[hungie]

Couple of thoughts, as an indie dev:

1) Aseprite is already king in this space, yes, this may be more automatable but asesprite already wires into my engine. In my engine, I can write code to preview behaviors in more or less realtime on file save.

2) what's with the Eula? This is not an open source tool, but it appears to be a source available tool with some strict requirements. I cannot distribute the code or binary, which means that even looking at the code could potentially introduce legal liabilities for me. As an indie, not a risk I'm willing to take. (I have this complaint about Aseprite too, fwiw)

[whateveracct]

There's definitely room for an actually FOSS pixel art editor imo. But everyone who makes one wants to sell it for walking around money on itch.io.

It doesn't matter to everyone but it does move the needle for a subset of people. I love to read my tools' source and fork/hack on/contribute to them.

[flinkerflitzer]

I hear you, but I think people often overlook that developers have practical considerations to take into account. I've gone full tilt with Stipple Effect this whole year, and I have living expenses to consider.

I also don't see how the license prohibits you from doing what you expressed, though that may be an oversight on my part. I'm happy to be educated or listen to what specific concerns you have about how the license or distribution model limits what you would hope to get out of the program.

[moomin]

Everyone loves open source, but they pay for commercial products. You deserve to be paid for your work and your product.

[whateveracct]

Nothing wrong with making paid software! There's definitely a market for it and I wish you well.

I'm just niche and not in your market :D

[flinkerflitzer]

Fair enough; thanks for giving me something to think about!

[efilife]

Check out Pixelorama

https://github.com/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama

[Blackcatmaxy]

https://github.com/Orama-Interactive/Pixelorama is FOSS (MIT license) and available for free on itch.io

[whateveracct]

wow - thanks for the tip! this looks very cool

[flinkerflitzer]

That's fair enough. I guess the additional benefit that I am going for here is that the preview behaviors literally are real-time. The preview window re-computes a preview script's output every time the project state changes in Stipple Effect, so you'll see the effects of a brush stroke on your preview milliseconds after releasing the mouse. That way you don't have to save the file, switch contexts, and see the updated result. But I respect that your current workflow may be your preference.

How does looking at the code expose you to potential legal liabilities? I'm a bit confused by that.

[hungie]

If I haven't paid for a license or even if I have, I don't have permissions to reproduce or use the code. So let's say I'm making a game like Mario paint, and in my game I'm doing some image manipulation.

If I've looked at your proprietary code, you could argue I stole your ip to make my game. That the functions I wrote in my game are fundamentally similar to those you wrote, and therefore I need to stop selling.

Most studios have pretty strong "don't look at code you can't own" processes for this reason.

[flinkerflitzer]

I get your point in principle, but even if I were inclined to get litigious in a situation like that (which I'm not), I don't see how such an argument would have any legs for anything other than the most niche algorithms in the codebase that concern features or systems are more or less unique to Stipple Effect.

I will reflect on this though. This is my first time commercially distributing software, and my priorities for the license were for it to protect my IP without being overly restrictive. However, I've had a few people in separate spaces raise concerns with it, and I want my software to be as accessible as possible without compromising my ability to profit from it or expose myself to liability or "theft".

I'm the sole developer of Stipple Effect, so I can update the license with a future release if I feel compelled to do so.

[chii]

> 2) what's with the Eula?

Yea, there's some strange clauses in the eula. For example, the eula stipulates that your operating system must be validly licensed.

> on your computer running a validly licensed copy of the operating system

I don't see how or why this is important at all. In other words, pirated copy of windows is disallowed from using this software.

Not that i have any issues with the eula in general. I think this is good enough to be a paid piece of software. It's just weird to see a clause about the operating system itself.

[flinkerflitzer]

That was a common clause that I encountered while researching the licenses for software with similar distribution models to the one I was targeting.

As far as I can tell, stipulating that end users must be running a validly licensed OS helps protect the licensor (me) in situations where a cracked OS with malware corrupts my software or compromises the whole system.

[CaptainFever]

For a free as in free speech pixel art editor, check out LibreSprite (a fork of Aesprite): https://libresprite.github.io/

[andai]

>asesprite already wires into my engine

Do you mean you have some kind of Aseprite plugin, or are you just hot reloading the sprites?

[hungie]

Asesprite plugin that, for instance, manages all my animation objects