About selling a game (again :) )

Sorry for a recurring theme, but two clarifications please =

  1. If I include the source code, then there is no problem selling my game, is there ?

  2. What’s wrong with putting up a web site for the game itself and sell it from there ? No Steam, or anything.

Please save me the trouble if the above are a dumb plan :slight_smile: Thanks

GPL doesn’t forbid you from selling anything. It does, however, allow anyone that gets a copy of your game to distribute it for free legally. That is, sharing your game anywhere by anyone won’t be considered piracy.

Steam and other services think that if you (no matter if you’re the author) are charging money for something that is legally free it’s a scam, therefore won’t allow to charge anything for GPL games on steam. (Note: Because they don’t want to, not because its illegal, it is not).

So knowing this, the answers should be:

  1. You don’t even have to include the source code, but if someone requests it you have to provide it (and of course also the means for someone to request it in the first place).
  2. There is nothing wrong. Actually your site doesn’t fall under GPL so you can do whatever you want on it, even sell GPL programs. It may be considered a scam but it’s not illegal (at least not by the license).

However not the whole of your game has to fall under GPL, your blend files (not .exe files) as long as they don’t contain Python code, is considered program output and does not fall under GPL. That means, you can sell them with a proprietary license and sharing them by a third party will be piracy. So, if you game contains contains a bunch of non-GPL blends, sharing the whole bundle is piracy and steam and most services will allow you to charge money for your game. This means that with a little care, yes you can sell your games on steam or anywhere.

If you create a game and want to sell it (copies):

  1. Do not compile any scene in the binaries - create a empty with the launch of your scene and compile, otherwise it can fall under the license of GPL.
  2. You must leave the license of BGE (Blender3d) and Python in the root folder of the game.
  3. Also leave a license for your scripts, textures, audio, models, scenes…
  4. Since the publisher of the game is another firm, this is not exactly what you need (for money), place the game in Steam (having passed Greenlight) on their terms - the percentages from the game is much less than for the publisher on disk or in other ways.
    On account of the fact that the resources of the game can be used by someone in their own needs (pirate) - this is a problem worried and big firms, but it’s also for your benefit - you saw somewhere yours licensed texture, the Court and yours percentages from the game.
  5. Advertising the game in all possible ways - Youtube, Social networks (and BA too) …

Gently with other people’s code and other resources … with them there can be problems. And it is better to have in your archive source files of raw textures, raw audio, if there is video … Create music in licensed programs.

Forgot to write - there is such a concept Trade Mark ™ - the name of your game is desirable to register, like the company.