Crossover Question

[Redshrike]

Hello,
I have a sort of request to make. Sorry if this is in the wrong section--I wasn't quite sure where to put it. I have a rolling commission from Opengameart.org to make characters for Ultimate Smash Friends, a SSB-inspired FOSS fighting game. I have already made four original characters for the game, but I have gotten to thinking that it might match the spirit of the game to bring in characters from other free/open source games as well. I have already gotten approval from OpenSurge to bring their titular character over, and I thought that Wesnoth might also be a good cantidate (ala FE characters in SSB).
Essentially, this would involve me redrawing the character in Ultimate Smash Friend's sidescroller/fighting game style, the sprites of which would be released under CC-By and put on Opengameart (with credit, of course, including the Wesnoth team and whomever else in particular deserves credit for the character). So, I guess what I'm asking is whether this would be approved, and if so which character would be the best choice.
Thanks guys!

[thespaceinvader]

I don't think there would be any particular problems with this. Indeed, I like the idea. But I think the license for anything derivative of Wesnoth would need to be GPL v2+, I'm not sure. IANAL after all.

Konrad seems the obvious, if boring, choice.

[Vendanna]

There is also the possibility of using Old Good Delfador, which is probably more recognizable than Konrad (even tought it isn't the protagonist) but as a old wizard it may be tricky on a fighting game.

Li'sar the battle princess is also a good option, and finally if that doesn't convince you, you can always nab the fire dragon (j/k)

[Redshrike]

Hey, thanks for the quick reply!
Yeah, I was kind of afraid there might be licensing issues like that. I don't think GPL is compatible with USF overall; even if it is, it could be a nightmare to have assets under mixed licenses like that. Maybe if there were one clear author of the character, that person could authorize the different license for this particular character design (Perhaps CC-By-SA would match their individual philosophy better)? My quick queries from other folks seem to indicate this would be the only way to make it work.
These are murky waters, and I'm afraid I have little experience in fording them. Sorry to bring up such a twisty subject. But to be optimistic I'll start checking out this fine Konrad fellow.
edit: @Vendanna: thanks for the suggestions! I'll check out those characters as well, though we do already have one wizard (then again, two are better than one).

[thespaceinvader]

Honestly, licensing is not an easy issue. It's something that's probably best raised on IRC (freenode, #wesnoth-dev) or on the mailing list.

The difficulty with konrad (and the HttT types in general) is that they're iconic, but really pretty boring. Kapou'e FTW.

[Caphriel]

Kondrad would probably be easily cast into a Roy type role. For a more interesting character in terms of Ultimate Smash Friends style gameplay, you could also consider Malin Keshar, the necromancer from Descent into Darkness or Kaleh from Under the Burning Suns (not quite as immediately recognizable, perhaps, but would be able to be developed into a unique character.) Li'sar as mentioned above is also a possibility.

[Atz]

There's always Haldric and his infamous striped pants, though he is also subject to the "yet another guy with a sword" problem. A drake or saurian might be interesting since they're a bit different, but there's not really any iconic characters of those races, probably because there's no drake campaign.

[Redshrike]

Alrighty, after discussing it on the IRC a bit, I think it would probably make the most sense to do Hadric (stripy pants=awesome?). The people there, anyway, don't think the licensing should be much of an issue for an original asset like this, though of course I don't want to step on any toes.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to start on the actual spriting for a little while, but I'll bump this thread with the first draft when I have it done, and show progress as it progresses.
Anyway, you guys are great! I'm really looking forward this.

[thespaceinvader]

Honestly, I have to say this: maybe you should play the game more.

If you don't know who the characters are (HaLdric, for instance), how on Irdya are you planning to render them correctly?

[Zerovirus]

Oooh cool it's Redshrike! I've seen you on Pixeljoint before.

What combat moves would Haldric get, though? All the other characters of Ultimate Smash Friends are really distinctive, whereas Haldric is something of a generic sword fighter- at the best you could give him the ruby of fire.

[Redshrike]

I'm definitely hoping to get some playing in before I actually start spriting. I know I can't actually synthesize the depth of knowledge of a truly experienced player, but I hope to supplement it by doing some reading, studying the concept art/ingame sprites and getting feedback along the way to avoid major derailment. That is essentially what I'm doing with OpenSurge, where the game itself isn't too far in development. I understand that it's not ideal, but I have to work with the amount of time I have. Anyway, it seemed like a good idea to get suggestions on what to focus on and make sure I could get permission before starting in on all that.
@Zerovirus: 'ello! I suppose being the only generic sword fighter in the game could help, but I definitely like the sound of "ruby of fire." Combat moves tend to be the hardest to do, so any awesome ideas on that front help a lot. Yup, definitely time for some research...

[zookeeper]

He also has a bow, although I'm not sure if it really fits him that well. The ruby of fire is a magical gem which can shoot fireballs, so you could have all sorts of fire-based attacks. If you want to stay really faithful to Wesnoth canon, you could have the usage of the ruby to drain him somehow (health or whatever else meters the game uses) since prolonged exposure to it usually makes people mad.

[Velensk]

The wesnoth character that would amuse me most to see in such a game would be Burin the Lost. Might suffer less from the 'generic guy with a sword problem' and more of the 'generic dwarf' problem though.

Kalenz shows up in more campaigns than any other character though I don't really see the special appeal to him.

I don't know of the wildly deformed demi-lich characters are still being considered/drawn but some of them might make interesting characters.

[Caphriel]

I'd like to repeat my nomination of Malin from Descent into Darkness I'm hoping none of your other characters have special moves that involve raising the dead.

Li'sar would probably be a more interesting choice than Konrad, because she'd be an agility type rather than another guy with a sword.

[johndh]

I'd like to nominate Kaleh from Under the Burning Suns. Maybe he's not as iconic as Haldric or Conrad, but he's got a few more tricks up his sleeve. His main weapon is a sword but he's also a respectable archer, and may develop stealth skills and a bolas attack as the campaign progresses. In my opinion, he also has way more personality. He'd probably play a bit like Link from SSB.

Who would you even contact for copyrights, though? If you're not copying the art per se, but rather remaking it based on the same character, would it be the person who drew the sprite, the portrait artist, the writer who came up with the character... ?