alt.hn

3/6/2026 at 10:55:23 PM

Show HN: I open-sourced my Steam game, 100% written in Lua, engine is also open

 https://github.com/willtobyte/reprobate

by delduca

3/7/2026 at 7:55:56 AM

It isn't open source, it's source available. You have not licensed your source code, it is thus under copyright.

Please read the open source definition; https://opensource.org/osd.

There are other phrases that are usable, such as source first (in the case of FUTO licenses) or source available (when source is under copyright but is provided).

The engine, being actually MIT, is however open source.

by katdork

3/7/2026 at 5:30:19 PM

Thank you for licensing your project. I appreciate your commitment to open source. More developers and people should be like you.

by katdork

3/7/2026 at 7:59:03 AM

"open source" is not a trademark. Technically he can say whatever.

by sourcegrift

3/7/2026 at 9:07:07 AM

I don’t think Katdork is claiming the phrase “open source” is protected. He’s just saying it’s inaccurate in this case. Like claiming a fish has arms — the statement is legal, it’s just wrong.

by pinkmuffinere

3/7/2026 at 5:29:20 PM

I'm saying that words have meaning and that meaning should ideally not diluted. But, considering the developer licensed their project as MIT, I'm very happy.

by katdork

3/7/2026 at 3:04:06 PM

Looks like MIT license has been added to the game now too.

Unfortunately no README.md

by rustyhancock

3/7/2026 at 12:40:13 AM

There's nothing in that repo showing what the game actually is? And url the repo is pointing at (https://reprobate.site/) is asking for login credentials.

by bradym

3/7/2026 at 2:11:44 AM

You are right. I have added a comment.

by delduca

3/7/2026 at 10:21:43 AM

Is the comment in the README.md, or ? :)

by justinclift

3/7/2026 at 4:27:21 AM

No license too.

by Kinrany

3/7/2026 at 5:59:59 AM

Thanks for sharing! Good old README.md in the repo would not hurt :)

by romperstomper

3/7/2026 at 9:07:23 AM

There is "MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE.txt".

The first game here is to understand what the code does without a high-level README.

by remipch

3/7/2026 at 4:04:31 PM

I was thinking the "MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE.txt" is rather special than a proper README :)

by romperstomper

3/7/2026 at 9:05:16 AM

Thank you for sharing, I'm just starting to dig into Lua language and Love2D game engine.

I will explore your game source too.

by remipch

3/7/2026 at 10:13:59 PM

If the source is available but no one knows how to run it or how it works, that kind of defeats the purpose

by bl4kers

3/9/2026 at 8:10:38 PM

You need to buy to run it :)

by delduca

3/7/2026 at 8:18:40 PM

If it’s done in Lua, it is usually trivial to open the source code from the game on Steam.

by bronlund

3/7/2026 at 11:16:37 PM

Mind to explain?

by delduca

3/8/2026 at 7:25:37 PM

Take Balatro for instance, made in Lua using Löve2D. If you bought it on Steam and installed it, you can more or less just unzip it to see the source.

https://gamefromscratch.com/balatro-made-with-love-love2d-th...

by bronlund

3/8/2026 at 7:47:43 PM

I don’t mind, as a kid I used to explore game’s data. I want same for my buyers.

I could compile the Lua to byte code or write a layer of crypto on top of PhysFS though.

Thank you for the heads up.

by delduca

3/7/2026 at 1:12:48 PM

Now it have a LICESE file, I am working on a README.md.

by delduca

3/7/2026 at 3:45:11 PM

this looks like fun

by thisisidiotic