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My First Game Jam: Summer 2022

Hosted by ludowoods, Adrienne Lombardo, lysander · #MyFirstGameJam
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My First Game Jam: Summer 2022 community

Question regarding engine

A topic by Tired Bunny created Jun 30, 2022 Views: 280 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 4
Tired Bunny1 year ago

There is such rule as:

  • "We do not accept submissions that require external games or software to run such as roblox. Games that require interpreters (python, some interactive fiction languages, etc.) are allowed."

But is this rule applied when I can (both technically and legally) ship the my game with software that is required to launch it? This software is engine I wanted to try out, and it's free and open source, so I can legally redistribute it for not commercial purpose and modify it to launch my game for default so project will follow jam rules. 

I think this should be allowed if main reason of adding the rule was possible problems with legality/accessibility of projects and not something else, but I decided asking just to be sure.

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Deleted post1 year ago
Deleted 1 year ago
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Tired Bunny1 year ago (3 edits)

I mean, I need to make people download random software to run my game either way, because my game is also a random software they can't surely trust (especially if it's made using third party engine)

It doesn't make a difference if I compile game using some engine (if there is malware some engine can put it into compiled game) or if engine itself is interpreter for the game

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Deleted post1 year ago
Deleted 1 year ago
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Tired Bunny1 year ago (1 edit)

I am also confused, because I haven't asked about why something is a thing or what opinions people have, I have asked about clarification on some aspect of rules, because "external third-party software" can be anything, including dll libraries that unity engine putting in games' folder or directX libraries or browser with javascript support, specific OS etc.

I needed a simple answer, preferably from the people who I am sure are part of this jam's stuff. If I pack engine/interpreter with game (some of engines basically do that already even if we do not know that) is it going to be "external third-party software" by the rules or not?


P.S. Rules are not clear, I am not sure if in my case it is "external third-party software/game" (see rules, forbidden) or "interpreter" (see rules, it is okay to use)

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ludowoodsHost1 year ago

I understand you want to help someone understand our rules wording, but let's have some more respect for someone asking an honest question about a pretty specific case that they're unsure about. This community welcomes learning and that includes encouraging questions, not shaming them.

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ludowoodsHost1 year ago (2 edits) (+1)

Not sure why this would be a problem if those are just files packaged with your game to make them run? The problem comes when people are required to access the game through (typically) other software (such as games) sometimes by means of their own storefronts. Generally if your game requires launching or having to download a separate software that cannot be distributed with it (other than again, specifically interpreters) and then loading the game, that's what we're trying to avoid. It sounds like this is more about packages though?

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Tired Bunny1 year ago (1 edit)

Thanks for the answer. Sorry, I slightly don't understand question in last sentence because of my poor English, but if I understand correctly - I want to have my project both as a "game" for engine-interpreter-game-thingie for people who are already using it and as a standalone game (or what would look like a standalone game to the end user, because it will not require any additional downloads) for everyone else, and wanted to ask if it will be allowed.

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ludowoodsHost1 year ago (1 edit)

If you can package and are able to distribute the game with the software that sounds like it qualifies more as a package case in the rules which we'd be okay with... but out of curiosity can you share what software can't compile games? I'll chat with the other co-hosts because I'm a little curious what software this is that isn't Inform 7 or something similar.

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Tired Bunny1 year ago (3 edits)

Thanks. It's called Minetest and it can be used as a standalone game (it's the reason why I wasn't sure about rules) but it is also basically a game engine (you can even delete built-in game assets and still play games based on it, so that is basically what I want to do for standalone package).


I can package it with my game because it's free under license that allows redistribution and modification, as I said in my first post

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ludowoodsHost1 year ago

A standalone game... ah yeah hmm this would be some pretty gray territory because that actually starts to sound like a mod? (And honestly from the example pages I'm seeing it looks like that too...) We're going to discuss this a little more since seems a little different from Minecraft and Roblox which we've ruled on in the past, but the distribution case here may allow an exception. Thanks for the info.

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Tired Bunny1 year ago (1 edit)

And thank you again for replies! If it won't be allowed, I am okay with that (just will feel awkward for wasting your time), but I hope this situation helps by itself as precedent in case someone else will have similar idea in future.

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ludowoodsHost1 year ago(+1)

Hey sorry for the late reply! For this case we’ll go with yes. I may look more deeply to see if it will change in future jams but feel free to use it this jam!

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