Friday, May 3, 2019

Of Edits and Improvements of my Work

As of this typing, there's an ongoing discussion on Creatures Caves about rehosting and updating addons created by people who are no longer a part of the Creatures Community. I haven't added my two cents to it myself, largely because I feel I have nothing to add. This bit pretty much says everything I would have:

"I say we fix/patch/reupload everything first and ask forgiveness later if they ever bother to file a complaint. It’s not like this is being done maliciously after all. We’re not trying to take credit from the creators, but if we stand by and do nothing, tip-toeing around antiquated modding distribution policies, we only stand to lose more and more content to an already damaged and emaciated community."

However, it has got me thinking about my policies about my own work. My sharing policies are listed on my main downloads page, and I don't intent on changing them anytime soon. It ensures all my work is found in one, easy-to-find place. 

But what about edits and fixes? My policy says nothing about those. 

In the past I might have been a little possessive over it. However, nowadays I just don't see the point. All this stuff is for a game made by somebody else, and a fair chunk of it's based on somebody else's work as it is. Furthermore, I learn best when I rip apart things somebody else made and figure out how they did this, that, and the other thing. Finally, it's not like I have the enthusiasm nowadays to go back and fix any outstanding issues that might exist in my work. 

So my policy on editing my creations is thus: Go nuts.

Want to make my metarooms TWB/TCB friendly? Go for it. Find a game-breaking bug in one of my agents? Patch it up. Dive into my genomes and see what makes them tick; improve them if you so desire. Heck, feel free to share these improvements with the community. All I ask is that you credit me for the original work (and don't use my work to create something offensive, intentionally hurtful, etc.).

However, I should note that the artwork for much of my agents and metarooms was created by somebody else (Mea for the most part). Before you start editing the artwork I'd suggest contacting the creators of said artwork to see if it's okay. 

That is all for now. Until the next one, folks.