Where to get resources
Safe by default: music from ccMixter, Freesound and Kenney, images from Poly Haven, Pexels and Unsplash, fonts from Google Fonts. Nothing may be taken from YouTube, SoundCloud or Spotify
Where not to take from
YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify are marked as not allowed in the roster. 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 way 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 look at each record:
- SoundImage
- Pixabay
- GoodKid - formally declare nothing, but their FAQ comes down to CC BY without mandatory attribution
- NCS - only while the level stays under the standard
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 look at each record: Pixabay
Images, read the terms first: OpenGameArt, Rawpixel (only their Personal and Public Domain), itch.io, Wikimedia Commons
Fonts: Google Fonts
Sites not in the roster
A site missing from the list is not a 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 has a grade:
| Grade | What it means |
|---|---|
| Approved | everything from there can be published, no per-resource check needed |
| Partially approved | the site has more than one kind of terms, the record is worth a look |
| Needs a licence check | any licence can turn up there, and it is stated on each upload |
| Needs a resource check | the terms depend on the work or on the plan the uploader chose |
| Not allowed | nothing from here, whatever the record says |
The 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 link you entered, subdomains included.
An address with no scheme (no https://) is recognised too
YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify are named in the roster directly, not simply left out. That way a level with such a link is refused the moment you paste it. A site missing from the roster would only get "somebody should take a look". For the most common reason a level cannot be published, that is too mild