Intellectual property

We know people hate legalese, but this is important. This applies toeverything which is submitted.

You must be careful when basing on existing graphics or sounds. MostDoom projects are lax on reusing intellectual property—​there aremany mods which contain modifiedDoom sprites, for example.However, due to the nature of this project, we do not have the sameliberty to rip as we please.

The general rules go as follows:

• You must have permission for everything you submit. If you makeyour own resources, do not base on resources fromDoom or anyother restricted work. If you take work from other places, pleasemake sure that the work is freely-licensed or that you obtainpermission to include it in theFreedoom project. They may notplace additional restrictions compared to the normalFreedoomlicense.

• Do not try to emulateDoom resources exactly. Where possible,put effort to make new versions look visibly different fromDoom. This is a tough call, because our compatibility withDoom mods limits how far we can deviate, but it is feasible.

• Be especially careful of “free textures” (or “free sounds” or“free graphics”) sites. Although these would appear at first tobe okay to use, many are free for “non-commercial use only.”One of the things we want to be able to do is put this inGNU/Linux distributions (which can be sold or developedcommercially).

Levels

All levels forFreedoom must be vanilla-compatible, requiring anexpanded-limits or limit-removing engine is not permissible. Thismeans you may not exceed the limits of the originalDoom engine, anddo not depend on additional mapping features. Levels should be inDoom’s original format, not in “Hexen”-format.

It is sensible to also heed the following guidelines:

• Make sure that skill levels are implemented, and that allmultiplayer start points, both cooperative and deathmatch, arepresent.

• Try to make levels appropriately difficult for their positionwithin the progression of the game. Also bear in mind that notall players may be as skilled a player as you.

• Do not use tricks that exploitDoom’s software renderer; someengines, especially those that use hardware accelerated rendering,may not render it properly. Examples of tricks to avoid includethose used to simulate 3D bridges and “deep water” effects.

• Test your levels inChocolateDoom to make sure that vanilla compatibility is maintained. Thisis an engine with strict adherence to vanilla Doom limits andbugs, and working in it assures that levels can be played with anyDoom engine.

• Use a Doom editor to check for errors. InEureka it’s possible tocheck for errors with the Check / All menu, or by pressingF9.

• If possible runmake test and fix any errors found. Note thatsome of the errors can be fixed bymake fix.

Graphics

Graphics should generally have the same color and size as the originalDoom graphics, as to remain compatible with mods. Otherwise, levelsmay end up looking like a nightmare in design. They may bethematically different as long as it doesn’t clash.

Doom uses a fictional corporation abbreviated as “UAC:” this istrademarked by id Software and cannot be used inFreedoom. Instead,use the initials “AGM” forFreedoom.

Documentation

Freedoom always needs help with documentation, so please send yourpatches, but keep in mind:

• We useAsciiDoc for writing thedocumentation. AsciiDoc is a simple plaintext-based format whichis simple to read and write in its source form, and can generatenice HTML documents out of them.

• Headers are formated in a wiki-style format, this makes it easierfor Vim (perhaps other editors, too) to automatically re-formattext.

• Text is kept at 72 characters wide. In Vim, you can set theeditor to automatically insert line breaks as you’re typing byperformingset textwidth=72. Special exceptions to the widthrule might be allowed when necessary (for example, inserting longURLs).

Submitting your work

The most common, and a fairly simple method, to submit your work is byposting it on theFreedoom forum onDoomworld Forums. This allows a great number of people to review thecontribution and provide feedback, although the registration processis known to be cumbersome.

An alternative to using the forum, is to post your submission on theissue tracker, which mayalso be peer-reviewed and provide a feedback cycle.

Unfortunately, the Freedoom project cannot provide hosting space inthe form of a web page nor FTP, however there are many free file hoststo use when you need a location to upload files. Sites and servicessuch asDropbox andMega, as well as others, are common and should besimple to use.