Can we opensource our code?

[Kolja_Zuelsdorf]

Hi everyone!

I am currently going through the course and as I am used to using a VCS (version control system), I am regularly pushing all my code to GitHub anyways. To give other students an insight I would love to post a link to the repository (especially to the code) that I used to create the game.

I searched around on the internet to find out whether it is legal (meaning unitys license allows it) to share your entire project from unity (as long as you do not make a profit with it, of course). What I found on multiple results is that it is basically allowed bot one can not put “standard assets” into code that one opens for the public.

So my question is: What are “standard assets”? Do we use those in the course? Or can I safely share my entire project with others? (I took good care of only using images, fonts and sounds that are under CC0 / public domain.)

Thanks!

[Nina]

Hi Kolja,

@Kolja_Zuelsdorf

I searched around on the internet to find out whether it is legal (meaning unitys license allows it) to share your entire project from unity (as long as you do not make a profit with it, of course).

It depends on what exactly you used in your code. Ben’s and Rick’s own code on GitHub is published under the MIT license.

However, you will have to read all licenses to be on the safe side. I don’t know in which course you are but in the Unity 2D course, Rick used assets for which he got a special permission by the creator. However, the creator does not allow anybody else to use their assets in a published project unless the student/game developer paid for it. I don’t know if you would be allowed to make their assets public on GitHub even if you purchased those sprites.

@Kolja_Zuelsdorf

What are “standard assets”? Do we use those in the course?

Additional packages by Unity. Yes, we do use them in our courses. I don’t know in which course you are, so I cannot tell you whether we use them in yours.

This article on the official Unity website might be relevant for you.

I know that my answer is a bit vague but I’m neither the creator of any assets, nor am I a lawyer. The only advice I can give you is: Always read the licenses, and if in doubt, message the creator.

[Kolja_Zuelsdorf]

Hi Nina,

thanks for the helpful reply. I am on the Unity 2D course.

I would have loved to open source my stuff but oh well, I think the risk is too high to have something in there that I should not have open sourced and I certainly don’t want to end my game dev career before it really started, so I think I will just leave the source closed.

Thanks again and also for the linked article, it made me aware that even when releasing a game one does have to be very careful not to break any licenses, so I now know that I will have to do so when the time comes.