First of: would this be something that would interest anyone? would it be worth me making it 'open source' in some sense of the word?

Secondly: since I am developing this specifically with the aim of using it as a Bible-teaching resource, although I am not particularly bothered about people using it to make non-Bible-teaching games I would not want it to be used 'for evil', however you define that. Would there be a strong backlash against a license clause that said anybody wishing to distribute games based upon the engine needed special authorisation from me (or the 'team leaders' or something) so that anti-Christian games could be vetted? This does not stop non-Christian developers working on the engine, or developing games of any kind for personal use, it just affects distribution.

I loved Monkey Island 1, one of the few games I finished (and without cheating!). It was very inspired at the time, especialy the way combat was handled. There have been a few other good 'point n click' adventure games, but 90% of them do not get the 'balance' right and become boring or frustrating. I think this would be the biggest challenge of making any adventure game.

Unfortunatly I am pretty busy atm, otherwise I might have been interested. I will keep an eye on how things develop and maybe I will have some free time in the future. It has great potential for Christian games imho.

If you make it truly open source you would struggle to stop it being used for 'bad' stuff I think. Also, most developers are not going to like you giving the yes/no to its use after the game is finished!

Maybe best thing is to keep control of engine yourself and require that users register for a licence for each game they wish to make with it and include a 'legaly binding' game description. You could choose to charge or not charge for its use as you see best. Alternatively, just limit 'knowledge' of the engine to Christian sites and 'hope for the best'

Of course, you could just keep it to yourself! Depends on whether its making the engine that interests you or making the final games? Oh, and also depends on how much money you want to make! Me, I would keep it to myself and release several 'cheap' games using the engine - but then, I have a wife and family to feed

A few questions:

1) What language are your developing in?

2) Is it true 3D or more pseudo 3D like the 'early' (1&2) monkey island games?

All the best with it,
God Bless,
Rhy

My reasons for wanting to be open source were mostly to get other developers involved, but perhaps that's best done by just putting an ad out for any other coders who would be interested. Hmm, back to the drawing board...

Just wanted encourage you to make that decision.

God bless.

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Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. - Psalms 127:1

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. - Isa 32:17

First off, sounds like a great idea!

You mentioned the old LucasArts adventures -- have you considered using the Scumm engine? I know that there is a distinct lack of free Scumm games out there (Flight of the Amazon Queen is one of the only ones I can think of atm) -- and if you released a Bible-teaching Scumm game, you would already have a large audience of Scumm users who would likely try out your game just for curiosity's sake.

Scumm already has open-source flavors, notably ScummVM.

I'd be interested in hearing your comments about this. It's not "true" 3D, but it's quasi-3d. Besides, the fact that there are loads of ScummVM fans out there shows that good 2d is way better than moderate 3d any day.

Respectfully,
clint

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http://www.includingjudas.com/christiangame.html

Maybe you could name it using some type of Biblical name or something? It really does sound like a good idea for a dev tool. Could be used to make educational software for Bible schools or maybe even adventure games. You have some different possibilities there...

Keep us updated!

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If I were a drummer I would use a cymbal.
If I were a writer I would use a pencil.
I would use my voice if I were a singer.
No matter who or what we are we must praise.

At the moment there is a page on my website (http://www.geero.net/Projects/GRACE/GRACE.php) so check there if you want to be kept up to date. I'll try and stick an RSS feed up some time so that you can get updates without having to keep visiting (because I don't know how regular they'll be).

Edit: Updated the link

[This message has been edited by AndyGeers (edited June 25, 2005).]

quote:

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Originally posted by jari:
but the engine would be used more or less for sinful purposes. I'm not making any software open source either because of that.

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What do you mean, sinfull purposes? Unless someone was making a porn game what's sinfull about something like Mario Carts?

I'd say Go for the open source. But you don't have to go for the GPL License, you could write your own and still have some controll while keeping the source code available.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CPUFreak91:
What do you mean, sinfull purposes? Unless someone was making a porn game what's sinfull about something like Mario Carts?

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Think about game called leisure suit larry or whatever the name was. That was basically a porn game or lustin at least. And it's not the only one of it's kind.

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Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD keeps the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. - Psalms 127:1

And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. - Isa 32:17