Licensing of Games once for all

Hello all,

Can somebody explain to me like to a 5 years old Licensing of Games build with upbge/BGE?

Thank you.

Because blender falls under the GNU license (free, open-source software), that means that the blender game engine also falls under this open source license, which means that when you export your project, your game must also be free if it is all packed into the same file as the game engine (the .exe).

However, if you export all of your resources (textures, audio, fonts, etc) separately into a library alongside your game file in a folder, leaving the bare-bones game engine separate, then however you want to market it is up to you, as far as I understand.

In this case, (if you decide to make your game not free) you need to make sure you make the distinction between the assets and art that you are selling or copyrighting (all of the artwork that you made) and the game engine that makes it all run.

I.e., here is my copyrighted game. You are paying for the textures, audio, and fonts that I created. Here is the free, open-source blender game engine that you also must download to run the game (that someone else programmed).

Generally speaking…

(Virtually) every script you write will be open source. Anyone can legally request to have it, use it, change it, and sell it. You will have a legal obligation to make it easy to access these scripts.

You (can) own the models, textures, sounds, etc… and not have to supply the rights for anyone else to use them. HOWEVER, actually stopping anyone from getting at them is very hard.

Thank you both.
Why is armoury under different licence?

You can make an empty blender file that runs an exe or something. Like a start file empty file so you can skip the licence ! There are ways you just have to keep asking someone who knows! There are lots of people around that don’t know how to do this, but have a lot of ’ guess ’ . Maybe you shall ask devs. about, they know all the ways ! armory uses haxe language

Not since the engine went to GPL3. You used to be able to get away with that under GPL2, but it hadn’t been properly tested in court.

The moment you import bgl, you’ve doomed your script to being open source.

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Man the licence is about the Blender program and not what you create. your creation=your work and you can do whatever ! Blender does not forces you to share anything ! So basically when you create a game you will just have to share the files if you want to !. So using base blender files that are under the gpl licence, does not forces you to share the work you build with it ! And if this has not been tested in court is because there is nothing to test about. you cannot force people to share they’r work. And if you modify Blender and make it your own ( and as free, copyleft license means, you can sell it as it is without modifying it, but who would buy a free program ? right ? :rofl: ) you can sell it as any other program and closed source ! So the licence apply for the program that you create if you want it to. If not you can change the licence as you want, because is copyleft ! This is nobody’s program. Once it’s created users do apply this licence on they’r work as blender foundation does. Once you have it you can modify anything you want even the licence cause it’s copyleft !

You can easily work out that this is wrong just by reading the actual licence… so, you’re either trolling me for the giggles, or are quite happy claiming ‘facts’ without any actual research. There is hopefully enough in this thread now to scare OP into doing the research that you’re not willing to do.

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You wanna sue me and loose dude ? or what are you talking about ? :joy: Once the term copyleft is used, all conditions = 0. A ’ limited copyleft ’ would be the right term. Till then … you better start reading the licence cause this copyleft term is at the very beginning of it !

Man when you finish your work in Blender. You will have to chose a licence. If you choose the free source than everybody will see your codes. If not it’s yours and closed source !

Guys please keep the direction at a diplomatic level.

Can we all use our brains an answer in simple terms what is the best way to publish a game made in bge/upbge without others to be able to redistribute the game freely?

yeah dude you can also sell Blender if you want, and everything you make with it. you just have to encrypt your files if you change the licence to closed source ! the only way this rule cannot apply is if you do not accept the gpl 3 licence. and i guess you accept it right ? cause you use blender ! :joy: basically a program with this kind of licence has the right to give you the program for free so you can do whatever with it. and they can do nothing about it ! once this licence is applied is like a give away !

man if you would be a developer on Blender you would not even have the right to sue me for selling this program ! so please stop inducing people into error. copyleft means you created something you are giving away with 0 conditions ! and i’m not obligated to use this licence on the program you created for me !

Sorry but I don’t understand what you are trying to say.

Take a look at BPPlayer. You can use it to encrypt the blend file.
You’d keep the scripts separate, since they inherit the GPL3 licence. Everything else (models, animations, textures, sounds, etc) is yours to licence as you wish. I’d suggest bundling as much of it as you can into the blend so it enjoys the encryption.

In theory, someone could create new assets to use and legally distribute that game using your scripts. Practically speaking, it’s more likely that they’ll just make a new game from scratch.

no man … you can encrypt even blender. but doing so would have no sense cause it’s free already. and scripts do not inherit nothing if you licence blender with a closed source licence!

But for example if I sell my game on steam, a buyer is not allowed to sell the game with my assets but with another name, so the stake here are the scripts/ engine.
For example my script is moving NPC from point A to B, the can’t use the 3D of the NPC the road and textures but they have access to the .Py file that is moving the NPC?

you would have to change your game licence with blender in it. and that would be your version of blender and the game you create. and if you would want it closed source with a closed source version of blender in it, cause you would need blender in it. than that’s possible

I’ve told you that I don’t understand but you are saying same things again. You want to help but you aren’t.
What closed source?

That’s correct.

In your example with Steam, they certainly could not (legally) just copy-paste the whole game and re-upload it.

Someone here has sold a Blender game on Steam. If memory serves, it was called “KRUM”.

The BPPlayer solution is nice, because it keeps the assets separate from the executable, just as festive_enthusiast mentioned. It was created specifically for keeping assets safe and legally protected.