Hello! Firstly a big thank you, the fact that you are reading this means you actually care about doing the right thing, and want to acknowledge the software you have used from other developers.
The olc::PixelGameEngine is open source and is released under the OLC-3 licence. This means you can use it freely, even for commercial projects. However, the licence requires that appropriate attribution is required.
Releasing Software in Executable Binary Form
Your olc::PixelGameEngine application needs to display to the user the following message:
Copyright 2018 – 2020 OneLoneCoder.com
Most people prefer to do this by either:
- Keeping the application in window mode, and not changing the text displayed in the window’s title bar. By default, olc::PixelGameEngine applications are out-of-the-box compliant.
- A splash screen along the lines of “Made using olc::PixelGameEngine” and including the above notice.
- Full attribution in a “Credits” or “Licences” menu available without special requirements of the user (such as completing the game for example)
Releasing Software in Source Code Form
If your project is distributed via source code, and you use either part, or all of the olc::PixelGameEngine, the full text of the OLC-3 licence needs to be included in the source code distribution. By default, an unchanged olcPixelGameEngine.h file will satisfy the licence requirements. If you maintain an external catalogue of licences, you should include OLC-3 in that too.
Releasing Derivative Works
Since the olc::PixelGameEngine is open source, you are allowed to modify it. This could be in the form of adding additional features, wrapping it into an alternative framework, cloning the features, or using parts of the code. In this instance, the full OLC-3 licence text needs to be included, and if your derivative work is in binary form, it must display to the user the above copyright notice.
Citation in Academic Works
If you use olc::PixelGameEngine for school, research, academic pursuit, you can reference/cite it properly in the following way:
olc::PixelGameEngine, v2.05, OneLoneCoder.com, 2020
The version number and year are of course flexible and should be changed as required.
Referencing in Digital Media
If you write blogs, make videos, create content and want to reference the olc::PixelGameEngine,, or indeed the OneLoneCoder website or javidx9 youtube channel, then the correct links are:
https://github.com/OneLoneCoder/olcPixelGameEngine
Finally, again a big thank you for taking this seriously. Software development is a hard and time consuming task, in the hope that it makes someone else’s software easier and quicker to produce. It is important that the hard work of others is given the credit it deserves – javidx9.