In this post you learn how to post your contribution (themes, maps, missions, etc.) in a way that Hedgewars and the community have the greatest long-term benefit from it.

First, the short version:

Checklist for good and fair release practice

• Release under a free license (preferably FDL 1.2 or GPL 2.0 "or later")
• Package your things in HWP, if it makes sense
• Use version numbers for maps, themes, forts and scripts
• Upload your things on hh.unit22.org
• Keep SVG files (and other source files) and publish them separately

---

Now for the long version:

Free software, free culture

If you want to make sure the community and Hedgewars have the greatest benefit from your work, please consider releasing your work under a free software and/or free culture license.

Why?

By choosing to release your work under a free license, this helps us doing the following things:

• Inclusion in official Hedgewars is now an option
• Other contributors may pick up your work and remix it, for doing things such as:
  • Translations
  • Improvements (without destroying your original creation)
  • Bugfixes
  • Keeping it updated for future Hedgewars versions
  • And more!

Note that without a license, your work is assumed to fall under full copyright restrictions.

Keep in mind that everything included in the Hedgewars game (the application, source code, images, sounds, music, missions, campaigns) is free software. You are already enjoying a lot of freedom with regards to Hedgewars.

So I think my request is just fair.

For official inclusion in Hedgewars, releasing under a free license is mandatory. For DLC, a free license is strongly encouraged.

Recommended licenses

Convinced? Great!

If you write code, we recommend specifying the license as "GNU GPL 2.0 or later".

If you create artwork or any other form of media, we recommend the GNU FDL 1.2.

These are the code and media licenses used in Hedgewars, so obviously those would make things the easiest for us.

Text for copy-pasting into your post:

or

If you want to use a different license, that's fine, too, but not every license is compatible with Hedgewars.

Other licenses which are definitely OK with us are:

• CC BY-SA
• CC BY
• CC0
• MIT License

For a Creative Commons (CC) license, don’t forget to specify the version number. If possible, use the latest version.

HWP files

HWP files are add-on files which allow easy installation of new data like themes, maps, scripts, etc. To install a HWP, you just need to drop it into the Data directory of your user directory.

This makes it much more convenient for your fellow Hedgewarriors to install your stuff. Making a HWP file is easy, as this is basically just a Zip file in disguise. Here you learn how it works:

HWPFormat

For small things like flags and hats, it's probably better to make collections instead of making one HWP per flag/hat.

Versioning

If you create a map, theme, fort or style, it's probably a good idea to append a version number to the name to avoid future confusion. E.g. the theme “MyTheme” turns into “MyTheme_v1”, “MyTheme_v2”, etc.

Read Versioning to learn more.

hh.unit22.org

hh.unit22.org is a community-driven server for Hedgewars add-ons, it's a great place to find all sorts of stuff.
To make sure your creation is not getting forgotten and lost in future, uploading your creation here is a great idea.

Vector graphics

If you are creating artwork, you probably want to create vector graphics (using SVG files), using programs like Inkscape.
Hedgewars itself does not use SVG files directly, but the SVG files to export them to PNG format. Vector graphics also make it much easier to match the Hedgewars art style.

Please do not throw the SVG files away when you're done. Instead, keep them and ship them with your contribution! These files are invaluable for any future editing.

Note you should publish the SVG files separately, there is no need to place them into a HWP file.

Of course it's not forbidden to ignore the art style, it just won't become official.