Questions to Epic Forum Staff, FAB Community and Pro Devs

General Feedback & Requests
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Hello everyone,

I couldn’t find any discussion that would be a good fit for the post, which is why I am posting it here in General.

After doing research for some time, I have decided to start making smaller games in my free time (taking baby steps) by buying game templates provided to us in FAB. I have no coding experience, but I have experience in blueprints (between beginner- and intermediate-level) and designing levels as a paid freelancer.

I want to start with 2D for now and eventually move to 3D games while primarily focusing on a single-player experience/linear game with some multiple paths for players to explore, giving players a false sense of freedom without them knowing about it :sweat_smile: . In the far future, I definitely want to make open-world games and multiplayer working with other cool devs that love similar games I love. I read the official details here and I still have question.

Now, that you know a little bit about what I want, here’s the questions to Epic:

  1. Do I need to give credits to the product I buy and stuff I got free from Epic Games to us every month in FAB? (I couldn’t find anything about free FAB stuff in offical details)

  2. What is the difference between a personal and professional license? (I am picking personal since I have not made more than 100k in 12 months but what happens if the game I made makes over 100k in 12 months via Steam or Itch, do I need to pay them for professional licence even though I bought Personal already?)

  3. Let’s say I made 100k in the last 12 months from my previous game, and I decided to make another new game using a different template. Do I then have to pay the professional license payment for anything I buy from FAB onwards?

Here’s some picture examples, and as you can see, the prices are almost double compared to a personal license. I am not buying all these now (starting under 50 bucks for the first 2D game), but eventually I will have to invest more for 3D games and came up with these questions with no answers!

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This part question is for all experienced devs who have worked making games alone or with others using game templates. You are welcome to DM me if you don’t want to answer here.

A. Is using a game template to make a game seen as lazy work from devs who make everything from ground up?

B. How do you migrate all necessary templates to your project in UE after buying the game template?

C. How much of the game template do you use? Do you use provided assets, characters, enemies, animation, and SFX that came with the template in the game?

D. How many FAB projects do you buy to make one 2D or 3D game that is single-player and not open-world?

E. How many team members helped to make this game, and if you made it alone, what are the things you would like to suggest and what things you needed help from a freelancer for?

F. Which document or guide video did you want when it was time to release the game on Steam?

G. What are 3 pieces of advice you can give to me?

H. Do you have any recommendations for a 2D game template for me? I want make something that is a mix of Zelda and Hollow Knight. I have a few template saved in my cart, but I would like to hear what you have to say.

Thank you for taking your time to read this post and any help you provided :folded_hands:

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1 No, you can, but you aren’t obliged to.

2 If you have made > 100k in the last 12 months from games you have developed, you need the prof license on new stuff you buy ( no need to retroactively do that ).

3 If you haven’t made > 100k in the last 12 months, then any new stuff you buy can be personal.

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I’ll just answer the part about getting free assets on FAB.

If you’re collecting freebies, I’d highly recommend claiming them under the Professional license right away.

I don’t know the intentions of the company or person who uploaded that asset to FAB, so just to keep yourself safe from future commercial issues, I recommend always redeeming free assets under the Professional option.

That way, you won’t run into problems or have to redo an end credits cutscene just to attribute a name and tool to someone who decided to give you a hard time for whatever reason.

And when you do buy an asset for your game under the Personal license, just give credit right away.

I’m telling you, it’s way better to put the credits in and have peace of mind that there won’t be issues down the line, rather than skipping it, living with that endless anxiety, and eventually getting your game taken down because some crazy guy decided to hit you with a DMCA/copyright strike for not crediting him

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That makes no sense, a free asset is a free asset. The license has no meaning in this case.

Besides, nobody is checking if you suddenly earn more than 100k anyway and bought the right license. The two different licenses are more of a “honorary agreement”. Neither Epic nor the sellers have any means of actually verifying it.

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This post here will have all upcoming daily updates whenever I work in my project.

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On the contrary, they do check, and companies like Epic Games definitely keep track. Sure, it’s somewhat limited—Epic would primarily know if you’re selling within their own ecosystem, for example. But eventually, you’re required by industry standards to credit most of the assets used in your game; that’s essentially what game credits are for.

If your game ever blows up and someone looks into it, and you can’t produce a commercial license for an asset, I highly doubt the original creator wouldn’t come after you. They could easily make a lot of money off a rookie mistake.

Some might argue that it’s rare for indie games to pass the $100k mark. But we have to remember that Epic Games Store invested way more in giving away Indies than AAA games this year, which also caused a spike in Steam sales. That’s why, even when getting free assets, you should always secure the commercial license. It will save you from having to buy it twice in the future and spare you massive legal headaches.

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Looks like they updates few things after this post was up, happy to see that Unreal staff reads every single post and thank you for updating if it was done after reading this post :folded_hands:

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Great news that the Unreal staff updated this and made the distinction between the personal and professional licenses much clearer. I’m glad I could contribute to this thread and that we managed to get better clarification from the company. I think this topic can finally be closed now.

But what does this “No warranties are given” mean?

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“No warranties are given”
I don’t know what it means but is it something like this we see in movies: “The events and characters depicted in this movie are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.” I found an interesting article about this.

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So, that’s exactly why I’m asking. Because this ‘No warranties are given’ clause could mean anything. Without more context, Epic can easily defend themselves legally since it’s written so generically. But where does that leave the developer? I just think it’s unfair on their part; they could at least provide more context on this.

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I think as a company it’s important legally from their standpoint to say, ‘No warranties are given’ just in case a weirdo tries to sue Epic for this!

In my perspective as a dev who just wants to make cool games and be part of other devs cool projects (paid and rev share) as much as possible, it would be nice to have a description as to why, ‘No warranties are given’.