Free game assets are a gift and a trap. Every year, indie games get pulled from stores because a developer used an asset under a license they did not understand — a font that was free for personal use, a texture from a site that changed its terms, a sound effect licensed for non-commercial projects only. This guide explains the license landscape so you know exactly what you can do with the assets you use, including ones generated by tools like GameIconForge.
The three questions every license answers
Before using any asset, answer these:
- Can I use it commercially? (Can I sell the game?)
- Do I need to give credit? (Attribution on/off)
- Can I modify and redistribute it? (Derivatives and resale)
Every asset license is a combination of these answers. Everything else is detail. If you cannot answer all three for an asset, do not ship with it.
CC0: the only true "free" license
CC0 (Creative Commons Zero) is public domain dedication: no attribution, no restrictions, commercial use allowed, modifications allowed, resale allowed. It is the only license where "free" means what it says.
Examples: Kenney's asset packs, many opengameart.org uploads, NASA imagery (for the most part). If an asset says CC0, you can do anything with it — including putting it in a game you sell, and including modifying it heavily.
CC-BY: free with one condition
CC-BY allows everything CC0 allows, with one condition: you must credit the author in a specified way. The credit is usually a line in the credits screen or the game's about page — but the license can require a specific format, so check the exact terms.
The trap: some CC-BY assets are used in thousands of games, and if the author later changes the license, your existing game is usually safe (license grants are typically irrevocable for copies already distributed), but new versions are not. Keep a record of the license at the time you used the asset.
Non-commercial licenses: the silent killer
"Free for personal use" and CC-BY-NC (non-commercial) are not free for a game you sell. Many asset sites host beautiful free packs that are explicitly non-commercial — the author wants exposure, not to subsidize your revenue.
Using a non-commercial asset in a commercial game is license infringement, and asset owners do sue — especially for music and fonts, where infringement is easy to prove. The safe rule: if a pack does not say "commercial use allowed" in plain words, assume it is not allowed.
Asset store licenses: per-seat and per-project
Marketplaces like Unity Asset Store, Unreal Marketplace and itch.io sell assets under their own license frameworks:
- Unity Asset Store: Standard License covers one seat, one project per purchase; Extended License adds resale of the asset itself (e.g. in templates)
- Unreal Marketplace: per-seat licenses tied to your Epic account, with royalties only on the engine, not on assets
- itch.io: license is set per-asset by the author — read the listing
- Steam Workshop assets: usually not for commercial games at all
The recurring mistake: buying a pack for one project and using it in another project (Unity's standard license) or letting a contractor use your purchased assets in a client project. Read the per-project and per-seat clauses.
Generated assets: who owns them?
Procedurally generated assets raise a different question: there is no human author to grant a license. The practical answer depends on the tool:
- Tools that generate on your device (like GameIconForge): the output is yours, free to use commercially with no attribution
- Cloud generators with a terms-of-service: the ToS governs ownership — many reserve rights or restrict commercial use on free tiers
- AI-image generators: check the provider's terms; commercial rights vary by plan and some restrict training-related uses
GameIconForge generates icons entirely on your device and claims no rights over the output — the icons are yours, free for personal and commercial use, no attribution required. That is the CC0-equivalent of generated assets.
Fonts and sounds: the most common violations
Two asset types cause the most legal trouble because they are so easy to slip in:
- Fonts: "free" display fonts are often personal-use only; commercial licenses are usually a few dollars — pay them
- Sounds/music: check whether the pack includes a written commercial license; "free sound effects" sites are a minefield of unlicensed samples
For fonts in icons or UI, keep a license file per font. For sounds, prefer packs with explicit commercial licenses (CC0 audio is plentiful and safe).
Building a license-safe asset library
A few habits that prevent problems:
- Keep a LICENSE.txt in every asset folder, copied from the source
- Record the URL, date and license version when you download
- Prefer CC0 for anything you may modify heavily or resell
- Pay for fonts — it is cheap insurance
- Re-check terms when an asset site changes its policy (newsletters and forums usually flag it)
Licensing is not about being paranoid; it is about being able to sleep after launch. Free is fine when the license says so, paid is fine when you understand the terms, and generated-on-device assets are the safest of all. Know the three questions, keep records, and your asset pipeline will never be the reason a game disappears from a store.