Where to get resources
Sites you can take music, images and fonts from, and sites you cannot
Where not to take from
YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify are in the roster as not allowed. They are not a licence of any kind: they issue nothing to anyone. If a work exists only there, the honest record is "terms unknown". The only route forward is the author's permission
Audio
Safe by default:
- ccMixter - CC BY, CC BY-NC
- Freesound - CC0, CC BY, CC BY-NC
- Incompetech - CC BY
- Teknoaxe - CC BY
- Kenney - CC0
Worth a glance at each record:
- SoundImage
- Pixabay
- GoodKid - declare nothing formally, but their FAQ amounts to CC BY without the attribution requirement
- NCS - only while the level stays on the default
CC BY-NC
Read the terms first: OpenGameArt, Free Music Archive, SoundBible
Questionable:
- Zapsplat
- Play On Loop - only while the game is not a commercial project. It is not commercial now
Images and fonts
Images, safe by default: Poly Haven, AmbientCG, Kenney, Pexels, Unsplash
Images, worth a glance at each record: Pixabay
Images, read the terms first: OpenGameArt, Rawpixel (their Personal and Public Domain licences only), itch.io, Wikimedia Commons
Fonts: Google Fonts
Sites not in the roster
A site not being listed is not permission. It means nothing is known about it
The roster itself is a starting point. Every service operator may replace it
Grades
Every known site carries a grade:
| Grade | What it means |
|---|---|
| Approved | everything there is publishable, no per-resource check |
| Partially approved | the site hosts more than one kind of terms, the record is worth a glance |
| Needs a licence check | any licence can turn up there, and it is stated per upload |
| Needs a resource check | terms depend on the work or on the plan its uploader chose |
| Not allowed | nothing from here, whatever the record claims |
A licence field says what the author claims. The site says how much that claim is worth. Together they make moderation cheap
How a site is recognised
A site is recognised by the host of the url you typed, subdomains included.
An address with no scheme (no https://) is recognised too
YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify are named in the roster rather than simply left out. That way a level with such a url is refused the moment you type it. A site missing from the roster would only get "somebody should look at this". For the most common reason a level cannot be published, that is far too mild