Joint & Joint Native Plugin (MIT License)

[lofty bronze]

An open-source plugin for dynamic and flexible dialogue (conversation) building with modular design

Hey! This is DevGrain, and we're finally here to introduce the release of Joint as an open-source project!

Joint is a modular scripting framework plugin for Unreal 4.27 ~ 5.6 (up to date, and consistently updated) that lets you build very dynamic dialogue productions like Undertale or Animal Crossing - but with no spaghetti code or mass tweaks with its power of modularity and clean & intuitive (and clever) playback design.

Joint was a commercial product that was sold on Unreal Marketplace & Fab... but

We decided to open it up to the public because we wanted to see how far it can go as an open source, so we opened it up!

Joint: https://github.com/GGgRain/Unreal-Joint

Joint Native: https://github.com/GGgRain/Unreal-Joint-Native

Please read the license policy before you start making things with it, and if you love the product, consider leaving a star for our enthusiasm to continue this journey with Joint!

Useful resources :

Trailer Vid: https://youtu.be/EWzKk1lRJZc?si=YSbkHiBdJA0XNuCl

Quick Start Vid: https://youtu.be/hODzi1OK3wg?si=jTg1wi7FN3I0oYt3

[placid wagon]

Looks neat! Shame about the license though, I'd rather it just be a flat fee

[lofty bronze]

Oh I changed it, I've been so beaten down by criticism because of that hahaha honestly that hurts, but at least now I can provide it on the reasonable price.

Now it's free for the project that make less than 15000$ per year, and for the project that exceeds that amount will pay one time purchase of 299$ (one-time purchase, so you don't have to pay again next year)

I made a huge mistake on there, and hope I can deliver my honest intentions to them again

[placid wagon]

Hey, props for realising and responding to crtitism!

[lofty bronze]

Thank you so much for your kind words! It really really helps me especially in the current situation.

It's a good product and I put my tons of effort on it, so I hope it doens't go out in this way so stupidly

[placid wagon]

Mistakes happen, don't sweat it. The reception to the tool itself from what I've seen is extremely positive, it was just something that needed some revision.
It looks like something that could save studios a lot of time.

If it's ever in the budget, I'd advise getting a lawyer to look over your license. They might be able to help better than general internet consensus :P

[lofty bronze]

I hope many studios look at it in the same way, so I can see a game that uses my product and finally be able to play it myself... that will be so wonderful

[placid wagon]

I wish you the best of luck with it, as I said, from the surface it looks like an amazing tool

[lofty bronze]

I will find a way to take a look at it in that way. Tho, I'm very tight on the budget so it might take a while to do so

[placid wagon]

Oh, you may also want to clarify if your license is per product/per studio and whether it's per seat

[lofty bronze]

Oh it has been clarified as per product at the moment. How do you think about it? Is it problematic or can be a reluctant point?

[placid wagon]

I don't think so. It's a model I've seen with other tools. Per seat would be a good one to clarify though.
I personally don't think either would affect things, hell I don't think adding an intermediate license would either (Like a cheaper one between 0-15k)

It's really only royalty systems I see people not liking, because that puts a permanent dependency on the project then. Even unreal only takes a 5% royalty, so people would be reluctant to pay 1/5 of that for a plugin. Not to mention then you're filing out invoices for it until the end of time.

You look at things currently, say with Havok. Flat fee per project, not seat based. You look at Fab, Two tiers, Standard and Professional based on profit, per seat flat fee but not per project. It's a fairly normal pattern no matter which of those you choose. It seems right now you've chosen a per project, non seat based license, with a free tier for small productions and a paid one for more expensive productions.

I would say you should put some reviision into the derivatives section though. Your promo post seems to welcome people making derived products, but your license seems to forbid doing so. Implementing such a cost structure with that could also potentially raise issues. Someone forks the project, adds a single line of code and uses it in their project, so who gets paid? They've made a derivative with full monitisation rights, so do they still have to pay you? If someone then went and sold that, would they still pay you? If they use it and sell it, do they pay you for where they used it and keep the money from where they sold it?

It's a messy one to figure out, with lots of potential loopholes. I'm no lawyer, which is why I reccomended one so my points may be moot, it's just a suggestion and I'm not sure whichever way you approach that would cause much backlash

I'd take a couple of days personally and research other fairly feature complete tools (Voxel Plugin, some of the big box middleware, etc) and see what their license structure is and try to place yourself competitively within that, decide from there your tiers, their pricing, how contributions are handled, how derivatives are handled, etc.

Do take what I'm saying with a big pinch of salt though. I've never made or sold or a successful tool, these are just observations formed off my own opinions

I do think it would be a good idea to iron out the wrinkles, because then it's solid for any future products

[lofty bronze]

I will keep that in mind

[lofty bronze]

We have two surprising news - one is still on NDA, but one is now here!

Joint is now completely free for every usage! (MIT License)

Please share this project to your loving folks, friends, and even family!

Plus, We're going to open Fab store version of Joint for the sponsorship purpose - It's the exact same copy of Joint on GitHub with no limitation or restriction, but with a slight amount of fee that I and other future workers will gladly use for our communities' growth!

[lofty bronze]

So here is the ultimate solution for that issue 😄

Joint & Joint Native Plugin (MIT License)

[lofty bronze]

https://youtu.be/kGiHW27qt74?si=l1rx1zROuIouDRiy