Enquiry about Spine License

Asta · 22일 전

I’m currently working on a 2D game and planning to use Spine for character animations. However, I won’t be creating the animations myself, I’m hiring an animator who owns a legitimate Spine license and will deliver the assets (likely .json, .atlas, .png, etc.).

My question is:
Do I still need to purchase my own Spine license if I’m only using the exported Spine assets inside my game via the official Spine runtime (e.g., Spine-Godot)?

To clarify:

I won’t be animating anything myself in Spine.

I will be importing and playing the animations in my game via the official runtime.

The game may be published commercially in the future.

I want to make sure I stay compliant with Spine's licensing terms. Would appreciate any guidance from the community or team.

Thanks in advance.

Spinebot · 22일 전

If you are using the official Spine Runtimes to play the animations in your game, you will need a Spine license. This is because the Spine Runtimes are considered a derivative work, and distributing them requires a Spine license. Even if you are not creating or editing the animations yourself, using the Spine Runtimes in your game necessitates having a license. You can distribute any number of games or apps containing the Spine Runtimes with a single Spine license. If your game makes more than $500,000 USD in one year, you would need a Spine Enterprise license.

Davide · 22일 전

Asta

As Spinebot mentioned, you need a Spine license to integrate and distribute our runtimes, such as spine-godot. You can find the relevant licensing terms here.

However, for runtime integration, a Spine Essential license is sufficient,and it's quite affordable (unless you fall under the enterprise category).