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Just my thoughts (std::disclaimer("I'm not Conitec")), but using professional games as an example, not crediting the engine appears to be "amateurish".



As much as I complain about forced branding I agree with this. I've always said I had no problem with giving credit, but where possible I've paid additional money to be able to do it in my own way. My problem is in getting too carried away with forced branding. I've said in other posts that I started looking at other engines and eventually came to GS primarily because GarageGames changed their EULA to require a full screen splash up front, credits in the game, and a direct hyperlink to GG in the about box. You don't even see that with Unreal or Havok.

And you mention the big money titles. It's funny that a company will set up a business structure and tout it until someone actually does something big with their tech, then they change their business model. For instance, I paid GG for a Commercial license because they said that would allow me to give the engine credit any way I saw fit, if I even did at all. Unlike the Pro version of GS, it gave me no other benefit. Suddenly that changed, making the hundreds of additional dollars I paid for that privilege wasted money. They sold their product for a given price within a given contractual EULA until someone made good use of it, then suddenly they were "being taken advantage of" and things had to change because they had been "extremely generous" selling us their product at the price they did. One employee even stated that they were being extremely generous because if they wanted to they could even retroactively change any prior EULA currently in place. He amended that statement when I called him on it.

I'm not sure what problems some others here have with branding, but my only issue is that I'd like to see branding limited so it doesn't look like the game was made by the engine company and "marketed" by me. I have no problem with people knowing what engine I use to create a game. My other only complaint is that if I pay substantially more money to be able to do it my way, I'd really like to not be told the next week "thanks for the extra money, but now you still have to do it our way."

For me it's not the issue of branding so much as how it's done. That being said, though, I do like the idea of being able to use game specific icons rather than engine icons because I believe that's a part of the game's identity. Similar to the "Favicon" idea for websites...

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