Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity Original Sin - Mods Can you sell work made in the Divinity Engine?

I'm not talking about small mods or add-ons but more like whole new campaigns/story lines made using the Divinity Engine. Using existing props as well as bringing in new models and arts you have made yourself.

Are you allowed to make any kind of money using the Divinity Engine, such as accepting Donations or Royalty agreements for using the engine, etc.?

I'm guessing the Divinity Engine is just non-profit for fun only purposes?

If thats the case I think I'll just stick with UDK/Unity as you can actually get something back in return if you make something good, It's just that the Divinity Engine comes pretty much ready to jump right in and start working on your game rather than building the blocks in other engines to allow a similar type of game.

Many Thanks.

http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=506592#Post506592
No official words from Larian.
I am strongly against this trend of selling everythings.
Modding for selling = end of the community. Period.
Do the community some good, stick to Unity.

I am pretty sure Larian holds the rights to its game, editor and any content made through this editor and content created with in-game resources.
So, no, thankfully you cannot sell your mods.

If Larian would allow it, they'd instantly kill D:OS' future modding community.
And, really, people wanting to sell their mods are plain greedy.

Now asking for donations would be fine in my opinion. I would never do this myself, because I'm not greedy, but if you published a great mod and people want to donate something for your hard work, well, who's stopping them.

Selling mods sounds more cancerous than EA.

No offence but it seems people are stomping their feet and demanding free stuff.

Something free should always be considered a gift not something that is compulsory or demanded.

It doesnt matter what engine you use to achieve a goal as they are all tools to create the same thing you have in your mind, the only issue is the copyrights with the engine owner. I hope that the Divinity Engine will someone follow the model of bigger game engines and release some sort of royalty agreement as I think both Larian and Content Creators deserve something in return for their great works.

Also no it wouldn't kill the modding community, people won't be incline to buy every single mod out there and not everyone will want money for their basic work, Only the most successful and popular mods could get away with it, and they should get something in return.

I suppose building games and content isn't actually work though heh? So I don't see why you happen to buy Divinity in the first place. Really if you want be CHEAPSKATES then fine just don't demand that everything should be free, just like in the real world, if you can't afford something then don't buy it.

Good luck to the modders that are pumping out good content for this community which demands things be free, as if their work is some sort of charity for good cause, because you know gamers need charity especially when they paid $40 for a game and think all future works are entitled to be free.

Warcraft 3 had a similar game engine, and most mods were god damn awful, the only one that had any sort of success was DOTA, which quickly became copied by other studios as a standalone game and surpassed the original mod, so I doubt you guys actually know what's really good for the community.

If you like something then buy it and support it, thats always been the rule.

Using a popular mod (DOTA) that was not only free at the time, but went on to put out a sequel that is free to play as your example for why mods should be sellable. Smart.

Mods used to be free, then greedy assholes started trying to get away with adf.ly links to farm pennies off of children. Now, not content with their virus filled ad referral pennies, they're clamoring to outright sell their mods like dlc.

If you want money, go make your own game. Don't try to make it on the back of a hardworking company's existing work.

You have no rights, unless explicitly given, to sell something you made using the work of someone else. You did not make the Divinity Engine, you did not make the tools. You have no claim whatsoever to monetary compensation simply for using tools freely provided by the developers.

Modding is not a job. You are not suddenly a developer or game designer simply because you can use the modding tools that the actual developers created. If you don't like the idea that you don't actually deserve money for making a mod, then don't make the mod. There are plenty of folks out there that make mods simply for its own sake.

Thats why I am saying I wish they had a royalty agreement where both Larian and content creators could make something like a 50/50 base.

You say modding is not a job, it actually requires a lot of time.

Also you are saying people that use the game engines such as Unity, UDK, CryEngine are not game developers because they are using an existing game engine to create games instead of programming an engine from scratch? What a stupid statement.

They are all TOOLS to create something. Divinity Engine is just more limited to it's own type of game.

It also comes with all the art assets, animations, sound effects, bgm, scripts, etc . . etc . . . That's the difference between a licensed game engine like UDK and a modding toolset. You just can't compare modding to developing a game from scratch. With mod tools, 95% of the work is done for you before you even begin. That's why most people find it insulting to suggest charging for mods.

UDK comes with art assets, animations, sound effects, bgm, scripts, All the content from the Unreal tournament game is there, and free to use no copyright issues there.

So I don't really understand, Why would larian care if people reuse their stuff and still get 50% extra cash?

Also what makes you think a modder won't replace all the art, music, characters, stories etc? and Just use the base of the engine?

No. The UT3 mod tools and UDK are separate. You can't use the UT3 assets in any commercial projects. UDK does come with a few built in assets that are free to use, but it's essentially an animated bi-ped and and a few meshes and textures. Basically just enough to give programmers a testing ground.

We already went over this.
No. And let's hope we will never be able to.
Modding community is about sharing, for free.
Don't bring capitalism into this.

I support selling mods. If people want to put out mods for free nothing is stopping them and the devs already effectively do this, they just called it "DLC". I have zero problem paying money for quality mods.

Like right now I'd like a mod that: Allowed me to choose between 1-4 characters, allowed skillbooks at every level, one for each "main" character, and increased the character options as far as appearance went. And they promised to continue to update the mod to keep it current for at least the next two years or so.

Let's say someone offered a mod with all of those features. I'd have no problem paying 10-15 bucks for it.

They invested know-how, time, and skill into a project. Why *shouldn't* they be compensated?

A mod marketplace might do WONDERS for a games longevity.

Look what it did for D&D.

They had an open source game in 3.5 and that system and those books have become such a juggernaut that the company that produced them is having a hard time reigning it in... creating the monster that could supplant them in the future because they stupidly abandoned their own system (Pathfinder).

If Larian said "Want to sell your mods on our marketplace? No problem, we take 10% of the sales and you get the rest" I can GUARANTEE YOU the result would be stunning and high quality mods.

I thought about it and then it occurred to me:

I suppose a thingy that modifies the original campaign, like a Divinity version of Devious Devices, or maybe "horse armor", I reckon it might not be a good idea to charge people for that.

Maybe the Larian people would be cool about getting a percentage out of the sales, and also if it passes some kind of "Larian Seal of Approval" quality test. Like, what if a team, through some miraculous process, creates a good standalone campaign or something along those lines? Like Blood Dragon good.

I mean, I suppose a thingy that modifies the original campaign, like a Divinity version of Devious Devices, or maybe "horse armor", I reckon it might not be a good idea to charge people for that. Full campaigns, though, could be a different story.

I dont know about you but last time I checked UDK had a lot of free assets including whole levels of props free to use as well a few characters, music, sound effects, pre-built scripts.

I seen Eat3D vidoes use all the ingame props to make paid Video Tutorials so I'm sure the copyright of those included assets is fine.



Completely agree with you mate, but there are people here who instead of having both options of free mods and paid mods, they DEMAND that everything stays free, they talk about people being greedy for wanting a reward but fail to see their even worse own greed, they dont want to pay but want to still have access to all contents, cheapskates is the correct word here by a mile.

Nobody's !!!DEMANDING!!! anything from you, if you're not willing to put out free mods then you can simply not contribute. There's no gun to your head. Nobody will faint, lamenting the fact that forum poster blazed did not release a realistic farting butts mod or whatever it is you want to charge money for.

Meanwhile, you could pick up unity, unreal, crytek, or any other actual for-commercial-development engine and go make your dream video game, and legally get away with charging people money for it. Divinity need not be a factor at all in this, unless the only reason you're thrashing about is because you specifically want to be building on the existing work rather than creating your own.

Here's the way I see it. Is what you're doing adding/removing/changing content of the game that already exists? If so, then no, you should not be allowed to sell that mod. Sure, make a donation link or an OPTIONAL adfly link but don't try to sell me a couple new armor textures, or a handful of short side quests.

Are you basically making a new, fully fleshed out game with it's own story, 30+ hours worth of gameplay, a mix of you own assets and existing (or better yet completely your own), maybe some core gameplay changes. I don't see a problem with that being sold, but I also don't see that being done by a single developer in any reasonable time frame, and if you're willing to do all that work, you might be better off using a fully fleshed out engine with well built and well documented tools and just call it your own game.

The problem with a "Larian seal of approval" (as mentioned by another poster) is that I'd rather see them working on patches for this game, dlc, or a completely new game than spending all their time sifting through tons of "one new texture", "a couple side quests", "some added dialog", "MOAR RECIPES!!" type mods that I guarantee people would be submitting to try and earn a buck off of.

The best mods come from people who are passionate about the game or their vision of a story not from people trying to make money without leaving their chairs.

I agree Neurotoxin, that small crappy mods shouldn't be sold I'm talking about big mods that are quality, but hey man if someone wants to pay someone else who made a crappy mod then more power to them, I wouldn't stand in their way, even tho I wouldn't personally depart with my money so easily myself.

Anyway theres no point arguing with people here that want force things to be free, people who wouldn't buy mods anyway, I'm not interested in those people, people that under value other's work because apparently spending hours recreating a whole new storyline with new features or arts that may take weeks or months to do is not actually work right? I guess those level designers who place things around in game studios shouldn't be paid a salary, those lazy b*****ds sitting on their chair all day!

Seriously people take your heads out of your arses, FREE stuff, content or otherwise is a gift, only one that has any say in this matter is Larian due to Copyrights.

And I hope Larian does find some way to allow more opportunities and reap more rewards themselves because they all deserve it.

You already Paid your $40 or whatever, you got your Game Divinity: Original Sin, You got the story line, You got the Engine Editor, You're NOT ENTITLED to any more free things, They are a gift from Larian, the modders, they should be able to choose to make it PAID or FREE rather than FREE or Nothing.

It's really a stupid argument that's not hitting home in some unwired brains.

More options = Better
Less options = Worse.

I'm gonna assume that you are delusional.

No one is demanding free content, in fact, no one is asking for any kind of content right now.

Yup I am delusional, sorry bud. I thought there was people in the thread that was opposing the idea of any paid content and outright saying no, in this thread and in the other similar thread.