[IGDA_indies] Commercializing open source

C Ratchet zratchet at mindspring.com
Sun Jul 25 19:40:39 EDT 2004


I can think of a way to create commercial open source games...
Using Creative Commons ( http://creativecommons.org ) licenses, you can 
allow commercial usage of your game.

Now, what I'm thinking is, you license your engine so it can be used 
commercially as long as it (the interactive code) is under share-alike 
terms. So anyone can use the engine.

But when you want to sell *your* game, you sell:

1) the engine under the terms you've already stated, so the game can be 
run.
2) your graphics and audio under non-commercial use clause (which is 
allowed in Creative Commons licenses (i.e. people can still share them 
but can't commercialize them without your permission)

This would allow for a very moddable game (and most games I see these 
days are moddable), which would seem to me a good marketing point.

So, basically you're selling gamepacks. This way, anyone can use the 
engine to make games, and if they want to, benefit from it commercially 
by creating closed gamepacks.

---
 From Ratchet (Mikey Lubker)
Lead Coordinator of the IGDA Indie SIG: http://igda.org/indie

Check out my projects: http://sf.net/users/ratchet

Are YOU a Good Person? Go here: 
http://www.wayofthemaster.com/wotm_flash.html
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