Charas-Project
Off-Topic => Really Old Stuff => Archive => Charas Project Support => Topic started by: jaearess on February 17, 2010, 06:52:21 AM
-
Hello all,
Currently, I'm working on a game, a 2D console-style RPG. I'm not using any game-maker software, but rather free and open source libraries and tools (including the Python language and the Pygame SDL library.) My plan is to release the code for it under the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt), a widely used free software license. What media I created was going to be under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike license which is very similar to the GPL, but for media rather than software.
I'm a fairly competent coder (though my job is mostly as a Python web developer, rather than a game programmer/designer!) However, one thing I absolutely am not is an artist of any sort. I can make some not-horrible looking tiles, but character sprites are so far beyond my ability it's not even funny. I've been scouring the web trying to find some usable character sprites that have a license compatible with the GPL and/or Creative Commons (I was even willing to pay for some, but it doesn't seem like many people are selling 2D art these days) but it's so far been slim pickings. I'd resigned myself to (badly) modifying some pre-existing free sprites, when I happened to stumble across charas-project.net.
The generator here is a god-send for someone like me. Within about 10 minutes, I'd managed to put together a sprite for the first character in my game that looked very close to how I imagined him--amazingly close, in fact. I would love to use Charas to produce some character sprites for my game, but I'm before I get to deep in to it, I was hoping to have some questions answered about the license and copyrights to the sources used for and the sprites made from Charas:
1) It appears that all of the media used to create the sprites in Charas was produced by the community. Is this accurate? None of the media is from another source, including one with a strict license?
2) What license are the sprites produced from Charas under? Is there a particular license? Are they only allowed to be used with RPG Maker or similar software? Are they freely re-distributable (i.e., is anyone allowed to take the images and give them to other people)? Obviously, credit should always be given (and I would absolutely never take someone else's work and use it without credit, even if it's license doesn't explicitly require me to.) I have no problem if the license isn't completely compatible with the GPL or the Creative Commons license. Though both those licenses allow someone to take my game and sell it if they wish (though I would always distribute it for free, so I think it would hard to profit off it anyway) other media I use can be under a license that doesn't give all of those freedoms, so long as it is free re-distributablele.
3) Are the sprites produced from Charas free modifiable? I.e., can I modify parts of the sprites without violating the license/copyright?
Thank you for your time
-
We're currently (slowly) working on a sprite redesign for Charas, so you may want to wait for
whem if that ever finishes.
If not, everything here I believe is free to use in open source, but if you want to wait for an admin, they'll probably come in a few hours to say "go ahead".
Just be wary on using the fan-sprites, in case you get "caught" for design infringement.
-
Thank you for the quick reply!
I do want to get official word from someone in the project, though I do hope that you're right.
What do you mean by sprite redesign? What does the entail?
What do you mean by fan-sprites?
Thank you.
-
There's currently a project to redesign all of the sprites in the generator so that they have one central design.
It's going kind of slow...but it's going.
Fan-sprites are stuff that you'll see in the generators like Naruto parts, Final Fantasy parts (buster swords and the like).
-
If I can use the sprites, and the redesign turns out sprites that are even better than the ones made now (which I think are already very nice), it wouldn't be hard for me to replace old sprites with new ones, so no worries there.
That makes sense about the fan sprites. I'm certainly not looking to steal anyone else's design (I don't want people thinking about Naruto or Final Fanasy or DBZ or whatever when they're playing my game) so I don't think there will be a problem there.
Thank you.
-
Should I take the silence to mean the sprites from Charas are not usable with GPL software?
-
I'm pretty sure that the copyright only pertains to the actual Charas-EX generator software and the generator coding.
You could ask someone from Ombra if the images are copyrighted. But you may not get a reply...