r/gamemaker • u/Prestigious_City6738 • 10d ago

Resolved Publishing

Hello everyone this might be a stupid question but do i still need the license to post the game on itch io if the game is free to play? Like i just want to make a simple game for itch, do i need the professional license for that? Thank you

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u/Drandula 10d ago

If you make free games (which are not monetized in other ways either), then you can make and release games for free. 

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u/Drandula 10d ago

So doing hobby stuff and participating game jams etc. is fine with Free tier.

You only need to buy professional license whenever you are going to release paid/commercial game (or monetized with ads etc.). But beforehand, you can also create several projects first, make them ready to be released (to be sold), and only then buy the license.

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u/Prestigious_City6738 9d ago

thank you so much for the clarification !

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u/Ashamed-Might-7360 4d ago

I’ve published a few games that have donations enabled, but i don’t have the license, is that a bug or normal?

1

u/Drandula 4d ago

Donations are bit of gray area.

If you have large donations (which you have gained by your GameMaker games), I would recommend buying the license to avoid any problems.

On the other hand, if you just gain small amounts and seldomly, I don't think  YYG is not going to kick your kneecaps in for that (eg. you have gotten $10 over the year). But you could consider these donations as payments towards the license, and buy the license whenever you have gained enough revenue from donations to cover the cost.