AI game-dev licensing glossary

Plain-English definitions of the licence, policy and pipeline terms used across this site.

AI disclosure

A statement to a store or players about where generative AI was used. Steam, itch.io (assets), Fab and the Godot Asset Store require one in some form.

Attribution

A credit to the tool or creator, usually in your game credits or store page. Required by some free tiers (Meshy, AIVA Free, GenPBR free credits).

Auto-rigging

Automatically adding a skeleton and skin weights to a 3D character so it can be animated (Mixamo, AccuRIG).

CC BY 4.0

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: anyone may use the work, including commercially, if they credit the creator. Meshy's free-plan output is released under it.

Commercial licence

Permission to use generated output in something you sell, such as a game, asset pack or trailer. Many AI tools grant it only on paid plans.

Computer-generated work

UK legal category (CDPA s.9(3)) for works with no human author; protected for 50 years. The UK government proposed removing it in March 2026.

Credits

The unit most AI tools sell. What a credit buys (an image, a 3D model, a second of audio) differs by tool, so compare cost per usable asset.

Deepfake (EU AI Act)

AI-generated or manipulated image, audio or video that resembles existing persons, objects, places or events and would falsely appear authentic (Art. 3(60)). Must be disclosed from 2 Aug 2026.

Guardrails

Filters and limits that stop runtime AI from producing illegal or off-policy content. Steam asks you to describe them.

Hold harmless

A clause where you promise to cover the vendor's losses from claims about your use or your content. Almost every AI tool's terms include one.

Human authorship

The requirement, in the US and most countries, that a human made the creative choices for copyright to exist.

IP indemnity

A promise by the vendor to defend you and pay if a third party claims the output infringes their rights. Rare outside enterprise plans.

Live-generated AI content

Content created by AI while the game runs, such as an LLM-driven NPC. Steam and Microsoft/Xbox require extra disclosure and guardrails or reporting.

llms.txt

A Markdown file at a site's root that tells LLMs what the site contains and where the machine-readable data lives.

Machine-readable marking

EU AI Act Art. 50(2) duty on AI providers to mark generated content so it can be detected as AI-made.

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

A standard that lets AI agents call tools. Several asset generators (Meshy, PixelLab, Retro Diffusion) and this site offer an MCP server.

Monthly active end users (MAU)

Unique players who use a feature in a month. Some runtime AI platforms (Convai) cap MAU per plan, which limits how many players a shipped game can serve.

NoAI tag

On Fab, a meta tag saying an asset must not be used for generative-AI data collection. It requires the Standard licence.

Non-commercial licence

You may use the output for personal, school or portfolio work but not in anything that earns money. Most free tiers that restrict use do it this way.

Open weights

A model you can download and run yourself (e.g. Hunyuan3D). Its licence, not a vendor's terms of service, governs output and territory.

Output assignment

A clause where the vendor transfers whatever rights it has in the output to you (e.g. Inworld, Anthropic, Summer Engine). Whether copyright exists at all is a separate question of law.

PBR textures

Physically based rendering maps (albedo, normal, roughness, height…) that make materials react to light correctly in modern engines.

Pre-generated AI content

Steam's term for AI-made content created during development that ships in the game (art, audio, text). Must be disclosed in the content survey.

Retargeting

Transferring an animation from one skeleton to another, e.g. Mixamo motions onto a UE5 Manny rig.

Retroactive licence

Whether upgrading later licenses things you made earlier on a free plan. Suno says it does not; AIVA ties the licence to the plan at download time.

Royalty-free

You pay once (or nothing) and owe no ongoing royalties for each sale. It does not by itself mean you own the copyright.

Sprite sheet

One image holding all frames of a 2D animation laid out in a grid, imported by engines for animation.

Text-to-3D / image-to-3D

Generating a 3D mesh, usually GLB/FBX/OBJ, from a prompt or a picture. Check topology and UVs before use in an engine.

Related: Platform AI rules · AI copyright by country · IP indemnity · Commercial use