If you don't know, 'IP' and 'Copyright' is a law thing that was originally built to protect the creator of a creative work they made so that no one else can just copy it and sell it, effectively making money using your hard work — usually without permission and not paying you anything for it, maybe even stealing credit for creating it in the process too.
In theory, IP law effectively lets a creator send the police after someone that "stole" their IP, making them pay money back or go to jail. Assuming the creator can prove it and if the authorities will care.
That's the idea behind it anyway, even if I'm oversimplifying it here. It's based on fear of "how will I make enough money to live?" or the desire of "I want to be rewarded for the work I did."
In practice, IP law doesn't really protect small creators — it protects big companies with lawyers. It slows down creativity, scares people away from experimenting, and turns art into a list of legal restrictions instead of something fun and open. Most of the time, by the time a small dev could afford to defend their "rights," the damage is already done or wasn't worth fighting over in the first place.
And when it comes to fans and pirates — trying to fight them is just bad energy. People who pirate your game are often doing it because they can't afford it, want to try it out, or simply don't have access to your store in their country. Many pirates end up becoming fans, community members, and even paying customers later if you treat them with respect instead of hostility.
Of course, you will see the occasional immature asshat that abuses others and even openly brags about it, but I assure you that such people are usually a tiny loud minority and not worth the attention, other than calling them out on their bs in a public space to shame them. Eventually even they too will grow up.
We're taking an open, permissive collaboration approach — similar in spirit to MIT or Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY).
That means no one "owns" the IP or the assets — not the project leader, not individual contributors, not the team, not some corporation. We're all just contributing to make something awesome together.
The game, its assets, and code are all part of a shared creative effort. Anyone from the team can later decide to take the project in a new direction — make their own version, spin-off, or experiment — as long as:
You're free to release your version however you like — free, paid, open, closed — whatever fits your goals.
The only thing we ask is honesty, transparency, and respect for the people who helped build the foundation. Don't poison the water well you or the people you care about might drink from.
We make games because we love making things that matter, not to build a dystopian legal dictatorship.
Let's focus on making something people love and want to pay money for — and trust that goodwill, community, and transparency are far more powerful than any trademark.
We won't waste energy hounding pirates. Instead, we'll work with them.
If someone wants to host or share the game freely, we'll encourage them to also link back to our:
We will even give them free copies of the game, with convenient copy-paste snippets they can use on their release descriptions. Sort of like the same thing as sending a key to a gaming youtube channel to ask them to showcase the game. Its effective marketing and goodwill charity at the same time.
This way, people who genuinely enjoy the game or can afford to support us know where to go. Everyone wins — players get access, we get visibility, and the community grows.
The only time we'll use DMCA or platform reports is if someone is:
Our goal is to protect players from scams and give gratitude to the ones that do help us out, even if it's unconventional.
We're using a permissive open license (similar to MIT or CC-BY).
That means:
In short:
You can do what you want — just give credit, stay transparent, and don't mislead anyone.
Think of it like this: You're the original chef at a restaurant where everyone already has your recipe. But YOU run the original kitchen and people come to YOU for the "official" meal because they know you are the best source.
Anyone can freely take that recipe, add their own twist, and open their own place — as long as they don't call it your restaurant or pretend to be you - that would potentially shift any blame for their mistakes onto you. But as for will they cook it as good as you can? That's where the difference matters. If they can, they've earned it.
It's not the product itself that matters the most; its which source do people trust the most that brings authentic value and serves them the best. Ultimately we're all here to try make life more wonderful for everyone.
It's totally normal to worry about getting paid or recognized for your work. The truth is, you still will be.
Here's how:
At the end of the day, this approach isn't about giving up value — it's about creating more value by being open.
You still get credit, you still get paid, and you still get to say "I helped make that."
That's worth way more than a locked-down IP ever could be.