PSP Dev: Engine Wishes (and legality)

[acemuzzy]

Hello! It's my first post, so go easy on me :)

Right, there's two parts to it:

Sprite engine

I have written (most of) a basic sprite engine that e.g. loads in a bitmap file, extracts sprites, blit them about the screen etc. (and interact with the user).

Is this something that people would appreciate a guide on (I can't find much beyond the "hello world" guide)?

It also leads into my second question...

Legality

I haven't yet found a firm view on this. Is it legal for me to develop homebrews for my psp? Is it legal for me to advertise how to do so? E.g. if I set up a homepage with my engine, could Sony come and kick my ass?

Your comments are much appreciated!

Muzz

[quzar]

Yes, and no.

[iball]

Based on seeing that ps2dev.org is still around, I would say Sony is ignoring the issue right now.

[bobcobb]

Aye, theres not much they can do to stop homebrew development, as long as it doesn't enter the realm of piracy. Anything coded by hand for the PSP is clear from Sony's teams of lawyers many grimey hands.

[acemuzzy]

OK, cool. I'll try to get a page going over the next few days then (I have a week off between jobs :))

I guessed it would be paranoied to say that using their libraries (as in the "hello world" demo) was piracy?!

Watch this space!

[bobcobb]

Can you explain the sprite engine a little more?

Can it be used to create a Rez-like game?

[acemuzzy]

Uhm, I don't know much about Rez, but that appears to be more vector / 3d graphics than what I've got working so far.

Mine is just very basic 2d sprites - SNES Zelda / Mario / Micro Machines kind of thing - so very retro games only! Nothing 3d yet, but I look forward to working out how the 3D functions work!