We’ve been posting about Open Source and what’s going on with the Dark Nova code. A couple of updates for you. First what we learned about licensing:

• Since DN is a “derivative work” of Space Trader, it’s protected under the GPL regarles of what we do or say.
• Because of the above, we can only license Dark Nova under a GPL compatible license.
• The Apache License is not GPL compatible (there are intricacies here) in this sense because the AL does not require derivative works to have open (published) source code. This is the loophole that Greg Meach thought he could use to close the code. We were all ignorant about these implications before HyperWarp.

Our code has always been published on our Google Code repo. Interested folks can find the code here: http://code.google.com/p/darknova-iphone/source/browse/#svn/trunk

Greg Meach has unquestionably improved the code. He’s also agreed with us on the GPL protected status of the code and he’s agreed to distribute his Hyper Warp code to the public under GPL. Greg distributes his source with the app itself which follows the letter of the GPL. If you have questions about how to access HyperWarp code, ask Greg.

The future direction of Dark Nova development is unclear. We don’t want to duplicate efforts and we believe that with Greg’s additions, we have a great version of Space Trader with the unique art and style of Dark Nova. We’re releasing a version of Dark Nova (1.5) to the app store based on the HyperWarp code. The only changes we’ve made are basically to the text, not the code. We’ve changed the copyright statements and the names of ships to fit the DN universe, and replacing the images and sounds with our original content.

Greg is actively developing the code base but we’re not currently collaborating. So we’re going to see where he goes with the HW code before continuing development. We will continue to release updates on the HW code base as he continues to update it and as long as we like the direction he’s moving in.

The idea to create a “scriptable quest” engine (which Greg has slotted for HWII) has been on our ToDo list for a while. We’re excited to see his implementation of that. For now, we’re focusing on creating new content for the game engine. Plus more quests, more sound and graphics to compliment the game and make it more immersive. That’s where our talents are so we’re happy to have Greg advancing the code.

If we make code changes, they will be reflected in our Repo so stay tuned.

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