Ren'Py is now in Debian!

[PyTom]

Probably, there's some sort of open parenthesis or quote in the python block. I would need the script file to diagnose it.

[EwanG]

Ummm... never mind...

It seems that it was the old problem of how Windows treats EOL compared to how Linux treats it. Once she resaved the file with Linux EOLs, the problem went away...

[Kakurady]

Looks like it installs to /usr/share/games/ . Wonder where this version of RenPy will put the games it creates to ...

(I think modern distros only allow you to write to your home directory. At least that's the case with Ubuntu...)


Since many distributions are based on Debian I guess we'll see many distros with Ren'Py in apt soon.

[Jake]

Many artists are pretty closed-source when it comes to art, because it defines their skills and marketability. That's why programmers can be paid with salary, but most artists are paid per piece, sometimes with each piece fetching hundreds of dollars.

...although there are plenty of artists who are paid by the hour (in-house graphic artists is the most obvious example off the top of my head) and programmers who are paid by the job (contractors sometimes get given contracts like this). Somebody's source code also defines their skill and marketability as a programmer - I know there are old projects I've been perfectly happy to release the compiled executable for that I'd never let anyone see the messy source for because it would make me look like a worse programmer than I am [now].
And realistically, if I were to guess something about most artists it would be that most artists don't get paid at all, and make art for fun or ego-based reasons.

Realistically, I believe the reason artists tend to be wary of giving their art away (speaking from the point of view of an artist) is that they want to be recognised as the originator of the work - and there's nothing in your average Free Software license which entails surrendering copyright, which embodies your right to be recognised as the originator of the work.

The objection to derivative works is, I suspect, a worry that someone may modify the original to make the original artist look bad or unskilled - but I'm fairly sure that passing that work off as a sole work of the original artist would also be illegal if that is not what they wished. I'm not absolutely, but fairly certain that the Debian 'social contract' wouldn't object to a license that made it necessary for derivative works to point the reciever to the original piece...


Anyway, that aside - I can certainly say that if I was inclined to donate artwork to another project, or to the community as a whole, I wouldn't really see any point in not allowing them to do whatever they wanted with it. I want creative control over art I'm using for my own project, so that perception of my own project doesn't get coloured by works other people have used the same graphics for, but if I'm going to surrender a piece of art to someone else's use anyway, it doesn't bother me if they want to modify it to better suit their ends. I don't see that it should really hurt my reputation as an artist (if I have one. ) because I still have the original that I can use myself to advertise my skill, and if it's modified drastically I would hope that whoever modifies it says so. (And frankly, if they're not going to note that then they're likely the kind of person who wouldn't pay attention to any more-strict license anyway.)

(And I'd like to donate stuff people who can't draw can use to put their own VNs together, because - well, there are people (PyTom, Monele, mikey, DaFool just off the top of my head) who put a lot of stuff into the community one way or another and it's clearly a good, productive thing. The thing stopping me is time, really - I have so much stuff I want to do. :/ )

[Miriam Ruiz]

I was thinking thay maybe someone might be interested in having a template to create Debian packages without effort (It's gonna be quite straightforward in case of Ren'Py games). If so, It'll be no problem for me to make it.

I mean, maybe some of the games will not be free enough for being in Debian, but the rest of the benefits of the system might be achieved. At some point in the future it might be possible to even set a repository for them.

How do you see that?

Anyway, I'm still very interested in DFSG-free artwork and full stories to get into Debian proper repositories.

Greetings,
Miry