Hey All,
I've heard from many designers and read in many design books that it's pretty common practice to use something like Google Images for images on a game's prototype.
My question is, would it be ok to have Google Images on the cards and materials when submitting a final prototype to a company? It just seems odd/dishonest to me, but otherwise you spend hours creating unique pictures when they'll just use one of their own artists anyway...
Any thoughts or experiences?
Currently, I am using google pictures.
I am very bad at being an artist. It was very clear to me when I made an attempt. And I too knew that they would be redone. Thus all I can do is using pictures from google and adjust them.
For this, I use photographs of terrain. Then I cut out the hexagon that I need and add details for the game.
I am also making a method of doing this faster and easier.
We learn when we make mistakes. But I have still lots of mistakes to make.
However, when the time is ripe. I will ask them to make art for the hexagons and units that fit the theme better.
Odds are it is somebody's copyright material. You can get a 50,000 clipart collection CD for around $10. I think many people see it as a grey area and would like "fair use" to stretch to fit. But particularly when dealing in a business that is based around intellectual property, faulting on the side of respecting the rights of other artists seems most appropriate to me.
For a publisher prototype I'd use Google images without a second thought. As long as you aren't spreading the game to dozens of people all over the world... you'll probably be fine.
Technically, I think it's still copyright violation... but I wouldn't worry too much.
I'd just recommend that you specifically mention in the prototype that it's "Sample Art pulled from Google images to show off the intended theme."
The only time I'd say avoid Google images is if you intend to do any sort of large scale release. If you plan to do a printable playtest on here or BGG... definitely avoid copyrighted art.
100% agree with McTeddy.
Usually I search for images labled for reuse (Google -> search tools -> usage rights) first.
But in case I can´t find anything acceptable or something that can easyly be adjusted I use other picters too.
I frequently use google search for images to use in prototypes. That said, the search for free art appears to be getting harder day by day. The search engines seem to be geared more to displaying art results that are associated with "pay to use" royalty free clip art sites and so on.
When searching for quality free art, which can still be found, I've found a number of things that are helpful.
Aquaint yourself with the copyright laws, even some of the older images have copyrights if they have been reproduced after being cleaned up (in the case of old paintings etc).
Some images are labelled as creative commons for personal use and creative comons for commercial use. Personal use is probably ok for prototypes and things that arent directed at commercial sales in their current form. To sell something commercial the license has to be creative commons for commercial use.
Just because something is labelled as "creative commons" doesnt mean it is. Always check as thoroughly as you can because some sites put up images for download that obviously arent free to use. The most common violators even have the clipart site logos still on them.
If you are using paid for clipart check the licenses of the site. Most of them don't allow art to be used for commercial purposes unless an expensive "extended use" license is purchased.
When in doubt leave it out.
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I never knew about this feature in Google Image! Are images under this filter good for "reuse" in terms of commercial viability, or just a creative commons license (as Bubblechucks mentioned)?