Releasing Unturned's Source Code

[MoltonMontro]

One of our highest priorities in 2025 is to release Unturned's source code. Essentially, this would allow anyone to create their own spin on the game. From minor balance changes and item additions, to total conversions with new gameplay elements that bring a whole different experience!

We have often discussed our desire to make the game open source. With the lessons we've learned these past few years, we're excited to work on making this a reality. There are still some major obstacles—and questions—that need to be addressed before we can achieve this. Some obstacles include:

• Seeking legal advice. We need to review any existing license agreements, determine any intellectual property we should retain (e.g., the "Unturned" trademark for future games), and more advice about open sourcing the project.
  
  
• Replacing third-party code and assets that cannot be open sourced. Most of the game's code should already be open sourceable. Certain third-party assets likely cannot be included, and some code will need to be replaced from scratch. As examples: edge highlighting should be converted to Unity's post-processing stack, water—currently a Unity 4 asset—will need a fallback, and zombie pathfinding may be able to use Unity's newer navmesh system.

Tackling these – along with other issues that may arise – is a big part of our 2025 goals. For more information about what open sourcing the game would mean:

FAQ

Q. Will the official Steam version of Unturned still receive updates?
Yes—we plan to continue maintaining the official Steam version of the game with new content updates and bug fixes.

Q. Why do you want to make the game open source / why is it considered a priority?
Unturned's greatest strength is our passionate community. Releasing the source files allows you and other players to further build upon the game as you see fit. Building a lasting legacy for the game regardless of the changes we make or how many years pass from now.

Q. Will the open source project be kept up-to-date with the version used by the official Steam game?
This is our current intention.

Q. Will you accept pull requests?
We’re not planning to accept any pull requests on the source files. Our primary goal is to allow for people to create their own derivatives of the game. However – we haven’t completely ruled this out. We’re sure there’s some interest in seeing community-contributed code accepted into the game.

Q. Is there anything that I can’t do (or use)?
This is an example of something (e.g., specific questions regarding publishing or mark usage) that requires further legal review before we’re comfortable giving an answer.

Q. Is there anything that definitely WON’T be available?
Support for the BattlEye anti-cheat won’t be available.

Q. Could I publish my derivative work on Steam?
This also requires more legal review and consulting with Steam! Ideally, we would like for derivative works to be publishable on Steam with our permission. Possibly similar to how some games’ mods have dedicated Store pages. https://store.steampowered.com/about/communitymods/

Q. Will the source code be documented?
We are not focused on creating new documentation specifically for this purpose. Although some of our preexisting documentation does cover aspects of the source code and any comments included with the source code should be helpful. Community-contributed documentation on this topic may be accepted.

Q. Will other versions of Unturned (1.x, 2.x) become open-source?
Ideally, yes, but this is not a priority for us at this time.

[Trojaner]

Interesting.

[Trojaner]

In my opinion this could fire back. Imagine all major servers requiring their own "super innovative" or "best" version of the game, dividining the community and player base even further

[Jdance]

Автор сообщения: Trojaner

In my opinion this could fire back. Imagine all major servers requiring their own "super innovative" or "best" version of the game, dividining the community and player base even further

Then do me and BlazingFlame a favor. Make a launcher for it.

Minecraft had Technic Launcher, now you can make a move in regards to Unturned.

[Doom Revenant]

All I'm going to say is GNU GPL-3.

[sarshane]

Hi, BattleEye will be not available for Steam version of game too?

[Lewis Hamilton]

Автор сообщения: Trojaner

In my opinion this could fire back. Imagine all major servers requiring their own "super innovative" or "best" version of the game, dividining the community and player base even further

I do have to agree with Trojaner here,
The idea sounds really good from a business & developer perspective, but for the actual player base itself, this will probably have a negative effect.


People will be separated across multiple different branches of the game, and it will simply ruin the server creation area as players will be spread across different versions. The only major benefit is that people could develop their own improvements and total conversions. However, since the official game won’t accept pull requests, these changes will remain isolated, making it unlikely that many players will adopt them.

While creating a custom game branch sounds cool and all, its unlikely that the majority of players will go through the hassle of downloading a separate client just to play on a single server. As a result, these branches could struggle to gain traction, and the player base will be unnecessarily divided.

The custom branches will also have no anti-cheat whatsoever, and then we come back to.. What’s the point? It will ruin PvP and RP servers if they end up creating custom versions of the game, making it much easier to create cheats. Without Battleye, even the simplest Mono cheats will become dangerous, and the barrier for cheating will be significantly lower. While some servers might try to implement their own anti-cheat systems, they won’t be nearly as effective as Battleye (even though it sucks anyways)..


Sounds cool, but will it work in reality? Possibly not.

[Uran]

Автор сообщения: Trojaner

In my opinion this could fire back. Imagine all major servers requiring their own "super innovative" or "best" version of the game, dividining the community and player base even further

This happened in Minecraft with badlion for example, where the server eventually died. The same is probably gonna happen with Unturned. Custom clients for servers might pop off for a bit but I don't see it sticking around for too long unless the server has a really big and stable playercount

[CHEWUPCHEECH]

and game will be absolutely dead

[mew]

not the wisest decision in my opinion, it would be much better if yall'd listen to the experienced content creators of this game and add what they consider necessary, so that they would be able to implement the mechanics that they want to implement, and fill the game with more interesting and diverse content.

dividing the already small community into separate even smaller ones is just plain stupid, imo.

implementing features that the experienced content creators request would make the game so much better, because those people have motivation to make something beautiful in this game, and with your support they could've actually achieved their desired goals.

(thank you for completely ignoring my topic [forum.smartlydressedgames.com] on the forum btw)

[aminedelpaso]

Regarding the multiplayer ? How you will manage it ? Because if Unturned works with unet is no longer available

[Trojaner]

Автор сообщения: Uran

Автор сообщения: Trojaner

In my opinion this could fire back. Imagine all major servers requiring their own "super innovative" or "best" version of the game, dividining the community and player base even further

This happened in Minecraft with badlion for example, where the server eventually died. The same is probably gonna happen with Unturned. Custom clients for servers might pop off for a bit but I don't see it sticking around for too long unless the server has a really big and stable playercount

This is not the case if they can just publish it on Steam

[Jdance]

Автор сообщения: rekt

Hello MoltonMotro, This is the only place I can ask so it's worth a shot. What can I do as a 2016 player of Unturned who got falsley banned due to cucuycharles bias opinion towards me? I never broke any official rules in the discord and It's super sad to be banned. Discord - rshapiro

You weren't banned due to bias. All of us on the moderation team were pretty unanimous with you being removed. In fact, we voted on it.

[Akanel]

This is very good news.

[SebaaX]

Is this going to destroy the market?

[muerto]

Pointless. Server devs even now can create new mechanics using the client module, and it will work without BattleEye as well. Yes, it will allow you to create your own branch of the game through the launcher, as written above. But it will also separate the community from the main branch of the game and will significantly harm the marketplace and workshop.

In my opinion, the best solution would be to start listening to content creators, especially plugin devs whose ideas you've been ignoring for years.