License for others

Hello good people,

After years of making video games for myself and a few friends after having purchased a license I now have a possibility to do a job for a company : creative an interactive display with a few games for kids. The display will be in a museum and should be a permanent display.

How does it work with licensing? Does the museum have to purchase a yearly license to be able to display the Construct game? Can they just go online to the website where I will host their game without any extra cost than hiring me for this job?

Feedback appreciated!

JMF

i do believe the way it works is that the license allows you to sell exported games. it seems in your case, your plan is to make a game or interactive video into an end product, and then export that, and sell them the finished file. that would be allowed. you could even include the construct file, though ill advised. however, they would need a liscense if they wanted to alter anything, even fix a typo, and then re export it and use it in a commercial manner (for monetary gain). I don't think the museum would need a liscense to display the end product; just as random game hosting website wouldnt need a scirra liscense to host your finished game. the liscense is for use of the engine, not for use of product made on the engine; selling bits of code may be a gray area without a license, however, as you say youve purchased one, you should be fine. ive currently been researching this, and this is what i've gathered. i am in no way employed or endorsed by scirra, so please dont take what i've said as law. also, to my understanding theres a TOS file with the license, it may be addressed in there, however if not, im sure you could email support for a proper response.

it would be the same as you selling your game on google, and somebody charging money for people to watch them play. i would suggest you get yourself a sort of contract, get yourself some sort of royalty off of it if its something theyre going to be openly showing for money. granted, marketings there, you can tell people "i did that thing in the museum", but if 40-50 years down the line theyre still showing it for $12 a person, you'll appreciate the royalty checks.

THANKS!

Hello good people,

After years of making video games for myself and a few friends after having purchased a license I now have a possibility to do a job for a company : creative an interactive display with a few games for kids. The display will be in a museum and should be a permanent display.

How does it work with licensing? Does the museum have to purchase a yearly license to be able to display the Construct game? Can they just go online to the website where I will host their game without any extra cost than hiring me for this job?

Feedback appreciated!

JMF

First of all, congratulations on getting the museum job! That is a huge feather in your cap, and when it is done you can proudly say to people "Go to the _____ museum and check out my work!"

1. Any time you do work like this, you need a contract -- especially if you are getting paid for it.

2. The museum most likely will not want to purchase a C2 or C3 license. They don't really care what combination of tools you use (Adobe Photoshop vs Gimp, C2 vs C3 vs open source libraries, GoDaddy vs a private server) because they most likely will rely on you to do any necessary changes. They probably don't even know what Construct is, and are just happy to know that they have an expert who can make cool interactive stuff.

3. Decide whether you are doing "Work For Hire" or granting a (exclusive or non-exclusive, limited duration or perpetual) license for them to display your software. You should be paid the most for a "work for hire" contract, as they assume all copyrights to the completed work.

I make all of my development money off of contracts like this, and have done work for museums as well as publicly-funded and privately-funded organizations. Every contract is different, and you will need to think through all of this in each case.

Edit: Most museums use some sort of installed system for displaying their interactives. You will probably want to deliver them the entire app packaged up in a .zip file for installation. This protects them from having to rely on your servers, and it makes it cleaner for you because you are giving them a clear deliverable, rather than saying that you will forever host the app for them. I recommend making sure in the contract that you also have the right to display the app on your own website, and that you have their permission to use their name/logo/trademark in your own marketing materials.