3 ms·

I just don't get why pico-8 itself isn't free software. :(

by mkesper 10y ago

WillPostForFood 10y ago
So the guy who wrote it can pay his rent? I'd love for him to share the source code, but I'm happy to pay for it.
bitJericho 10y ago
There's more to pico8 than just a bit of software. There's a community, a games database, updates and support. The alternative is ad based revenue, and quite frankly I and possibly others wouldn't use pico if it were ad based. You're also free to sell your software, which you cant even do with unity without a royalty.
- springogeek 10y ago
  Plus, there seems to be a small recent trend of releasing games for free and charging a small donation amount for an instruction manual, as has been done with The Lair[1] and Galactic Wars[2] [1]: https://krajzeg.itch.io/the-lair https://krajzeg.itch.io/the-lair [2]: https://volcanobytes.itch.io/galactic-wars https://volcanobytes.itch.io/galactic-wars
st3v3r 10y ago
Are you willing to pay his rent for it to be free software?
AstroJetson 10y ago
In the all things considered category it's very inexpensive at $15 for all the stuff that you get. Compared to some movies (ticket, popcorn and a drink at almost twice the cost) I've had much more fun with PICO-8. For $30 you can get a C.H.I.P computer, game pad AND a copy of Pico-8. So you can go retro on tiny hardware.
TeddyDD 10y ago
I hope you mean free as freedom. I'm not surprised that Pico is not open source. It's still in development and author is really careful about design and building a community around it. Pico is such a creative environment thanks to its limitations and last thing community needs is fifty incompatible forks that would change pallete, resolution or token limit :)
- mkesper 10y ago
  Yes, free as in freedom. The educational character might profit if - for those curious to do so - it would be possible to look into the mechanics of this 'game'.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

3 ms·

I just don't get why pico-8 itself isn't free software. :(

by mkesper 10y ago

I just don't get why pico-8 itself isn't free software. :(

WillPostForFood 10y ago
So the guy who wrote it can pay his rent? I'd love for him to share the source code, but I'm happy to pay for it.
bitJericho 10y ago
There's more to pico8 than just a bit of software. There's a community, a games database, updates and support. The alternative is ad based revenue, and quite frankly I and possibly others wouldn't use pico if it were ad based. You're also free to sell your software, which you cant even do with unity without a royalty.
- springogeek 10y ago
  Plus, there seems to be a small recent trend of releasing games for free and charging a small donation amount for an instruction manual, as has been done with The Lair[1] and Galactic Wars[2] [1]: https://krajzeg.itch.io/the-lair https://krajzeg.itch.io/the-lair [2]: https://volcanobytes.itch.io/galactic-wars https://volcanobytes.itch.io/galactic-wars
st3v3r 10y ago
Are you willing to pay his rent for it to be free software?
AstroJetson 10y ago
In the all things considered category it's very inexpensive at $15 for all the stuff that you get. Compared to some movies (ticket, popcorn and a drink at almost twice the cost) I've had much more fun with PICO-8. For $30 you can get a C.H.I.P computer, game pad AND a copy of Pico-8. So you can go retro on tiny hardware.
TeddyDD 10y ago
I hope you mean free as freedom. I'm not surprised that Pico is not open source. It's still in development and author is really careful about design and building a community around it. Pico is such a creative environment thanks to its limitations and last thing community needs is fifty incompatible forks that would change pallete, resolution or token limit :)
- mkesper 10y ago
  Yes, free as in freedom. The educational character might profit if - for those curious to do so - it would be possible to look into the mechanics of this 'game'.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]