Forking / modding Zero-K?

Hi, although I'm unlikely to get around to it anytime soon, I often fantasize about trying out my RTS design ideas in a playable game. Ideally I'd be doing it quick and dirty, starting from something fairly similar and then just modding my ideas in. Being able to use existing UI and units would be a big time saver.


What's the licensing situation (and source/asset availability) of Zero-K? Are the contributors of the code / assets of the game generally open to re-use?

Zero-K itself is largely GPL-2.0, with some exceptions for specific assets. See https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/ for the main repository, and https://github.com/ZeroK-RTS/Zero-K/blob/master/LuaUI/Images/README for an example of exceptions for specific assets. Some directories have this information in files named like license.txt or origin.txt instead. Some scripts will also mention that they are under a different license from within their own file.

There's a development guide on the wiki, which should be the easiest route toward learning how to change things: https://zero-k.info/mediawiki/index.php?title=Zero-K:Developing (Edit: Ninja'd :P)

If you're prepared to dive more deeply, see https://github.com/spring/spring for the underlying engine's source (licensed GPL-2.0-or-later) and https://springrts.com/wiki/Category:Lua for the interface exposed to games.

We should be able to help with more detail, if there is something more specific you want to ask about?

AdmiralZeech

You're not the only one - actually all of ADVENT clan members are alike in that aspect - so you may join our discord where we exchange ideas about that.