2013/12/11

Let’s Play policy

Flare Engine is a stand-alone piece of software. Its license (GPL) is completely separate from any game content. Without content there’s not really anything to record. So permission to record a game needs to come from the makers of each game.

I’m the primary creator of the Alpha Demo (the currently released content that usually comes bundled with the Engine). The game also contains Free art (CC-BY-SA) made by many other artists. So legally I can’t speak for the rest of those artists when it comes to recording the game. You definitely are allowed to release your recording under the same license as the game – CC-BY-SA.

My personal opinion is that Let’s Plays (and similar) are a form of criticism/review. I think it ought to be Fair Use, but I don’t get to make the rules. As far as I’m able to grant this, you have my permission to release commercial videos of playing the Alpha Demo. It’ll be the same for any games we officially release here with that fantasycore art set.

Releasing your Flare video CC-BY-SA

To be completely in the clear, Let’s Plays and similar videos of Flare’s Alpha Demo should be released as CC-BY-SA 3.0. What does this mean and how to do it?

CC-BY-SA 3.0 states that you can share and remix Flare Game content for any purpose, even commercially. You must credit the original creators (Attribution requirement) and you must release your transformation under the same license (Share-Alike requirement).

In your video description, I’d recommend saying something like this which fulfills the Share-Alike requirement and Attribution requirement. Links included!

This video is released under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license. Flare is created by the Flare team.

What does it mean if you release your Let’s Play as CC-BY-SA? Others can remix/transform your video and release it too, as long as their work is also CC-BY-SA. Put simply: we shared our game with you, so you should share your video with others. Practically speaking it doesn’t really change anything else about your video. You’re clear to make ad revenue etc. as usual.

I say you’re clear, but check your own contracts. E.g. if you’re under an Exclusive license clause (e.g. your boss or video network wants exclusive rights to your Let’s Play video) then you can’t “Share-Alike”.

Heroine Dusk

All my original content, plus CC-BY music by Yubatake. You have my permission to release commercial videos of this game under any license. I suggest attribution like this:

Heroine Dusk is created by Clint Bellanger and features music by Yubatake

Press Any Key To Live

Press Any Key To Live – All my original content. You have my permission to release commercial videos of this game under any license. Suggested attribution:

Press Any Key To Live is created by Clint Bellanger

2013/12/03

Flare engine v0.19 released!

Flare v0.19 is ready for modders and players! Most of the changes since the last version are internal to the engine code.

Engine changes
  • Power specific stat modifiers (Ryan Dansie)
  • Cutscenes (Stefan Beller)
  • Specify data path via command line argument (Justin Jacobs)
  • Minions support (Ryan Dansie)
  • Flare engine man page (Christoph Thompson)
  • Keyboard based menu navigation (Igor Paliychuk, Joseph Bleu, Justin Jacobs)
  • Movement using floating point positions (Stefan Beller, Justin Jacobs
  • Hardcore characters no longer share a stash (Stefan Beller)
  • Credits added to title menu (Igor Paliychuk)
  • Additional event triggers (Stefan Beller)
  • Configurable death penalty (Justin Jacobs)
  • Colorblind mode options (blazindragon)
  • Add chance_flee behavior for enemies (Justin Jacobs)
  • Currency as a stackable item (Justin Jacobs)
  • Inline configuration attribute documentation (Henrik Andersson)
  • New minimap tiles for false walls (Matthew Krohn)
  • Allow custom attack animations (Matthew Krohn)
  • EventManager to handle map and NPC events (Igor Paliychuk, Justin Jacobs)
  • Use paths in config files when referring to other files (Justin Jacobs)
  • Upgradeable powers (Ryan Dansie and Igor Paliychuk)
  • TONS of internal refactoring/cleanup (everyone)
  • Various bug fixes (everyone)

Special thanks to these translators who are contributing to Flare for the first time:

  • German (de) update by Wuzzy2
  • Greek (el) update by Michael Papageorgiou
  • Scottish Gaelic (gd) by gunchleoc
  • Chinese (zh) by lonsine
Game Changes
  • Gold is now a stackable item and can safely be stored in the shared stash
  • Heroic Swing and Greater Channel are now upgrades of starting powers
  • New powers Ember Shot and Thunderstrike
Downloads

Windows

OSX

Linux etc. (build from source)

Distributions

The core Flare team provides the above binaries and sources. Ports for all other platforms are done by fans and volunteers. If you have the expertise to update or port Flare to another platform, please do! Send me the download/repo link and I’ll add it to the download list.

Next for Flare

The next engine release will be 1.0! We are done with all major and minor features. The only tasks left are mainly internal refactoring and fixes.

I’m working on final maps for the full campaign. The first act of the campaign will come with version 1.0 of the engine.

2013/12/02

v0.19 Status

I pulled igorko’s Power Upgrade feature and removed a test cutscene from flare-game. Barring new bugs, v0.19 is tagged and ready for packaging. Please immediately report any issues.

Next step is to summarize the last 8 months (!) of change logs and update the Credits wiki. Tonight I’ll create binaries for Windows and OSX and prepare the various source bundles.

[– update 2013-12-02 19:45 UTC –]

Removed v0.19 tags for now because we’re noticing a few bits of data that need updating. I’ll post back here when tags are restored.

[– update 2013-12-02 21:17 UTC –]

v0.19 is now tagged in the flare-engine and flare-game repo. Tomorrow I’ll post the official release. For now, try the test downloads below and let us know if you encounter major issues. Packagers should note that we might make minor changes/fixes between now and tomorrow.

Test v0.19 Downloads

Windows

OSX

Linux etc. (build from source)

2013/11/20

Flare Engine v0.19 ready for translation

I’m officially declaring String Freeze for the Engine v0.19. This means translators can begin or update translations safely!

The Engine translation files are found on the GitHub repo. And on the GitHub wiki there are basic instructions on how our translations work.

Don’t worry about any data translations for now. The majority of changes since v0.18 are internal to the engine, so we haven’t needed to create much new game data for testing features. And we’re all looking forward to new content, hopefully I’ll have something to reveal soon.

Engine v0.19 release date

Have any engine translations submitted to us by Friday, Nov 29th! We will package and test over the weekend to release on Dec 1st.

Flare engine approaching 1.0!

We’re essentially feature-complete on the engine right now. There is a bit of refactoring and standardization still to go. So we’re identifying anything that might change config and data files down the road. Once version 1.0 is officially released we don’t want to go breaking games by changing the data specs!

Version 0.19 will essentially serve as our “Release Candidate” for v1.0. Before I officially put the 1.0 blessing on, I’ll be doing a full code and data review of the project.

2013/11/06

Empyrean campaign

I’m working on the final content for Flare (game) 1.0. I’m going to have to find a real name for this (not Wandercall, that comes later) and let Flare be the engine name.

I started releasing the first few map ideas on GitHub. If you’re playing from the latest source, enable “fantasycore” and “empyrean_campaign” mods only to try it. Not much yet but you can start to see some of the personalities.

I’m going to build a story of my own here, but I am interested in some input from players and other modders.

  • What map areas of the alpha demo do you like adventuring in? Why?
  • What kind of map would you like to see done with the current tiles?
  • Which of the alpha quests do you find interesting? Why?
  • What kind of quests do you think will fit well in this style of action RPG?

2013/10/14


Wandercall modern outfit

turntable render of a woman wearing sneakers, jeans, and a tank top

Before I got into making higher quality models for Wandercall, I wanted to practice on some mundane clothes. This lets me focus completely on technique and using the tools, instead of trying to create my own new style for an outfit.

It’s worked well. I feel fairly confident in the techniques I used here, and I can create the models at a reasonable pace. The jeans, shoes, and tank top each took about 8 hours average. I’ll probably get faster with practice.

I like the way these turned out. I may even use them as starting gear in Wandercall. The game might be strange like that.

2013/09/24


Free the Monsters! campaign

Justin Nichol is a contributing artist to Flare. He is the artist behind all of the NPC portraits, the texture work on the Wyverns, and the skin textures on the upcoming Wandercall base human models. Justin brings tremendous skill and creativity to the team, and that makes it even possible to dream big about the future of Flare.

That’s why I’m so excited about his new indiegogo campaign titled Free The Monsters. The goal is to create a professional quality set of monster concepts and models and release them to the free culture community (CC-BY-SA license, the same that my games use).

It helps Wandercall

What you see in the Flare alpha demo is mostly me barely able to operate Blender. I’ve come a long way since then, but reworking all new assets at a higher quality takes a ton of time and effort. Wandercall represents a grand project to make an Action RPG and set of assets that is fun, beautiful, and completely free/libre. But I can’t do all of that on my own.

I absolutely love all of the monster concepts shown so far in the Free The Monsters campaign. They will each be perfect for the style and tone for Wandercall. Having concepts or entire models already done will help me get new monsters out the pipeline faster, and more content tools in the hands of creators.

It helps Open Game Art

Two common complaints about Open Game Art: it’s hard to find professional quality work, and it’s hard to find a large set of consistent styles to use in one game.

This is the kind of project that bring OGA closer to that dream. Having this set of high quality fantasy monsters will spawn a new quality of FLOSS games. Also, it will set a style guide that others can use to contribute to this collection. In the future I want to see dozens of monsters featured here, covering the needs of fantasy games with a strong artistic style.

The style is strong but inclusive

Goblin concept and 3D render

Have a look at Justin’s goblin concept. He’s pushing style and shapes that give the goblin a definite feel and tone. But he manages to do this without forcing a specific style on the entire game. This goblin would look great and be visually interesting in most fantasy games (barring those with a completely unconventional style of their own).

And style is important. It’s critical for this goblin to read as “goblin” but still have its own style that isn’t directly Tolkein or Warcraft. A strong style prevents the model from just looking like “short green man”. Here the strong shape and silhouette give the monster an identity. So later when we make room for other humanoids they will each be visually distinct.

Why you should contribute

If all these monsters get posted CC-BY-SA, why should you personally donate money? I’m preaching to the FLOSS choir here so bear with me.

First, if you love Flare and are looking forward to Wandercall, this is the best place to put your money right now. These creatures will be an absolutely huge help to Wandercall and will get that project moving far sooner than anyone expects. Whatever monsters come from the campaign, I will use to create 2D isometric sprite sheets ready to plug into the Flare engine.

Second, if you love Free Culture and want to see greater works come from it. Open Game Art just does not have a professional quality set of 3D monsters yet. This will fill a huge gap in their library. This campaign has the potential to help dozens of projects in the short term, and countless ones in the future.

Third, you’re an art patron. What Justin and company are doing here isn’t just creating strong art and design on their own. They are enabling a new group of young creators to chase their dreams. These assets greatly lower the bar for what game projects are possible without a budget. I want to see the kind of games and art people create when the tools and assets are ready to go.

Games are a largely untapped medium because the barrier to entry is so high (between programming, 3D modeling, etc). If you love the medium and want it to thrive creatively, consider helping us free these monsters.

-Clint Bellanger