Current status

[Smilley]

Some news:
- Made a snapshot and sent it to Andrews and Ingram before leaving the US. Yay!

Yay indeed. I would love to hear back from them.

- Now really back from EverfreeNW! It was a blast. Still on a personal side, I'm in the process of moving, reducing my available free time to work on the project for now.

Welcome back on the Old Continent.

- Would love to publicly release the game before Season 3 airs. That means: it should come out soon!
(? any objection to that?)
As of now, the release plan is as follow:
- release a single (huge) pack containing everything that's in the /RTM/ folder

You have my OK on that.

+ provide a Windows-based installer to make things easier to set up (? maybe)

Do we have someone to do that? Also, if we bundle USDX or any other program, we should ask them for permission. For legality and common courtesy.

+ release a pony Ultrastar theme with the game

Any progress on that?

+ move the development files from Dropbox to something more practial to use (access control, versioning, storage space)

Anything particular, or just an idea at this stage?

+ hire some forum staff ("community managers", ie. mods willing to help people around, not just delete spam)

You have anyone in mind?

+ correct the domain name issues (?)

There are? *Pinkie Pie puppy-eyes*
Anything we should know about?

- spread the word about the project!

I've been thinking that we could send a word to Equestria Gaming once the files are on-line. Maybe even EQD.

Work on S3 songs will begin as soon as we have access to high-quality audio and video assets. The two S3 "spoiler songs" will eventually be replaced by their higher-quality counterpart by then (no more telesync'd background videos!).

I'm already itching. With more song editors, we'll have to call dibs or something.  ;D

If there's anything we can help with, just say the word.

[Renard]

+ provide a Windows-based installer to make things easier to set up (? maybe)

Do we have someone to do that? Also, if we bundle USDX or any other program, we should ask them for permission. For legality and common courtesy.

No one yet, but it might be easy to do using some tools from Nullsoft (for instance). This is likely to be a bad idea though, so this probably won't be done at all. However, having seen people struggle with the way a song pack should be installed, I'm pretty sure it could be useful.

Stepmania (partially) solved that issue by creating the .smzip format, which allows people to just double-click an add-on pack to install it - be it songs, themes, or whatever Stepmania supports. AFAIK this format only works in Windows, but since it's really only a .ZIP, everyone can still use it elsewhere. Kinda neat.

Considering that the "My Little Karaoke" game may consist of three parts (engine, song pack, theme) to install separately, it might be seen as too complex and be turned down by a large chunk of the expected audience.
Ideally, a 5 years-old should be able to install the game without supervision. It ain't likely to happen, due to the current constraints.

+ release a pony Ultrastar theme with the game

Any progress on that?

None. The guy who uploaded a mock-up to the Dropbox gave up for a while, but still wants to try creating a theme. However, it's harder than expected; the file format is not as straightforward as expected.
For more info, try contacting him on IRC (#karaoke on Ponychat)

+ move the development files from Dropbox to something more practical to use (access control, versioning, storage space)

Anything particular, or just an idea at this stage?

Just an idea / wishful thinking for now. But it's quite clear than even a paid Dropbox account (that would eliminate the "space" issue, at least for a bit) would lack some much-needed features.
This is a "low" priority for now. My only concern right now is that I have absolutely no idea how much space each contributor has in the Dropbox. If someone wants to update a file and can't for that reason - I'm not aware of it till you guys post.

+ hire some forum staff ("community managers", ie. mods willing to help people around, not just delete spam)

You have anyone in mind?

Not yet!
I'll probably move all current contributors to a specific group with that role, but I'd love to see some new faces too. Two ideas here:
- I don't want to force current contributors to eventually act as mods (more work), but I know they can be trusted not to go on a rampage;
- I don't think that the ability to "code" a song should be a necessity to engage with the community, and there's a lot to gain by having "non-tech" people with that role.

+ correct the domain name issues (?)

There are? *Pinkie Pie puppy-eyes*
Anything we should know about?

Well, the domain name is "derpy.fr" and the forum is hosted on "ps3linux.fr" - both are kinda unrelated to such a project, and somewhat country-dependant. Everything works fine, but it's an odd choice.
I'm just being cheap, re-using old domains and hosting in order not to pay too much that way.

The good part is that searching for "My Little Pony Karaoke" is starting to bring some results on Google (first page), meaning that people can actually discover the project despite the domain name!

- spread the word about the project!

I've been thinking that we could send a word to Equestria Gaming once the files are on-line. Maybe even EQD.

Yes! And DerpyHoovesNews. And EverfreeRadio. And many others.
I guess we could use a press release, and a Youtube promo video (trailer).

[Renard]

Shall we release this week-end? :D
Everything's ready (kinda). I'd love to have a short video trailer to promote the game and a prettier download page. Hosting is dealt with, QA is fine, and we have enough content worthy of a release.

[Smilley]

I did one last brush-up on Winter Wrap Up, now we're all set.

I like the new board options, but I'm not sure we should put our workflow notes into the public feedback folder.

[dos]

+ provide a Windows-based installer to make things easier to set up (? maybe)

Do we have someone to do that? Also, if we bundle USDX or any other program, we should ask them for permission. For legality and common courtesy.

No. USDX is released on GNU GPL, and that means that you are free to use, redistribute, include with your work or even modify it, as long as your modifications are also released on GNU GPL or some other compatible license.

Long story short: It's Free Software. If you're not closing it down or removing original copyright information, you can do everything you want with it without asking, or even notifying anyone. "Free" in Free Software means "freedom", not "free as beer". Well, it is also "free as beer" most of the time, but that's just effect of freedom - not the other way.

Much bigger copyright problem is with songs themselves - you should be aware that Hasbro (or any other company that holds copyright on them) may require you to stop redistributing them. But well, let's assume that they are kind guys and see this work as fair use. Decision is up to them.

[TechnoColt]

Much bigger copyright problem is with songs themselves - you should be aware that Hasbro (or any other company that holds copyright on them) may require you to stop redistributing them.

I doubt Hasbro would do that, though. They've made the (very wise) decision to allow all pony related youtube videos because they know that the show wouldn't have exploded if it weren't for the Bronies. Chances are, they'll allow this as well.

[dos]

Much bigger copyright problem is with songs themselves - you should be aware that Hasbro (or any other company that holds copyright on them) may require you to stop redistributing them.

I doubt Hasbro would do that, though. They've made the (very wise) decision to allow all pony related youtube videos because they know that the show wouldn't have exploded if it weren't for the Bronies. Chances are, they'll allow this as well.

They're removing episodes from YT. And great majority of pony YT stuff is made with fair use, so it's not up to their decision, as it's allowed by law in many countries.

I doubt Hasbro would take off this project too. You should just be aware of all legal things around it. Nothing less, nothing more.

[Smilley]

We ask every fan-songwriter for permission and we'll definitely remove any songs if they ask us to.
As for the official songs, Daniel Ingram knows about the project. Sure, he's no Hasbro executive, but he's the songwriter, after all.
Also, as said, Hasbro has been light on the fan-made content, and we're not making any money off their copyrights.

[dos]

Sure, he's no Hasbro executive, but he's the songwriter, after all.

Well, legally he's just noone. He doesn't own any rights in this regard.

Also, as said, Hasbro has been light on the fan-made content, and we're not making any money off their copyrights.

Why people keep repeating "we're not making any money" argument? It has nothing to do with copyright laws. Nothing.

But well, you two took less important part of my post only and ignored more important one - hey, USDX is GPL, you can make sweet installer without any problems! :D

I only said about copyright on songs because of "we have to ask USDX" argument. When you don't ask Hasbro at the same time it just feels like double standards ;)

[Smilley]

Sure, he's no Hasbro executive, but he's the songwriter, after all.

Well, legally he's just noone. He doesn't own any rights in this regard.

True. Still, he'd probably have told us if it would have been an immediate concern.

Also, as said, Hasbro has been light on the fan-made content, and we're not making any money off their copyrights.

Why people keep repeating "we're not making any money" argument? It has nothing to do with copyright laws. Nothing.

IIRC, it makes for a stronger case. But that could be patent rights. I tend to confuse those.

But well, you two took less important part of my post only and ignored more important one - hey, USDX is GPL, you can make sweet installer without any problems! :D

Thanks for that heads-up.

I only said about copyright on songs because of "we have to ask USDX" argument. When you don't ask Hasbro at the same time it just feels like double standards ;)

It is, isn't it? :-\ Guess I'm more confident about asking people where a negative answer wouldn't ruin the whole project.  ;)

[Renard]

+ correct the domain name issues (?)

There are? *Pinkie Pie puppy-eyes*
Anything we should know about?

Well, the domain name is "derpy.fr" and the forum is hosted on "ps3linux.fr" - both are kinda unrelated to such a project, and somewhat country-dependant.[/quote]

Someone gave me a new (relevant, and simple) domain name to use for this project. I guess this will solve both issues at once! And there will probably be a revamp of the download page, allowing people to easily download individual songs and corrections too.

This will take some time, though.