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Latest Humble Bundle Supports Open Source GameDev Tools

Posted by timothy on from the good-to-see dept.

lars_doucet (2853771) writes "The latest Humble Weekly Bundle is titled 'Celebrating Open Source,' and features eight indie games, with charity going to the open source tools used to develop them. The open-source programming language Haxe is strongly represented: three of the charities include the Haxe Foundation, itself OpenFL (recently featured on Slashdot), and FlashDevelop, the most popular open-source Haxe/ActionScript IDE. The fourth is Ren'Py, the Python-based visual novel engine used in award-winning games like Long Live the Queen and Analogue: A Hate Story.

The games themselves are Magical Diary, NEO Scavenger, Offspring Fling!, Planet Stronghold, and for those who pay $6 or more, Anodyne, Defender's Quest, Evoland, and Incredipede, as well as 6 soundtracks. 7 of the 8 games are cross-platform across Mac/Win/Linux, and all are DRM-free."

7 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Hurray! by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I bought this bundle even though I already had half the games, because the platforms deserve the help. You're able to gift the Steam versions individually, so the redundancy isn't a waste if you have friends on Steam.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
    1. Re:Hurray! by dcfedor · · Score: 4, Informative

      Any idea if they're fixed Offspring fling or Incredipede to allow them to at least be played through AIR on Linux rather than relying on embedded swfs in an html doc(in a specific proprietary browser in the case of incredipede, though the dev has been very nice about the situation and given away the linux version for free)? Open source IDEs that exclusively target flash/AIR are a horrible idea.

      I can't speak to the Offspring Fling question (though I share the dev's pain!), but I wanted to clarify the bit about "open source IDEs that exclusively target flash/AIR are a horrible idea." Indeed, that would be a bad idea, were it the case. Fortunately, it also supports Haxe, the open source language which can compile into other languages, like C++ and HTML5, to deploy to a staggering array of platforms.

      Just wanted it to be clear that we're not trying to keep Flash on life support, here. This is about the future of non-proprietary, multi-platform development!

  2. Lets Clarify....... by danknight48 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'Celebrating Open Source,' Pay what you want. Support vital open source projects.

    None of these projects are open source.
    The engines used, are open source.

    The default percentage cut is (which can be customized):
    - 65% Dev
    - 20% Engine
    - 15% Humble website

    So in effect, they are using the "open source engine" as a pull to make money.
    I'am all for it with the custom split option. But, lets make sure we use the term "open source projects (ENGINE)" correctly.

    1. Re:Lets Clarify....... by danknight48 · · Score: 2

      A game developer Improving/contributing to an engine for their own projects gain, is nothing new. I've done it myself.

      Regardless, this doesnt make their projects open source, the ENGINE is open source :)
      Lets make sure thats clear.

    2. Re:Lets Clarify....... by Tom+Rothamel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Disclaimer: I'm the lead developer of Ren'Py, one of the projects that will benefit from this sale.

      I think this is basically right.

      Humble's model is that it runs pay-what-you want sales, with the proceeds being split between themselves, developers, and charities. In the current ebook bundle, the charities are SFWA and Openreader. In the weekly sale, the charities are open source projects - FlashDevelop, OpenFL, Haxe, and Ren'Py. So when you buy through this sale, you support open source projects in the same way that if you buy the book bundle, you support SFWA and Openreader.

  3. Re:Flash? Really? by dcfedor · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nope! Not Flash! Really!

    The naming convention can be a bit misleading. OpenFL is not an open source version of Flash. It is a library for Haxe with an API that mirrors Flash's. The output of a compiled Haxe+OpenFL project can be native Windows, Mac, or Linux apps, iOS, Blackberry, or Android apps, HTML5, Flash, and more. The output does not require a VM, a plugin (unless Flash is the target), nor is it wrapped in a VM or projector.

    Sorry if this is overkill, but it's a common misconception that I'm hoping to clear up!

  4. Nice to see Defender's Quest by guises · · Score: 3

    It's nice to see Defender's Quest there, even if it's in a weekly sale and not the main bundle. They've been snubbed by the Humble Bundle for quite a while, but it's really a great game with a heck of a lot to it.