You’ve asked quite a lot of insightful questions, so let’s dig in.
- Re: releasing a game in progress, I’m assuming this will be a playable executable rather than having people access the code itself. If it’s the code, you can do that through the UnrealEngine GitHub network. If it’s the executable, you can distribute that like a regular game.
- Re: notifying Epic, I’d say your obligation to notify is when the game is released to the public in a way that it can generate royalty-bearing revenue (rather than just a test build), and/or when it gets it’s first real release.
- Re: Patreon, that revenue is not subject to royalty if it’s a real donation, i.e., it’s not tied to game access or in-game benefit.
- Re: your game’s EULA, you’re correct that Epic only requires the language you pointed to from the release page. That can be inserted into your EULA.
- Re: third party software licenses, your feedback is received. I think we are looking for ways in the future to reduce this burden. That said, I need to be a little careful there too because, from a legal standpoint, this license is between you and the third party software licensor rather than with Epic. So I can’t be your lawyer to tell you what you need to do with that software. This is a topic perhaps a non-Epic person might weigh in on to provide guidance. But you are welcome to look at other Epic products for your platform(s) of choice to see what our third party software notices look like.
- Re: changes to the third party software licenses, yes they do change. When you have a real release, you should look at the licenses for the engine version you are using.
- Re: software merging, I’m not sure what you mean. What is the OpenGL 4.1 license? A quick internet search did not make this readily apparent. Your question kind of sounds like asking about viral or copyleft licenses where that software license applies to a larger program when they are combined. Viral license are not compatible with UE4 use.
- Re: the Android license, if you’re not developing for Android, you wouldn’t be using that software.
- Re: Game Jams, I think you’re saying that as a matter of practice game jam developers don’t generally provide notice regarding third party software they’re using. As a lawyer who works in the game industry, I can say with confidence that finding a developer who actually complies with his/her third party software license obligations are few and far between. As a practical matter, the licensors who license open source software usually aren’t the type to vigorously police their licenses.