Game template structure

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

For our own games I’ve built a generic template (splash screens, menu, settings, save/load handling). I.e. not an actual game template as such, more just the boring stuff that nobody actually wants to have to spend any time on before getting to the real game code.

Anyway, I’ve come to realise that this is so generic that it’s actually probably useful enough to others to warrant release to the marketplace, so I’m about to start bundling it all up for submission.

With plugins we have some documentation on what to package up: https://docs.coronalabs.com/native/plugin/luaplugin.html#plugin-submission

But I can’t seem to find anything similar for template submissions. Do we literally just zip up the whole project folder and upload that? What about the Icon files and whatnot that project folders contain by default?

Do we need to include our own license or does the marketplace checkout process cover that for us? If we’ve to include our own, any advice on what’s suitable? I’ve only ever released source code under GPL before but this would give everybody the right to re-distribute which doesn’t seem correct for a commercial release, but then I do of course want to allow developers to otherwise do what they want with this… it’d be a little useless otherwise!

Thanks.

#2

Treat it like a template. Just zip up the whole project and submit it as a ‘App Template’.

Note: You can also create a free GitHub repository and share it that way.

IMHO, having multiple ways for folks to find it is most useful.

The license thing is confusing. I’m sure I’m also not doing it right, but I distribute all code with this header:
 

-- ============================================================= -- Copyright Roaming Gamer, LLC. 2008-2018 (All Rights Reserved) -- =============================================================

Then, I provide a readMe.txt file that explains the license terms for the buyer. 

I spell out the terms, if you bought a copy, you:

  • have the license to make a game
  • have the license to make an app
  • may not distribute source code
  • may not sell as part of a code packages, tutorial, book, or other training material
  • …
#3

Thanks, that all makes sense. We need to look at licenses more properly really but on this occasion I think your approach will suffice. There’s nothing at all innovative or anything in this template anyway, it really was just built to save time internally really and releasing at all is just an afterthought, so in all seriousness there’s not really much to protect.

Typically the marketplace looks to be playing up at the moment - most of the plugin/template links return a dead page… Will wait until it’s all working properly again before uploading!

#4

Yeah, I reported that issue to the Marketplace support email.  Many of my templates are offline, but this is why I maintain multiple stores and places to get my content:

#5

Treat it like a template. Just zip up the whole project and submit it as a ‘App Template’.

Note: You can also create a free GitHub repository and share it that way.

IMHO, having multiple ways for folks to find it is most useful.

The license thing is confusing. I’m sure I’m also not doing it right, but I distribute all code with this header:
 

-- ============================================================= -- Copyright Roaming Gamer, LLC. 2008-2018 (All Rights Reserved) -- =============================================================

Then, I provide a readMe.txt file that explains the license terms for the buyer. 

I spell out the terms, if you bought a copy, you:

  • have the license to make a game
  • have the license to make an app
  • may not distribute source code
  • may not sell as part of a code packages, tutorial, book, or other training material
  • …
#6

Thanks, that all makes sense. We need to look at licenses more properly really but on this occasion I think your approach will suffice. There’s nothing at all innovative or anything in this template anyway, it really was just built to save time internally really and releasing at all is just an afterthought, so in all seriousness there’s not really much to protect.

Typically the marketplace looks to be playing up at the moment - most of the plugin/template links return a dead page… Will wait until it’s all working properly again before uploading!

#7

Yeah, I reported that issue to the Marketplace support email.  Many of my templates are offline, but this is why I maintain multiple stores and places to get my content: