This is a working draft, not the final agreement. It records what the studio intends the Creator Terms to say, in plain language, so the submission flow can be built and reviewed. It has not been drafted or reviewed by a lawyer and is not yet in force. The binding version will replace this text and carry a new version number, and you will be asked to accept it again at that point.
The short version
You keep ownership of what you make. By submitting a mod you give us permission to use it in Vestra Coda, including permission to change it. If we ever sell something built from your work, you get paid. If we give it away free to all players, you don't — and we'll tell you which it is before you agree to anything.
The rest of this page is the same thing said carefully.
1. What these terms cover
They apply when you install the Forge toolkit, when you submit a mod, and whenever you use a Forge service. "Mod" here means a Forge Kit and everything inside it — textures, models, audio, interface layouts, data files, and anything else you pack into it.
They don't cover playing the game. That's the Terms of Service.
2. You keep what you make
Submitting a mod doesn't transfer ownership. Your work stays yours, and you can publish it anywhere else you like, on whatever terms you like.
3. The permission you give us
When you submit a mod, you grant Shadow Dance Studios a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual licence to use, copy, adapt, modify, translate, publish, distribute and display it, and to let others do so on our behalf, in connection with Vestra Coda and its promotion.
Two parts of that deserve to be called out plainly rather than buried:
- We can change your work. Anything we integrate gets re-authored to meet technical budgets, art direction, and quality. It will not ship exactly as you made it.
- The permission doesn't end. Once something of yours is in the shipped game, you can't require us to remove it — not by withdrawing the mod, deleting your account, or leaving the community. Patching a live game to pull content is disruptive to every player, and we can't accept an obligation to do it on request.
This permission survives if your account is closed or suspended, for any reason.
4. Money
The Forge is free in both directions. You are never charged to create or publish, and you are never paid simply for publishing.
If we select your work and integrate it into the official game:
- Shipped free to all players — no payment. You get attribution, a title, and a place on the Forge monument. We will tell you this is the plan before you sign anything.
- Sold in the in-game store — you get paid. You choose between a one-off fee and a share of what players spend on that item. We'll show you both numbers before you choose.
Either way, integration requires a separate written agreement that you sign. These terms alone never put your work in the shipped game. That second agreement covers your identity, the payment terms, and a promise from you that the work is genuinely yours.
5. Attribution
Work we integrate carries your name in the item's in-game description, and on the Forge monument in the world. We intend that to be permanent.
You choose the name we use, and you can ask us to use a pseudonym instead of a legal name. Content gets revised over time, so we may change or retire an integrated item — that isn't a broken promise, and where an item is replaced we carry the credit across where we reasonably can.
6. What you're promising us
When you submit a mod, you're telling us all of the following is true:
- You made it, or you have the rights to submit it and to let us use it as described above.
- It doesn't contain anyone else's work that you aren't allowed to hand over — that includes assets from other games, from paid marketplaces, and from asset packs whose licence doesn't permit this.
- You've declared where each asset came from, accurately, including where AI tools were involved.
- It doesn't contain anything unlawful, or anything targeting a real person.
- It follows the Forge Rulebook, including the rule that a mod may change how the world looks but never what a player can perceive.
If something you submitted turns out not to be yours, we'll remove it — from the Forge and, if it got that far, from the game. If you were paid for it, we'll ask for that back. We'd much rather you told us you were unsure than found out later.
7. What we do with submissions
Every Kit is validated automatically and signed by us before the game will load it. We may refuse or remove any submission. If we refuse one, we'll tell you which rule and which asset, and you can appeal to a person.
We're under no obligation to integrate anything, to run a season, or to select any particular entry. Winning a community vote is not a promise of integration, and we say so on the Forge page too.
8. If you're under 18
You're welcome here. But you'll need a parent or guardian to agree to these terms with you before we can integrate your work into the game or pay you for it. Publishing a mod for other players to install doesn't need that step.
9. Your data
We record which version of these terms you accepted and when. Handling of personal data is covered by the Privacy Policy.
10. No warranty, and limits on liability
Forge tools and services are provided as they are. Mods are made by other players — we validate them for safety and fairness, not for quality, and installing one is your choice. Nothing here limits any liability that cannot lawfully be limited.
11. Ending things
You can stop using the Forge whenever you like, and remove your mods from distribution. We can suspend Forge access for breaking these terms or the Rulebook.
The permission in section 3 survives all of that, for anything already submitted. Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and this one continue to apply after you stop.
12. Changes to these terms
We'll version these terms and announce material changes. When a new version is published you'll be asked to read and accept it before submitting anything further. Your previous acceptances stay on record exactly as they were — we don't retroactively rewrite what you agreed to.
13. Getting in touch
Questions about any of this, or about a rejection, go to the Forge channels or to the studio directly. If something on this page doesn't make sense, that's a problem with the page and we'd like to hear about it.
Version draft-0. Working draft, not in force. Superseded on publication of the counsel-reviewed version.