Making money off of mods?

[codeslicer]

Is there some way me and a couple of my friends can make some money off of an IWAD we made if it has all original content?
Could we make money if it has the same mapps but re textured? Can I have a list of rules please?

[Ribbiks]

good luck, champ. I imagine most attempts at monetizing doom mods would result in the work being eclipsed by the absurd amount of free and likely superior content available.

[Memfis]

^ Well, people were saying the same in 1995 but later many bought Final Doom after all :) - https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/alt.games.doom/evilution/alt.games.doom/Fhfl5PHTbVk/0eSgX8fkDJcJ

[PRIMEVAL]

You can probably use PayPal as a source for donations or something.

[fraggle]

Did you make everything entirely from scratch, yourselves? No edited Doom sprites, edited Doom levels, etc.? If so, then it is your copyright and you're welcome to try selling it.

Do any of the contents of your IWAD come from other sources? That includes if you reused or modded any levels, sounds, music, sprites or other graphics? Then you're potentially on shaky ground.

You need to be able to account for (potentially) every single byte in that IWAD. It's a lot of work. Are you sure you did it all yourself?

I am not a lawyer and the above is not legal advice.

[Darch]

Do your best and hope for people to play it for free. There are many Iwads that are simply ignored, even good ones. I don't think nobody will pay for a iwad with so many good projects around for free. People only paid for Final Doom because it was an official release, it came in a box.

[GreyGhost]

codeslicer said:

Could we make money if it has the same mapps but re textured?

Slapping a fresh coat of paint on Buckingham Palace doesn't make it your property. Like fraggle said, "everything entirely from scratch".

[mrthejoshmon]

If you have to do it all from scratch, would that mean you have to also code the game?

[codeslicer]

fraggle said:

...sprites or other graphics? Then you're potentially on shaky ground.

You need to be able to account for (potentially) every single byte in that IWAD. It's a lot of work. Are you sure you did it all yourself?

I am not a lawyer and the above is not legal advice.

Thx for the pointers, one is an edited mancubus

[Nordevai]

This is probably just going to end up being way to much work for to little pay.

[andrewj]

mrthejoshmon said:

If you have to do it all from scratch, would that mean you have to also code the game?

The GPL source ports can be sold, though you cannot close up the code (keep parts of it secret).

For ports like ZDoom which use the original DOOM license, not at all. That license forbids any kind of commercial exploitation.

[codeslicer]

andrewj said:

The GPL source ports can be sold, though you cannot close up the code (keep parts of it secret).

For ports like ZDoom which use the original DOOM license, not at all. That license forbids any kind of commercial exploitation.

Can zandronum and Skulltag be used?

[codeslicer]

fraggle said:

Did you make everything entirely from scratch, yourselves? No edited Doom sprites, edited Doom levels, etc.? If so, then it is your copyright and you're welcome to try selling it.

Do any of the contents of your IWAD come from other sources? That includes if you reused or modded any levels, sounds, music, sprites or other graphics? Then you're potentially on shaky ground.

You need to be able to account for (potentially) every single byte in that IWAD. It's a lot of work. Are you sure you did it all yourself?

I am not a lawyer and the above is not legal advice.

Could a weapon or a enemy have the same behavior as doom?
As in a completely different weapon that looks different and fires slime but fires at intervals like plasma gun and when you stop firing the gun recoils.

[Shadow Hog]

codeslicer said:

Can zandronum and Skulltag be used?

Considering they're ZDoom variants, I'm gonna go on a limb and say "probably not".

[Doomkid]

Your best bet will probably be to start entirely from scratch, including redoing the source code yourself. Although Carmack released the code for public use, that doesn't mean others are allowed to make money off it, right? Isn't it technically still ID's copyrighted material?

Sounds like freedoom but without the " free" bit. :P

If you get anywhere with this, your best bet will be to contact Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo and see if it can be one of those $5 downloadable games. If it works it could be quite lucrative, but it won't be easy by any means.

From a community perspective, it would probably be more appealing if you/your team had already made a fun, free WAD so we know you have talent to warrant paying for what is essentially another mod.

Regardless of everything, good luck in your endeavors. :)

[Memfis]

uhhh
even if you can't bundle an iwad with a copy of zdoom
you can probably just sell the iwad itself and tell people to get zdoom from zdoom.org? maybe even make some sort of installer program that would do all this automatically
or not

[Nomad]

How did Scuba package the source port to sell Action Doom 2? Or was it only the data?

[Blzut3]

Expected volume of sales aside, ZDoom/Zandronum uses the non-commercial license. In order to use it commercially you would need to purchase a license from id Software, Ken Silverman, and FMOD. (All new ZDoom code is under a permissive license so we have no stake.) Then you need to strip out the MAME OPL emulator. There might be a few more obstacles, but not only is what I mentioned unlikely to happen, but you'd probably not return on your investment any time soon.

If one wants to make an new game using the Doom engine I would recommend porting your project to the Eternity Engine. You're welcome to include the scripts in the wad needed for it to run on ZDoom, but a commercial distribution would need to include something else.

Nomad said:

How did Scuba package the source port to sell Action Doom 2? Or was it only the data?

Well the argument was that the only non-free content on there was the bonus wad and it was sold for basically no profit, but nevertheless the package was probably illegal to sell. Of course the release was low key enough not to attract any of the rights holders. I believe he said he made about 100 copies and didn't sell all of them at the time he closed the sales.

[odysseyofnoises]

I don't think wad-building is a very profitable thing, even if you could make money off of it. You'd probably make more from minimum wage. I just don't think it's a good idea.

[Yokai]

andrewj said:

The GPL source ports can be sold, though you cannot close up the code (keep parts of it secret).

For ports like ZDoom which use the original DOOM license, not at all. That license forbids any kind of commercial exploitation.

Maybe this is a good time to resurrect EDGE? 8)

[Gez]

Yokai said:

Maybe this is a good time to resurrect EDGE? 8)

EDGE is alive and well as 3DGE. There are a few projects for it going on; including one by Jayextee which specifically relies on how EDGE renders stuff and is intended for possible commercialization.

[Yokai]

Gez said:

EDGE is alive and well as 3DGE. There are a few projects for it going on; including one by Jayextee which specifically relies on how EDGE renders stuff and is intended for possible commercialization.

I mean, resurrect/reactivate the forums.

BTW:

Jayextee said in his Slave MOD thread:
EDGE probably isn't the best nor the most powerful source port out there, but I adore its little quirks -- such as the lighting being basically a .PNG image mapped with additive translucency to surfaces (think a 'screen' layer type in photoshop), which allowed me to modify it to get that super-cool stylised square lighting.

And to think, I only chose it because it was GPL and I had some experience in modding for it about a decade ago. ;)

Now, Andrew, can you explain this?
If what Jayextee stated there is true, do you, Andrew, even remotely know what that would allow to achieve?
Right now my brain is flooding with thousand of effects that I want to test and try in an EDGE project I'm working on right now.

Your assistance here is now a must!!! Resistance is futile...