Publishing Modded Games

Game Development
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I was having the following discussion with @CJW :

I said:

I’ve been perusing the forums, and happened upon a thread about using CS to make a Tamoguchi-like game (except with a baby dragon). It was saying that graphics would be nice for that kind of game, so that got me thinking. However, in other threads, it seems modifications like we’re describing will result in the game being unpublishable? Is that 100% true? I remember Wizard’s Choice having a stat bar at the top (plus different CSS). Was that just an exception? Will Terminal be unpublishable? I have a ton of cool ideas for how to extend CS games, but it’d be a shame if they’ll never see the light of day (i.e. in the app store, not just a WIP here on the forums).

He replied:

I couldn’t rightly say in all honesty, as far as I know CoG still haven’t given us a clean answer on whether or not they’ll publish games with modifications - and what their terms might be if they did (i.e: Hosted games only, and you break it, you fix it etc).

The reason Life of a Wizard gets away with it is because that’s not actually a COG game, the author just has a license to use CS to implement it on one of their platforms (iOS iirc) - but they publish and modify it themselves.

That’s really the crux of it: From a technical standpoint, it should work absolutely fine, but if everyone ran modified code, it would make official patching and bug hunting an absolute nightmare.

I’m sure if I wanted to pay for a CS license, apple license, android license and package the app myself (deal with all my own in-app functionality/updates etc). But even if you’re willing to do that, you’ll lose out on a lot of the exposure you’d usually get (even under the Hosted Label).

tl;dr: No, modded games are publishable, but it will more than likely mean that you will have to self-publish, though again, CoG hasn’t (to my knowledge) really said much on the topic, so don’t take my word as law.

Just to add: If you’ve got further questions/discussions relating to this or anything else, I’m more than happy to answer, so feel free to start a new thread or PM me, but I’d just rather keep it out of this thread if we can.

So I guess I’m wondering if anyone knows more about this? Can modded games be published? If Wizard’s Choice isn’t a CoG game (i.e. the author bought the license to use the CS code and self-published), how can it appear in the Hosted Games section?

1 Like
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I think @CJW said all that needed to be said, he is one of the older users as well as most experienced with java script alongside a few others. I personally believe that it is acceptable if it is only a minor change such as the background color or so. This is just what i believe though there is no evidence to support it. You could try messaging @dfabulich or @jasonstevanhill . Or wait for a reply from them on this thread

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I’d have to actually ask @dfabulich, but it was my understanding that it does take some work to get the game as written in CS and make it work everywhere else, and that the main problem with modding CS is that it has the potential to made it more of a problem to get onto every other format.