Copyright Useof Assets For Unity Etc

Copyright - Unity Forum https://forum.unity.com/threads/copyright.
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Then, I'm even thinking about the horror style font I'm using for my game and the
unsurity of the license. If the font license isn't clear, then I guess it is not safe to use
unless you get specific permission. Then I thought of creating my own font, and there
1 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
Copyright - Unity Forum https://forum.unity.com/threads/copyright.402004/
© 2018 Unity Technologies Legal

we goCookies
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again, the rabbit hole is getting deeper and deeper.
UNITY, Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are registered or unregistered Unity trademarks in the US and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are
I don't think there has been a proper thread discussing what's safe to use and what's
trademarks of their respective owners not (well there probably has at some point), and even I was surprised to find out the
red cross symbol is actually forbidden to use in games. Also, textures on cgcookie,
you dig deeper and find there are restrictions there, so you think about using textures
you've photographed yourself.
Also any art which is not your own that might be in a painting on your game, you have
to make sure you have the rights to include it.
With so many things to look out for, I can't help but think... 'this is getting a bit much?
Do I really need to learn the intricacies of sound engineering and music composition
just the stay the right side of the game industry.'
And the answer is, yes, yes, I actually do have to do this. What do you think when it
comes to copyrighted IP in games and the lengths you have to go?
Last edited: May 3, 2016
iamthwee, May 3, 2016 #1
wetcircuit, kaiyum, Philip-Rowlands and 4 others like this.
Martin_H Thumbs up for starting to take these things serious!
It's a topic that a surprising number of indie devs seem to neglect. Sadly the list of
what you are allowed to use is shorter than the list of what you are not allowed to use.
In general you should always assume a thing is under some kind of protection or
restriction unless you know the intended use is permitted. That's the only way to be
Joined: Jul 11, 2015 safe in my opinion. I'm not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.
Posts: 3,690
I have contemplated whether it would make sense to crowdsource money and actually
have a real lawyer compile a guideline for us, that holds up well enough
internationally. Thoughts?
Martin_H, May 3, 2016 #2
Philip-Rowlands, theANMATOR2b, Kiwasi and 1 other person like this.
GarBenjamin Yes you "have" to do it. Quotes because I have a feeling if everybody was actually
doing this we would see nowhere near the amount of games on mobile and such as
there are currently.
But yeah... this is a big part of what makes game dev take so much effort and time.
Doing everything yourself from scratch. Of course, you can always buy assets or hire
Joined: folks to help you. Just don't take stuff from other games. Not only is it wrong to do so
Dec 26, 2013 you also don't know if they maybe stole the stuff from a bigger more popular game.
Posts: 7,173
GarBenjamin, May 3, 2016 #3
Martin_H likes this.
2 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
zombiegorilla People often wonder why games take so long and cost so much. This is why. Games
have a lot of stuff in them. Copyright isn't a issue if you just create your own content or
acquire content from a large reputable place, like the asset store or a direct publisher.
zombiegorilla, May 3, 2016 #4
Ryiah, Kiwasi, iamthwee and 2 others like this.

Joined: May 8, 2012
Posts: 7,311
neginfinity You're absolutely correct on all accounts.
Also you can't use many images off the web to make models, backgrounds and art.
For example, you cannot use data from Google Earth and street view without google's
permission - because when you model using those images you're making a derived
work.
Joined:
Jan 27, 2013 It gets funnier.
Posts: 6,419
To make a model of a building that was created past certain date, you may need
permission of the architect, because building designs are copyright protected.
iamthwee said: ↑
With so many things to look out for, I can't help but think... 'this is getting a bit much? Do I really need
to learn the intricacies of sound engineering and music composition just the stay the right side of the
game industry.'
No, you need to get yourself a Sound FX guy/Composer who can do that for you.
Also, you can use CC0/public domain material you can find (some classic music is in
public domain), and you'll need to utilize content stores.
There is also some free music that can be used for commercial purposes.
Learning how to do everything on your own is not a good idea, because studying
music takes time. Studying art takes time. Studying programming takes time. It is
usually a better idea to make teams of people instead.
P.S. Also, Ableton Live is quite expensive, last time I checked.

neginfinity, May 3, 2016 #5
Ryiah, Kiwasi, iamthwee and 1 other person like this.
iamthwee Yeah
GarBenjamin said: ↑
Yes you "have" to do it. Quotes because I have a feeling if everybody was actually doing this we
3 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
would see nowhere near the amount of games on mobile and such as there are currently.
But yeah... this is a big part of what makes game dev take so much effort and time. Doing everything
yourself from scratch. Of course, you can always buy assets or hire folks to help you. Just don't take
stuff from other games. Not only is it wrong to do so you also don't know if they maybe stole the stuff
from a bigger more popular game.
Joined:
Nov 27, 2015 Yeah, even my supposedly safe to use wallpaper on my walls which I got by searching
Posts: 1,478
in google images, 'old tileable wallpaper' is in fact not even legit to use, so I have to go
ahead and find one which is or create my own.
Mwsc If you don't have the ability to create everything yourself, and the free stuff isn't good
enough, and you don't have the money to pay for what you want, then maybe ask
yourself what is it that you consider yourself to be, and play to your strengths. Are you
a programmer? Are you a level designer? Or a game-mechanic designer? If so, forget
about good graphics and good sound, just do the simplest thing, make it yourself, and
make the game fun using whatever it is you bring to the table. My bias is that we need
Joined: to specialize. Nobody has time to be a world-class professional at art AND
Aug 26, 2012 programming AND level design. A lot of people on these forums seem to think that
Posts: 189 "game creation" is a skill, when really it is an application of other skills.
Mwsc, May 3, 2016 #7
uchihashosho, Teila, Ryiah and 1 other person like this.
iamthwee To make a model of a building that was created past certain date, you may need permission of the
architect, because building designs are copyright protected.
Man, when they made assassin's creed 'Paris' they must have had to go through a
wad of paper work/copyright to recreate Paris?
4 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
Joined:
Posts: 1,478
Nov 27, 2015
No, you need to get yourself a Sound FX guy/Composer who can do that for you.
Yes if you can afford it and you're serious about game development, you're right.
I must admit when you see those kickstarter's game pledge for 1/4 million in revenue,
I thought to myself how the hell could anyone need that much? Now it is all starting to
make sense, a full time salary for a sound engineer + game developer + artist quickly
adds up doesn't it.
GarBenjamin iamthwee said: ↑
Yeah
Yeah, even my supposedly safe to use wallpaper on my walls which I got by searching in google
images, 'old tileable wallpaper' is in fact not even legit to use, so I have to go ahead and find one
which is or create my own.
Joined:
Dec 26, 2013
View attachment 184024
Posts: 7,173
Yeah a lot of people seem to make that mistake. I have seen so many videos out there
where without a moment's hesitation the person says "we need to get a texture let's
go to Google" (Bing or whatever), searches "okay here is one that looks fine" and just
takes it and uses it. No checking into it at all. Nothing.
Even though the search engines are bringing back all of these images and such they
are only doing it because their goal is to index all of the content on the Internet. That's
it. But for games and such 99.99% of it is completely unusable and therefore useless.
I actually don't see the point in why they even index such things and bring them back
at all since they are nothing useful in any way to anyone except their creator in the
majority of cases. But you can always look at them for free I guess. Which to me is
still basically pointless.
zombiegorilla iamthwee said: ↑
Yeah
Yeah, even my supposedly safe to use wallpaper on my walls which I got by searching in google
images, 'old tileable wallpaper' is in fact not even legit to use, so I have to go ahead and find one
which is or create my own.
Joined: May 8, 2012

Posts: 7,311 If you are planning working in the visual arts for the long term, start building your own
library reference/stock. I have stuff that I go back to even after many years. Some of is
photos I have taken, stock/clipart libraries I have bought and a ton of stuff that I
5 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
created that I didn't use for one reaon or a another. I have also have a small collection
of sounds that are the same. I have a drive called "Trantor", which all this stuff is
stored, I and I know that anything in there is totally safe for me to use.
I would suggest these 3 books as a starter:

http://www.amazon.com/Flourish-Banner-Frame-Ornaments-Illustration
/dp/1440302596
http://www.amazon.com/Drip-Dot-Swirl-Incredible-illustration/dp/1600611346
http://www.amazon.com/Crumble-Crackle-Burn-Stunning-Illustration/dp/1581809581
I manage to use something from one of them in nearly every project I do. That
wallpaper image would a breeze to create with a couple of flourishes and some nice
grungy textures.
Teila, theANMATOR2b and Martin_H like this.
QFSW GarBenjamin said: ↑
Yeah a lot of people seem to make that mistake. I have seen so many videos out there where without
a moment's hesitation the person says "we need to get a texture let's go to Google" (Bing or
whatever), searches "okay here is one that looks fine" and just takes it and uses it. No checking into it
at all. Nothing.
Joined:
Mar 24, 2015
Posts: 2,273
Click to expand...
If you're making stuff privately for yourself then all of that could easily come in useful -
it isn't completely useless
Also, placeholders; i used placeholders for all my art while prototyping which ive now
replaced
QFSW, May 3, 2016 #11
GarBenjamin likes this.
Martin_H GarBenjamin said: ↑
But you can always look at them for free I guess. Which to me is still basically pointless.
For artists doing their own work this easy source of reference material is very
valuable. E.g. looking at a bunch of real tanks to get a better idea how they are built
and what details they have to then design your own tank without copying any one
Joined: Jul 11, 2015
Posts: 3,690
specific reference.
Farelle, kaiyum, QFSW and 3 others like this.
zombiegorilla GarBenjamin said: ↑
6 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
Yeah a lot of people seem to make that mistake. I have seen so many videos out there where without
a moment's hesitation the person says "we need to get a texture let's go to Google" (Bing or
whatever), searches "okay here is one that looks fine" and just takes it and uses it. No checking into it
at all. Nothing.
Even though the search engines are bringing back all of these images and such they are only doing it
because their goal is to index all of the content on the Internet. That's it. But for games and such
Joined: May 8, 2012 99.99% of it is completely unusable and therefore useless. I actually don't see the point in why they
Posts: 7,311 even index such things and bring them back at all since they are nothing useful in any way to anyone
Click to expand...
It is incredibly useful for reference though, indispensable even. I know what wine
press is (for example), but really know clue as to what it exactly looks like. Google
images to the rescue.
QFSW and Martin_H like this.
zombiegorilla Martin_H said: ↑
For artists doing their own work this easy source of reference material is very valuable. E.g. looking at
a bunch of real tanks to get a better idea how they are built and what details they have to then design
your own tank without copying any one specific reference.
Beat me to it.
Joined: May 8, 2012 zombiegorilla, May 3, 2016 #14

Posts: 7,311
GarBenjamin Ha ha. You're right. I have used them for references too. But then that whole
derivative thing made say to heck with that even.

Joined:
Dec 26, 2013 Martin_H likes this.
Posts: 7,173
drewradley Google images has a function to let you see only those that are "labeled for reuse"
and "labeled for reuse with modification." Don't know how reliable it is though.
drewradley, May 3, 2016 #16

Joined:
Sep 22, 2010 GarBenjamin likes this.
Posts: 3,059
zombiegorilla QFSW said: ↑
7 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
If you're making stuff privately for yourself then all of that could easily come in useful - it isn't
completely useless
Also, placeholders; i used placeholders for all my art while prototyping which ive now replaced
Just a bit of advice, from the "learning the hard way" category...
Never, ever use placeholder text, images, sound or art that wouldn't want the whole
Joined: May 8, 2012
world to see. Whether infringing, or just plain embarrassing, things go wrong (could
Posts: 7,311
even result in a lawsuit). Stuff gets overlooked, reverted or mixed up. Use grey boxes
doodles on a sticky for placeholder.
Teila, aer0ace, Martin_H and 1 other person like this.
iamthwee drewradley said: ↑
Google images has a function to let you see only those that are "labeled for reuse" and "labeled for
reuse with modification." Don't know how reliable it is though.
Not very I'd imagine.
Joined:
@zombiegorilla yeah I could easily create that in illustrator/photoshop, it's just more
Nov 27, 2015
Posts: 1,478
work than I was bargaining for
iamthwee Also @zombiegorilla (not sure if you have a NDA settlement) for your marvel game,
how did you get the IP, did you have to recreate all models from scratch (you or your
team) did you have to be careful even if you have full IP to marvel what you could or
could not use?
Last edited: May 3, 2016
Joined: iamthwee, May 3, 2016 #19

Nov 27, 2015
Posts: 1,478
Kiwasi iamthwee said: ↑
Also @zombiegorilla (not sure if you have a NDA settlement) for your marvel game, how did you get
the IP, did you have to recreate all models from scratch (you or your team) did you have to be careful
even if you have full IP to marvel what you could or could not use?
Working for the IP owner helps.

Joined: Dec 5, 2013
Posts: 15,838
zombiegorilla said: ↑
Never, ever use placeholder text, images, sound or art that wouldn't want the whole world to see.
Whether infringing, or just plain embarrassing, things go wrong (could even result in a lawsuit). Stuff
gets overlooked, reverted or mixed up. Use grey boxes doodles on a sticky for placeholder.
8 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
This. Placeholder art shoul be "something I threw together in paint". It's main purpose
is to tell the difference between various items in early development.
And while it's harder to prove or prosecute, using a ripped assets in development is
still illegal.
Kiwasi, May 3, 2016 #20
theANMATOR2b and Martin_H like this.
neginfinity iamthwee said: ↑
Man, when they made assassin's creed 'Paris' they must have had to go through a wad of paper
work/copyright to recreate Paris?
Does not apply to buildings from before the copyright law. Law, thankfully, usually
does not apply retroactively.
Joined:
AFAIK In USA that means that buildings constructed before 1976 should be free to
Jan 27, 2013
Posts: 6,419
use, but you still might want to consult a lawyer about that.
The funny thing is that the one responsible for all the modern copyright troubles is
disney.
Originally copyright protection lasted for short amount of time.. 30 years or something
like that. Disney extended it to 100.
iamthwee said: ↑
I thought to myself how the hell could anyone need that much? Now it is all starting to make sense, a
full time salary for a sound engineer + game developer + artist quickly adds up doesn't it.
Yup. Now add to that rent and utility builds for the office.
neginfinity, May 3, 2016 #21
aer0ace, kaiyum, theANMATOR2b and 1 other person like this.
QFSW zombiegorilla said: ↑
Joined: I used a the place holders for about 10 days before deleting them and making my own
Mar 24, 2015 art
Posts: 2,273
Whilst I do completely agree with what you said and how careful you have to be, but
given i hadn't even shown anyone the game till months after the placeholders were
removed, I think I'm probably (hopefully) fine
QFSW, May 3, 2016 #22
9 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
zombiegorilla QFSW said: ↑
I used a the place holders for about 10 days before deleting them and making my own art
Whilst I do completely agree with what you said and how careful you have to be, but given i hadn't
even shown anyone the game till months after the placeholders were removed, I think I'm probably
(hopefully) fine
Several years back, we had a temp string a reward panel that was a string of
Joined: May 8, 2012 profanity, the idea being that there would be no way we could overlook replacing it
Posts: 7,311
before beta. We got so used to it, we forgot to replace. We also released RPG a few
years back that because of a poorly done merge before release, the first boss the
players encountered was gif of dancing cartoon crab. (it was supposed to be a giant
armored berserker.)
Ryiah, theANMATOR2b, GarBenjamin and 1 other person like this.
zombiegorilla iamthwee said: ↑
Also @zombiegorilla (not sure if you have a NDA settlement) for your marvel game, how did you get
the IP, did you have to recreate all models from scratch (you or your team) did you have to be careful
even if you have full IP to marvel what you could or could not use?
Yea, we own Marvel, so copyright isn't an issue. But the Marvel group has a
game/story team, and we work closely with them. We have access to a digital library
Joined: May 8, 2012
of all the comics and related material, and got new and in progress comics each
Posts: 7,311
week(I miss that part). All of our assets are created in house, and we did actually try to
reuse the characters from one of our other games, but it didn't work, so they were all
re-created. The Marvel team reviews and approves our work to make sure it matches
the story and current or era specific costumes/look. There were a couple of occasions
where we came up with stuff that they simply told us "no" on without elaboration, but
that was because it had to do with potential or in development story lines for the
movies. But usually the changes and feedback was minor (mostly). The producers
and designer on our game were hardcore Marvel nerds, so it was pretty on target from
the start.
Heh.. when we did our very first Marvel game, it was before we became Disney, and
they gave us two spreadsheets, a "can use" and "cannot use" list of characters. The
can't use was really funny, because it was mostly a crazy ton of one-shot stuff over the
years, like avengers zombies, x-men babies, stuff like that.
darkhog
10 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
zombiegorilla said: ↑
Several years back, we had a temp string a reward panel that was a string of profanity, the idea being
that there would be no way we could overlook replacing it before beta. We got so used to it, we forgot
to replace. We also released RPG a few years back that because of a poorly done merge before
release, the first boss the players encountered was gif of dancing cartoon crab. (it was supposed to
Joined: Dec 4, 2012 be a giant armored berserker.)
Posts: 2,219
A.k.a. placeholders aren't evil, just playtest game before making it public to make sure
it's all okay. You didn't (which is common behavior about AAA crowd) and it was your
downfall.
darkhog, May 4, 2016 #25
Billy4184 Besides sound, which I haven't explored much yet, I'm not sure if I understand the
difficulty. Textures.com has a lot of textures you can use in your game, there's
Substance Designer for a $20 monthly pay-to-own if you need to easily create your
own, there are tons of models around and modelling real-world stuff is not all that
difficult since there are a lot of reference pictures.
Joined: Jul 7, 2014 Everything takes some work, but let me put it this way, if you're making a game at the
Posts: 3,859 level of quality of ripped youtube sounds and random textures on google, it won't be
any the worse for not being an expert at Blender or Subst Designer or whatever. With
6 months of practice you'll not only be able to make some passable stuff yourself but
you will have a lot more control over the consistency, and not have to worry about
having to take your game down over copyright issues.
Billy4184, May 4, 2016 #26
Teila, Philip-Rowlands and zombiegorilla like this.
zombiegorilla darkhog said: ↑
A.k.a. placeholders aren't evil, just playtest game before making it public to make sure it's all okay.
You didn't (which is common behavior about AAA crowd) and it was your downfall.
It was extensively playtested (as are all large games), but expected behavior and
complex multi-stage environments mean that content exists in a multitude of states. Of
course place-holders aren't "evil", that wasn't remotely my point. The point was that
Joined: May 8, 2012
Posts: 7,311
don't use stuff under copyright or anything as a placed that you would not want to be
seen by a larger audience.
There was a company a few years back that cloned a game by another (larger)
company. During development, they even called it by the same name as the one they
were cloning, and so some of the string variables had names like
"[other_game_name]_unlock_message". The string names would show up if there
was a connection error, or if you switched languages some times. The other company
filed suit against them for stealing their code base, which they actually didn't but, the
evidence (their name showing up in the other game) was enough to have the game
shut down until the suit was resolved.
11 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
zombiegorilla,
kaiyum, QFSW,May 4, and
Ryiah 20162 others like this. #27
QFSW zombiegorilla said: ↑
It was extensively playtested (as are all large games), but expected behavior and complex multi-
stage environments mean that content exists in a multitude of states. Of course place-holders aren't
"evil", that wasn't remotely my point. The point was that don't use stuff under copyright or anything as
a placed that you would not want to be seen by a larger audience.
-
Joined:
Mar 24, 2015
There was a company a few years back that cloned a game by another (larger) company. During
Posts: 2,273 development, they even called it by the same name as the one they were cloning, and so some of the
Click to expand...
My game is pretty simple and a one person project so obviously thing's are gonna be
extremely different to yours
Also, if i managed to release my game without realising that the player was still a
placeholder then i deserve all the consequences
QFSW, May 4, 2016 #28
MV10 neginfinity said: ↑
The funny thing is that the one responsible for all the modern copyright troubles is disney.
Originally copyright protection lasted for short amount of time.. 30 years or something like that.
Disney extended it to 100.
Worse... it was 30, Disney got it bumped up again, it is now 120 years.
Joined: Nov 6, 2015
Posts: 1,889
The other thing I'll add is that you can't trust a lot of the online services that will sell
you imagery. For a non-game project I found a really great image at a decent price.
Before I bought it, I saw it listed elsewhere for a lot more. I did some digging and it
turns out the first (cheaper) place didn't have permission to sell the image.
Ironically, about the only thing of interest here which you can't copyright is gameplay...
MV10, May 4, 2016 #29
theANMATOR2b and Martin_H like this.
zombiegorilla MV10 said: ↑
Ironically, about the only thing of interest here which you can't copyright is gameplay...
Correct, gameplay is not the expression of an idea, only the expression can receive
copyright protection.
Gameplay, can however, be patented because it is a mechanic/process. However, the
Joined: May 8, 2012 practical reality is that all video games are derivative by their very nature, so with very
Posts: 7,311 rare exception, it is so implausible to be practically impossible.
kaiyum, theANMATOR2b and Kiwasi like this.
12 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
Martin_H zombiegorilla said: ↑
Correct, gameplay is not the expression of an idea, only the expression can receive copyright
protection.
Gameplay, can however, be patented because it is a mechanic/process. However, the practical reality
is that all video games are derivative by their very nature, so with very rare exception, it is so
implausible to be practically impossible.

Posts: 3,690 Afaik some patents exist though, that are not game mechanics but related to games.
Like having playable minigames in the loading screen of a bigger game. It seems
though that this very recently has expired:
http://kotaku.com/the-patent-on-loading-screen-mini-games-is-about-to-
exp-1744705351
zombiegorilla Martin_H said: ↑
Afaik some patents exist though, that are not game mechanics but related to games. Like having
playable minigames in the loading screen of a bigger game. It seems though that this very recently
has expired:
http://kotaku.com/the-patent-on-loading-screen-mini-games-is-about-to-exp-1744705351
Joined: May 8, 2012 Yea, I think zynga had a couple as well or tried to get some. The mini game surprised
Posts: 7,311 me because I didn't know it was patented until the articles came up about it expiring. I
just thought nobody bothered to do it any more.
Martin_H zombiegorilla said: ↑
Yea, I think zynga had a couple as well or tried to get some. The mini game surprised me because I
didn't know it was patented until the articles came up about it expiring. I just thought nobody bothered
to do it any more.
Quite scary though, if not even veterans like you know about it. Isn't that an easy trap
to walk into because there are other patents like that out there?
Posts: 3,690
MV10 and zombiegorilla like this.
zombiegorilla I don't focus (and not very interested) in high level design, I would presume (hope),
that my design leads would know those things.
Although, now that I think about... we did release a game around 2010 that had a mini
game I built in the loader (and maintenance screen). It was a whack a mole deal
featuring one of the monsters from the game. The game wasn't a hit, (~500k installs
lifetime). Maybe if it was, we would have got a c&d or something like that.
13 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am

Joined: May 8, 2012
Posts: 7,311 Martin_H and Kiwasi like this.
MV10 Martin_H said: ↑
Afaik some patents exist though, that are not game mechanics but related to games. Like having
playable minigames in the loading screen of a bigger game. It seems though that this very recently
has expired:
http://kotaku.com/the-patent-on-loading-screen-mini-games-is-about-to-exp-1744705351
Joined: Nov 6, 2015

Posts: 1,889 The article says "either had to pay Namco, find ways around it (as EA’s FIFA series
has)" ... not to hijack the thread, but any idea what FIFA did? I don't play sports titles.
Just curious.
Also this is kind of amazing: "The patent forbids people from even working on
minigames, let alone implementing them"
MV10, May 5, 2016 #35
kaiyum zombiegorilla said: ↑
Gameplay, can however, be patented because it is a mechanic/process.
Patenting an idea sounds so stupid
Anyway, thanks everybody contributing here. I learned a lot

Joined:
Nov 25, 2012
Posts: 608 @OP, yes it is very difficult to do art, programming and music altogether. That is why it
is very practical to form a team. Or you can continue to learn new things in a wise
fashion in your free time. We are human ,we CAN do anything. Its just the time and
our will.
kaiyum, Dec 28, 2016 #36
Kiwasi kaiyum said: ↑
Patenting an idea sounds so stupid
Pretty much all of our IP protection laws were developed before the Information Age
and software. A lot of them don't fit super well.
Joined: Dec 5, 2013
Posts: 15,838 Because of the difficulty of patenting software, some countries have even made
software unpatentable.
Kiwasi, Dec 28, 2016 #37
14 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
MV10 BoredMormon said: ↑
Pretty much all of our IP protection laws were developed before the Information Age
If only this problem was limited to IP protection...
My truck dealership side-business is still required by law to have a physical fax

Joined: Nov 6, 2015
Posts: 1,889
machine. Yes, really.
MV10, Dec 28, 2016 #38
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aer0ace zombiegorilla said: ↑
Another "placeholder" story:

Joined: For a low-budget game I did way back as a contractor, we were close to shipping, but
May 11, 2012
the president of the company couldn't afford to pay us, so checks were always late
Posts: 1,049
(like Crytek). I stuck around to ship the game, but I put in an easter egg related to our
ridiculous working situation, hidden behind a cheatcode, just showed it to my direct
manager since we were "in it together", and he told me to take it out of the build. Sure
enough, I took it out of the builds going forward, but it turned out that the publisher
released the build with the easter egg in it. And of course the Internet's
resourcefulness uncovered the cheat code within weeks or so. Had the game done
significantly better than poorly, I probably would have seen a defamation lawsuit or
something. I left out plenty of details for obvious reasons.
---
I spent some unhealthy hours thinking about what it means to release my game
"Number Crunchers", and I still worry about it occasionally. It's based on the old game
Number Munchers, yet I couldn't find who owns the rights to the game, so I went
ahead. There are likenesses to the original characters, but I think they're different
enough to be called my own creative rendition, and I injected some of my own modern
gameplay mechanics (even though that doesn't make the difference, as already
pointed out). It's still only making pennies, so I doubt anyone's going to go after me.
In addition to that, it really was the little details I worried about too, like the fonts, and
sound effects.
But there are so many sites and sources for these resources that are legal and fair-
priced to use, that I don't see it as much of a problem. Here are some tips.
Most font sites have a large collection. Just shop for the style you want, and shell over
the money if you think it will add value to your game. If not, shop for something
cheaper. I've seen some for 5-10 bucks to 100 and over. Also remember that some
fonts have restrictions with the type of media that you can use it with, and sometimes
a usage limit. What I did was made a note of some of the free ones that I liked,
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including attribution and source link. Typically, the free ones just require attribution.
I've also read that google has a great font library. Not sure if they're free for
commercial use...
Same with texture sites. Isn't cgtextures.com a good pay site? I haven't used it yet, but
I plan to.
As for music, Number Crunchers itself has no music, but the trailer does, and I'm
using a free commercial-use track from the Youtube music library.
As for sound effects, there are some good Unity assets available for value prices.
They may not have everything though, but it definitely saves a lot of time. Especially
when I needed sound effects for Horde Rush.
Also, for sound fx, be on the lookout for large dumps of 10-20+ gig libraries by some
producers, typically on reddit. Once a year, some producers do this. Of course, they
only contain small samples of numerous effects, just to get you to consider buying
more from their library collections, but if they're good, they're worth paying for.
On the flip side...
You have to protect yourself as well*. If you made something wildly successful, and
someone with lots of money came along, duped your game, you don't have much
argument in court if they beat you to the trademark, copyright, or patent. Sure, once
you create something it's "copyrighted", but it doesn't hold up as strongly as an
officially filed copyright, and definitely not as well as a trademark. Read the Vlambeer
story if you haven't already.
* Disclaimer, not an attorney.
I'm itching to write about more, but I think this post is long enough for now.
This is all discussion that would go great in a Unity game business forum...
aer0ace, Dec 28, 2016 #39
theANMATOR2b and iamthwee like this.
iamthwee I'd roughly figured for my game to stay the right side of the law and be in keeping what
I feel to be my own personal quality benchmark.
1. I'd have to create my own textures, then make sure the ones I photograph are
seamless (for walls and stuff) if using a wallpaper pattern get an idea off the net then
create my own inside illustrator, then make it seamless.
Joined:
Nov 27, 2015 2. Create all models, because CC licensed ones such and won't fit with the rest of my
Posts: 1,478 game, characters will be especially more difficult, requiring first sketching 2d concepts,
front,side top, sculpting inside blender, retoping, texturing and rigging.
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3. Music, forget an orchestral score, too advanced, unless I want to get into music
composition, key signatures, tempos, layering, including purchasing a good quality
midi keyboard and being fully competent in playing music. Therefore I'd have to opt for
sound effects -> like in garage band, as a ambient sound.
4. Sound effects, free ones not good enough, the number of times I've heard the same
exact jump scare in horror game trailers, therefore have to purchase sound recording
kit, record bangs chimes, screams may have to hire or use family/friends.
5. Fonts, either stick with unity arial font or make my own, requires sketching ideas on
paper, scanning paper, taking into illustrator, paths to outlines, then splitting each letter
and punctuation to same sized rectangles, possibly having to redraw some letters with
the pen tool, then exporting to svg and taking into a font kit like font forge.
6.Ensuring all gameplay is unique and not copied.
7. Ensure the story is good, take up/read story design, creating a good beginning
middle and end, not give too much away, avoid cliches.
There's probably more.

iamthwee, Dec 29, 2016 #40
Martin_H iamthwee said: ↑
5. Fonts, either stick with unity arial font or make my own
Imho both are rather poor choices. Arial fits only very few games (if any at all) and
making your own proper *) typefaces is crazy involved. Pixel fonts are doable though.
Posts: 3,690
*) I studied communication design which would be a good base to specialize towards
designing fonts, however I'd have to add a few years of training to get anything
remotely professional done.
Martin_H, Dec 29, 2016 #41
hippocoder Well, when humanity evolves to be some kind of hive mind, then patenting ideas might
work. Given that it basically is, it might be relevant sooner than we think.
hippocoder, Dec 29, 2016 #42

Digital Ape
Kiwasi likes this.
Joined: Apr 11, 2010

Posts: 23,654
Kiwasi
17 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
hippocoder said: ↑
Well, when humanity evolves to be some kind of hive mind, then patenting ideas might work. Given
that it basically is, it might be relevant sooner than we think.
It's just a matter of time. The real question is will Facebook or Google win out as the
Joined: Dec 5, 2013
central nervous system.
Posts: 15,838
Kiwasi, Dec 29, 2016 #43
hippocoder Interesting, not Twitch then?
Maybe a new service: Twitchagram Book.
hippocoder, Dec 29, 2016 #44

Digital Ape
Joined: Apr 11, 2010

Posts: 23,654
Kiwasi hippocoder said: ↑
Interesting, not Twitch then?
Maybe a new service: Twitchagram Book.
My money's on a FaceBook/YouTube/Twitter merger.

Joined: Dec 5, 2013
Posts: 15,838
Just because YouTwitFace would be an awesome name.
Kiwasi, Dec 29, 2016 #45
theANMATOR2b, Martin_H, MV10 and 1 other person like this.
iamthwee Martin_H said: ↑
Imho both are rather poor choices. Arial fits only very few games (if any at all) and making your own
proper *) typefaces is crazy involved. Pixel fonts are doable though.
*) I studied communication design which would be a good base to specialize towards designing fonts,
however I'd have to add a few years of training to get anything remotely professional done.
Joined:
Nov 27, 2015 Whilst I don't deny the subtleties of designing a good font will take a few years of
Posts: 1,478 training and I'm probably simplifying the end result (I bet something like helvetica
fontface went through many iterations and such) I'm not sure it would take too long.
With my particular game there's a tendency to opt for a typical horror font face, like
blood dripping, but I think it's too cliched, I think the font I picked in post #6 is subtle
and simple enough to create some variation thereof with pen,scanner and illustrator?
Also a simple sans-serif font like Arial can work well IMO, see the beginning of
playable teaser... Again it all depends on the type of game you're going for as well.
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MV10 In recent years it has become much easier to find free assets of all types (even
including code), and people are doing a much better job of expressly stating their
licensing terms. I still try to steer clear of the sketchy .cn and .ru sites out there but I've
accidentally wasted entire days browsing free assets of one kind or another...
aer0ace said: ↑
Joined: Nov 6, 2015
Posts: 1,889 I've also read that google has a great font library. Not sure if they're free for commercial use...
I'm using Google fonts and they're pretty good. (Professional font-nerds apparently
have a lot of quality complaints about them, but they're fine for all practical purposes.)
They are free for commercial use.
MV10, Dec 29, 2016 #47
aer0ace, theANMATOR2b and Martin_H like this.
iamthwee Yeah I just found a very similar font I need on google fonts
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Amatic+SC?selection.family=Amatic+SC

Joined:
Nov 27, 2015
Posts: 1,478
Martin_H iamthwee said: ↑
Yeah I just found a very similar font I need on google fonts

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Amatic+SC?selection.family=Amatic+SC
From the site:

"Vernon practiced typeface design from 2007 to 2014. A lifelong artist, during this
Posts: 3,690
time he eagerly explored designing type for the cloud-based era. His work spans all
genres, from lively script faces to workhorse text families and operating system UI.
Vernon graduated with an MA in Typeface Design from the University of Reading
and lives in California. His designs are mostly published as open source Google Fonts
and his favorite projects include Oxygen Mono, Monda, and Bowlby One. Follow his
story at www.sansoxygen.com."
iamthwee said: ↑
simple enough to create some variation thereof
19 of 20 23/11/2018, 5:17 am
Special licensing terms might apply for modifying fonts, that don't apply for just using
them. I can't elaborate on details because that'll be case-by-case and I don't know
much about it in general.
MV10 said: ↑
(Professional font-nerds apparently have a lot of quality complaints about them, but they're fine for all
practical purposes.)
I'm not that full-on font-nerd but I've found fonts there that I think are quite decent. I've
used 3 of them in my thesis.
I wouldn't expect the kerning ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning ) to be on the level
of commercial fonts but that's something I can adjust manually for critical applications
like logos and for UI text I'd be surprised if Unity can even make use of advanced
kerning pair info. Does anyone know whether it can?
Martin_H, Dec 29, 2016 #49
MV10 Martin_H said: ↑
I'm not that full-on font-nerd but I've found fonts there that I think are quite decent. I've used 3 of them
in my thesis.
I wouldn't expect the kerning ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerning ) to be on the level of commercial
fonts but that's something I can adjust manually for critical applications like logos and for UI text I'd be
surprised if Unity can even make use of advanced kerning pair info. Does anyone know whether it
can?
Joined: Nov 6, 2015
Posts: 1,889
TextMesh Pro supports manual kerning (and a vast array of other cool stuff).
TMP and Rewired are my two "everybody should buy this now" recommendations.
MV10, Dec 29, 2016 #50
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iamthwee, May 3, 2016 #1

wetcircuit, kaiyum, Philip-Rowlands and 4 others like this.

Martin_H Thumbs up for starting to take these things serious!

Philip-Rowlands, theANMATOR2b, Kiwasi and 1 other person like this.

Martin_H likes this.

zombiegorilla, May 3, 2016 #4

Ryiah, Kiwasi, iamthwee and 2 others like this.

neginfinity You're absolutely correct on all accounts.

P.S. Also, Ableton Live is quite expensive, last time I checked.

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iamthwee, May 3, 2016 #6

uchihashosho, Teila, Ryiah and 1 other person like this.

Martin_H likes this.

GarBenjamin iamthwee said: ↑

Martin_H likes this.

zombiegorilla iamthwee said: ↑

Joined: May 8, 2012

I would suggest these 3 books as a starter:

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QFSW GarBenjamin said: ↑

GarBenjamin likes this.

Martin_H GarBenjamin said: ↑

Farelle, kaiyum, QFSW and 3 others like this.

zombiegorilla GarBenjamin said: ↑

QFSW and Martin_H like this.

zombiegorilla Martin_H said: ↑

Joined: May 8, 2012 zombiegorilla, May 3, 2016 #14

GarBenjamin, May 3, 2016 #15

drewradley, May 3, 2016 #16

zombiegorilla QFSW said: ↑

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iamthwee drewradley said: ↑

Not very I'd imagine.

Last edited: May 3, 2016

Joined: iamthwee, May 3, 2016 #19

Kiwasi iamthwee said: ↑

Working for the IP owner helps.

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neginfinity iamthwee said: ↑

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QFSW zombiegorilla said: ↑

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zombiegorilla QFSW said: ↑

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zombiegorilla iamthwee said: ↑

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zombiegorilla darkhog said: ↑

QFSW zombiegorilla said: ↑

MV10 neginfinity said: ↑

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zombiegorilla MV10 said: ↑

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Martin_H zombiegorilla said: ↑

Joined: Jul 11, 2015

zombiegorilla Martin_H said: ↑

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Martin_H zombiegorilla said: ↑

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zombiegorilla, May 5, 2016 #34

MV10 Martin_H said: ↑