Wanting to do a Preview of my project

Hey guys

I'm hard at work on my project over here, and am wanting to do release the next Alpha Build to the Blitz community

You've been very helpful since the project moved into Blitz, and so I think I owe you a little preview of where all that help was going

So, what I need to know now is:
1) How much interest there is in seeing a project like mine (detailed below)
2) Where I should place links to the release such that only those who have bought Blitz can get it
3) More about how I should protect this release - I am afterall releasing it to a bunch of people who I barely know at all

What I am wanting to release:

Seten: Myrianon 2D RPG Engine, Alpha Build 14 - BlitzMax Windows and hopefuly Linux

Yes, as some of you may remember, I have attempted to release previous builds in the past, and this didnt work so well because people had to E-Mail me to get them, and they werent really all that impressive

Anyway

The objective is to make a powerful yet easy to develop around 2D Top View RPG Engine, A14 would be the first build to include the Chainsaw Method Scripting Language

Myrianon will be released - free and with source code included, either after its development is complete, or after Seten has finished its first game (this has yet to be decided)

Chainsaw is so far very easy to understand (Seten's primary artist understands it, and thats saying something), and if the rest turns out as planned will take advantage of all of the power offered by the engine

By Default, Chainsaw will only be suitable for developing games in the Seten world, but because of Source Code access it shouldnt be too hard for a single Blitz user to change Chainsaw Method - Seten into Chainsaw Method - Bobble World or whatever else you intend to make

This allows a single Blitz user to delegate much of the coding work to less experianced team members, without them having to purchase anything at all (yep, you can develop Chainsaw Method code in Notepad and socket it straight into the engine without any Blitz intervention at all)

Myrianon A14 release will include:

Basic Myrianon Executable (A14) (without source code - though rest assured for those who tried the previous release, it looks almost nothing like what it did back then)
Sample Chainsaw Method Area and Portal Files
Chainsaw Method - Seten (A14) Documentation
RCode RoomMap System with Level Editor (Seten:RoomEd 1.2, developed in Blitz+) and documentation

What sort of protection I am looking for:

I'm after something that allows people to look at things, and try making things with the Level Editor and Chainsaw Method Code, but will stop people sharing it with others outside the community

It should be noted that, while yes I am hoping this will generate interest and feedback, I gain absolutly nothing by releasing the finished product to you free and open source - with the intent that you create closed source derevative works and sell them, I am doing that purely because I want to see Blitz grow bigger, and more resources will help that, and because I want to see more good quality independant RPGs around

What about a time limited version?

We use library that 'talks' to an online internet atomic clock. When the free time period is over then the code won't run.

Ah, I'm not talking about that sort of protection, sorry for the misscommunication

I was actualy meaning legal protection, Y'know like liscences and stuff

Well, if it's in BlitzMax, maybe you could even find someone to have a Mac port of that project, too. I mean, BMax is universal amongst all major operating systems, as one can well tell you. Linux and Windows are both my forte for now, but within a couple of years, I may try adding Mac to the list, after finding out how Vista does in its first year, which Blitz may not support too much until 2008 or so, I have a hunch.

I do plan to do Mac versions of everything as well yes, the problem right now is that at the present time I do not have a mac

I would ask someone to compile a Mac build for me, but for a limited Preview type thing it probably isnt important enough

How powerful is the core system, without having to touch source can you... Change backbone stats and stat-math... can you, define status ailments, spells, skills, and such based on the backbone?

Can you make cosmetic changes, like rearanging menu bits, or move other gui elements about?

Is there a gui-editor? or is it all code-driven?

The answer to most of those is "Not Yet"

You have to bare in mind that the scripting language part is at a very early stage of development, but if these are what people want then this is what I will endevour to make it do

Having a preview at this stage helps in this regard because I can see where people want me to take the thing

As for the core system, I'm constantly tweeking it to make it more efficiant, and adding bits to make it more powerful, so far we have the basic Map (or Room) system, a Character Control system that handles both party members and NPCs, the Animation System is complete in the old B+ version and being converted to Max as the extra bits are needed
There is a dialog system, thats finished, and a colour swapping system for creating differently coloured sprites on the fly, I'm hoping to tweek that later to also change rock colours to show what minerals are present in them

We have an intigrated battle system planned, we have the character generator mapped out and currently intigrated - that'll be moving out to Chainsaw Method Script once the language is developed enough to handle it

There is a basic weather system planned, and functions for shading tiles as they are drawn to indicate basic shadows

The only Gui Editor right now is for Rooms, that'll be developed alongside the engine, I can easily make others as the need arises

The Battle-Animation system we have planned will split the sprites up into peices and move each bit individualy, this system will be accessable outside of battle via Chainsaw Method for advanced sprite animation purposes

Maybe - Big maybe here, the engine might just include some sort of LAN/Internet multiplayer support, but this depends upon a lot of stuff and we arent too sure yet, but rest assured I will keep working on the engine until all of the above and more are complete