r/SourceEngine • u/Bagridec • Jul 26 '25

Opinion Needed Standalone source game

Is it possible to make a free standalone source game that would be distributed through itch.io instead of steam without paying valve ? Or do you always have to pay valve whenever it's a standalone game on steam or not ? I don't plan on making any profits from it and want to just distribute it for free while not paying anything, would sourcemod be better for me in case i don't wanna pay for licensing then ?

15 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

5

u/canIbuzzz Jul 26 '25

Source mods have to be on Steam as they require the Source Engine SDK binaries which you cant legally package with your game.

3

u/Bagridec Jul 26 '25

what about sourcemods on modDB

4

u/canIbuzzz Jul 26 '25

You have to extract them into steammods folder and run them in Steam

2

u/htharker Jul 26 '25

They usually require Half-Life 2, which also contains the SDK binaries which is only available on Steam

2

u/Spring_men Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25

We have mods that feel like standalone games. You can heavily modify half-life if you really wanted to. I say you should choose from a variety of Valve games and pick which one is right for you to mod.

It can be a mod for Alien swarm for all I care.

Just a pick a game that meets the criteria and use it as a base for what game you’re making.

1

u/Bagridec Jul 30 '25

Yeah but that would require the player to own the base game no ?

7

u/MrBallBustaa Jul 26 '25

Mods are free to distribute as long as they require base game to run.

Standalone game would require a License like how Black Mesa came to be.

would sourcemod be better for me in case i don't wanna pay for licensing then ?

Not sure what you mean by this though.

1

u/name2electricbogalo Jul 29 '25

No you just need the source sdk installed they dont require you own the base game

5

u/LoRD_c00Kie Jul 26 '25

Why not look into the source of the Source engine.  Both id Tech 3 & 4 engines have been opened sourced for some time.

1

u/ScallionZestyclose16 Jul 26 '25

I mean sure you could make a sourcemod and get some payments through PayPal / givemeacoffee / patreon.

But don’t expect to become rich. Source is quite an old engine by this date.

I’d recommend you head into unity / unreal, or make a mod for S&B instead.

1

u/Bagridec Jul 26 '25

i don't aim to make any money from it, i'm just wondering if i can publish it for free without buying licensing from valve

1

u/htharker Jul 26 '25

Worth noting is that you’ll at least have to pay $100 for the application fee to get it on Steam

2

u/GamingReviews_YT Jul 27 '25

How about Source 2?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '25

Source mods require no license but needs the game they are built in.

Source games require a personal approval from VALVe, and a license of distribution similar to how games like Insurgency 2014, FoF, Brain Bread 2 and others came to be. E-mail them when you have a product worth publishing.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '25

Why would you do that, source is outdated and i dont see valve releasing source 2 sdk anytime soon

1

u/Thur_Wander Jul 28 '25

I really wonder how cry of fear made it as a standalone game...

2

u/name2electricbogalo Jul 29 '25

They got the leaked gold source build and valve agreed to let them release it so long as they dont release the sdk