Chapter 17 - Distributing a Game

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With the release of Alectormancy, distributing a game has become a very simple process. No longer do game developers have to worry about which files to give, what needs to be renamed, or how to distribute for different platforms. Upon loading CUSTOM, scroll down to near the bottom of the menu and you will see "Distribute Game."

Howto distribution-001.png.png

Selecting that otpion brings up another menu:

Howto distribution-002.png

You will find a series of options for distribution:

  • Edit distribution info...
  • Export .ZIP
  • Export Windows Installer
  • Export Mac OS X App Bundle
  • Export Debian Linux Package
  • Export README text file

Select the one (or ones) that are best suited to what you wnat to do. Before actually exporting and distributing the file though, you'll want to edit your distribution info.

Step-by-Step Instructions[edit]

Editing Your Distribution Info[edit]

Upon selecting "Edit distribition info..." you will be greeted with the following screen:

Howto distribution-003.png

Here, you can edit various things regarding your game, namely:

  • Package Name — The name of your package (e.g. sampler)
  • Game name — The long name of your game (e.g. Sampler IV — Quest for the Wiki)
  • Author — Your name, or group, or whoever made the game.
  • Email — Your email address
  • Description — This is a brief one paragraph description of your game. You won't put anything too verbose here, as this is just a tiny blurb about your game.
  • More Description — This contains all of the other information you want about your game. You can include instructions, credits, special thanks, contact details, or anything else you want your README file to contain. Alternatively, you can edit this in an external text file. Pressing F2 will export to a text file, and F3 will import from a text file.
  • Website — If you have a website for your game, or a blog, or whatever, you can include it here.
  • Copyright year — This field is automatically filled in for you, although you can edit it as you want.
  • License — You can choose from different licenses here. The ones available are:
    • Copyright — This is your typical copyright. You own the game and all of its resources. Other people are not allowed to reuse your graphics, your music, or anything else your game uses unless you provide explicit permission that it is acceptable.
    • PUBLICDOMAIN — The direct opposite of Copyright, you waive any and all rights to your game. Anyone can do with it as they please. Should a big Hollywood producer come along and decide your game is perfect for the next big summer blockbuster, he can do so without asking for your permission, or even acknowledging you.
    • GPL — The GNU General Public License means that anybody can share or make changes to your game, as long as they also distribute any changes under the GPL license.
    • MIT — The MIT License means that anybody can do anything with your game as long as they don't remove your copyright notice.
    • CC-BY — The Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License allows others to share and adapt your game for either personal, or commercial use as long as they attribute the work in a way you, the game designer, designates.
    • CC-BY-SA — The Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License allows others to share and adapt your game for either personal, or commercial use as long as they attribute the work in a way you, the game designer, designates. Further, they must distribute any derivative works under a license similar to CC-BY-SA.
    • CC-BY-ND — The Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License only allows others to share your game. They must also attribute the game and cannot produce any derivative works. You are basically allowing others to share and distribute your game, but nothing else beyond that.
    • CC-BY-NC — The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License is very similar to CC-BY, but others cannot use your work for commercial purposes.
    • CC-BY-NC-SA — The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License is identical to CC-BY-SA, but does not allow any commercial use of your game.
    • CC-BY-NC-ND — The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License is identical to CC-BY-ND, but does not allow any commercial use of your game.


Remember though, that the majority of these are optional. You aren't required to fill any of these out, but are provided here for ease of distribution.

Uploading Your Game[edit]

You can upload your zip file to an OHRRPGCE Community site, or any website for game uploads.

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