Community Creator Agreement

Version 1.0 · Prepared October 29, 2026 · Docket E2-CC-001

The master agreement for everyone who builds with E2, The Studio, and Starvard. Project details live in a one-page Project Brief (Exhibit A) signed under this agreement.

The short version, in plain English

Your work is yours. Our characters and worlds are ours. When you build something with our property, under a signed brief, what you build for that project belongs to E2, and you get paid the amount the brief says, in full. Your own pre-existing creations (your characters, your games, your engine and tools) stay yours forever; when they are part of a joint project, you license them to E2 for that project, and E2 can never claim them beyond it. Ideas shared in the community are shared freely and create no claims on either side. Everyone gets credited, loudly. Sign first, then build: the paper protects you from us as much as it protects us from future misunderstandings.

The legal text below is the agreement. The plain English above is a summary only.

Agreement

This Community Creator Agreement ("Agreement") is between E2 / The Studio (DlaneyCreative), represented by Dave Dlaney ("E2"), and the undersigned creator ("Creator"). It takes effect on the date the Creator signs it ("Effective Date") and governs every project the Creator undertakes with E2 under a Project Brief referencing this Agreement.

1. Engagement

1.1 E2 engages the Creator as an independent contractor for creative and technical projects (each, a "Project"), described in one-page Project Briefs (Exhibit A). Briefs may be issued as attachments to this Agreement, or as signed documents referencing it. Each brief forms part of this Agreement.

1.2 Nothing here creates an employment, partnership, agency, or joint venture relationship. The Creator is responsible for their own taxes and compliance where they live.

1.3 No Project with E2 property begins before its brief is signed. Conversation, brainstorming, and feedback are always free and informal; production is what requires paper.

2. The four buckets of ownership

2.1 Creator Property. Characters, games, artwork, code, engines, tools, and other works the Creator made outside E2 Projects, or before them ("Creator Property"), remain the Creator's sole property. E2 acquires no ownership in Creator Property under this Agreement, ever.

2.2 E2 Property. E2's and The Studio's characters, names, worlds, artwork, music, and brands, whenever created ("E2 Property"), remain E2's sole property. Nothing in this Agreement or in any collaboration transfers any E2 Property to the Creator.

2.3 Work Product. Everything the Creator creates for an E2 Project under a signed brief (the "Work Product") is a work made for hire for E2 to the fullest extent permitted by law, including 17 U.S.C. § 101. To the extent any Work Product does not qualify, the Creator irrevocably assigns it to E2, worldwide, in perpetuity, with the right to sue for past infringement. Work Product includes drafts, source files, and intermediate versions created for the Project.

2.4 The shared middle is licensed, not transferred. Where Creator Property is used in a Project (including a game engine, physics or interaction code, tools, or a Creator character appearing by cameo), the Creator grants E2 a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use that Creator Property as part of the Project and its sequels, updates, ports, adaptations, and promotions, and to modify it for those purposes. The Creator will disclose, in the brief, any Creator Property carrying restrictions on use.

2.5 Mechanics are free. Game mechanics, systems, rules, and ideas are not owned by anyone. Building with similar physics, genre conventions, or systems creates no claim in either direction. The protected layers are code, art, story, characters, and names, and this Agreement governs those.

2.6 Moral rights; credit. To the extent permitted by law, the Creator waives moral rights in the Work Product. E2 will credit the Creator on public Project pages and in the Project's credits, using the credit line stated in the brief. Credit is recognition, not ownership, and its presence or absence does not change any ownership under this section.

3. Ideas and community submissions

3.1 E2's communities (including its Discord server) are open workshops. Ideas, suggestions, pitches, and works shared in community spaces are voluntary submissions. The Creator agrees that E2 may independently develop works that resemble community submissions, and that resemblance alone creates no claim of ownership, copying, or compensation.

3.2 The only collaborations E2 recognizes are those under a signed Project Brief. Feedback, encouragement, featuring, or a shout-out from E2 never creates a partnership, employment, or ownership interest in either direction.

3.3 If the Creator wants a specific idea protected, the route is a signed brief before development, not a community post.

4. Payment

4.1 E2 pays the fee stated in each brief, on the schedule stated there. Every payment under a brief, whether called a fee, bonus, or tip, is full and complete consideration for the work and the assignment in Section 2.3. No royalties, residuals, or revenue shares are owed for any Project unless a signed brief expressly says so.

4.2 If E2 cancels a Project after approving the first deliverable of a stage, E2 pays a kill fee of 50% of that stage's fee. Paid work is E2's under Section 2.3.

4.3 The Creator may show finished, public Project work in their portfolio, with a link to E2's official pages, and may not distribute playable builds, source files, or assets themselves without E2's written permission.

5. Originality and third-party materials

5.1 The Creator warrants that the Work Product is their original work, or that they hold every right needed to assign it under Section 2.3, and that Creator Property licensed under Section 2.4 is theirs to license.

5.2 The Creator will not include third-party assets (art, music, sound, fonts, code, or AI-generated assets) in any deliverable unless their licenses permit E2's full ownership and commercial use as contemplated here, and will identify any such assets and licenses on delivery.

5.3 The Creator will indemnify E2 against claims, damages, and costs arising from a breach of this section.

6. Confidentiality

Unreleased Projects, plans, and materials are confidential until E2 makes them public. The Creator will not disclose or post them early.

7. Term, disputes, and signatures

7.1 This Agreement continues until either side ends it in writing. Ending it stops future Projects only. Sections 2, 3, 5, and 6 survive for all work created or paid for under it.

7.2 Disagreements are resolved first by good-faith discussion, then mediation, before any lawsuit. This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Colorado, USA, and the Creator consents to the jurisdiction of its state and federal courts.

7.3 Electronic signatures are valid and binding under the U.S. ESIGN Act, the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, and equivalent laws where the Creator resides. This Agreement, with its briefs, is the entire agreement between the sides on these subjects; changes must be in writing and signed by both.