{"id":868,"date":"2021-04-05T14:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patricioland.com\/?p=868"},"modified":"2021-04-25T14:48:29","modified_gmt":"2021-04-25T14:48:29","slug":"gdd710-week-9-wip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patricioland.com\/?p=868","title":{"rendered":"GDD710 \u2013 Week 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

My relationship with the open software movement, without a doubt is rooted to an even older concept. The early 1990\u2019s was the time when programmers and amateurs exchanged software pieces in a very different way\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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This form of trade was known as Shareware, which means creators made their programs\u00a0 available to the users in exchange of a voluntary monetary contribution (generally small or just symbolic). This would unlock the software functionalities, and you could also modify it or improve it.
\nMost of these programs were distributed in diskettes which went with the publications devoted to computer programming or video games. Many of these creations were at the beginning, and the freeware versions which were totally free. The digital support (later replaced by CD ROMS on magazines and websites) were distributed by mail or by hand.<\/p>\n

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Fig 1 – From 1997 to 2003 this Argentinian magazine included \u00a02 monthly CD Roms with game demos and free tools which I used to be an external collaborator.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A small percentage of these users paid for the utilisation of such programs by means of the simplest methods. The most popular one was to send cash by mail straight to the programmer\u2019s home address. We have to take into account that the virtual money did not exist and very few of us had access to a formal payment system by means of bank drafts or the like.\u00a0 T<\/span>his system had lots of practical problems and with the passing of time it turned into something similar to what we know today as Open Source<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Getting involved with the open source scene<\/span><\/h1>\n

My true personal relationship related to the free software creation and distribution started when looking for an engine which allowed me to create a graphic adventure\u00a0 <\/span>to be ported into different platforms like PC, smartphones and tablets. As I wrote in this same blog, there were already a few other engines focused on the creation of this type of games, but none of them was perfect: the most popular, AGS (Adventure game studio)<\/a>\u00a0just worked on Windows. Some others like Wintermute<\/a> had been forgotten due to the lack of updates or users, and the ones offering the features that I needed, were very expensive as Visionaire Studio<\/a> or paid add-ons for Unity <\/strong>like Adventure Creator<\/a>\u00a0. Even the free point and click adventure framework for Godot<\/strong>, called Escoria<\/a> has an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

The Bladecoder adventure free engine<\/span><\/h1>\n

Within several months of search and testing I found, by chance, a personal project carried out by a Spanish programmer that was exactly what I was looking for. I immediately got in contact with this person who provided me with updated versions of the engine. His name is Rafael Garcia, he was creating in his spare time. His creation was awesome, basic though, and it had a big chance to turn into a more professional tool, as it is today after 3 years of continued development.<\/p>\n

Although the engine is absolutely free and offers benefits beyond any paid products of similar characteristics, this author finds himself in a constant dilemma: to continue improving and extending the engine features or devote his efforts to write an user\u2019s manual to help people to understand how his software works in his spare time.\u00a0Being a one man’s project this last option is still under development and the engine is very far from being adopted by the community of adventure game developers, whether we like it or not.<\/p>\n

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Fig 2 – Adventure editor module included with Bladecoder engine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Communities of practice that align with my aspirations and goals
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In 2019, after having decided that this tool was the best option to accomplish my personal project throughout the next two years, I decided to personally get involved in its development as far as the creator allowed me to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As well as doing beta testing for him, I also suggested about adding more functions. What is more, I invested my own money for these additional features to be implemented as a way to support his work and do a minimal contribute to the community in some way. Every new version available contains new amazing improvements, that has been released for free for anyone who wanted to use it.<\/p>\n

At some time I devoted several weeks to write a series of tutorials<\/a> to teach the basics, \u00a0including original art packs and practical examples to try on. Though these tutorials are quite outdated now, they are still the official source of information for those who want to learn to use it as far as we know.<\/p>\n

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Fig 3 – Bladecoder engine GitHub repository and the first tutorials I wrote for the community<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To some extent I also thought of making a series of short video tutorials with updated content and more visually appeal than a plain text tutorial, of which I still keep the first episode, as shown here:<\/p>\n