Monetization of upbge game

Hello. Let’s say I made a game project on upbge. Now I want to monetize it and sell it. What are my actions? Through the game Engine addon, it turns out. exe, but under a license, how can I distribute this game, with the possibility of monetization?

the licensing terms for BGE are pretty clear.

particularly this bit:

In summary, the software and source code are bound to the GNU GPL, but the blend-files (models, textures, sounds) are not.

In other words- any of your custom code will be open source, but your assets are not. How you want to monetize using that information is up to you- you could charge for asset packs, do something entirely back-end driven that is not part of the blender codebase, etc. Trying to shoehorn a game made with BGE into a traditional ‘closed source’ monetization strategy would be a waste of effort imo.

Distributing UPBGE or an game based on it is not any different than distributing any other fork or blender it self really, this thread may shed some light on the situation for you.

I have a file .blend, I need to know how I can play it so that the player doesn’t fall under gnu.It’s just that there are already projects with monetization.

The player will always fall under the GPL there’s no bypassing that, the two goals are not mutually exclusive though you are allowed to charge for GPL software.

There is an addon Game Engine: Save as Game Engine Runtime by Mitchell Stokes, it creates. exe, can I sell such a file?

I can’t speak for software I have never seen, but anything based off the blender codebase you are allowed so sell (Given you satisfy the requirements of the GPL see the thread I linked earlier for your options there)

I’m not convinced a game made using UPBGE is bound by the GPL, in the same way that images produced in Blender are not bound by it. It comes down to whether the executable output of the UPBGE project can be considered derivative work. I’d be inclined to believe it isn’t. The executable is not extending UPBGE, but simply an output of it.

If you were to ship Blender and your project and say ‘play this game by starting up Blender and loading this scene’ then yes of course that would fall under GPL, but I don’t see that as the case here.

It should be assumed, but I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice.

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The executable file is(as in the binary blob resulting from compiling the GPL code). The scripts that use the blender/upbge apis are also affected. But the art assets, 3D models, 2D textures, audio files etc. are not.

The real problem is you have no way to protect your art assets against piracy.

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Yep there’s certainly some complexity when it comes to the application logic/scripting/engine. It would be interesting to see what a lawyer or past legal precedent could unearth regarding it.

I think you are misunderstanding how BGE works (or worked since it is dead now, however the same applies to the UPBGE fork) , a game consist of two parts, a player executable and a .blend file that contained the developers scripts and assets.

The player application is not a customized binary , it was pretty much blender with the UI removed.
If you have 10 BGE based games, this part would be identical between all of them, it’s derived from the blender source code and very much bound by the GPL.

So a launcher based on upbge could be distributed for free, when games in the launcher could be sold?

Tomato Jones - game made on bge.

Nothing in the GPL prevents you from selling anything, selling the launcher is perfectly legal, however regardless if you sell it or give it away for free, you’re bound by the GPL to make the source code available to the people you provide the binary to.

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Am I required to provide a license after the request? I don’t have to notify you that the game is made in Blender, and if required, I will provide it. As a last resort, I will use advertising.

Really read the thread i linked earlier, it’s quite explicit on what your rights and obligations are.

You are required to provide the code OR a written offer with the binary, one of the two.

Check this thread:

EDIT: @LazyDodo sorry… I missed you already linked it LOL

linked it and referred to it a few times, but it doesn’t feel like that registered, so you highlighting a post from that thread may not be a terrible thing :slight_smile:

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I’ve watched it all, repeatedly. I can provide the encoded code via bbplayer, I will now look for it in this article, but if you are aware, please tell me.

I will continue to study your article)))