Open Source.” I won’t be able to change their minds, so for now I would have to remove both games from the planned rewrite over to the Astrum Futura engine. My priorities for next year will be changed because of this.

I am perfectly fine with writing open source software and content with working on the Quantum Game Library and Astrum Futura. Both projects are actually something that I enjoy.

Earth 3045

The plan for Earth 3045 has always been to salvage the parts that are usable and scrap everything else. Mostly the only things that will remain are the general ideas of the game. I also had planned on adding my own ideas in the mix to make it a little bit more unique. There is a reason for changing the gameplay and I will get into that.

When I was told of the idea, I was excited because I had never heard of such an idea. I should have done my research, because a game exists similar to the design of the game. Earth 3045 even has a similar name. I wasn’t happy, but I had already set motions into what Earth 3045 could become and decided not to end the project.

The general basis that you are a member of society and work in that society will stay. I had already developed a prototype for job based game play and thought I could put it to use in this game. I still plan to do that and add some AI in the mix to allow people to decide how well the player is doing.

One of the primary reasons for using Astrum Futura for this project is the navigation and mapping that Pádraic Brady is coding. The thought of doing all of this myself probably would have set the game back a year or so from other coding priorities. The Quantum Game Library will also have components that will make coding games easier. Perhaps the hardest part is the math and already the QGL is strong in that field (for the mapping).

The reason for allowing the coder to continue is to allow him to learn how to program so that he would be able to help once the new system is up and running. I think he will be okay with the changes if the game is better than what he currently has finished. It would also be good to move him away from the Gamer’s Fusion style of coding to a better separation of business logic and presentation layer.

The current engine for Battle Machines and Earth 3045 would require you to rewrite the page, including the HTML to add a new feature. Everything is bunched together and I often worry about security, because I doubt any filtering is done in Earth 3045. The legality of Robowarz (the game built off Gamer’s Fusion) is murky, since technically it should of had its source open and downloadable. The history is also kind of vague but the copyright was all but removed from all pages, except one. This kind of mistake, whether intentional or not will not be repeated.

The lead coder says that all of Earth 3045 is his, but I can tell that it has similar file names to Robowarz, which technically holds the GPL license of Gamer’s Fusion. I would rather be sure that the game is legal and use something else. The Astrum Futura engine would be a good candidate since it has most features that I want. It would also be quicker to add new features, which is one of the leads reasons for not open sourcing.

I’m pretty sure that when the lead sees the final product of Astrum Futura, he will want to use it.

Battle Machines

I may end up losing Battle Machines. Honestly, I would hate to see it go. There can be no compromise, either the lead wants to use Astrum Futura or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, then no big deal, I’ll still support Battle Machines, since it is a good game. I would rather it move from its current coding style to something a little bit more maintainable.

The Battle Machines is a good game and could become more popular than it is now if it had the right set of features for it. I would have liked to worked on it to give it that push to where it is fun and has better features. However, I don’t want to work with the current code base and had plan on rewriting it.

The idea of making a closed sourced library to use with Astrum Futura would violate the GPL and wouldn’t be workable. I do plan on writing my own code that allows for similar features of Battle Machines, but in doing so, I may break Robotechnik away from Battle Machines. If that happens then there would be two similar games, but like Earth 3045, I hope the lead sees how much better Astrum Futura engine will be over the current one.

The owner has the option of moving or removing it from Absidon. Most of the Absidon support for it is domain and hosting, which costs next to nothing. The owner already has a group of developers which help on the source, so he doesn’t need the help of the Astrum Futura developers or mine. The decision and option is up to the owner of Robotechnik.

Money Model

The developers think that they can make a game and people will want to pay for it. Doesn’t really work that way. The games that do make money had a lot of work put into it, more than the short development cycles that the Absidon games have had.

The license of Astrum Futura does not allow for admins to accept donations for rewards. An admin can accept donations, yes, but it can’t have any reward for the player doing so. Both games give rewards for donations, which I don’t agree with anyway, because the rewards aren’t worth the payment. I thought of removing that anyway.

Using Astrum Futura will remove any thought of extended premium features, but any modifications to the source has to go back to the repository unless it is a plugin. Any plugin has to be available free and open for people to use it. I think it is a better model that way, since other developers are bound to create really neat and awesome plugins later.

Their hope is that the work will eventually pay off and piles of money would flow in. I haven’t really the heart to tell them that this dream wouldn’t come to past until they really offered something in return. Popular games are popular because they are fun first. The whole concept of making a game to make money first doesn’t really suit well on the online browser world. If you have an excellent product consisting of 10 developer and a million dollar budget then you might be able to come away with some money.

In the Future Perhaps?

I just left it at when Astrum Futura is finished, that hopefully it will kick so much more ass off of the current feature set that Earth 3045 and Robotechnik has, that they would agree to sell their souls to touch upon the greatness that is Astrum Futura.

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3 Comments.

  1. Maugrim December 18, 2006 at 5:17 am

    Astrum Futura and the QGL are both licensed under the GNU GPL, one of the main motivations being that we wanted everything to be strictly open source. As a result, all code which requires the AF or QGL code must also be covered by the GPL. This was done deliberately to prevent external commercial projects from using the source code, and refusing to maintain the attribution chain – i.e. deleting any copyright notices, editing documentation, deleting in-code comments, and worse, selling the end product as their own.

    The idea of creating games to make a profit is not new, but it has a high failure rate. The two factors most likely to effect success are the maintenance costs of the project (time taken to fix bugs and add new feature improvements), the ability of the game to build a community of players, and of course the all important player-retention measure. The last thing you want in a commerical project are bugs, issues and player complaints. I love Medieval: Total War for example, but I won’t buy a copy of Medieval II unless the recent 1.1 patch fixes all the useability issues. Incidentally, MTW is my favourite game of all time.

    There is however an “out”. The AF is completely GPL, and I don’t there’s any way its source code can be used outside an open source project without resorting to temporary legal loopholes (GPL3 will remove those). The QGL on the other hand is an open source project distinct from AF, with two primary copyright holders – me and you.

    As a QGL contributor, you have the right to reap a few benefits from contributing. The main one is being a primary copyright holder. As a copyright holder, and assuming I agree (which I don’t object to for projects you’re personally involved in), you can use the QGL outside the license, i.e. the license does NOT apply to copyright holders. Remember a license is a set of “permissions” a copyright holder offers users – it does not restrict the copyright holders themselves who can use their code for any purpose they wish (within reason, and with the consent of other holders of course).

    On Astrum Futura, we largely use the Zend Framework which is available under the New BSD License. Although the AF specific code cannot be released to commercial sale, the ZF can still be used and nothing stops you from building off your knowledge of the current AF setup.

    This is one very long comment…;)

  2. Jacob Santos December 18, 2006 at 11:02 am

    I pondered this while at work and pretty much came to the same conclusion. However that said, nothing is stopping me from creating similar features for the QGL without input from the Battle Machines project and adding it to the repository. I plan on doing that.

    I’m going to try another angle when the time is right to bring them to the dark side (open sourcing game code for the benefit of others).

    I have told them multiple times that Absidon isn’t a profitable company seeking money in development. They have asked me why and I simply stated that it is really difficult to achieve enough profit margin to sustain a project seeking money.

    Others have done it but very few, which is why they think they can. However, those games had a long development cycle and multiple reiterations to get to that point.

    I’m hoping that the Astrum Futura will offer more than the current project, so they’ll accept the engine in their project. However, since AF isn’t technically done, I didn’t try to do so. Any Absidon games using the Astrum Futura engine will abide by the Astrum Futura license and so will be completely open sourced.

    I’m thinking about adding some of the Battle Machines components to the QGL, but I’m not going to use the Astrum Futura engine to remake Battle Machines. I’ll have quite a long road and probably battle to convince the owner to use Astrum Futura, when the engine is stable enough.

    It would be easier to eventually move over to Astrum Futura if the library was established beforehand anyway.

    For the transition, look for a new branch called robo in the QGL repository. I’ll just have to not use any of the code in the current Battle Machines project.

  3. Shaun January 23, 2007 at 10:09 pm

    My reasoning for declining your request for an open source project is simply the time iv spent coding earth, finding those damn errors that take months to fix and learning and stumbling through it. Accepting open source would simpl allow a user who doesnt like that he isnt in 1st place to copy all of the code and build his own game, tweek it, re-name it, and call it his own. I dont mind open source, and i am exited about the mapping features, i just simply need more options before i make the final desision.

    As for the money,

    Jacob, you have givin me so much. Free server usage(almost unrestricted :) ), unlimited bandwidth, and the experience and knowlage. Without you i wouldv’e no doubt givin up a long time ago. I simply want to return to you what is due, and i promiss you, one way or another, i will.

    We all have needs, i need a faster computer and gas/car insurance money, you have server costs, food, houseing, auto expenses. I simply want absidon games and myself to break even. Iv had a gf for a year now and am running low on cash(my old place of employment closed =[ ).

    Earth3045 is more than an outlet, its a dream. It is my one goal, and i will work for the next ten years when php is out gunned by the next best browser code to finish it and maintain it.

    Simply put, i love the Astrum Futura idea, i simply need a better option than open source(mabye a duel license, i use your code, you use mine if you want).