I feel we should update and find more affiliates to add to the site and get added by them.
Gameboom at this point can be taken off the list, they don't seem to be doing anything about their hack, after nearly 3 years. Les Forges, a french site we have as one has had extremely little activity. Freegamedev seems to have been wiped off the face of the earth. Ancient Beast hasnt had a single person say anything in 6 months, person before that was 2 years ago. I dont see much from liberated pixel cup, and flare has been on a large down of traffic since a bit ago.
Last reason why we should add more is because OGA seems to have gained pretty much no more traffic than normal over the past few years. Some of you may be thinking "so what" but OGA is probably the best place to get free art from a great community that includes I and yourselves, I'd just like to see your and my work get used and see its having a larger effect than someone once in a while stumbling across something they think is cool. I think we can spare room to try to expand a bit, for ourselves and a slightly better future in game design.
Looking around a bit more I can assume the site traffic is probably at a tenth (roughly) of what it was a few years ago.
yikes! is that true?
It seems like OGA is still attracting a very steady stream of submissions.
One thing I do find saddening is that the amount of admin/mod activity seems to have really fallen off in the last year. I know there are a few volunteer mods that do the best they can, but it just seems like we don't hear from the admins as often as we did even a year ago. :(
To your point about affiliates, I guess more affiliates is always nice, but if I google 'free game art' OpenGameArt.org is the top result and as far as attracting traffic goes, I'm guessing that trumps anything else by a factor of 10.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
i also wondered about the admin activity, now that Bart is getting money from the site, hes nowhere to be seen most of the time, no updates to design, contest, activities... its quite the opposite effect that should be expect. I sincerely hope this site doesnt became a mushroom grow kind of site.
@Danimal: I think that's a really unfair characterization of the situation. Bart has been very active on the site since the paetron was setup and even just recently rolled out the internal messaging system. It's only in the last six months or so that he seems to have been absent for long stretches.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
Just to make sure you noticed I said "roughly" because I have no admin access to see site traffic. I based this off of going back in time on the list of the sites assets and looking at the downloads. Along with the Top Downloaded items seem to be correlated to a certain period. Honestly I do find it that if this site has the most traffic then that just means free art is either just having no demand or that we arent advertised well. I mean look at the unity assets store. A lot of junk on there costs money and a lot of our stuff is 10x better than their items. Yet they get thousands upon thousands of downloads even though a lot of stuff being downloaded is just outdated or not amazing by any means. While out of everything free here, our top assets dont seem to get that many downloads. Right now the maximum amount of downloads of really good assets is only around 250 people. How would I be able to moderate or admin? Im probably on this site more than most currently active members. And I plan on being here, vs a lot of people that just pass though.
@Chris_M_The_Game_Dude:
> I based this off of going back in time on the list of the sites assets and looking at the downloads.
Gotcha. Only caveat with that method would be that the longer something's been on the site, the more often it's likely to have been downloaded.
As for the Unity store, I wonder what it would take to get an 'OpenGameArt' section setup in their store?
No doubt the assets in their are more popular simply because they show up 'in-app' if you will.
Not sure how one rises to the rank of 'admin' but I will say I don't think it would be the worst thing if OGA appointed a few new admins as the some of the original set seem to be busy with other things now.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
Thats a great idea capbros. Getting us our own section would be great. We can have a section of art submissions to be put on the unity store after an evaluation. And if the author wishes they can sell it for money have have it go to OGA for every sale, but this may need more evaluation to decide if it should be worth the suggested $ amount. Id gladly volunteer to get it going.
Well, the point of the site is to host 'open' art, so probably charging for it would be a no go, even if the money went back to OGA. In fact, probably esp. if the money went back to OGA ;)
Still, if the art could be made available on the Unity storefront for 'free' with the licenses selected by the artists on OGA that could be pretty cool. Certainly, as you point out, it would get the work a lot more exposure.
Now, although I tossed it out there, I figured this idea was probably a non-starter because undoubtedly the Unity Asset store has it's own license that it imposes on the assets for sale there. Well, a little googling and sure enough that's true:
https://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms
but...
There is some fine print in there, which seems to leave the door open for assets to use alternate licenses. Specifically the last sentance of section 1.2 which states: "Certain Assets may be governed by a Provider end user license agreement."
I don't know if that would be 'in addition to' the Unity Asset Store license, in which case it would be useless for pretty much anything other than CC0 stuff.
Well, I would say the next step would be to try and contact the Unity folks and see if they have any interest in hosting OpenGameArt stuff in there and what the legal terms of doing something like that would look like.
https://withthelove.itch.io/
Well yeah. I dont fully think people should do that. just an "at the moment idea" I do think we should have occasional assets we can make as a community mabye to help fund the site though, I really dont see the harm at all if its done like this, but if you think thats a bad idea or people dont like it then Ill forget about it. Ill look at the unity assets store a bit more and get back to you on this.
http://unity3d.com/legal/as_terms Double check me if there is anything very important that ive missed.
APPENDIX 1:
End user you could consider the person that buys/takes or is the customer
At first in 1.1 unity refers itself as a licensor and considers, lets say us putting up assets as the provider, then says "(in which case the term "Licensor" shall refer to Unity), or (ii) Provider and End User (in which case the term "Licensor" shall refer to Provider)."
I dont know if they are just user word tomfoolery to say they are also refered as Licensor or not.
in 1.4 END USER hereby acknowledges that in the event it acquires an ASSET which in the Unity Asset Store is marked as an Asset which is distributed by Provider (as opposed to Unity), then Provider shall be considered as Licensor of such Asset and, consequently, only Provider (as opposed to Unity) shall be responsible for any liability whatsoever under, any EULA or any breach by Provider, including (without limitation) liability for infringement of any intellectual property rights, irrespective of the fact that payment takes place to Unity.
Here we are considered Licensor 'Opposed to' unity
At 2.3
"EXCEPT FOR EDITOR EXTENSION ASSETS, END-USER is granted a license to install and use Assets on an unlimited number of computers provided that these computers are either all (i) physically located at a single physical location ("Site") belonging to END-USER, or (ii) laptops belonging to END-USER which have been made available by END-USER to its employees that are employed at the same Site provided all such computers have appropriately licensed Unity software installed. Consequently, any Asset may only be used at particular Site or on computers assigned to END-USER's employees employed at the same Site and may only be moved to another Site subject to prior written approval from Licensor. THIS CLAUSE 2.3 DOES NOT APPLY TO ASSETS THAT IN THE UNITY ASSET STORE ARE CATEGORIZED UNDER THE HEADING "EDITOR EXTENSIONS."
Here we have to play by unity's rules pretty much and only have people not install their "licensed" assets on eachothers computers, but does this really have any effect the way unity asset store works? considering its free and they can install it from their own accounts.
My personal favorite. Read this well. This is at 2.7
"Some components of Assets (whether developed by Unity or third parties) may also be governed by applicable open source software licenses. In the event of a conflict between the applicable EULA and any such open source licenses, the open source software licenses shall prevail with respect to those components."
If we make sure unity and the End Users know we run by our own license then we should be good. this actually cancels out that last one right? Alrighhhhht.
5.1
"END-USER may not make copies of the Assets, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted under mandatory statutory applicable law. In addition Licensor acknowledges that copies of the Assets may be made when the Assets have been integrated as parts of electronic games and interactive media, cf. Section 2.3 above."
Seems we can handle the above. people should be able to redistribute if they please if we make it so.
6.1
"Except for Services SDKs, END USER may modify assets. END USER shall not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble Services SDKs, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted under mandatory statutory applicable law."
Much like that last one.
7.1
This EULA does not grant END-USER any rights in connection with any trademarks or service marks of Licensor, Provider or Licensor's other suppliers.
Im not 100% sure on this one, a bit of help? im assuming this just protects us from art thieves.
9.1
"The Assets are protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties."
C'mon unity, wanna get just a bit more specific here? is this hiding something or just saying that all of our assets will fall under licensing as a whole. (our licensing assumingly)
9.2
All title and intellectual property rights in and to the Assets (including but not limited to any software, images, photographs, animations, graphics, 3D graphics, video, audio, music, text, tutorials, and “applets” incorporated into the Assets), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the Assets are owned by Licensor. All rights not expressly granted are reserved by Licensor.
Blah blah, just saying its ours, but see "All rights not exoressly granted are reserved by licensor" I do like that.
At 10.1
END-USER UNDERSTANDS AND ACCEPTS THAT PRIOR TO PLACING ANY ASSET ON THE UNITY ASSET STORE, UNITY DOES NOT UNDERTAKE ANY LEGAL OBLIGATION TO MONITOR, PRE-SCREEN, REVIEW, FLAG, FILTER, MODIFY, REFUSE OR REMOVE ANY ASSET OR THEIR CONTENT FROM THE UNITY ASSET STORE. CONSEQUENTLY, END-USER EXPRESSLY UNDERSTANDS AND AGREES THAT ITS USE OF THE ASSETS IS AT END-USER'S SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ASSETS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. IN PARTICULAR, LICENSOR, ITS SUBSIDIARIES, HOLDING COMPANIES AND AFFILIATES, AND ITS LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO END-USER THAT:
(A) END-USER'S USE OF THE ASSETS WILL MEET END-USER'S REQUIREMENTS,
(B) END-USER'S USE OF THE ASSETS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR FREE FROM ERROR,
(C) ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY END-USER AS A RESULT OF END-USER'S USE OF THE ASSETS WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE, AND
(D) THAT DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO END-USER AS PART OF THE ASSETS WILL BE CORRECTED..
This just talks about honesty and needing stuff to be what we say it is, again I mentioned Evaluating submitted items.
10.4
NONE OF THE ASSETS ARE INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS, EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, OR ANY OTHER SUCH ACTIVITIES IN WHICH CASE THE FAILURE OF THE ASSETS COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.
Blah blah, dont lend Kim jong un your game assets for the purpose of nuclear annihilation or terrorists to take over planes.
12.1
Assets available on the Unity Asset Store may be subject to laws, administrative regulations and executive orders of those authorities responsible according to any applicable laws relating to the control of imports and exports of the Assets (“Export Laws”). You agree to comply with all applicable Export Laws and you shall not export or re-export directly or indirectly (including via remote access) any part of the Assets to any country to which a license is required under the Export Laws without first obtaining a license.
I have no idea what export laws may possibly apply to this. Ideas?
13. VENUE AND APPLICABLE LAW
13.1
This EULA and END-USER's relationship with Licensor under this EULA, shall be governed by the laws of Denmark without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. Any dispute arising out of or in connection with this Agreement, including any disputes regarding the existence, validity or termination thereof, shall be settled by simplified arbitration arranged by The Danish Institute of Arbitration in accordance with the rules of simplified arbitration procedure adopted by The Danish Institute of Arbitration and in force at the time when such proceedings are commenced. Notwithstanding this, Provider agrees that Licensor shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.
And im pretty much dead of bordom at this point.
This all helps us get the gist that unity is a bit more lenient than we thought. Don't worry, im still gonna talk to someone at unity about this and see if they can accept our terms and see what licenses we have are or arent compatible. Then we can go from there and maybe try to talk to Bart about it after getting it all set up and fool proof.
Here is a list of things that most apply to us then I give a bit of layman terms below for the faint of heart that hate to read, much like me, I still highly suggest you look at a good bit of the fine print.
@Cap and @Chris:
Regarding becoming mods, the FAQ suggests that you may contact Bart to volunteer under the "I'm not an artist" section.
Big thanks for the heads up DezrasDragons.