Open Source Group

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Comment by John Sutherland on June 16, 2009 at 4:00pm

Jailbroken iPhones? Legal in case law: yes (i.e. no cases). Legal in statute law: unknown. Ethical: no, IMHO (as Apple make their money on hardware and anything that limits this is theft). Moral: YMMV. Balance = Yes + u/k + No + ?. So, it depends on the ? I thought Apple were challenged on their closed selling of the iPhone on one operator in Europe and lost, hence my YMMV value on moral.

Comment by Ross Drew on June 16, 2009 at 2:14pm

I wont tell if you don't :P

Comment by Kalakian on June 16, 2009 at 1:46pm

That's kinda against the point of us supporting open source software though. We want students to be using free and legal software.

While developing for jailbroken iPhones is possible, we wouldn't encourage this as it is a legally and ethically grey area.

Comment by Ross Drew on June 16, 2009 at 12:28pm

Well that's not totally true. You CAN, in fact there were open source tools way before apple released their dev environment but it means marketing for the hacked iPhone and not via the iTunes app store.

Comment by Ross Forshaw on June 16, 2009 at 11:13am

You can develop Open Source programs on the Iphone as it's really just down to what license you choose. But you can't code for the Iphone using Open Source technology or using any platform other than a Mac.

Comment by Ross Drew on June 16, 2009 at 9:25am

You have "clients" waiting on games? Do explain.

Comment by John Sutherland on June 16, 2009 at 7:41am

Talk is cheap ... action is costly. So (thinking of Daniel's posting elsewhere about doing a buzz over the summer sometime) how do we get those interested to start taking chances. After all, the uni helps with theory and skills, but the application is everything. And writing your first game is simply a case of, well, writing your first game. Do Derek, Daniel, etc. need to organise this? Well, mebbes. I have clients wanting games - e.g. a bunch of artists in Sheffield - if people want to jump in (or 'jamp' in as my daughter sez.)

I'll post these when i get more ideas. On another point, can you do Open Source dev for the iPhone?

Comment by The STIG on May 29, 2009 at 8:37pm

People in this group might want to read the discussion I've started called Strategic Independence Group (the STIG), as it views Open Source as part of a wider strategy.

Comment by Ross Forshaw on May 20, 2009 at 1:25am

The Blender Game Engine would be an appropriate place to start.

As the Engine has large amount of flexibility & has support for python for Logic along with it's Logic Bricks. It is possible to create a wide range of different games & Level Designs. The down fall with Blender is it's renowned, learning curve. Though if you teach Blender in a Educational environment, potential pit falls & problems can be resolved quickly.

Comment by John Sutherland on May 19, 2009 at 9:40pm

My view, as the teacher, is we need a piece of sofwtare - or more than one - that allows students to express their ideas. As is usual for me I itnend to talk on background issues in the classes - space, time, pathways, etc. - taking examples from non-games areas for students to relate to their own extensive game knowledge. I don't see I am there to teach you to suck eggs, but to provide a knowledge structure to hang your experiences on, in order to express new ideas through software.

So, a good open source level editor - but do we need 2D, 2.5D, side-scroll, full 3D? We can't have all, so we need to gather more ideas than we need.

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