New Post: Free-Software Purism Game Jam

Update Theme is “symbiotic”

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Some LibGDX games that I wrote for desktop PC work pretty well on Librem 5 and Librem 14. Although the gradle build script has a tendency to contact a bunch of servers in order to build, despite claiming to download apache licensed software and stuff. Is LibGDX allowed in this jam or is it too lame?

(I know that Purism is sometimes being cooler about free software than I was when I was learning LibGDX)

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I like the idea, but the Engine I’m familiar with is not allowed (open source, but not libre). Maybe Godot is an option. I have to think about it.

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They list a few compatible game engine options and include Godot.

Can I use Unity or Unreal? Sadly, no. Those game engines are not GPL compatible. Godot, UPBGE, pygame are a few example that are acceptable.

And in regard to:

They say that the game engine must be “GPL compatible”. They clarify:

GPL compatibility includes the following: 

BSD Licenses
MIT License
Apache License
Creative Commons Licenses 

So libGDX, being Apache2, should be OK. Any assets must also be GPL compatible.

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Exactly where I came from and what I tried to say. If Godot is an option does not depend on license, but on myself.

Edit:
And if the engine with the right version is running at all. But these are crashing on start and I need to figure out why. The newest version (beta) is running, but requires OpenGL 3.3 / OpenGL ES 3.0. L5 has no driver support for this yet. (I know game jam is also allowed to create for laptops, but it’s not what I want to do.)

Edit 2:
Technical issues solved.

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Were these easy to solve? My LibGDX games that work on L5 are the GLES 2.0 ones. Newer GLES 3 things like my 3D project don’t work properly on L5.

Also, what game engines are considered the best for Librems? If I was going to write a game newly from scratch and learn the tools instead of use what I already knew, then which one has the most kudos points?

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The crashs (editor) got fixed by restarting PC. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Godot 3.6 Beta 4 or 5 works out of the box. All versions below have no GNU/Linux ARM64 Support. All versions ahead (4.0 to 4.3 Betas) cannot use GLES2 and so I cannot make any use of them. So just 2 unstable versions (which in fact are quiet stable, as far as I can tell) can be used out of the box. Versions below can be used by modifying and recompiling source code.

I’m not familiar with those “featureless” engines at all. Usually I’m working with Unreal Engine which has a much better workflow. FOSS engines are more for hobbyists and little indie devs and this will not change any time soon. It’s not only about workflow, it’s also about the render techniques behind and the amount of work that’s going into dev-tools for artists. Or in other words: it’s just an unfair compensation, because FOSS just can’t win right now (who knows what’s in 20 years).

But it seems that Godot will come closer to Unity step by step. This is at least a good sign on long run. I would bet on this Engine, if you’re looking for something completely FOSS. If you’re not targeting L5, you can even use the Godot 4+ versions, which have a better workflow (like creating files from integrated file-manager). It works also nicely together with Blender (which is very powerful and has a good workflow). As programmer Godot should be easier to start with as for people like me.

I have no experience with engines below. I guess it depends on what kind of game they’re more specialized and what you’re expecting from dev-side of those tools. A good starting point are videos on YouTube where people compare engines.

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Wow, I cannot submit the project and in 9 min it’s over … all the month of work for nothing, just because this itch.io doesn’t let me submit? …

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@JCS

Parallel thread:

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Shucks! In my head I wanted to join this game jam, but in practice I forgot.

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What’s the link to your project?

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I had some difficulties submitting my game too.
I chalk it up to me being unfamiliar with itch.io mostly. But for example, once my game was submitted as a “Draft”, I couldn’t find any link/button to get to the page again to publish it. I had to find the game page URL in my history

Later, I found that after uploading and publishing, I still had to go back and re-submit it to be part of the game jam.

I hope Purism will still accept your game. It’s clear from Matrix/forum/community posts that you’ve been working on it this past month, and not trying to pull a fast one :)…

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“Dashboard” on the top bar.

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Hmm, I just came back to PC after hours and read forums and Itch and saw Purism answered 8min ago - what a timing. My game is submitted now. :slight_smile:

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Yeah, it’s very likely the button I was looking for was front and center. I was pretty tired last night :slight_smile:

I half expected to see you and/or HolyPangolin submitting a game for this game jam.

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We had participated in so many jams already… it feels like we have reached jam retirement at this point :laughing: These days we jam very occasionally, and when we do it’s usually on location since it then doubles as a kind of a social event. And with so many Librem 5s already on my desk, I don’t think I need the prize :rofl: So we let others shine this time!

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Congrats to Macoy (Bunny Semiconductor) for winning the game jam!

https://social.librem.one/@purism/112802211982067386
Results: https://itch.io/jam/free-software-purism-game-jam/results

Thank you to everyone that participated for taking the time to work on these games:

I recommend playing all of them to see the hard work that went into each of them!

Edit: Forgot Double Down :person_facepalming:

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Congrats Macoy - Bunny Semiconductor deserved to be #1.

@gondolyr: You forgot Double-Down by @spacemanspiffy (neilsimp1).

I just don’t understand why I am loosing my 2nd rank for someone not voting me …
Nine Princesses lost 245 score, but lost no rank and I lost 403 score and lost 2 ranks for that. It was my first jam and now I know people can avoid voting to get a higher ranking.

Edit:
If someone wants to tryout my game, better take it from Codeberg. It has been updated and I also will delete my itch-account.

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