The PA Game License revisited
Dream Cutter
Posts: 1,222
It's been a year since many PA's added Game Licensing as a product to their DAZ Store to help position their content to independent and commercial game developers. How has that worked out? Have you sold any licenses and if so, has the rate of associated content also been boosted?
No? Well it may come as a surprise however the reason is that the TERMS that LIMIT USE TO ONE GAME destroys the value and increases risk on the developer making Indy licensing PA products is NOT VIABLE in this market.
The reason is simple, MOST GAMES ARE NOT PROFITABLE, and the industry average is less than $200" revenue per game that is published. That cost is enough to give most developers pause, however some may feel if they can spread the cost of licensed content to any number of projects they can create with the PA's products it may be worth the risk of acquisition. The added benifit to the PA is that they would be able to BUY more CONTENT from the PA to support the expensive license investment.
Compare DAZ Indy Game License Terms with the typical PA language:
PA GAME LICENSE - What's Included & Features
This license is good for PA VENDOR owned models ONLY! (Vendor=PA)
This license is good for a SINGLE game title or project ONLY.
This license is governed by the DAZ 3D Game Developer EULA.
Note:DAZ 3D published or brokered content MAY NOT be distributed under this license and is subject to the regular DAZ 3D EULA.
DAZ GAME LICENSE - What's Included & Features:
This license is good for DAZ 3D owned models ONLY! (Vendor=DAZ3D)
This license is governed by section 3.0 DAZ Commercial Real-time Addendum of the DAZ 3D End User License.
Note:DAZ 3D published or brokered content MAY NOT be distributed under this license and is subject to the regular DAZ 3D EULA. All discounts are not applicable to this item.
Do it make sense to revise the PA License Terms to and remove application limit to you encourage developers to buy more product?
YOUR THOUGHTS?
* Ref:
Game revenue trends:
http://txt.jazzychad.net/gist/19a05ad4e7ef77072b44
http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2010/03/q-pc-indie-game-sales-numbers.html
Published game examples: http://1-ogg.com/
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Comments
Yes there have been sales.
Rawn
Yes there have been sales.
Rawn
Yes ~ Rawn your products are fantastic. I have most RawArt figures and use them in 2D art, and one game license. However sure wish i could publish more than one mini-game. I would comment that the product tag line "Over 200 characters" is meaningless or a bit mis-leading in terms of value since its impractical/impossible to leverage. I did not realize the ONE GAME use limitation until I started to publish my second project and had to swap out the RawArt Sasquatch for DAZ's Undead Fiend because I could not afford another licence. The games I make today are not commercially viable, so I offer them free to play in my blog and to inspire others to create.
Have you sold more than one license to the same developer?
We do not receive information as to who the buyers of our products are...so I cannot answer that.
Rawn
Yikes! Looks like I'll either be sticking to strictly Daz models for 3d games or 2d games. paying that much for a license you can only use once (and perhaps multiple buys if you're using more than 1 PA's items in your game) really makes a game's cost to make way above expected return unless you get lucky and hit a game that goes viral. But by that point, how much has been spent on previous games to try and get that 1 hit?
I understand that PAs need to make money too and revising the license to unlimited use would make them a 1 time purchase (and then what do you do with all those people who are going to start complaining because they had previously purchased more than 1...)
Observing point and counter-point, I couldn't even begin to come up with an opinion of what my solution would be as currently it's really not worth the purchase, but changing it will only cause grief for the PA unless the change unexpectedly promotes that PA's other products and sales from those increase drastically. But that's a risky move.
My head's starting to hurt...
Nobody bought mine!
I did not set up those licenses, though, so there's not much point yelling at me in capital letters about them.
If one types in all caps, but makes it 1pt font, is it still yelling? IS IT?
For what it is worth...I just sent off an update to DAZ to allow up to 5 games/titles for my Indy license.
Not sure how long it will take to get set up though.
Rawn
That's a thing that we can do?
That's a thing that we can do?
Sure...will tell ya all about it..in PM ;)
Sure...will tell ya all about it..in PM ;)
Thanks RawArt!
Good grief, did not even recognize that - Pardon that. I was not trying to single out or blame anyone just a prompt to help improve the situation because I figured it was an oversight by an eager legal editor. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense.
Good grief, did not even recognize that - Pardon that. I was not trying to single out or blame anyone just a prompt to help improve the situation because I figured it was an oversight by an eager legal editor. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense.
No problem! I've asked DAZ to update them to five games as well.
:) Awesome. I really think that's much more reasonable. Honestly I bet the visibility of your characters by gamer's will earn more recognition and demand with a younger demographic too!
Thank You.
No problem! I've asked DAZ to update them to five games as well.
Really need to recognize most are not even trying to earn money.... just talent experience, portfolio building and peer recognition like the same consumers who render images. On the off chance a big hit occurs ~ I for one would be proud to recognize the modelers and actually take advantage of synergies to continue the success. Besides most will use the license to make live rendered plays, stories books and props for webgl galleries I suppose. Its exceedingly difficult to create gameplay, and its more realistic leap for 2D animators and graphic artists to create interactive 3d media using ubiquitous technology like Flash, WebGL and 3d Droid Apps.
I think it could work, but I don't see people using 3D models from DAZ to make games. Stills or animation (which do not need any licenses) - yes, but not things using the license. I think the models here are too detailed for indie developers - being resource-heavy for games, even with Decimator, kind of makes them less attractive. I know people do use DAZ stuff - 2D versions - for instance, I contribute concept art to a 2D indie game.
I'm using Daz for creating the graphics for video games :)
For the code I use GameMaker Studio which will export the code into any format you want (windows, iOS, Anrdoid, Steam, PS3, Mac, etc.) and it's super easy to import models and images into for using in the games you are creating.
With these 2 softwares, I am a 1-person game studio LOL. (Although I am still working on my first release)
QUOTE: >>I think it could work, but I don’t see people using 3D models from DAZ to make games. Stills or animation (which do not need any licenses) - yes, but not things using the license. I think the models here are too detailed for indie developers - being resource-heavy for games, even with Decimator, kind of makes them less attractive. I know people do use DAZ stuff - 2D versions - for instance, I contribute concept art to a 2D indie game. <<</p>
What does that make me? Some of my DAZ created game projects: http://3danimatedman.com
Comon Sheeple, its not hard to do. Here are some ways to publish real-time 3d to a web page using WebGL, Flash 11 and PDF (Yes, PDF's can be in 3d http://www.goldpeeps.com/gp_3dsluice.html ):
WebGL engines at: http://www.webgl-game-engines.com/blend4web.html
Best are:
- Flash professional - Versatile virtual scene and object publishing (http://www.adobe.com/devnet/games.html)
- SimLab3D - Great for Story Books, Sims & Games (simlab3d.com http://www.simlab-soft.com/3d-products/simlab-composer-trial.aspx)
- CopperCube3D - Great for Games, w/o Code Programming. (ambieria.com ; game creation walkthrough http://farmpeeps.com/webgl3d_1.html )
- 3JS WebGL JS Lib for Coders - (TUTORIAL http://buildnewgames.com/webgl-threejs/ )
BTW 3D figures made for games are made similar to DAZ figures, first sculpted and painted in HD then resurfaced low poly with the HD pelted UV converted transferred to the low poly so that HD materials align to the poly groups. The one feature that DS and Poser supports that many game engines do not is the ability to layer the same UV's to each group of a figure. Thats why DS and PoserPro 2014 Game Edition provide a texture atlas tool to merge the texture maps to a single UV. Many game engines CAN support 100K-1M polys in a figure now thanks to the ubiquity of the GPU, even when published in WebGL. Therefore Decimator is less critical, because polygons density is not nearly as resource intensive as texture map size.
With respect to decimated figures look crappy, its takes some experience and testing to balance the density and adjustment of UV seams. This is because polygons grow as the density is reduced, reducing the accuracy of the UV boundaries. I make android games too that use 8k max poly figures. For these extreme low poly figures, I will compensate by filling the black in between texture groups on a texture map with a photo editor using a blended material (PS fill, blend) to hide seams better.
There is one other benefit of Decimation and Texture Atlas for 3D Publishing licensed content.: Obfuscation and original source content isolation. 3D published and distributed games SHOULD NOT have the third party products embedded as they can be extracted by clever gamer and may be exploited at your legal peril. Therefore even if the game is encrypted, its recommended to always reduce licensed source content by at least 50% (mesh and textures) prior to import into the game engine. This will eliminate the risk that your project has the potential exposed the vendors product to piracy, however verify with the vendors EULA to ensure this 50% LOD is sufficient to maintain compliance.
GO FOR IT. Figure out how and what you want to publish in 3d and ASK for advice on your game dev pipeline. The interest may further prompt content Vendors may provide advice on how to best reduce their figures or offer other support with animating and exporting