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Hi there,
As I've been enjoying btanks for the past 4 years and still like many parts of it, I've decided trying to build a standalone Battle Tanks game (coded in plain C using an object oriented approach, for those who are technically interested). Except for the network code I've done everything else several times already (working as the CTO for a mid sized business right now), and I'm sure I can get that done as well.
Now, for why I'm posting this: Does anyone of you know about license and law stuff regarding btanks as a map? Building a standalone game from a wc3 map doesn't seem to be a problem, as there is league of legends already, but I've not been able to find any stuff about intelectual property and things like that regarding the battle tanks map.
So, if anyone is able to point me to relevant information, I would be grateful.
Also, I'll be doing this for fun, so I will ignore anyone posting stuff like "can you finish this in the next month?" etc. 
Thanks,
Best Regards
Getting used to the Sand everywhere. At least it brings us map updates.
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Wow, this sounds like an ambitious project ;) In case you reach a point, where you need data straight from the map, I'd also be happy to help you.
As for the legal stuff: as long as you don't use any assets from Blizzard or create some that look like the ones from Blizzard, you should be fine. I certainly don't hold any copyright to the map and I guess even Blizzard cannot claim the game mechanics as their own. It is stated, that Blizzard owns anything you create with the World Editor, but I'd be suprised if this includes something like a "patent" or an idea for a game.
I can't give you any real sources on this, but when you look at HoN, which was to some point a 1:1 clone of DotA, you should not get any problems with your own project. Assuming you get as far as creating a successful game ;) (because if it's not successful, nobody will care about it ...)
Anyway! I'm really exited and looking forward to anything you get done. So I hope you keep us updated!
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(2012-01-25, 21:26:00)griffin1987 Wrote: Also, I'll be doing this for fun, so I will ignore anyone posting stuff like "can you finish this in the next month?" etc.
Thanks,
Best Regards
Doesn't it mean that it will never happen? ^__^
Anyway u would all my support (even in design :p)
I am so good that I don't even need to type -rc because I never die !
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@Exodus: Thanks!
I'll contact you as soon as I get there - would probably be interesting for some formulas and timings.
(2012-01-26, 05:07:15)Althend Wrote: (2012-01-25, 21:26:00)griffin1987 Wrote: Also, I'll be doing this for fun, so I will ignore anyone posting stuff like "can you finish this in the next month?" etc.
Thanks,
Best Regards
Doesn't it mean that it will never happen? ^__^
Anyway u would all my support (even in design :p)
I've done some games in the past and always finished them, and as I have great fun coding (especially 3d stuff and algorithms), I don't think I won't finish this. Thing is just, the more people ask, the less motivated you get. At least that's true for me
But thanks for your support
Best Regards
Getting used to the Sand everywhere. At least it brings us map updates.
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I wonder whether your way with plain C (pointers ftw, i really hate it) will restrict this project to a single OS platform or not. 
Marvin Wrote:The first ten million years were the worst and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline
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(2012-01-26, 13:21:58)eSVau Wrote: I wonder whether your way with plain C (pointers ftw, i really hate it) will restrict this project to a single OS platform or not.
To a single endianess most probably, but nothing more. If you use standard C (and selfmade type defines like u16, u32, ... instead of long, short etc. to handle 32/64 bit) you're already very portable
(I love pointermagic btw  )
Getting used to the Sand everywhere. At least it brings us map updates.
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(2012-01-27, 13:21:05)griffin1987 Wrote: (2012-01-26, 13:21:58)eSVau Wrote: I wonder whether your way with plain C (pointers ftw, i really hate it) will restrict this project to a single OS platform or not. To a single endianess most probably, but nothing more.
Then i hope for little endian
Marvin Wrote:The first ten million years were the worst and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline
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great ^^ i work as freelance designer
may can help u with graphik files , if u need help u know where to find me
I support as much as i can, i learned some c++ but rly failed @ it ^^
greetz
Multiacc will get u better Teammates maybe, but u still unskilled as before. !!
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Nice,
I work as sales manager so i can help u sell it
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nice when many people act as a team and win a game
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2012-05-16, 09:43:43
(This post was last modified: 2012-05-16, 09:44:45 by RikonVan.)
AWESOME!!! Me and my brother would pay for it, no matter what
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(2012-05-16, 09:43:43)RikonVan Wrote: AWESOME!!! Me and my brother would pay for it, no matter what
never expect to much, then u wont get disappointed that hard : P
Gustave Le Bon "... Die Einseitigkeit und Überschwänglichkeit der Gefühle der Massen bewahren sie vor Zweifel und Ungewissheit. Den Frauen gleich gehen sie sofort bis zum Äußersten. ...".
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Nice to see that I was looking for some game engines for a standalone game. I found Unity 3d which looks promising learned some basics and engine looks enough for a BT game. dunno how u will complete a game in C griffin that looks too complex. multiplayer stuff etc.. U should look in Unity too. It also use C# and Java as alternative language. Would be easier to complete project. And it must have an easier way for multiplayer.
Trolololo
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(2012-05-19, 09:56:59)horselance Wrote: Nice to see that I was looking for some game engines for a standalone game. I found Unity 3d which looks promising learned some basics and engine looks enough for a BT game. dunno how u will complete a game in C griffin that looks too complex. multiplayer stuff etc.. U should look in Unity too. It also use C# and Java as alternative language. Would be easier to complete project. And it must have an easier way for multiplayer.
Have you read the license stuff regarding Unity? If you really can afford the thousands of dollars, it's rather nice for fast prototyping. Other than that it's just a toy in terms of real programming (at least to me, sorry if I hurt someones feelings by saying something like that).
And about doing stuff in C - there are thousands of libraries out there you can use, if you don't want to write specific parts yourself. For example I'm using SDL(2 from HG rep)+OpenGL+OpenAL right now, which makes it rather easily possible to implement stuff in a way so it can be compiled for windows, osx and linux. SDL provides input handling, OpenGL graphics, and OpenAL audio (though SDL provides graphics and audio as well, you won't get much hardware acceleration or features with it). And see there, you're done. Took me about 2 days to set everything up (SDL wouldn't compile on osx for some weird reason), and about 3 hours for a simple 3d engine.
Btw, if anyones interested: I learned OpenGL stuff at NeHeGL (google it) and the tutorials there are still up, ranging from setting up your stuff, to different shaders, all implemented in tons of different (programming-) languages and with different libs.
At the moment I'm thinking about how to best avoid network problems, as blizzards implementations wouldn't be very nice for a btanks game (playing D3 right now, and it's disturbing when your character jumps across the screen due to some lost tcp packet) - and true, you don't need to think about that stuff if you use existing libraries, but then you also have to take what you get, which, in most cases means you get low quality (have a look at trustleap.com if you really think that "the big ones have to make great stuff - they are the big ones!(like blizzard)").
Best Regards
Getting used to the Sand everywhere. At least it brings us map updates.
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Cool. How big is your team? What other games have you done? I'd like to check them out. I've considered working on a game like Battle Tanks but I haven't been in a position to pursue it. I always thought the design and theme would be an interesting challenge. Right now, it's just a hodgepodge of Warcraft memes, but it does produce it's own flavor as the gameplay emerges. Would be interesting to see what the theme and visuals would make the most natural fit.
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I see you mentioned Unity, but I'm not sure what concerns you about the license. For the free version you'll never pay anything even if you make millions of dollars off the game. The pro version is an upfront cost of $1500 per person (two concurrent installs) with other upfront costs for each other platform besides the desktop platforms that are already included. Again you'll never pay them anything beyond that. There are no royalties or revenue sharing costs, ever. I guess Unreal Engine goes the other way where you'll need to supply a share of any successful sales.
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Q: Can we sell games and make money with the free version of Unity?
A: Yes! You certainly can-- and without royalties nor paying any revenue share! If your game is a commercial success, we hope you'll upgrade to Unity Pro!
Hmm i was thinking it required a license for selling but not for free games. But its totally free!! Though griffin knows the best because he is in charge
I dont understand much of C so i may not be too much help. I try to learn Unity which seemed much easier and faster for me
If you need a hand just poke me
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If you are really planning this to be a full stand along game why not do a Kickstarter for it to get some funds so you can focus on it more?
Just look at http://www.kickstarter.com/ and you will see people get huge chunks of money for much worse game ideas, I am sure there are a huge number of people who still/used to play willing to drop some money on getting this made.
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