I'm considering using this GPL-3.0-licensed library as a development aid in a game. Development builds that include this library (and other unrelated tools) would be used by myself and any parties involved in the development of the game. The library (and the features that use it) would be entirely excluded from production builds intended for the general public.
Would this be allowed under the terms of the GPL? While we're at it, is there precedent for this?
Some facts that may be relevant:
- The game is proprietary and closed-source and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
- No other libraries or assets in my game are licensed under the GPL or similar.
- I use a lot of permissively-licensed (MIT, BSD, public domain, etc.) third-party libraries, but I can provide details if necessary.
- I have not actually installed or used this library yet.
- I may someday extract parts of the game's source code into reusable libraries. I don't yet know which parts or under which license I would do so.
- I don't yet know if I will need to include the library in my game's source repository.
- I'm the sole developer of this game, but if I had employees then they would have access to development builds. If I hire contractors, they will also have access to development builds.
- If I work with a publisher or other service provider (such as for marketing or QA), they would have access to development builds. They might or might not have partial ownership of the game and its copyright, but it would depend on the terms of an agreement.