Latest documentation PDF will always be available for download here (to download, right-click the “view raw file” link and choose “save file as…”).

First – why? Well, it wasn’t all that hard of a decision and one that I’ve had on my plate for quite a while. I’ve mellowed on the whole “what’s mine is mine” philosophy since the height of my college days, and I’ve really grown to respect open-source over the years. Also, I’ve long since decided that I wasn’t interested in putting the effort into Lassie to make it a viable mainstream commercial product, so really – who was I keeping it from? No one. I was just turning off potential developers and denying the engine all chances of growing a true developers community. So, I’ve been thinking about going open source for a couple of years now. I’ve just never gotten around to it because I’ve been so focused –specifically– on Stitch.

Okay, so it’s open. Now, can you contribute? Well, I will neither welcome nor restrict contributors at this point. I am completely open to other developers joining the charge to make Lassie even better. However, I’m not prepared to open the floodgates yet. By all means, please email me if you have ideas, proposals, or new code – and we’ll see where it goes!

This release contains the complete engine codebase behind What Makes You Tick: A Stitch in Time. In fact, I’ve even added some new features in since Stitch, including localization tools, auto-numbering for dialogue sounds, and touch-based UI support.

So, have at it! I only ask that you accredit me, Greg MacWilliam of Lassie Games, in your primary production credits as the “Engine Programmer”. Thanks, and good luck.

Thanks all!

**UPDATE**

We now have English, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Catalan translations. Thanks to all who responded! Whenever possible, I’ve made a note in the localized class comments to document who provided the translation (I did loose track of a few of the early translation authors – sorry!).

Stitch is a commercial release – we financed the project so that we could designate fulltime human resource to the project (otherwise it never would have been built!). The game is selling for $15 USD, and we’d really appreciate all the help we can get in making the game a success! You can check out the new game website at http://www.lassiegames.com/stitch.

Enjoy!

However, there is one small but significant item that I think our community will really appreciate… I’ve removed the watermark. It’s gone. Your game will be pristine and unobstructed. The watermark just wasn’t doing the job I originally intended it to do, so I took it out. I was hoping the watermark would serve as a friendly reminder for developers to send me a link to their project in exchange for a free license key (I get a kick out of seeing people’s creative work!). HOWEVER, it seems I’ve been asking too much. I’ve still only given out a single license key, despite having offered free keys to other developers in exchange for a link to their projects. So, the system has not been bringing in links to third-party projects the way I hoped – it’s just been sending cheesy-looking branded Lassie games out into the world. So, I’ll give up my cause, with just one more plea: if you build something with Lassie, PLEASE just tell us about it! There are many folks around the Lassie community who are interested in what the engine is doing. Show your stuff off, please! Send us a link!

Really nice work Rainer!

http://www.lassiegames.com/games/stitch_demo

So, this is big news! Not only is this a major release for the “Stitch” project, but this also for Lassie Shepherd. This Stitch demo now assumes the role of the official Shepherd demo game, and it does a fine job showcasing the engine’s capabilities. Within this demo you’ll see in-game cutscene programming, custom UI elements, dynamic game logic, Flash media includes, and much more. Overall, Matt and I very happy with the way this game has turned out, and we hope our friends and fans enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed building it.

Happy Adventuring!