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| − | This page contains (at times very opinionated) notes about taking a Minetest game and distribute it outside of Minetest. It assumes that you know how to compile Minetest from source.
| + | {{delete|page moved}} |
| − | | + | This page has been moved and is now being updated [https://wiki.voxelmanip.se/wiki/Distributing_Minetest_Games at The Voxelmanip Minetest Wiki] instead. |
| − | Minetest as an engine itself doesn't have any official means to export a game into a self-contained package with the engine. However as Minetest is free software you can fork the engine to rebrand it and bundle it with the game of your choosing.
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| − | == General tips ==
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| − | Generally you're able to customise the main menu (at <code>builtin/mainmenu/</code>), which is written in Lua and formspec, however you'd like to suit your game.
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| − | | |
| − | === Locking down the singleplayer tab to one game ===
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| − | Go into <code>src/defaultsettings.cpp</code> and
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| − | | |
| − | === Rebranding the main menu ===
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| − | Copy the game's <code>menu/</code> textures into <code>textures/base/pack/</code>.
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| − | | |
| − | * Rename <code>header.png</code> to <code>menu_header.png</code>
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| − | * Rename <code>background.png</code> to <code>menu_bg.png</code>
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| − | * Rename <code>icon.png</code> to <code>logo.png</code>
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| − | The main menu branding doesn't support randomised textures (unless you implement that yourself), so you would need to pick one.
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| − | | |
| − | === Add to the "About" tab ===
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| − | You should keep the Minetest credits list in order to follow Minetest's license regarding attribution, but you may choose to add contributors and developers to the game above it.
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| − | | |
| − | In addition to this, you should add some note right above the Minetest credits to credit the engine itself:
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| − | | |
| − | <pre>local minetest_info = {
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| − | "<GAME> is made possible by the Minetest engine,",
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| − | "which is free software licensed under LGPLv2.1.",
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| − | ""
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| − | }</pre>
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| − | | |
| − | === Filtering the serverlist ===
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| − | You can filter the serverlist to only show servers running the specified game. Add the following code to <code>builtin/mainmenu/serverlistmgr.lua</code>:
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| − | | |
| − | <pre>@@ -181,7 +181,18 @@ function serverlistmgr.sync()
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| − | end
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| − |
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| − | local retval = core.parse_json(response.data)
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| − | - return retval and retval.list or {}
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| − | +
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| − | + local list = {}
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| − | + local kiosk_game = "<gameid of the game>"
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| − | +
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| − | + -- Iterate over servers, only keep ones with the valid gameid
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| − | + for _,entry in pairs(retval.list) do
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| − | + if entry.gameid == kiosk_game then
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| − | + table.insert(list, entry)
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| − | + end
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| − | + end
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| − | +
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| − | + return list
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| − | end,
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| − | nil,
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| − | function(result)
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| − | </pre>
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| − | | |
| − | Replace the <code>kiosk_game</code> variable with the gameid of your game.
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| − | | |
| − | === Filtering ContentDB packages ===
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| − | ContentDB keeps track of what games a mod is able to support, which can be used to filter the list of packages through the API. This works especially well if the game has a distinct mod ecosystem. Keep in mind that the game needs to be published onto ContentDB for this to work, otherwise you may choose to maintain your own ContentDB instance with a curated set of packages that work with the game.
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| − | | |
| − | In <code>builtin/mainmenu/dlg_contentstore.lua</code>, where it constructs an API URL that looks something like this:
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| − | | |
| − | <pre>"/api/packages/?type=mod&type=game&type=txp&protocol_version=" ..</pre>
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| − | | |
| − | Add the <code>&game=<author>/<gamepackage></code> argument onto the URL. For example, <code>Warr1024/nodecore</code> for NodeCore.
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| − | | |
| − | Unfortunately texture packs currently do not have the same game compatibility system, so it will be empty when filtering by game name.
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| − | | |
| − | === Change default settings ===
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| − | You can change the default settings in <code>src/defaultsettings.cpp</code> to better suit your game. You can also tweak settings for particular platforms, for example the Android specific default settings which are inside of a <code>#ifdef __ANDROID__</code> preprocessor directive.
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| − | | |
| − | == Windows ==
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| − | | |
| − | === Rebranding ===
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| − | To fully change the name of the engine you can change the name of the "project" in <code>CMakeLists.txt</code>. This will change the name of the executable and the name used on the titlebar, among other places. Keep in mind this will also mean you need to rename files in <code>misc/</code> and the translation files.
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| − | | |
| − | To change the icon that's used for Minetest builds on Windows you'll have to replace <code>misc/minetest-icon.ico</code> with your game's icon in the Windows ICO file format.
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| − | | |
| − | To make it install your given game instead of Minetest Game, go into <code>CMakeLists.txt</code> and change the line that installs <code>mods/minetest_game</code> to install your game instead. You may also remove things such as the documentation (e.g. lua_api.txt) and devtest. The lines that install this is right around where the game gets installed, just remove those.
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| − | | |
| − | == Android ==
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| − | This section assumes you already know how to build the Android version of Minetest and how to sign APK files. (TL:DR - Download the Android command-line tools, install the NDK and accept any necessary license terms, then <code>./gradlew assemblerelease</code>, <code>apksigner</code> and be happy)
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| − | | |
| − | === Separate package name ===
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| − | First of all you would like to change the package name of the Android app. This will make it separate from the regular Minetest app which has the package name <code>net.minetest.minetest</code>. Change the <code>applicationId</code> in <code>android/app/build.gradle</code> to the package name of your choosing. Package names work like regular Java names which use reverse DNS names, if you don't have a domain name it should be fine to keep <code>net.minetest</code> and only change the last "subdomain" to the game's name.
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| − | However if you try to build and install the app right now it will not work. This is because Minetest provides a file provider which needs to be named just like the package name, and will conflict with the regular Minetest app if you have that installed. In <code>android/app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml</code> and <code>android/app/src/main/java/net/minetest/minetest/GameActivity.java</code> you will have to change the file provider name to reflect your package name.
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| − | | |
| − | === Rebranding ===
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| − | To change the name of the app to the game's name, edit the <code>label</code> string in <code>android/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml</code>. To change the icon, replace <code>android/app/src/main/res/mipmap/ic_launcher.png</code> with the icon of the game.
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| − | When Gradle bundles assets into an archive, it will copy <code>gameToCopy</code> defined in <code>android/app/build.gradle</code>. By default this is <code>minetest_game</code> so you would want to change the variable to bundle your game instead.
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| − | The loading screen background when Minetest extracts assets can be customised too. <code>android/app/src/main/res/drawable/background.png</code> which by default is a basic light blue background will tile if you replace it with something else.
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| − | | |
| − | == Linux ==
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| − | Linux users are usually more advanced, most of the time they will compile the engine from source for their particular distro and package it for you (the Linux user is a wonderful creature). To give them better desktop integration you should edit <code>misc/net.minetest.minetest.desktop</code> which will give them a application launcher shortcut that accurately reflects the game, including the proper icon.
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| − | | |
| − | == macOS ==
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| − | TODO
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| − | | |
| − | == Licensing ==
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| − | As the Minetest engine is licensed under LGPLv2.1, it means that any changes you make to the engine source code need to be made available. This however may not apply to the game you're distributing, which could even be licensed under proprietary terms if you do not make use of any copyleft mods. This isn't legal advice however, and you should consult a lawyer to be absolutely sure.
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| − | You can choose to version control your engine fork in Git (which has the added bonus of being able to automatically make builds using CI on your favourite Git host). Alternatively for the absolute minimum necessary you can export your current source tree with modifications as an archive file using something like this:
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| − | | |
| − | <pre>
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| − | stashName=`git stash create`; git archive $stashName | gzip > ../cool-game-engine-fork-$(date +'%Y-%m-%d').tar.gz
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| − | </pre>
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| − | | |
| − | Make some place where this file is available, and be sure to update it whenever new builds are made. <code>gzip</code> can be replaced with your favourite compression method, if so desired.
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