Hi cr1m,

It sort of depends on the situation, but if a major component of your project is based on another user's work, you should save your project as a spin-off. If a major idea or foundation of your project is based on the original project, it would be better to make it a spin-off, even if you add lots of new code. Like the name implies, a "spin-off" is meant to be a way for you to add onto someone else's project while giving the original creator credit for their work.

If you borrow bits and pieces of code (such as a helper function, sprite, etc.) from another user to create something entirely different, or if you borrow code from many different projects, then it is okay to just use comments in the code to give credit.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any additional questions!

Where do the Guardians stand with the game templates that people are making? It seems like many people are making templates for creating platformer games, and are giving people permission to take their code without giving credit. Most games created by people through the use of the templates usually have minimal changes, but none of them are hidden due to the fact that most people don't flag these programs.

Should programs made through the use of templates be flagged?

Yes, generally speaking these types of programs should be made as spin-offs. Just adding levels to a platformer template doesn't add any new code functionality, so it really should be a spin-off.