Getting ready for Tiny Wheels 0.3!

written on Friday, October 6, 2017

These last two weeks I have been busy finishing Tiny Wheels third map. It is now in a good enough state, so I am now preparing a new release. It is about time, since 0.2 was released in 2015!

I also made the decision to release Tiny Wheels source code as well. The game logic is going to be licensed under GPL 3.0 or later, reusable code under Apache 2.0 and assets under Creative Common BY-SA 4.0. I decided on this unusual combination to satisfy the following goals:

• Make the game free-software friendly.
• Let other developers reuse parts of the code in their own projects, even proprietary. It's not that the code is ground-breaking, but if it can help any indie developer, that would make me happy. I don't mind if the final game is proprietary because more Indie game developers means more interesting, varied games.
• Prevent someone from releasing a closed variant of the game, probably riddled with ads. "prevent" is of course theoretical, but at least it gives me a legal option.

Finally I am considering setting up Patreon and/or Tipeee accounts to support my work on the game. I initially thought Patreon and Tipeee only worked on a monthly basis. I didn't like this because I don't have a regular work schedule at the moment. But it turns out it is possible to configure them so that supporters only pay if there is a new release, a much better fit for the way I work on Tiny Wheels. This is quite new to me, so I'd be very happy to hear any feedback on this topic!

That's it for today. If all goes well, next article should announce the release of Tiny Wheels 0.3!