The Open Bundle - Help uncopyright some game art assets

The Open Bundle - Help uncopyright some game art assets(commonly.cc)

102 points by hellerbarde 12 years ago | 16 comments

jlgaddis 12 years ago |

I don't believe that I have ever heard of anything mentioned in this bundle but I am quite happy to see this (fairly) recent shift where artists, authors, creators, etc., are bypassing the middle man (think MPAA, RIAA, etc.).

In addition, I am a huge advocate of open source and, by extension, adamantly opposed to anything involving DRM.

The $10,000 goal has been surpassed but I'm throwing $25 ("all to artists") in the hat anyway. It is my hope that the organizers will, as much as they possibly can, let the world know that this project was a success and encourage others to do the same. This is an awesome idea and I hope that others copy it.

I have no real desire for the "DRM-free copy of the Gap Monsters and 4 Horsemen Original Soundtrack" that I am being rewarded with and am happy to instead give it to someone who would like to have it but is unable to contribute for whatever reason -- first come, first serve; just post a reply below.

Side note: it wasn't obvious in the least (call it a "UI issue") but I am assuming (hoping) that my credit card details were sent over an encrypted connection.

EDIT: Okay, new rule: If you want "my copy", please leave a reply to this comment (so that others know that it's been claimed and don't waste their time) and send me a PGP encrypted e-mail (see my profile). I'll reply with a link where you can download it. Thanks.

importMe 12 years ago | |

I think that since the goal has been reached, there is no point in giving "your copy" of the bundle to anyone. If the artists follow what they have been doing in the past[1], they will make it a public download.

[1] The GameDev Garage Sale - http://garage.commonly.cc/

jlgaddis 12 years ago | | |

Awesome, even better! (I'll admit to not reading everything on the site as carefully as I probably should have -- thanks for the clarification!)

hellerbarde 12 years ago |

Disclaimer: I am not involved with this project in any way other than having donated/pledged some money.

I think this is a really cool idea, and I hope they succeed and more indies (or big studios) actually do things like this. It could lead to some amazing spin-off games from small time devs.

ncasenmare 12 years ago | |

Hi, organizer of The Open Bundle here! Thanks for submitting our campaign to HN. We just reached our "public domain release" goal half an hour ago, hopefully this will lead to more indies aiming to earn money by opening their works.

orta 12 years ago | | |

This is good work, I think it's a great idea.

I had some problems when I wanted to pledge earlier in that I just went to the bottom, put in my number and hit credit card and nothing happened. ( safari, with no obvious js errors in console. )

hellerbarde 12 years ago | | |

You're welcome. That's great to hear! I hope you can be (one of) the first with many to follow. :D

Ellipsis753 12 years ago |

I love this idea and it's really awesome but I was a little sad to see that I didn't really care about any of the assets.

If you could get Mario/Tetris rom/sprites uncopyrighted then that would be truly awesome. Things which no longer make a profit but sadly still cannot legally be used for fan works etc.

Of course I know that getting big names on board would be very difficult but just my thoughts on the matter.

edit: OK, I've been down-voted a couple of times for this. I'd be interested to know why. I'm maybe not being supportive enough of something just starting out?

Personally although I think it's an awesome idea I will not be donating as I don't know any of the names or particularly want to donate money to these artists. Much better art is already in public domain without the artists wanting money to release it (much like open-source software).

rrouse 12 years ago | |

Actually, Nintendo does still sell copies of the original Mario (and other Mario stuff obviously), so I think you were downvoted for suggesting that big names would even consider something like this. It's not realistic.

jlgaddis 12 years ago | |

I've never heard of any of the "assets" before now either. I want to encourage others to copy this idea, though, so I contributed $25 anyway.

JoshTriplett 12 years ago |

I'd love to see something like this for games that were previously sold as part of Humble Bundle, especially those for which the authors released the source code for the game engine.

ncasenmare 12 years ago | |

That's a great idea! Perhaps the gamedevs who participated in The Bitcoin Bundle [1] might be the most receptive to the idea of open-sourcing their games.

[1] https://www.thebitcoinbundle.com/

comex 12 years ago |

Not just art assets - also some source code.

Well, the video is more than a little hyperbolic, but I like the idea and am glad the funding goal was reached.

Splendor 12 years ago |

I love this idea. Has something like this been done to purchase existing art for the public domain?

ncasenmare 12 years ago | |

Not art, but Blender is the biggest example of "buying out for the public" that comes to mind.

Blender used to be proprietary software, and when their company went bankrupt, they crowdfunded 100,000 euros to release their code as open-source. This was a decade ago. Blender is now the most popular open-source 3D animation software today.