this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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I mean, if you want to see some games' source code you don't have to rely on piracy. As other people have already said, there are open source games, some developers of older games have officially released the source code (notably VVVVVV, doom, and also quake iirc), some devs have released important part of their source code (e g the entire inputs handling code of Celeste).
Additionally, the vast majority of all Unreal Engine games' engine code, including huge AAAs like Fortnite, is in Unreal Engine (duh), which is ~~open source~~ source-available.
UE isn't open source afaik
I knew I was gonna get this answer but still couldn't be bothered to check the correct term so that's on me.
I think you're technically right because the EULA specifies that you basically can't use that code (or a modified version) outside of a licensed UE project, but outside of that it basically is. All the code can be read, the engine and/or its editor and all related tools can be compiled from the source, and you can make pull requests on the official repo.
IIRC it is not actually open source because you can't modify and/or repackage it without epic having their say in it (I think one of the licenses tiers is basically you agreeing to pay upfront + royalties for the authorization to modify the engine's code and ship the packaged version with the project)
It's called "source available"