Ethical use of Unity3D-made templates in own games

Hello,

I'm a musician with no game design training. I'm very much enjoying Unity3D so far because it's allowing me to get my ideas across without be slowed down too much by my total inexperience with game design.

I have a question about the use of some of the ready-made templates that come with the game such as the FPS controller prefab, but more specifically the 2D platformer tutorial.
The tutorial helps you create a fully functional 2D platformer level with the help of ready-made scripts that allow for two-dimensional controls.

I've looked closely at the coding for this script, and I'm still quite baffled by it.
My main goal right now is just to get some of my game ideas out there, and those are mostly audio-based. Therefore, I just want a simple 2D system running.

My question is (finally) how does Unity3D (the company) feel about our use of these scripts in our own game? I can understand characters like Lerpz and anything else created is under copyright, but I'm talking exclusively about their scripts.

Hypothetically speaking, ff I were to:

1. design, model and animate my own characters
2. Design, model and incorporate my own levels
3. Use the 2D platforming script from the Unity tutorials line for line
4. Create my own scripts for fulfilling my audio-based ideas.
5. Sell/pitch my game idea, to be then picked up by a game company, making it a commercial game

...would it still be fair to consider the product that I'd be pitching "my game"?

If this is indeed, ethically fair, how should we be crediting the Unity3D devs that made these initial codes? What about making money on something like this?

I'm all for the simplification of game production, but I'm not sure about having a fundamental parts of the game made by someone else.

Where do you guys stand on this? (I'm asking any makers of Unity that might be reading this thread -- but also the general users of this amazing tool).

 

I am not In anyway affiliated with unity but I think there general policy is that there not that bothered about whether you use scripts etcetera to create your own game in fact they actively encourage you to build on there scripts as a foundation to create cool game concepts so I would say do not lose any sleep over it and get creating :wink:

 

noticed you live in Toronto I use to live there as well I'ts the cleanest place ever! :wink:

 

Unity Technologies has stated on numerous occasions that any scripts and art assets included with Unity are free for commercial use.

 

Hey everyone thanks for the quick replies.
That clarifies and soothes a lot of my qualms

Yeah, born and raised in Toronto. I've never heard the city being called clean before. awesome!

 

Me too. But after a couple years with Unity, I don't feel very hindered any more. Practice!

Indeed! Very nice city.

 

There's no reason you cannot use these assets, but we'd prefer to see Unity developers to move forward with creative, original and awe-inspiring content! Chances are that if you use this content, it will certainly show up in other peoples' portfolios as well.

Use the code, learn from the assets, and move forward with your own new work as you grow as a developer, coder or artist.

I remember a friend of mine at Pixar who told me she saw countless job applications featuring portfolios with the default "dancing monster" clip that came with 3DS Max Biped (this was in the late 90s). They just loaded the file, rendered to AVI and put it in their portfolio like it was their own work.

Legally, they could do that. But all those applications pretty much went straight into the dumpster.

 

thanks for the reply. Yeah that makes a lot of sense. I've got definite intentions of pushing forward and genuinely learning Unity's scripting (on that note, would it be smart to pick up a Javascript for Dummies-like book, or would only a fraction of that be useful for Unity?), but for the time being I'm trying to get these other ideas going, with Unity simply as its vehicle.

 

Why not post in the Collaboration forums and see if you can team up with someone who knows some coding but can't do graphics?

You don't need to produce 'the next best game', but it would probably help you get to grips with the coding aspect a bit quicker if there someone able to explain why things were done the way they were done.

 

Definitely not. Javascript in Unity only resembles the Javascript language in syntax. Most of the information in such a book would not apply to Unity at all. You will need to get all the information on JS in Unity from the online reference guide, these forums and/or the Unify wiki (http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page).

 

FWIW, if/when you want a company answer it's far better to ping one of us directly than to toss a post out here and hoping we run across it. With that in mind, I'm on regular patrol here and came across this thread so let's get down to business!


With respect to using assets from our example projects and/or tutorials, you're free to use them in your own projects, commercial or otherwise, as long as those projects are authored in Unity. So apart from any moral or ethical debates, you are legally licensed to use them as you see fit!


Note: I was all sorts of ready to say "just read the license file that's included" and then I checked only to find out the 2D platform tutorial doesn't include one. I'm off to make sure they all do to ease this process for others!

 

This relevant to the Bootcamp demo too Tom?

Cheers
Aaron

 

While I'm not Tom, I can say our general policy is that assets provided with tutorials and examples made by Unity Tech are public domain and you can use them in your own projects in any way you like. However, if you find an explicit licence in any of our projects, you should certainly abide by it.