openmw.org

Hehe, interesting... Some people make money by working hard. Others (at least try to) make money through other people that worked hard a hundred years ago.

Conan is the same, the author copyright is expired so all of E. Howards works are free to be used.

That being the case, this is an example-suite... not a money maker. No one should be earning shit from this, which is the point. That the license is open means that we have to do less world building.

Worldbuilding is one of the easy parts, IMO. And at the very least you can copy all the concepts but change all the names; that's what most lovecraftian writing these days does, like Bloodborne.

Indeed. If we go for the mystery, we write in the spirit and inspiration of Lovecraft, without copying any of the names and stories directly.

This issue of Odd stories, featuring
The Dunwick Horror
The Thing on the Entryway
The Alps of Absurdity

Any updates / progress regarding the Example suite?

What about recreating the fully open source "Waste's Edge" game in the OpenMW engine?
Since that game was from the start meant to be open source there would be no legal problems even if the dialog was taken word by word. The music could be reused as well, it has a nice soundtrack.

It's a short but well written mystery game set in a fantasy medieval theme with an entertaining story, there's even a twist at the end. The dialog is already translated to a few different languages, so it could possibly showcase an hypothetical translation support from the engine in the future.

Waste's Edge is short enough to be attainable yet it's fun to play. It was meant as a first iteration demo for the Adonthell engine. The engine was later meant to be further extended and a separate longer story with extra mechanics was meant to be added later on but that never really reached completion (the engine appears to be in a stagnant maintenance state for more than 8 years). However, Waste's Edge stands on its own as a finished product.

Of course OpenMW is very different from the Adonthell engine (Adonthell is closer to a 2D RPG-maker-like engine), so it won't really feel like a knockoff but a 3D remake, and the OpenMW engine version could allow for the introduction of a few sections involving magic, crafting or combat if wanted (though imho, it doesn't need it). Plus not that many people know about Waste's Edge, so it'll be new for most people regardless.

The map won't need to be huge, it's all happening inside a trading post enclosed by guarded walls, not letting anybody out until the criminal is dealt with. Since it all happens on paved floor even flat terrain would do. There are only a few buildings, several rooms and roughly about a dozen NPCs but I think this is a good thing for a first demo project, since then it could concentrate on details and quality over quantity. If you really wanted to extend it to grow bigger you could have the gates unlock after the mystery is solved to explore the land, and/or simply fast-travel to the next location with some new story and so on.

I'll play through it to see what's it about.

Oh and no significant progress right now. I will have a lot of free time towards the end of this month, but reserve your expectations in case nothing happens.

Waste's Edge seems insidiously simple. It takes place inside a small fort not unlike an Imperial Base, so I wouldn't see why it would be too hard to recreate in an Example Suite. Top-Down 2D is much easier to recreate with Accuracy in 3D than with Platformer 2D. Dialogue is all there, simple, has elves.

No combat yet, as it seems, not sure how something like that would be handled in a recreation, but oh well.

DestinedToDie wrote: ↑06 Jan 2019, 17:45Oh and no significant progress right now. I will have a lot of free time towards the end of this month, but reserve your expectations in case nothing happens.

I started thinking that I need to use my 2 week vacation to meditate and do yoga all day. I think I need to do this. On the other hand, this makes it less likely anything Example Suite related will happen, although I don't know, maybe I'll give up on day 1 and go back to sitting behind the computer.