Could I create a new game in Goldsrc (HL1 engine) and port it to console?

[|---DRIVER---|]

Hi, wondering if anyone knows if it would be legal to use Goldsrc (HL1 engine) in a new game and port it to console. This of course obviously means paying Valve some money. But I'm wondering if Valve has the ability to license Goldsrc to other developers or if they no longer have the legal ability to do that.

Thanks.

[Crashed]

You'd have to contact Valve directly about your proposal. And to port to console you would have to contact the console manufacturers for a license; more than likely Valve would be under contract with console manufacturers not to license any of their engines to homebrew developers.

[nullable]

Well Valve developed GoldSrc as a modified QuakeII engine, so I would expect them to own it/be able to license it. So the answer is a definite maybe. Outside the hypothetical though, there's better questions to ask I guess. Like, why? Even if you could, there's not much rationale for wanting to use a 20 year old engine for console games in 2019. Even if you wanted to do a "retro" game or something, you'd still use a modern engine and approximate the look of an older game.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

It is free to use... https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Goldsource

GoldSource and its level editor, the Hammer World Editor, were released by Valve for public use, making it the source of countless community-made modifications.

As are all Source engines.

[|---DRIVER---|]

Originally posted by Crashed:

You'd have to contact Valve directly about your proposal. And to port to console you would have to contact the console manufacturers for a license; more than likely Valve would be under contract with console manufacturers not to license any of their engines to homebrew developers.

Originally posted by Brockenstein:

Well Valve developed GoldSrc as a modified QuakeII engine, so I would expect them to own it/be able to license it. So the answer is a definite maybe. Outside the hypothetical though, there's better questions to ask I guess. Like, why? Even if you could, there's not much rationale for wanting to use a 20 year old engine for console games in 2019. Even if you wanted to do a "retro" game or something, you'd still use a modern engine and approximate the look of an older game.

There is a AA company (but not AAA company) working on a third-person melee combat game in a Cyberpunk setting with platforming, RPG elements, dialouge choices, They are looking into using a Quake source port. They legally believe they will be able to use the source port on PC, however they will not be able to use it for the XBOX ( PS4 and Switch version not planned ATM)

So they will have two engines for the game, a Quake source port on PC and a non-quake engine for the console port.

They really want to use the Quake engine as its a planned selling feature of the game, but also need to develop the game for consoles. So that's why I'm asking about Goldsrc, from Valve, because its definetly the Quake engine, just with some extra bits thrown on to it.

[nullable]

Well I don't know about the details of what the prohibition of using an old Quake II engine on the Xbox One is, it sounds odd. If you're doing the research I'd assume you'd know better than what I might assume.

As for the selling point, using an old Quake or Quake II engine, or GoldSrc... I'm not sure what that selling point would be. I can see it as a bullet point item, but I'm skeptical anyone is buying a game because of nostalgia for the engine itself.

And I have to imagine it would be simpler to use a single engine for all the platforms if you can.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The Quake engine is also free to use...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine

Under "Derivative engines" section.

[Crashed]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The Quake engine is also free to use...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine

Under "Derivative engines" section.

:qr:

If you abide by the terms of the license, which pretty much precludes consoles except when using homebrew SDKs. To use an official SDK requires adding proprietary, GPL-incompatible code.

[!IR? Gruby]

takže takle

[theoyeo]

just use unity or something

[Crashed]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

The Quake engine is also free to use...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_engine

Under "Derivative engines" section.

:qr:

The original Quake engine was released under the GNU General Public License, which means it cannot be used for non-homebrew console development. There was a legal dispute a few years ago between ScummVM and a publisher who ported Humongous Entertainment games to Wii using the ScummVM engine. The conflict between the GPL and Nintendo's license agreement meant ScummVM could not legally be used and thus the publisher ended up settling and pulling the port from sale.