I am designing a game where players can customize their avatar, and (obviously) I want to make it so they can wear clothing such as shirts and pants. The problem is obtaining them. Right now, I have manually added over 1,000 shirts and pants, and I have a large selection for players to choose.
The thing I’m worrying with is copyright. These clothes were not made by me, they were just the ones I saw in the catalog and liked. If I use these clothes in my game, will that mean I can’t get it featured, and maybe that further down the line, I won’t be able to Devex or put the game on console?
I feel like other popular games whose owners are presumably Devexing off of use clothes straight from the catalog too, but I want to be safe. Do clothes count as using copyrighted material? Thanks.
Clothing does count as using Copyrighted Material, to my knowledge. However, I don’t believe Copyrighted Material limits you from DevEx. However, you can’t get featured, and you could risk issues with clothing companies & etc sending you cease and desist orders, or talking to Roblox directly to remove those assets. You’d be better off hiring someone to make a wide enough range of clothing that is free of copyright for your game, and either paying them a percent or paying them outright for the clothing going into the game.
If they’re original designs. Basically, you’d want to find someone that isn’t gonna make like sponsored clothing. I.e. stay away from Nike, Under Armour, Gucci, etc
Idk, I was talking to some people on the ol’ DevForum Discord, and apparently Trademark violations don’t keep you from DevEx, but Copyright does. So, like, logos for example are fine, but legally not, but for DevEx sure? Idk. Sketchy lines my dood. I’m just thinking, like, Vehicle Simulator has blatant logos…
I think there is a fine line to this.
As long as everything you produce is made by you, then you have no problem with monetisation/DevEx, but if the clothing isn’t made by you, and you didn’t upload the asset, your not really responsible for it… (ofc if u did upload it, you could be susceptible to infringement )
Companies will only get annoyed if you actually take their content and put it in your game, then monetize it… This is not the case for a clothing brand that doesn’t actually produce ingame catalog clothing, but it might be the case for a games company that might have specific assets linked to it. In the case of what you were refering to, your basically advertising their firm anyway by putting the logo on the clothing.
Also, are these assets created by you? If they were to be created by another user and you are putting the shirt asset into your game, it would just be the same as a player coming in with their own avatar.
Either way, I think your fine, but double check the terms of service and maybe email the DevEx team. After all, if you added these assets, its not like any other player can come in another game with the same clothing on.
If you want to avoid all conflict, I make original clothing, and I own a clothing group with hundred of original pieces. I would give you full rights to use any of my clothing or groups clothing in your game if you put my name and/or group’s name in the description/credits.
Anecdotally, I’d believe Brick Bronze can’t DevEx (and I think I read that before somewhere). If it can, then that feels like a can of worms waiting to explode like a nuclear bomb. It infringes on both copyright and trademarks.
This isn’t technically true. It will make it less likely that Roblox will choose you for an event. But you’ll see some very successful games like Vehicle Simulator and Pokemon Brick Bronze use things they don’t technically own. However making a game that includes copyrighted material does leave your game open to being taken down without a moments notice. I personally avoid them for a morality reason, but many devs find success in using brands they don’t own.
Nothing you said related to what we’re talking about, I’m talking about DevEx. I’m not sure about Vehicle Simulator, but I’m certain Brick Bronze doesn’t DevEx, and if it does that’s a huge issue. Heck, even Vehicle Simulator being able to DevEx with trademark infringement (if it does) makes me extremely uneasy.
I know we’re talking about DevEx. I didn’t know Brick Bronze doesn’t DevEx but my point remains that trademark infringing games can DevEx and have in the past. Apologies if that was not clear
I actually agree with you there. I feel it’s bad for our image as a company to allow this. Here’s evidence though.
This entire blog post is about people who have used DevEx, it lists the games these Developers earned money off of, and as you may notice many include copyrighted material.
I’m sure there are more recent examples than these guys, these are a few developers who got called out in the Blog for DevEx’ing. This is the most solid evidence I know of that a developer has used DevEx on a copyright infringing game.
That’s honestly terrifying. I don’t like that it’s harder to get your game featured than it is to profit off of it, in favor of the stricter regulations. I hope to see this changed in the future, as this just feels like a controversy waiting to happen.
