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(1 edit)

Hi Yal! I was interested in purchasing this Engine but had some questions about the licensing. I understand that you allow any games built with your "Stuff" to be legally distributed for free or commercially; but I was a little confused about section 22 of the licensing document, which states the following:

"Games and such made using Yal Stuff is considered to be derivative of Yal Stuff, not each other." 

Is this essentially saying that any game's built off of your Stuff MUST be attributed as derivative works of your Stuff? So, as a hypothetical, if I were to build a game using this engine as a base, I have to attribute it as a derivative work of your original engine (in the credits for example). And then years later if I made a sequel to this game built off of the work of the original title, I still have to attribute that eventual sequel as a derivative work of your original engine?

Also, for the second part of this section:

"Modifications made to Licensed Stuff in order to produce a derived work must be authorized by the intellectual property rights holders in possession of every intellectual property or license used within such modifications."

This is simply stating that if a work is produced using your "Stuff", the developer has to have legal ownership or permission to use whatever other assets or concepts they put into it (so, for example, if one was to develop an original title this point would be moot since they would obviously hold the rights to all of their own ideas.)

I just wanted to ensure I understood the legality of your software before purchasing it in case I ever end up making something with it in the future. Thanks!

Edit: Also, just to be doubly sure, this asset is considered a "Resource Licensed Stuff" as stated in section 2.2 of the full license; NOT an "Executable Licensed Stuff" as state in section 2.1, right? I know the latter can't be used in commercial projects while the former can, so I wanted to make sure.

(3 edits) (+2)

The intent behind the "things are always considered derivative of Yal Stuff" clause is that you're protected, so people can't buy the same asset pack, quickly throw together a game, and then claim you infringe on their work. (Credit is optional unless stated otherwise - and so far no asset pack I've released has had a different credit statement - so you don't need to credit me for neither directly derivative stuff nor stuff derived from your own work)

The second point you bring up overlaps a bit with the first one but also is there to protect me from liability in case someone makes, say, a Fallout fangame and gets bonked by Beteshda  - if someone uses intellectual property they weren't allowed to use, they also broke the EULA and thus I can't be held responsible for it (and conversely just because two people bought the same engine/asset pack doesn't mean they're allowed to steal each other's intellectual property).

"Resource Licensed Stuff" is asset packs / source code and "Executable Licensed Stuff" is games / software tools, so yes, JamTactics Engine is a Resource Licensed Stuff. (Maintaining one EULA is complicated enough so I use the same one for both games and asset packs instead of having them separate)

Sorry for making this thing so complicated, but generally it's safer to explicitly state everything in a legal document even if it's supposed to be obvious / common sense.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, all of that makes sense. And no apology needed! I'm glad you have a legal document that outlines all of this stuff in detail, it's important to know and a lot of other assets tend not to.