Final testing for game fails.

[Cybeat]

I distibuted the game and everything, so I'm done, but when I test it one more time, an error came and said "png" file not found. I don't get it. My character png files and stuff aren't supposed to be included, right?

[Fawkes - Feathered Melody]

I distibuted the game and everything, so I'm done, but when I test it one more time, an error came and said "png" file not found. I don't get it. My character png files and stuff aren't supposed to be included, right?

You need those files. Your script file gives Renpy where to look for those files and if they aren't there the error appears. Renpy doesn't internally store the image data. You are using the automated "build distributions" command right?

[Cybeat]

Yeah, I used build distributions, but aren't the images and the sounds supposed to be hidden, so nobody can use or take them?

[Kaihaku]

It's supported, not default...

http://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/doc/ref ... _Your_Game

[Jake]

Also: Be aware that when you choose the 'archive images' option it will pack all your images into .rpa archives, and delete them from the working directory. So make a copy of your game directory before doing this!

Additionally, when building the distributions, at one stage the launcher asks you which file types to exclude from the final archives - if you're interested in hiding your script, you want to add '.rpy' files to that list, otherwise your original scripts will be shipped alongside the compiled versions.

[denzil]

Also: Be aware that when you choose the 'archive images' option it will pack all your images into .rpa archives, and delete them from the working directory. So make a copy of your game directory before doing this!

Actually it just moves them to archived directory, so no data are lost. But making backup of them is a good idea anyway.

[Jake]

Actually it just moves them to archived directory, so no data are lost. But making backup of them is a good idea anyway.

Ah! So it does. I'd actually been meaning to write something totally different in the post and got distracted on that, I guess that's what I get for having a shortcut directly to my game directory and only working in that.

Anyway. The thing I meant to write before was:

aren't the images and the sounds supposed to be hidden, so nobody can use or take them?

The images and sounds are hidden so that nobody can trivially use or take them. The .rpa format isn't a secure box from which nobody will ever be able to get your resources, just a convenient archive which prevents people from being able to copy your images out without a little programming work. But think about it - Ren'Py itself needs to be able to get the images out, so the images can be extracted.

(Of course, you have copyright over the things you make for your game, so nobody can legally use or take them without your permission anyway.)

[Cybeat]

Actually it just moves them to archived directory, so no data are lost. But making backup of them is a good idea anyway.

Ah! So it does. I'd actually been meaning to write something totally different in the post and got distracted on that, I guess that's what I get for having a shortcut directly to my game directory and only working in that.

Anyway. The thing I meant to write before was:

aren't the images and the sounds supposed to be hidden, so nobody can use or take them?

The images and sounds are hidden so that nobody can trivially use or take them. The .rpa format isn't a secure box from which nobody will ever be able to get your resources, just a convenient archive which prevents people from being able to copy your images out without a little programming work. But think about it - Ren'Py itself needs to be able to get the images out, so the images can be extracted.

(Of course, you have copyright over the things you make for your game, so nobody can legally use or take them without your permission anyway.)

I have copyright over the images already? I thought I needed to license my work first.
By any chance, do you what's the best place (site) to license my work?

[Jake]

(Usual disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, just a guy with an academic and personal interest in the field)

I have copyright over the images already? I thought I needed to license my work first.

In countries who have implemented the terms of the Berne Convention (pretty much every country on the planet has signed it) copyright is assigned automatically to anyone who produces a creative work, and that copyright is recognised in any other Berne signatory country. So if I draw a picture in the UK, I automatically have copyright over that picture without having to even understand what copyright is, and some guy in Australia is bound by his country's law to respect that copyright. (There are other conventions which further clarify or extend these protections, but Berne is effectively the big daddy of them all.) The US only succumbed in the late eighties, about a century after the original convention, but even there, copyright is now automatically assigned.

A license, on the other hand, is an agreement between you and a second party as to what that second party is allowed to do with something you have copyright over. The word basically means 'permission to do something' - to drive a car on the state's roads you need a state driving license, to own a gun in the state's territory you need a state gun license, to make a copy of someone else's copyrighted work you need a copyright license from the owner of that work.

So you, as the copyright holder, don't need a license for anything to do with that work - it's yours, you can do what you want with it, and you can exert those rights afforded by copyright law over it as you see fit. However, if you want to give it to other people, it's customary to define the permissions you're giving them in the form of a license, so that they know what they can and can't do with it. If there's no license, they can't reproduce it at all, and technically this would also mean that they can't download it to their computer, because that involves making a copy of the work from your website to their PC. Generally it's considered that making something available for free download with no license confers an implied license to download and use it, even if they're not then allowed to redistribute it themselves... but I have no idea as to the exact legal status there.

By any chance, do you what's the best place (site) to license my work?

What you should really be asking is "what's the best license for my work", and that's something we can only really advise you on, not tell you. As PyTom suggested, you need to decide what you want other people to be able to do with your work. Should they be allowed to give copies to their friends? Should they be allowed to modify it and distribute the modified version? Should they be allowed to use it commercially (which includes things like "make it available on a website which also shows paid advertisements")? Further, do you want anything in return - for example, most open-source licenses include a clause whereby you're not responsible for anything bad that happens as a result of using your software, which is a pretty sensible thing to put in there somewhere.

If you had a lawyer or were confident of your contract-drawing skills, you could write your own - but safer is to pick an off-the-shelf license that covers the terms that you want to distribute your work under. Personally, I like the Creative Commons suite, they have loads of licenses that you can pick and choose between. The Open Source Initiative maintains a list of open-source software licenses which are designed specifically for software, which might also be useful. The other option being for you to describe exactly what you want end-users to be able to do with your work, and ask for someone to suggest a particular license to use.

[Cybeat]

Okay. Thanks. I won't get a license.

[Cybeat]

Also, it still didn't work. I distributed and I still got the sign "png not found." What was I supposed to do? I got rid of the rpy files like I was supposed to.

[Jake]

Okay. Thanks. I won't get a license.

I'd suggest it's wise to, even if it just says "you can't do anything with my stuff except run it". It'd be a good idea, if nothing else, to get the zero-indemnity clause that most licenses include.

Also, it still didn't work. I distributed and I still got the sign "png not found." What was I supposed to do? I got rid of the rpy files like I was supposed to.

Did you mke sure that the images were in the game folder, that your game worked, and then go into the launcher, tools, archive images? If you chose to archive images after you'd already removed the images, that wouldn't have worked. Excluding .rpy files is nothing to do with the image issue, it's just another thing that you might want to do if you're obfuscating your game.

[Cybeat]

Yes, I did launcher, tool, and archive, with the images in the game folder. The problem happens after everything is complete. Were my images supposed to be in the release version?

[Jake]

Yes, I did launcher, tool, and archive, with the images in the game folder. The problem happens after everything is complete. Were my images supposed to be in the release version?

No, the release version is supposed to have an .rpa file (data.rpa, in mine) which holds your images. What /is/ in the release version's 'game' folder?

[Cybeat]

Yes, I did launcher, tool, and archive, with the images in the game folder. The problem happens after everything is complete. Were my images supposed to be in the release version?

No, the release version is supposed to have an .rpa file (data.rpa, in mine) which holds your images. What /is/ in the release version's 'game' folder?

It had script.rpyc, option.rpyc, bytecode.rpyb, data.rpa, and mp3 files. If this is all I need then it's probably my computer's fault. What made it even worse was that after I archived
the files and tested my game with the launcher (instead of waiting to distribute over and over)
it still failed.