Developer docs
The Fenophone runtime license
Standard terms for embedding the engine in a game — free for jams with a credit, a one-time per-title license to ship. Read in three minutes.
Status: draft
DRAFT — pending counsel review. This document is the standard written agreement for embedding the Fenophone engine in another product. Until countersigned by the owner for a named title, it grants nothing — except the self-executing game-jam / evaluation tier in §5, which is granted by this document itself, without countersignature. Everything else exists so the offer, the price shape, and the obligations are on the record and reviewable. Contact: through the waitlist.
1. What this licenses
The Fenophone adaptive runtime: the compiled engine core (its C interface, or the Wasm build of the same core), embedded inside one named game or interactive product ("the Title"), plus the launch scaffold/voice packs it ships with. Nothing here licenses the source repository, the web product, or the DAW plugin (each has its own terms).
2. Grant (per Title, one-time — the own-it-forever shape)
On payment of the per-Title fee and countersignature, the licensee receives, for the Title:
- a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive right to embed and redistribute the runtime in compiled form only, inside the Title's builds on any platform the Title ships on;
- a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license for all audio the runtime generates inside the Title at play time, including commercial exploitation of the Title, gameplay videos, streams, and trailers — players and streamers of the Title are covered;
- the shipped packs' asset provenance and commercial-use clearance, which travel with the runtime;
- engine updates of the same major version, at the licensee's option (a pinned engine version reproduces its takes forever).
No royalties, no revenue share, no phone-home, no DRM — the runtime never gates the Title's players.
3. Conditions
- One agreement per Title. A sequel, a re-release on a new storefront under a new SKU, or an unrelated product is a new agreement (the per-title one-time shape, deliberately).
- Compiled form only. No source redistribution; no exposing the runtime as a general-purpose music tool or SDK to the Title's end users (that would be redistribution of the instrument, not a soundtrack).
- Credit. "Adaptive music by Fenophone" (or the counsel-approved wording) in the Title's credits and store description. For the free jam tier (below), the credit is the fee.
- No trademark license beyond the credit line; no implication of endorsement.
- Determinism honesty: if the Title advertises replay/seed features built on the engine's determinism, the claims must match the published determinism model — the event stream is bit-exact; rendered audio is tolerance-equal across engine versions only when pinned.
4. Fee shapes (working assumptions — validated before any public price)
- Per-Title indie license: a one-time fee, tiered by the Title's lifetime gross revenue (indicatively: free below a small-revenue floor for jam/prototype builds; a low hundreds figure for indie titles; individually negotiated above that). No recurring fees.
- Free for game jams: the self-executing evaluation tier in §5 — jam builds and free prototypes embed the runtime without payment and without countersignature; shipping commercially converts to the per-Title fee.
- Artist adaptive-soundtrack packs: licensed per pack alongside the runtime, same one-time shape.
5. Game-jam / evaluation tier (self-executing — no countersignature required)
As the one exception to this document's draft status, the owner grants the following license now, to anyone, by this document itself — no contact, no payment, no countersignature:
- Who/what: game-jam builds and free prototypes (builds distributed at no charge, with no paid tier, no in-app purchases, and no ad revenue) may embed and redistribute the runtime in compiled form, for evaluation and non-commercial distribution only, under the same conditions as §3 (compiled form only; no exposing the runtime as a general-purpose music tool or SDK; determinism honesty).
- Credit is the fee: the build must credit "Adaptive music by Fenophone" in its credits and, where a store or jam page exists, in its description.
- Automatic termination and conversion: this tier terminates automatically for a build the moment it is released commercially (any paid or revenue-bearing release). Commercial release requires the per-Title agreement above (§2–§4) — that is the conversion, not a penalty; nothing already shipped under this tier retroactively infringes, and audio generated at play time in jam/prototype builds remains covered by the §2 output-license shape.
- Revocable prospectively, never retroactively: the owner may close this tier to new builds by amending this document, but builds already shipped under it keep their grant.
6. Warranty & liability
The runtime is provided as is; liability is capped at the fee paid (counsel to confirm the enforceable form per jurisdiction). The licensee ships the Title; the owner ships the engine.
7. Wind-down
If the product winds down, already-countersigned runtime licenses survive unchanged (they are perpetual), and the owner's published wind-down guarantee commits to a final engine build the licensee may keep redistributing inside the Title.
Ready to build?
Jam and prototype builds can start today under §5 — and for SDK access or a commercial title, the waitlist is the door.