HiPhish's Workshop

The game modding scene has a source code problem

Published: 2023-05-21

Sometimes I like to play video games. Sometimes these games have issues, or they can be improved upon. Sometimes these issues are so severe that the game is virtually (or even literally) unplayable. Fortunately some really smart people have done a fantastic job reverse-engineering parts of these games, their file formats, or found workarounds for engine limitations. Unfortunately too often that knowledge never gets written down and just keeps rotting in someone’s head.

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Free Software is important for non-programmers as well

Published: 2023-06-10

Free Software is software which respects the user’s freedom. The Four Freedoms ensure that users can run the program for any purpose, study the source code, modify the source, share the software and share modifications of the software. However, what if you are not a programmer? Does this mean Free Software only adds value to people who know how to program, and if you are a non-programmer you might as well use proprietary software? Is it all just the same then? No. In this post I will try to illustrate why Free Software matters even to non-programmers.

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Free Software is necessary but not sufficient

Published: 2023-09-29

Recently Unity announced changes to their pricing model (archive) which have been very poorly received by their users, to put it gently. They have since backtracked (archive2) somewhat, but at this point it would not matter even if they completely scrapped their plans and went back to how things used to be. The trust has been broken and many game developers are waking up to the fact that Unity is effectively holding their project hostage. Switching from one engine to another is akin to a full rewrite, and depending on the size and progress of the project porting might not be a feasible thing to do.

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Grayjay is not Open Source

Published: 2023-10-18

Today FUTO released an application called Grayjay for Android-based mobile phones. Louis Rossmann introduced the application in a video (YouTube link). Grayjay as an application is very promising, but there is one point I take issue with: Grayjay is not an Open Source application. In the video Louis explains FUTO’s reason behind the custom license, and while I do agree with their reason, I strong disagree with their method. In this post I will explain what Open Source means, how Grayjay does not meet the criteria, why this is an issue, and how it can be solved.

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Stop Killing Games needs more support

Published: 2025-07-22

TL;DR: If you are an EU citizen (not merely a resident) you can sign the Stop Killing Games EU initiative. This is not your typical open letter, this is a government-level initiative that will need to be discussed if it passes. At the moment we have way more than the required million signatures, but we do not know how many of these are fraudulent and might get tossed out. Keep on signing! There are less than ten days left, so don’t put if off. Now for those who don’t know what any of this means, I’ll do my best to elaborate.

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