Hi,
I have a couple of questions about the subscription and license that I need clarifying.
For the subscriptions, if I got them originally as an individual, would that same subscription allow me to then develop for a team as part of a [two man] company. As a little backstory, our team intend to migrate our existing UDK project to UE4, but I would like to have a look at the engine first before we do so. As a result, would I need to buy two subscriptions, personal and for the game, or would I be able to use a single subscription for both? The company is essentially just me and a friend, but we would like a little clarification so we don’t breach a license.
For the license itself, we intend to run a kickstarter campaign to gain a small amount of money for hardware, which as one of the pledge rewards, would give the backer a pre-order copy of the game. Our concern is that we need a majority of the money now for the hardware. Would it be possible that - so long as we keep detailed logs of all transactions - we pay the royalties once the game has gone on sale and we begin earning income rather than at the point the campaign ends?
Thank you for your time,
The subscription is “per human being” and enables that person to use UE4 on any machine, whether personal or company.
The EULA is written so that you can use the engine both at home and at work. Someday we will have better “team account management” features built into the web site to give you clearer control over such things, but in the meantime the company/individual scenario you’ve described is fine.
Regarding paying the 5% royalty on Kickstarter revenue, that’s required as soon as you receive revenue directly related to product access (current or future) or in-product benefits such as in-game items. If we had made those royalties due only later when products shipped, that would put you in a position of having to pay royalties on revenue you may have already spent on development, which we didn’t want to do.
Keep in mind that no royalties are due on Kickstarter revenue that’s not related to product access (such as pure donations, selling physical merchandise, personal letters of thanks, etc). So you can feel free to design your Kickstarter tiers so that much of your revenue is not tied to product access.
Thank you very much, that helped clear it up.