A quick question about a project of mine

Started by The Suitor, Sat 02/02/2019 02:22:18

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The Suitor

Okay, so I haven't posted much since I joined this forum in 2007. Some of you know me, slightly, I guess. But that's not the reason I came.

I'm working on a something. I'm creating a small-as-possible DOS game/platformer library. Something that runs on a 16-bit pc. Blah blah blah... I'm also making an editor for it that can run in Operating Systems from Windows 95 to Windows 10 (and possibly Linux ports in the future). At the moment I'm planning to horde all this to myself. The editor and the library are for me to complete a full game of my own.

BUT, in the future, I want to release it free to the public.

The thing is, the editor so far (just started to prototype it yesterday with wxWidgets) has taken serious inspiration from the AGS 2.x windows editor. And by that I mean, it's basically just an exact copy in design. Before I get further into the building of it, I wanted to ask the AGS community, and possibly Chris (if anyone knows where he is), if this would cause any problems if I release it (free for any use) so others may use it, in the future. I know the new AGS is open source, but I'm not sure of the legality on the old versions.



The reason behind all this is I loved how the AGS editor flowed (AGS has obviously been a huge influence in my life), I want it to run on Win9x as well as modern Windows versions, and nostalgia. The latter being the whole point of this project.

Anyway, maybe I'm overthinking it. But I wanted to be upfront and ask everyone here. If there are problems, I'll start a completely different design.  :=

Jack

Probably not.

But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

The Suitor

Quote from: Jack on Sat 02/02/2019 03:00:00
Probably not.

But that's just, like, my opinion, man.

Hey, every opinion counts. As far as I know, Chris handed everything over to the community. So community opinion matters.

Buckethead

I think you should be fine. The components you are using look pretty standard to me. AGS is also probably just using standard Windows components so I don't think they have any ownership over them. As long as you are not using actual AGS 2.x source code you should be fine. Even if anyone had any legal claims over these they would still have to take legal action against you, which I doubt will happen.

PS

I'm not a lawyer

Radiant

That's Microsoft Foundation Classes, isn't it? I'm pretty sure that's not something CJ invented, but the default look-and-feel for applications in Windows 95/98.

So I don't see any problems using this; perhaps under the help/about popup you could write something like 'Inspired by AGS'. Also, I'm heavily into retro gaming so best of luck with this project!

The Suitor

#5
Quote from: Buckethead on Sat 02/02/2019 08:48:30
I think you should be fine. The components you are using look pretty standard to me. AGS is also probably just using standard Windows components so I don't think they have any ownership over them. As long as you are not using actual AGS 2.x source code you should be fine. Even if anyone had any legal claims over these they would still have to take legal action against you, which I doubt will happen.

PS

I'm not a lawyer

Thanks for the input. Yeah, I'm probably just overthinking it. Just didn't want to step on any toes.  :)

Quote from: Radiant on Sat 02/02/2019 08:50:35
That's Microsoft Foundation Classes, isn't it? I'm pretty sure that's not something CJ invented, but the default look-and-feel for applications in Windows 95/98.

So I don't see any problems using this; perhaps under the help/about popup you could write something like 'Inspired by AGS'. Also, I'm heavily into retro gaming so best of luck with this project!


I'm using wxWidgets, which is similar to MFC. Both are basically just wrappers for the Win32 API. Adding "Inspired by AGS" is a perfect way to stay transparent, so thanks for that suggestion! Also, thanks. I'll need all the luck I can get. Either way, it's a great programming exercise to do during my free time.

Crimson Wizard

#6
Only AGS source code was/is licensed, not "general look and feel". If you review existing modern game engines all of them have very similar components, starting from the assets tree and ending with visual scripting component, and that does not seem to be an issue.

The Suitor

Very good point. Thanks, Crimson. I think I feel okay about proceeding with the current design, now.

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