I don’t think he meant that there’s not a big game industry for mobile devices (iOS and Android). I think he was saying that there’s not a serious game industry, like an industry comprised of games that you’ll sit down and play instead of other games - serious games, not casual or time-spending games. I can’t say that I would play any game designed for an Android phone or one for an iPhone over one designed for something with buttons, since the controls are so much more precise. I mean, there could be a game that’s exceptionally made for a phone and is something that I couldn’t play elsewhere, but I’d rather play that game on a PC or a 3DS if I could.
just to be clear, I don’t consider ‘Angry birds’ a serious game. I’m talking about AAA titles here, like SolarLune was saying
Yes, and the others are talking about making money. By “serious” they mean that a professional could make a sustainable living by selling on the App Store.
Guys, if you want to publish to iOS, just use GameKit. It’s mostly the same as BGE, except for the Lua scripting. The learning curve shouldn’t be that hard.
Okay… I think you’re doing a pretty terrible job of arguing your case on the mailing list, but I also have a particular interest in this topic, so I will as a very direct question with the hopes of receiving a very clear answer:
How is the BGE directly incompatible with the iOS AppStore model? (Nevermind… see second edit below)
Edit:
BTW, I had this relicensing conversation with Ton several years ago via email at exactly the same time that Erwin Coumans (who wrote the original BGE code, afaik) was also discussing the issue with him. Erwin subsequently left BGE development and started the GameKit/OgreKit engine. What I’m saying is this: If Ton could not find a feasible way to dual-license or re-license the BGE for someone like Erwin, I seriously doubt the chances of your success.
GameKit only has fewer features because its developer base hasn’t grown that large yet.
Second Edit:
Nevermind… I think I see what the issue is. Apple places additional terms on redistribution in addition to the GPLv2, and that is a violation of GPLv2.
Unsurprisingly, GPL software is also banned from Xbox Live Arcade and Windows Phone Marketplace.
Perhaps. However, this is community driven software we are talking about. If the way we as a community want to use the software is not compatible with the license, and the copyright holders find it too complex to consider relicensing… perhaps Erwin made the right choice?
What I am saying is this: It may be valid for you to ask Ton to revisit the issue. It is perhaps even more appropriate for us to revisit it as a community. Nothing says that the current internal Game Engine is the only way we can move forward. You probably recall from a few years ago the talk of removing the internal GE in favor of a “plugin” engine system or the talk of separating the engine into a separate program. The community and the developers are at least willing to entertain change. Let’s at least ask the questions:
What do we need from our engine as a community of game developers? And how can we best accomplish that? If an MIT/BSD licensed engine that offers both OpenGL and DirectX rendering options is what many people are asking for, then couldn’t GameKit be the right option for us moving forward?
GameKit advantages:
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Engines: ogre, irrlicht
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Integration library:
https://youtu.be/mOv-FZDSmdY -
Using ogrekit: particles
https://youtu.be/OvEeYxKnG5Yhundred thousand polygons game [video]http://www.vandal.net/foro/mensaje/644585/proyecto-neverblend-android-ios-y-pc/[/video]
Disadvantages: documentations, tutorials, generally learn
Any suggest?
Seems to me that there are really two main schools of thought here: the people who are happy with the GPL and people who feel a more liberal license is needed. Accordingly we have the BGE and GameKit, both of which play .blend files and are open source under their respective licenses. Accordingly, it seems to me that the best option is just for people to use (and help develop) whichever engine (with it’s license) suits them best. Yes, I’d love to see the BGE get faster (always!) and yes, I’d love to see better integration between Blender and Gamekit (eg Choose gamekit in the render dropdown and just push “p” to start), but both of these can be worked on without trying to shoehorn one into the other’s role.
My only sadness is that they both speak different scripting languages, making it impossible to just open up a game made for one engine in the other. If we could see some kind of compile time automated translator between Python and Lua and get some more interest in both, it seems to me, we’d be going in a pretty good direction.