Artist terms

1. Scope

These terms apply between PuzzleWithFriends (provider as stated in the legal notice, “we”) and you as an artist for all works you submit in the studio. You can become an artist from the age of 18. Works with a price are also covered by the artist royalty agreement (Earn money in the studio).

2. Licence

Your works stay yours. For every work we approve, you grant us a simple, worldwide, royalty-free right to offer it as a digital puzzle for free or code-only. This includes the right:

a) to store the work and show it on the internet and in apps;

b) to adapt it for the game: crop, scale down, cut into pieces, and create previews and link cards from it;

c) to provide it to players for puzzling, alone and together, and for works you offer for free or give away with codes, for download for private use, as long as you allow the download for the work;

d) to allow players to stream and record their puzzling and publish it as a video or screenshot, including for income;

e) to use the work, your artist name and your artist shop for promotion of the work, of you and of PuzzleWithFriends, including paid advertising;

f) to involve service providers (hosting, storage, delivery).

3. What is not included

We do not use your works to train AI and do not pass them on for that. Printed puzzles, merchandise and sales outside PuzzleWithFriends need a separate agreement; selling for a price is covered by the royalty agreement.

We credit you with your artist name at the work; in small views (tiles, previews, ad formats) the credit may be left out if it can be reached from the work.

You receive no money for free and code-only works, and none of this costs you anything.

4. Your own work and permitted image editing

You only upload works you painted, drew or photographed yourself and hold all rights to. For photos, recognisable people have consented where required. Colour grading, filters, exposure adjustments, denoising, sharpening and retouching your own photographs are allowed, including with AI. This includes removing people or distracting objects and filling the resulting gaps. Your own photograph and its essential subject must remain intact. Fully AI-generated works, new AI-generated main subjects, largely generated or replaced image content, and AI repainting of a work are not allowed. On request, you show proof within 7 days (sketches, layers, RAW files, licences).

5. Other people’s characters and brands

Characters, worlds, logos and brands from other people’s works are not allowed, not even as fan art, homage or in your own style (e.g. characters from games, films, series, books, comics or anime). This also applies to free works and code-only works. Exception: you hold a licence from the rights holder and show it to us.

Brand names don’t belong in titles, descriptions or tags. If brands, logos or products can be seen in a photo (e.g. a car), they must not be the focus; ideally, retouch prominent logos.

Photograph vehicles, buildings and interiors from public ground or with permission. At trade fairs, in museums or on company premises, house rules may prohibit commercial photos.

6. Review and placement

A person on our team reviews every work before it goes into the shop. Rejected works come with a reason, and you can appeal. We review in our own interest: the review does not relieve you of responsibility for your works. Whether, how long and where a work appears in the shop and how it is sorted is up to us; the ranking criteria are described in the help pages.

7. Taking works down

You can take works out of the shop at any time. Anyone who already has a puzzle (claimed or via a code) keeps it permanently and may keep using it under section 2; we keep storing the work for that. We do not have to remove promotion already published.

8. Someone else’s work: you are liable

If you upload a work that is not yours or that you lack the necessary rights to, you indemnify PuzzleWithFriends against all third-party claims and compensate us for all resulting damage: damages and licence fees paid to the rights holder, reasonable lawyer and court costs, refunds to players and the effort of removal. This only does not apply if you prove that you are not responsible for the breach.

If you learn of claims against a work, you tell us immediately and support us with everything you have on it.

If a rights holder asserts claims, we may give them your artist name, your verified account and, where legally permitted, other details we have about you, so they can contact you directly.

9. Violations

If the rules are broken (someone else’s work, fan art, breaches of the AI rules, content that isn’t allowed), we take works offline immediately, may review all your works again and can pause or suspend the artist account. We always tell you why.

10. Our liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence and for injury to life, body or health. In case of slight negligence, we are only liable for breach of an essential obligation and only for typical, foreseeable damage. We do not owe any particular placement, reach or uninterrupted availability.

11. Ending and changes

You can stop at any time. We can end the cooperation with 30 days’ notice, or immediately in case of violations; we tell you why. What players already have stays with them (section 7), and your liability under section 8 continues.

If we change these terms, we announce it at least 30 days in advance by email and in the studio. Changes that do not put you at a disadvantage then also apply to your existing works; anything else only with your consent. Works you submit afterwards are covered by the version you accept when submitting.

12. Law

German law applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer living in another EU country, you keep the protection of the mandatory rules there. If you are a merchant or have no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the place of jurisdiction is PuzzleWithFriends’ registered location. The German version is binding.