Boss: Open for business

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Contract pick

App Store Connect (example)
The Apple Developer Program License Agreement has been updated. The Account Holder must review and accept it to keep publishing.

Who should accept the updated agreement for the studio?

  1. Kai, because Kai uploads the builds
  2. A parent, as the adult account holder for the company, after the team reads what changed
  3. Nobody. An old agreement counts forever
Show the answer

A parent, as the adult account holder for the company, after the team reads what changed

An agreement is a contract, and contracts need an adult who can be bound by them. A parent accepts for the company, and the team reads the changes together.

Safe to use?

Which asset is safe to use in paid Hyper Shards?

  1. A font labelled "free for personal use"
  2. Laser sounds released as CC0
  3. A song from a famous film, saved from a video site
  4. Fan art of another game's hero
Show the answer

Laser sounds released as CC0

CC0 means anyone may use it, even in a game we sell. Personal-use fonts forbid selling, and the film song and fan art copy work owned by someone else.

Quick check

Remy loves a famous tower defence game. What may Garden Defense freely borrow from it?

  1. The idea: placing defenders along a path to stop waves of enemies
  2. Its tower sprites, traced and given new colours
  3. Its soundtrack, remixed with new drums
Show the answer

The idea: placing defenders along a path to stop waves of enemies

Copyright does not protect a game's idea or its methods of play, so the genre is free to use. Traced sprites and remixed music are derivative works, and only the owner may make them or allow them.

License scan

deps-report.txt
Garden Defense dependencies (made-up names)seed-tween        MITbug-pathfinder    GPL-3.0-onlyleaf-sound        Apache-2.0

Garden Defense is a closed game we sell. Which package must the team replace before release?

  1. Line 2
  2. Line 3
  3. Line 4
Show the answer

Line 3

The GPL is copyleft: shipping GPL code inside the game would mean releasing all of Garden Defense's source code under the GPL. MIT and Apache 2.0 only ask us to keep their notices with the game (and, for Apache, to mark files we changed).

Quick check

Which line belongs in the player license (EULA) for Hyper Shards on our website?

  1. You get a license to play the game. The code, art and music stay the studio's
  2. You own the game now, so you may share copies with your friends
  3. We may charge your card again whenever we like
Show the answer

You get a license to play the game. The code, art and music stay the studio's

Players buy a license to play, while the copyright stays with the studio. Sharing copies breaks copyright, and extra charges need the buyer's agreement at the time, whatever the terms say.

Quick check

We can put ® after "Hyper Shards" as soon as we start using it as our game's name.

Show the answer

False

Anyone can use ™ for a name they claim as a brand. The ® symbol is only allowed after a trademark office has registered the name.

Ship it?

Remy, in the studio chat
Lyria 3.5 made our boss track! Two testers say the chorus sounds just like a famous film theme. Ship it tonight?

What should the team do?

  1. Ship it. AI music can't copy anything
  2. Hold it: compare it side by side with that theme, change or regenerate it if it is too close, and record the prompt and date
  3. Ship it, but leave Lyria 3.5 out of the credits
Show the answer

Hold it: compare it side by side with that theme, change or regenerate it if it is too close, and record the prompt and date

AI output can land close to existing work, and if we ship it, the copy is in our game. Comparing, fixing and keeping records is the studio's checking routine, and honest credits say where AI helped.

Quick check

A hacker gets into the Garden Defense leaderboard and players' email addresses leak. Which kind of insurance is made for this?

  1. Equipment cover
  2. Cyber insurance
  3. General liability
Show the answer

Cyber insurance

Cyber insurance is for hacks and data breaches: it can pay to investigate, to tell the affected players and to recover. Equipment cover is for laptops and phones, and general liability is for injuries and damaged property.