Wait, so I cannot commercially sell a game with this code?

[ryandakid]

So if I made a game with this code with my own dll files, would I still get sued for it?

I have tried asking valve, and they never answered me.

[tschumann]

Doesn't look like it - the readme (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/halflife/blob/master/README.md) says "You may distribute your modified Valve game in source and object code form, but only for free".

[ryandakid]

Is there any way that I could get a license where I could commercially sell the game but only with the source code available (the GPL)

[tschumann]

I doubt it - "You may copy, modify, and distribute the SDK and any modifications you make to the SDK in source and object code form, but only for free."

But that aside, I don't think Valve wants to license the engine any more and I don't think there's any conditions you can meet to circumvent, that short of finding someone at Valve who'll sort out licensing for you.

[ryandakid]

Could I just retype the whole program? Would that work? Is that illegal?

[Bandock]

Not a good idea. There have been lawsuits over that sort of thing in the past.

[hashnimo]

Try to find a legal loophole in that license, or maybe create a popular game and gain income through donations. Also you can host servers for your game on your end without releasing the dedicated server files, and then charge for the host and listing. Very bad business practice though. :D

[hogsy]

If you manage to produce something awesome and then press Valve to allow you to release it commercially on Steam then they might be willing to give it a shot.

They've done this for other games in the past, though the ones that spring to mind used the Source Engine, but I'm pretty sure it's license isn't all that different, and because of this it's clear Valve were willing to give some wiggle room there.

Alternatively, I can't see anything wrong with perhaps introducing a donations page or something along those lines. Sure, people will be able to download and play your game for free, but if they like what they see then they have the opportunity to throw money your way.

[JoelTroch]

• You are NOT allowed to sell your GoldSrc mod BUT you are allowed to have donations to support other stuff such as "server(s) cost" like game server(s), website hosting...
• You are NOT allowed to perform any kind of reverse engineering on Steam/Half-Life.
• Valve stopped giving complete GoldSrc commercial licenses for free/paid games, Half-Rats: Parasomnia passed Steam Greenlight and we asked the entire source code like Sven Co-op and Cry of Fear, but we were told that GoldSrc's time is over and to use alternatives (Quake/Unity...) We had no choice but to force the "HL1 ownership requirement".
• Don't bother asking the Sven Co-op developers neither Team Psyskallar (Cry of Fear), they are NOT allowed to help us in any way (likely to prevent a NDA breach).
• Valve only fixes security exploits for GoldSrc and Source, they moved to other projects.
• I'm not a lawyer but I think you are allowed to make your own engine as long as it's not a 1:1 clone of GoldSrc, doesn't rely on Steam (unless you have the permission to use Steamworks) and doesn't rely on anything that involves Half-Life and any other Valve's IP. Best thing to do would be to ask a lawyer at Valve about what you can do and what you cannot.

[ghost]

So was the recent half-life patch (with no notes on steam and no commits on this repo) for a "security exploit"?

P.S. great page right here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=70&appgroupname=Half-Life&feed=steam_client

How hard is it to make a changelog when you update a game millions of people paid you money for?