Is Truncate Open Source, and What Can You Reuse?

Yes. Truncate (truncate.town) is open source: its client and server code are both published on GitHub at TruncateGame/Truncate, and its sprites are released under CC BY-SA 4.0. That means you can read, run, modify, and redistribute the code, and reuse the sprite art — provided you follow the license terms. Everything else you might want to reuse (audio, fonts, word lists) is third-party material with its own separate license, so check each item individually.

What is covered by Truncate's own open-source release

The credits page states plainly that "Truncate's client and server are both available as open-source code on GitHub" and that "Truncate's sprites are available to use under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license." The game was created by Liam Bigelow and Blake McAlevey-Scurr.

What CC BY-SA 4.0 means for the sprites

CC BY-SA 4.0 is a share-alike license. In practice, if you reuse or adapt the sprites:

• Give attribution to the Truncate creators.
• Indicate changes if you modified the art.
• Share alike: if you distribute an adaptation of the sprites, you must release it under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 (or a compatible) license.
• You may use them commercially, but the share-alike condition still applies to adaptations.

If you only want to drop a sprite into a personal project without modifying it, attribution plus the license notice is the core obligation; the share-alike requirement mainly bites when you redistribute modified versions.

Third-party assets have their own licenses

The credits page lists several dependencies and asset sources, each with a distinct license. These are not covered by Truncate's own open-source release, so treat them separately:

• Audio: "Puzzle piece placed on board" by el_boss, under CC0 1.0.
• Fonts: "Press Start 2P" by codeman38 under the OFL; "at01" by GrafxKid under CC0 1.0.
• UI dependency: egui by Emil Ernerfeldt under MIT, plus all other dependencies in the repository.
• Word data: SCOWL Wordlist by Kevin Atkinson (MIT-like), Wordnik Wordlist (MIT), Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0), and Wiktextract by Tatu Ylonen / Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Two practical consequences:

1. CC0 items (the el_boss audio, the GrafxKid font) are the least restrictive — no attribution required, though crediting is still good practice.
2. The word lists are not all permissive. Wiktionary and Wiktextract are CC BY-SA 3.0, so if you redistribute a word list derived from them, the share-alike terms apply to that data. The SCOWL and Wordnik lists are MIT/MIT-like, which is easier to fold into other projects.

How to decide what you can actually reuse

Use this quick check before pulling anything into your own project:

1. Code — go to TruncateGame/Truncate on GitHub and read the repository's license file for the exact terms governing the client and server.
2. Sprites — if you are copying or adapting the art, plan for attribution and, for adaptations, CC BY-SA 4.0 redistribution.
3. Audio and fonts — check the specific credit line; CC0 items are effectively unrestricted, OFL fonts have their own embedding and redistribution rules.
4. Word data — separate the MIT-like sources (SCOWL, Wordnik) from the CC BY-SA 3.0 sources (Wiktionary, Wiktextract) if you plan to redistribute a combined list.

A common snag: people assume "the game is open source" covers every file in the repo. It does not — the credits page explicitly separates the creators' own code and sprites from the third-party audio, fonts, and word data, each with its own license. When in doubt, match the asset to its credit line before reusing it.

For the broader question of what Truncate is as a game, see the related explainer on how spelling words cuts off and conquers your enemy.