Good morning all,
For the last couple of years, I have been developing a rather crunchy, 2d6 based, sci-fi space opera game. A significant amount of time has went into this development process, and testing among a few colleagues and my tabletop gaming group. None of this is pertinent to the question.
I am interested now however in further and wider feedback for the game. Whether this becomes an actual commercial project (through a kickstarter) or remains my freely distributed work of passion, is still up in the air.
The question that I have is, should I distribute this project or even make it available for that sort of feedback? The reason behind this question, is that approximately 50-75% of the art in this project is not licensed or paid for. 25-250% is (whether through purchased stock art or actual engagements with artists to create the specific piece). Obviously this will not be situation should I decide to publish this product.
Excuse my ignorance on the legality of whether you can simply leverage images from pinterest, google images and so on for personal projects. I just am generally a very visual person, and the use of these images was critical in driving me to complete this project.
Looking forward to your feedback and thanks,
Quote from: Nerhesi;1060445Good morning all,
For the last couple of years, I have been developing a rather crunchy, 2d6 based, sci-fi space opera game. A significant amount of time has went into this development process, and testing among a few colleagues and my tabletop gaming group. None of this is pertinent to the question.
I am interested now however in further and wider feedback for the game. Whether this becomes an actual commercial project (through a kickstarter) or remains my freely distributed work of passion, is still up in the air.
The question that I have is, should I distribute this project or even make it available for that sort of feedback? The reason behind this question, is that approximately 50-75% of the art in this project is not licensed or paid for. 25-250% is (whether through purchased stock art or actual engagements with artists to create the specific piece). Obviously this will not be situation should I decide to publish this product.
Excuse my ignorance on the legality of whether you can simply leverage images from pinterest, google images and so on for personal projects. I just am generally a very visual person, and the use of these images was critical in driving me to complete this project.
Looking forward to your feedback and thanks,
If you're looking for feedback on the mechanics, just strip out the art and supply only the text. The only art I've included in my playtest material has been work I've done myself.*
ETA: In terms of use, Pinterest and images found using the Google search engine are basically under the heading of "somebody else's stuff" and the Pinterest/Google is just a portal that allows you to view the stuff. In terms of usage rights, the safest course is that unless the image is specifically listed as 'license free" or "creative commons" or similar, presume that someone else owns the rights to it and can come after you if you don't get their permission (which may include licencing fees) for their use.
* I do mostly 3d-rendered images for my images and have had to make a point of separating out the meshes/textures I've actually bought the licences for from the free items I've picked up (which are further divided into licensed for commercial use and those not licensed for commerical use) so that I'm not accidentally stepping on any toes and, even then, I made the decision to include the merchant names for all the purchased assets I used in my game artwork in the "artists" section of the credits just because credit where credit is due is important.
Quote from: Nerhesi;1060445I am interested now however in further and wider feedback for the game. Whether this becomes an actual commercial project (through a kickstarter) or remains my freely distributed work of passion, is still up in the air.
Using art without permission, legally permitted or not, is the kind of thing that can kill any support you might get. Your best bet is to release it with big "art to be inserted later" boxes and such, and specify the KS is to help generate revenue to pay for the pretty pictures. And if you -don't- get enough art funding to fill all those boxes, you can remove them later.
I will say though that you shouldn't underestimate the importance of layout, clarity of text, and "nano-fictions". Used well, all that sort of stuff can make a stronger book than most RPG art does.
Quote from: Nerhesi;1060445Excuse my ignorance on the legality of whether you can simply leverage images from pinterest, google images and so on for personal projects. I just am generally a very visual person, and the use of these images was critical in driving me to complete this project.
Based on your description, fair use doesn't seem to apply.
If you do not have a license and source for a piece of art, don't distribute it. You should assume anything that doesn't have a license you can lay your hands on is illegal to incorporate into your document and distribute it.
If you only need feedback on a beta, then you don't need much art anyway.
Even if some artist doesn't sue you, any accusation of illegally using someone else's art can cast a long shadow on you as a person and as a creator.
Quote from: Nerhesi;1060445Good morning all,
For the last couple of years, I have been developing a rather crunchy, 2d6 based, sci-fi space opera game. A significant amount of time has went into this development process, and testing among a few colleagues and my tabletop gaming group. None of this is pertinent to the question.
I am interested now however in further and wider feedback for the game. Whether this becomes an actual commercial project (through a kickstarter) or remains my freely distributed work of passion, is still up in the air.
The question that I have is, should I distribute this project or even make it available for that sort of feedback? The reason behind this question, is that approximately 50-75% of the art in this project is not licensed or paid for. 25-250% is (whether through purchased stock art or actual engagements with artists to create the specific piece). Obviously this will not be situation should I decide to publish this product.
Excuse my ignorance on the legality of whether you can simply leverage images from pinterest, google images and so on for personal projects. I just am generally a very visual person, and the use of these images was critical in driving me to complete this project.
Looking forward to your feedback and thanks,
Release text, not art. Even scribbling your own placeholder art in mspaint is more endearing than stealing someone else's stuff. Actually, that's really endearing, do that.
Once you get some feedback and grow a little audience (if that ever happens) then maybe make some plans and get in touch with artists.
Only put art you own in books you publish. Keep in mind the amount of money you will *ever* receive from the game is low, and so you're probably not ever going to have an art budget as big as your dreams.
Include some of the licensed and paid for art, remove everything else.
Quote from: Nerhesi;1060445Excuse my ignorance on the legality of whether you can simply leverage images from pinterest, google images and so on for personal projects. I just am generally a very visual person, and the use of these images was critical in driving me to complete this project.
Looking forward to your feedback and thanks,
For a free PNP game its ok-ish. Just be prepared for someone to ask you to take down a pic of theirs you used.
For something for sale? Absolutely not! That is a violation of one or more laws and can get you taken to court if the person is particularly irate or defensive. Using someones drawn art without permission is a major no-no. Years back there was a huge blow up over this and a very shady RPG publisher was shut down totally. In more recent years a few kickstarters have gotten alot of heat for "borrowing" art from other sources. And then doubling down when called out on it.
You are better off perusing DA and just asking artists if it is ok to use their art for your PNP. Some may say yes, some may say no. But if its for a product to be sold you'd sure as hell better be paying the artist for their art.
As others said, don't use copyrighted work. It's not a big deal for a free game or personal website, but definitely a bad idea for a commercial game. Here are some Creative Commons links for images, for what it's worth:
https://search.creativecommons.org/
NASA images are generally free for use: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html
Wikimedia sci-fi art category: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Science_fiction_art
Unsplash has what they call a "Do Whatever You Want" License. https://unsplash.com/ ( license at https://unsplash.com/license )
OpenClipart has public domain/royalty free vector graphics. https://openclipart.org/
Yeah, for the most part you can't use commercial art without permission (unless it's explicitly public domain).