[Kde-games-devel] Porting my Game Construction Kit to KDE

[Tadeusz Andrzej Kadłubowski]

On Dec 12, 2009, at 12:38 PM, Frank B. wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I originally developped a general purpose platform/side-scroller  
> engine and
> development SDK for Windows. I have been in the process of porting  
> it to
> Linux using qt4 and SDL.
>
> I think the design is unique because it is object-oriented which  
> frees users
> from messing around with the old tile-2-tile formula. The engine is
> functional enough to be shown around as proof of concept. It just  
> needs an
> extra 25% more coding, some tweaking and polishing.
>
> I looked all over KDE.org but I still have no idea of who to talk  
> to and how
> to submit a request to have it (and possibly other games made with it)
> included in a future release of KDE. Comments, suggestions and  
> feedback
> welcome. Any help will be much appreciated ! :)

My feedback:

a) License is incompatible with the values of the KDE community.
We use mostly GPL-family licenses (GPL2+, LGPL2.1, etc.). Give us  
license to modify your project, distribute modified versions, and  
even make some money on it (why are people so obsessed with Non- 
Commercial clauses, anyway?)

b) Worry about being included in the official KDE Software  
Compilation release after you make it work. At the moment you're  
still at 75% progress. Focus on the remaining 25%.

c) KDE is way more than what's released as KDE Software Compilation.  
It's the community, the infrastructure, the technology and so long.  
Think about how your project fits in it. My thoughts about it:

Community: we're rather serious about software freedom.
Technology: KDE + Qt, CMake, things like that. That might be a good  
idea for your project. Who can tell, if we didn't see your source code?
Infrastrucuture: apart from kdegames, which is a module of the KDE  
Software Compilation, there's extragear (projects that prefer their  
own release schedule), and there's playground (experimental, unstable  
things. There be dragons, and most of my contributions). If you wish  
to host your source code within KDE infrastructure, then the  
playground is the only suitable place.

> This is a link to the original project homepage.
> http://www.sassociations.net/cfrankb/lgck/?1

This legalese lacks an autorship claim and copyright note. Besides,  
it's way too serious for a little screenshot and a download link. One  
of the benefits of the free software is that it lets you relax.

> PS: There is also an engine port to qt but it is in source form  
> atm. I could
> show it if anyone is interrested.

Come on, we're programmers here.

Best regards,
-- 
tadeusz