Publishing games built with openBor
- Thread starter runticuts
- Start date
I don't know about play store, because I don't mess with or care about ports. You'll need to talk to @msmalik681 as he is our resident Android port guru.
As for iOS, there's been some experiments by other groups outside the community to get OpenBOR running on iOS, but those are unofficial ports we don't support, and you have to jailbreak your device to make them work. There's no official iOS port of OpenBOR and at the moment we have no plans for one.
DC
Openbor can be published to the playstore but you will have to wait for openbor 4.0 to release as there is a playstore requirement that needs the updates in newer builds.
I also do need to review the build process and make a definitive guide.
I also do need to review the build process and make a definitive guide.
runticuts
New member
Thanks for the update guys.
So if we were to build a completed game using openBOR there is currently no way for us to publish and sell it on the iOS App Store?
What would be the theoretical approach to Try and do this?
Would we need to have the game built from scratch in an engine that supports iOS App Store publishing? Or would there be people we could contact who would convert the completed game to a format that would be optimised for ios and publishable on the App Store?
So if we were to build a completed game using openBOR there is currently no way for us to publish and sell it on the iOS App Store?
What would be the theoretical approach to Try and do this?
Would we need to have the game built from scratch in an engine that supports iOS App Store publishing? Or would there be people we could contact who would convert the completed game to a format that would be optimised for ios and publishable on the App Store?
oldyz
Well-known member
As far as i can remember , our openbor fellowship has a member who created this:
Balacera Brothers on Steam
Inspired by classic titles like Contra and Sunset Riders, Balacera Brothers is a retro run n' gun game full of color, energetic music, and fast-paced action.
so it is possible to market to steam if i am correct ....
@msmalik681 -
so any commercial android openbor game has to be made on the newest engine? - would this affect any creators who sell APK's on their own websites?
Any apk's made with the current stable branch are fine but they just have 32bit support but google play requires 64bit support and this only works in the latest builds thanks to @DCurrent reworking the collision code.
Ios support was added by another user it seems to be abandoned I will try to pick up on it but can't promise anything.
Ios support was added by another user it seems to be abandoned I will try to pick up on it but can't promise anything.
aL BeasTie
Well-known member
@DCurrent @msmalik681
Just curious,
Do the commercial released openbor games so far have encrypted PAK files? I remember this was possible at one point only by request to the dev team
Just curious,
Do the commercial released openbor games so far have encrypted PAK files? I remember this was possible at one point only by request to the dev team
That's not quite true. SX stopped maintaining Securepak long before he turned things over to me. The original Securepak was always a bad idea because it required staff intervention, and even SX eventually agreed. It is never coming back.
The only modules ever secured were NightSlashers X and Golden Axe Myth. I never thought that was fair to other people because neither of those are original work. Yes, Golden Axe Myth has original assets, but it's still using a third party's IP. I will not take part in securing content unless it's 100% original. Any other criteria is a subjective judgement call and I just don't think it's appropriate for staff to do that.
That said, @Kratus and I are working on a possible solution to allow securing modules without mole-boxing or staff participation. No promises just yet, but we have some ideas.
DC
aL BeasTie
Well-known member
OpenBOR remains opensource even with a commercial released game, but does that mean the code and scripts within that game is within copyright or is considered opensource as well?
Example if someone copies code from a commercial game for another commercial game this could be an issue perhaps? But copying things for a fangame should be acceptable?
Example if someone copies code from a commercial game for another commercial game this could be an issue perhaps? But copying things for a fangame should be acceptable?
Before I go further, I feel it's important to clarify what "open source" really is. People tend to think of it as "free", "I can do whatever I feel like", or "I can see the code", but it has nothing to do with that stuff at all. Open Source is just a license model, and it has tons of variations. Having access to something doesn't make it open, and not having access doesn't make it closed.
Examples:
- Accessible but closed: Pretty much all modern music is closed source. You have the material and physically you could do whatever you want. Make copies, use it in your products, or whatever else. Of course the license doesn't allow any of that, and copyright holders are all up in your business the microsecond they find out.
- Inaccessible but open: Most stuff that was on Sourceforge, which until 2017 included OpenBOR. You couldn't get to the source code at all without permission from SX (which he rarely gave), and I kept a similar control, but the engine source has an Open Source license (see below).
OpenBOR's license is fairly bog standard. Its purpose is to make sure nobody can decide they own the engine and take it away from us. So if some AAA company decides to use the OpenBOR source code (and for all we know, maybe they did at some point), they can't come back to us and claim copyright over it. They also have to provide the developments they made on request. Therein lies the second part a lot of people misunderstand. The license doesn't require code developers to do anything. I could shut the github down and take away access to my copy of the source code, and there's not a thing anyone could do about it. Why? Because I'm not using the engine. However, the moment I choose to publish a game, I am obligated provide a source code copy of that engine version. In other words, the onus of providing source code is actually on you, the creators.
Now, to the question. The OpenBOR license only covers the engine. It has nothing to do with content. Assuming you have ownership of rights, you can choose to make whatever parts of your games open or closed source that you feel like. Most of us are using closed source sprite, font, and audio assets, so we have no right to control those. The text and code however, do belong to you (assuming you wrote them). You can license those separately.
The catch is enforcement. You can say your art, code, and text are closed, but this is the internet. If they have physical access, they're going to ignore you and take whatever they can. What are you going to do? Track them down and file a suit? It's not hard to get them taken down from reputable distribution hubs, but you'll be playing an unwinnable game of whack-a-mole.
That's where module locking comes into play, which of course is its own subject.
HTH,
DC