Selling OpenBoR Indie Games?

[Plombo]

Not yet, as far as I know...

[Skull Kingz]

I guess I'll be playing the waiting game too. I'm really interested in creating my own 100% Original game. Everything 100% never seen before.

I have Skull Kingz, but that's 100% sprite edited with some original artwork.
it's based off of my past comic book/manga series.

[zamuel]

Not to be nagging but I'm still wanting to know the final decision on this.  My concern is that I was mistaken on things and am worried about the state of the project.

I originally assumed that all you needed for an independent game was to meet the SecurePak requirement of having 100% original content.  I started working on a project a while back that has been slowly but surely progressing.  While I'll admit that while I need to beef up my script skills (delayed due to job hunting and recently I was sick) the project is at a point where the question is not if it'll be finished but rather when.  However, the lack of any word on this has got me really worried we may need to back off which I really don't want to do.

[Damon Caskey]

It still depends on there being code in the engine that doesn't belong to us. I'm still unsure what the status of that is. Seem like Plombo was trying to remove a lot of it, but I just don't know.

Get that out of the way and you can go hog wild.

Worse case scenario is that you wouldn't be able to pack the engine in with your mod. If that were to happen, just treat it like a console game. Sell the module by itself and tell people where to get the engine.

DC

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

^If no other alternative comes up then hopefully that case could work. I'm in the same boat as well since I would like to make commercial games with OpenBOR myself. Quite question though, if any mods were made to the module (Obviously by someone else), that it could sell as a DLC game, like Xbox arcade games? Just hypothetically.

X)

[Plombo]

It still depends on there being code in the engine that doesn't belong to us. I'm still unsure what the status of that is. Seem like Plombo was trying to remove a lot of it, but I just don't know.

The only code that doesn't belong to us is the pixel art scaling filters in source/gfxlib.  They are not essential to the engine's functionality, and are trivial to remove.

[zamuel]

The only code that doesn't belong to us is the pixel art scaling filters in source/gfxlib.  They are not essential to the engine's functionality, and are trivial to remove.

If removed, would you still be able to play the game in fullscreen mode?

[Fightn Words]

The one other thing to consider is the money, where & how you'd sell it. Most likely whatever you get will probably not be much & that's not a comment of quality or skill on anyone, I just don't think there's much of a market for OpenBor even if you make a triple star beat 'em up. However, you could see it as a personal investment for any future endeavor you work on after, especially if you want to get your feet wet in the game industry; you stand to gain experience & the 'status' of having made one. If that's what you want, then it's definitely worth your time.

[Plombo]

The only code that doesn't belong to us is the pixel art scaling filters in source/gfxlib.  They are not essential to the engine's functionality, and are trivial to remove.

If removed, would you still be able to play the game in fullscreen mode?

Yes.  The scaling filters have no effect on fullscreen mode.  The scaling filters are only used for software the SDL backend, and fullscreen defaults to the OpenGL backend which uses the GPU's bilinear filtering capabilities for scaling.  Even for software SDL fullscreen, the scaling filters aren't used unless you explicitly enable them.

The one other thing to consider is the money, where & how you'd sell it. Most likely whatever you get will probably not be much & that's not a comment of quality or skill on anyone, I just don't think there's much of a market for OpenBor even if you make a triple star beat 'em up. However, you could see it as a personal investment for any future endeavor you work on after, especially if you want to get your feet wet in the game industry; you stand to gain experience & the 'status' of having made one. If that's what you want, then it's definitely worth your time.

We've already discussed this in private.  We're not about to start advertising OpenBOR for commercial use or anything like that - all we're discussing is the possibility of licensing it to indie game developers like kungpow12345 and zamuel who are interested in using it.  It's not supposed to be a large money-making operation for us.

[Fightn Words]

We're not about to start advertising OpenBOR for commercial use or anything like that

I didn't mean it like that, I was referring to anyone who sells an OpenBor game (meaning those who make the games & not the engine) not getting much because of the independent & un-advertised nature. The rest of it with the developers is beyond my purview.

It's not supposed to be a large money-making operation for us. Smiley

Exactly what I was saying. I don't think it should be.

[kungpow12345]

Hello everyone!

I wanted to update everyone with my own endeavours and hopefully put an end to this massive debate. Here it goes!



*) As of Spring 2011, Distant Star Productions is now Distant Star Games. Like Fightn Words said, we're not in this for the money but simply a way to say, hey, we put a game out there (or several). Presently, we are branded as an indie game group but we will be venturing further out from OpenBoR as we expand.

*) Thanks to my work on the Destiny Revival fan game series, I will be featured as a guest at Glass City Con III in Perrysburg, Ohio on July 9th and July 10th 2011.  This means that I'll be able to showcase the game series and make it playable for people at the convention. For this, I'm going to be running two of the games on two Sega Dreamcasts.  I will also be announcing the first indie games that are currently in production right now. Yes, it is true that I am still using OpenBoR for the Dreamcast ports and I am looking at a new engine for next gen ports (Xbox 360).

What I offer now as my compromise for the usage of OpenBoR is to promote Lavalit and OpenBoR openly as I've always done, include the list of credits that SX gave me to use in my own modules starting with Sailor Moon Plus, and include a logo standing for the OpenBoR team in the module which was discussed when I was working on Yumi. Plus, when I get my finances caught back up, I will donate to Lavalit on a yearly basis much like the "membership" discussions I talked about in the past. That way, I will still be an active member of the community (and I haven't really stopped), but I will help promote OpenBoR usage to others.

Right now I am not under a publisher but I'm sure once I begin talks again with a publisher that the commercial usage issue will come up again since I will legally have to get the rights to use the engine, which I'm hoping that with all of the recent changes made, it will bring us closer to that.

Again, I wanted to thank everyone in the work done to get OpenBoR closer to a more unified engine. If it wasn't for this great engine, I will definitely not be where I am today.

For more information on Distant Star Games, you can follow us on twitter @DStarGames, and check out our website, www.distantstargames.com which has links to our social networking sites including Facebook and Youtube. I'll start posting on the site this weekend with a teaser poster for one of the games I'm announcing at Glass City. (Hint: It has something to do with the 4th of July, but it's not the US Revolution or the Civil War)

PS. There's a reason why our logo is a phoenix angel. ^^

PSS. I will be making another thread on the forums so we can get a discussion going to see if there's anyone from the forums that would be going to the convention next weekend. Did I forget that it's a free convention?? It's FREE!

[nsw25]

i offered to commision an OpenBor game before based on my movie and no one here was interested and turned there noses up at me. The game was never to be sold and would always remain freeware. Ended up having no choice but to seek another gaming community but yeah i think there is heaps of opportunity to gain exposure for the OpenBor community and for developers such as you guys to make some money. You just have to look in the right direction.

[kungpow12345]

i offered to commision an OpenBor game before based on my movie and no one here was interested and turned there noses up at me. The game was never to be sold and would always remain freeware. Ended up having no choice but to seek another gaming community but yeah i think there is heaps of opportunity to gain exposure for the OpenBor community and for developers such as you guys to make some money. You just have to look in the right direction.

Well, that's the very reason why I got into the indie game business. People want to make the game but lack the coding knowledge. Plus, there's not a lot of people that want to adapt other people's ideas and just want to do their own. Personally, I don't personally care what it is, but over time, I would want to make sure that I would be able to keep interest in the project. I don't call myself the best game creator out there but we are very constant with our fan releases and we just keep getting better with each one we release. If you're still in the market for a game, I'd be willing to discuss it over with you.

[zamuel]

Congratulations kungpow.  I've been doing things a little differently with going to HeroesCon and being a little more grassroots in my approach.  I'll have to take time at some point and look at your site.

[shazzner]

Sorry, but I'm curious on this too. With a name like OpenBor I would assume it would have a license under a free and open source license, but it seems it's under an all rights reserved-non commerical mix license. Why not change the license to LGPL or zLib/BSD?

That way you won't have to get everyone's permission if an indie developer wants to sell the game or package it in a repository.