Terms of Service for Creators

We are pleased that you decided to become the Creator and to use our Services on the Website. It is very important for us that you read and understand the rules of our cooperation. We believe that transparency and clarity are the good basis of building a solid, long term relationship. That is why below we summarized the main rules from our Terms of Service for Creators (“TOSC”) based on which we will work together.

By using gamefound.com as a Creator, the User has to have an active personal account and agree to the Gamefound Terms of Service & TOSC. Accepting the TOSC and successful completion of the onboarding process means concluding the Agreement between the Gamefound & the User which enables the User to use the Service - functionalities intended for the Creator on the Website.
The TOSC are an integral part of the Terms of Service and apply to Services related to Creator. All capitalized words & definitions have the meaning given to them in the Gamefound Terms of Service, unless expressly stated otherwise in the TOSC. The Gamefound Terms of Service shall apply in these TOSC accordingly. In case of discrepancies between the Gamefound Terms of Service and the TOSC, the TOSC shall prevail.
In order to use Gamefound Services and become the Creator, Creator is required to undergo an onboarding process, which will require to provide additional information and send additional documents.
The Website was created exclusively to perform a function of pledge manager and crowdfunding platform for the Projects available on the Website. It is a tool that enables the Creator to organize crowdfunding Projects and support managing logistics after a crowdfunding Projects organized by the Creator through crowdfunding websites, e.g. shipping of the Rewards to the Backers.
Some of Gamefound's Services, particularly those related to crowdfunding, may be chargeable. The Creator acknowledges that, except Gamefound’s commission on raised funds, it will be also charged payment processing fees and potentially other fees.
Creator is fully liable for all the content that it posts on the Website related to the Project. Gamefound is not a party to the agreement between Creator and the Backer. The Creator is fully and solely responsible for the particular Project as its Creator. The Creator is exclusively liable for physical & legal defects in the Rewards.
The intellectual property is a core of every Creator’s activity but is also essential for Services provided by us. Please respect our and other Creators’ intellectual property rights. In order to provide the Services, for the duration of the Agreement, the Creator grants Gamefound a non-exclusive license to the material Creator is publishing on the Website.

The above is a summary of the document. Read it in full below:

Contents:

The scope of the Services
The Crowdfunding
The Pledge
Fees
Deleting the account or the Project
Liability
Intellectual property
Final provisions

1. THE SCOPE OF SERVICES

1.1 General provisions

By using gamefound.com as a Creator, the User has to have an active personal account and agree to the Gamefound Terms of Service & TOSC. Accepting the TOSC and successful completion of the onboarding process means concluding the Agreement between the Gamefound & the User which enables the User to use the Service - functionalities intended for the Creator on the Website.

Gamefound provides Services to the Creators in the scope and on the conditions set out in the TOSC. These Services include:

to organize and manage crowdfunding Projects and on the Website;
to compose the information about the Project and its Rewards visible to the Backers;
to define payment methods, among those provided by Gamefound, visible to the Backers when placing an order in the Project; Gamefound is providing the Creator a technical possibility to implement the payment forms within the Project and also, in relation to the crowdfunding Projects on the Website,
to define rules for calculating delivery costs and delivery methods of orders placed by the Backers in the Project;
to manage the Project in particular by inviting other members of staff or collaborators of the Creator to co-manage the Project, including assigning them appropriate roles and responsibilities for the management of the Project and Rewards;
to gather information about the Rewards chosen by the Backers and orders placed in the Project by the Backers;
to manage the Pledges within the Creator’s Project;
to make available to the Creator the tools to collect the funds from the Backers (only if the Creator wishes to use such Services);
to create referral links;
to assist Creator in resolution of potential disputes with the Backer;
to accommodate infrastructure for communication and refund process in the Project;

Terms and conditions regarding the Projects are set out by the Creators only and shall be available for the Backers at all times until the end of the Project and delivery of the Reward. The Backers who support the Project, whether it is done as part of the crowdfunding or the Pledge management Project, are accepting the Creator’s terms and conditions concerning the Project, and conclude an agreement with the Creator. Gamefound is not a party of such agreement (the agreement is concluded between the Creator and the Backer). The parties to the agreement are responsible to each other for the performance of their obligations and the fulfillment of the claims arising therefrom, in particular for the provision of support and the ability to fulfill the contracted obligations or to properly use the received support. Gamefound and his payment processing partner do not supervise the proper performance and timeliness of the contractual obligations and are not liable for this.

The Creator acknowledges and accepts that if it intends to organize crowdfunding Projects on the Website, it will also be obliged to use and complete pledge manager for this Project (pledge manager Service as a part of crowdfunding Project). Gamefund does not provide the Services to organize exclusively crowdfunding Projects on the Website.

1.2 Content policy - restrictions on the use of the Website

The Creators are entitled to use the Services in a manner consistent with applicable laws of the Republic of Poland, social coexistence and respecting Gamefound content policy. The Creator undertakes not to provide unlawful content, including unlawful Rewards and content that may adversely affect the security of the Website or harm the Backers or other Creators. Furthermore, the list of prohibited content includes:

Fake/counterfeit goods or goods otherwise infringing third-parties’ IP rights;
Sexual or abusive content;
Drugs and related products;
Weapons, explosives, ammunition;
Content encouraging to use real money for gambling;
Charities;
Medical products or services;
Financial products or services;
Alcohol and tobacco products;
Illegal products or services;
Pyramid schemes related products or services;
Prohibited content included in the list published by payment processing partner (see https://www.adyen.com/legal/list-restricted-prohibited);
Content that is considered offensive or harmful, including but not limited to one of the following: o Mean–spirited content that is supposed to humiliate, intimidate or harm a target group or individuals;
Content targeting groups based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethic origin or similar personal characteristics;
Content encouraging or promoting real-life violence or hatred;
Content that encourages or promotes illegal activities;
Pornographic content;
Content encouraging or promoting radical ideologies;
Content encouraging or promoting gambling (or any within-campaign gambling mechanism);
Content that would be rated “for 18+ audiences” under comparable content policy and rating regimes as are widely recognized and used within the European Union;
Content encouraging, promoting or displaying violence, brutality or hatred in an overly aggressive way.

As an additional guideline for what is accepted or not on Gamefound, Gamefound is applying a similar standard as is defined for a rating by ESRB Mature 17+ as a limit to what is acceptable content.

Gamefound expressly reserves the right to adapt and interpret this content policy as Gamefound is deemed necessary to protect the integrity of the Services, brand and Gamefound company values as Gamefound understands them.

By using the Website, the Creator undertakes in particular to:

refrain from any actions that may impede or disrupt the functioning of the Website, actions consisting in particular in destroying, changing, removing, damaging, obstructing access to accounts of other Creators or the Backers;
comply with copyrights and rights arising from the registration of inventions, patents, trademarks, utility and industrial designs of Gamefound, other Creators, Backers and other entities, unless the Creator has the permission from the rightful owner or is otherwise legally entitled to use this content (and is able to effectively grant Gamefound the license rights);
refrain from any actions that would violate the privacy of any other Website user, primarily consisting in collecting, processing and disseminating information about other users, without their express consent, except when these activities are in accordance with the law and the provisions of Terms of Service, TOSC and Privacy Policy;
refrain from distributing unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or commercial information;
refrain from posting false, misleading or inaccurate information, offering the Rewards that are illegal, violating any of Gamefound’s policies or any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation;
refrain from posting on the Website data containing bank account numbers or account designations or other similar websites, as well as links referring directly or indirectly to websites, where the bank account number or account designation or other similar services is provided. In the event of a breach of the prohibition referred to in the preceding sentence, the prohibited data will be removed by Gamefound;
refrain from conducting public collections within the meaning of the applicable law in particular the charity.
In the event that the Creator violates any of the Terms of Service & TOSC provisions, Gamefound is entitled to immediately suspend or delete the Project or even suspend or delete the Creator's account.

1.3 Editing or modifying a Project

Whether it concerns crowdfunding Service or pledge manager Service, as the status of the Project changes, some of its elements may no longer be changeable. The Creator acknowledges that:

before publishing the draft of the Project - it cannot change the link to its Project page;
after publishing the draft of the Project - it cannot change the Project URL and visibility;
after starting the crowdfunding Project - it cannot change the funding goal and Rewards prices (once they have been pledged for by at least one Backer);
after successful crowdfunding Project, but before the pledge manager - it cannot change the detailed description of the crowdfunding Project and all Rewards (in particular description, option and prices of the addons and elements of Rewards);

For more information you can read the guide for Creators here.

2. THE CROWDFUNDING

2.1 Onboarding

Before it is allowed to launch the Project, Gamefound and/or its payment processing partner, shall endeavor to verify the Creator’s data, its business model, its owners as well as the person representing the Creator in contacts with Gamefound. In order to allow Gamefound to complete this procedure, Creator may need to upload the following documents:

Articles of association or extract from public commercial registry containing at least: i) legal name of the Creator, ii) headquarter address details, iii) list of shareholders with ownership stake;
If the Creator is represented by the person other than legal representative - power of attorney or other document confirming that such person is authorized to sign Agreement and represent the Creator in contacts with the Gamefound and payment partner,
The Creator bank details, containing: i) account holder name, ii) account number, iii) name of the Creator bank and iv) account currency,
Proof of identity for i) all the shareholders that individually hold 25% or more of the shares or voting rights and ii) the person signing the Agreement. The document needs to comply with following requirements: must be a Passport (copy of the data page with picture, details and machine-readable zone clearly visible) or National ID card (copy of both the front and back and save them to separate files, cropped, without white background),
The uploaded document must: i) not be expired, ii) be in JPG, JPEG, PNG, or PDF format, iii) have size between 100KB (1KB for PDF) and 4MB, iv) be a full color, cropped, and straightened image,
Neither Gamefound, nor the payment partner can accept uploaded documents that are: i) broken or damaged, ii) dirty, illegible, or with a watermark, iii) blurry or overexposed, iv) black and white, v) multiple sides or documents in the same file, vi) uncropped, or with a background, vii) angled, rotated, sideways, or upside down, viii) overcropped or cut off.

All of the documents indicated above may need to be presented in English or Polish. Gamefound may require Creator to provide it with sworn translations of the documents if the originals are in any other language.

In order to comply with tax regulations in some jurisdictions, Gamefound may require the Creator to provide it with information or plan on the Rewards shipping, including description of the Rewards path from manufacturing site to the Backers. This may include the details of countries of importation, domicile of logistics hubs that Creator is partnering with or any other information that may be required to properly account for taxes for some of the Project. Creator undertakes to provide accurate information, as well as to update Gamefound on any changes after the information has been provided.

By providing the documents indicated above the Creator is aware and accepts the Gamefound right to share them with the Gamefound payment partner. To start the Project the Creator is also obliged to undergo the Gamefound payment partner’s onboarding procedure, during which it may be required to provide various types of data to verify Creator identity. The onboarding procedure is based on the rules specified individually by the Gamefound payment partner and made available to the Creator, in particular it will be necessary to accept payment partner’s terms & conditions. On the date of this TOSC came into force the Gamefound payment partner is Adyen: https://adyen.com/. If the verification fails, Gamefound will refuse to start the Project on the Website.

Regardless of obtaining positive verification from the Gamefound payment partner, Gamefound may refuse to start the Creator Project on the Website if the Creator's risk assessment is negative. Gamefund risk assessment is based in particular on Creators past experience and exposure to the Backers resulting from not-yet-delivered Rewards.

2.2 Submitting the first Project

After the onboarding procedure, the Creator may submit the Project. In order to start the first Project, depending on the type of a specific Project, the Creator is obliged to provide at least the following information:

the Creator name and contact details (at least e-mail address, phone number & post address);
the Creator headquarter, which cannot be located in one of the countries included on the prohibited list,
detailed description of the Project;
crowdfunding Project financial goal;
the end date of crowdfunding Project on the Website;
currencies and payment type (among those provided by Gamefound & payment partner);
products available within its Rewards;
term of Project fulfillment;
track record of Creator;
risks & challenges of the Project;
the Project refund & cancelation policy.

The Creator may not use the Website to implement the Project or to facilitate the payment for products or services sold by third parties. The Creator shall only use the Website in the pursuit of implementing its own Project.

Gamefound shall inform the Creator, via e-mail address provided during setting up the personal account, about accepting or refusing the acceptance of the Project. The Project starts with the moment of the receipt of the acceptance or later – if the Creator has set a different start date.

2.3 Submitting the next Project

The submission of another Project may require the completion of all or some of the information indicated under point 2.2 of TOSC. Gamefound reserves the right to update the Creator's data from time to time or to request additional information regarding the Project.

2.4 Collection of the Funds from the Backers

Gamefound and its payment partner makes available to the Creator the tools to collect the funds from the Backers to support the specific Project during the crowdfunding Projects. The payment procedure is based on the rules specified individually by the Gamefound payment partner made available here. The Backers are charged only if the Creator achieves the financial goal.

Gamefund does not guarantee that the amount pledged by the Backer on the Project will be collected. This means that until the Creator actually receives the amounts pledged by the Backer, these amounts are only a prediction of the Pledge. Some Pledges cannot be collected (whole or in part) for objective reasons, for example when the Backer’s credit card expires before funding ends, and it does not provide updated information and/or due to our partners fee.

Payment of the funds to the Creator will take place within 30 days from the end date of the crowdfunding Projects, to the bank account set out by the Creator during the onboarding procedure in the currency set out by the Gamefound payment partner.

In exceptional circumstances, in particular due to the fraud or identifying a suspicious transaction, Gamefound may request a refund, at the cost of Creator, of some of the collected funds to the Backers during or after closing the crowdfunding Project. In such cases the Creator is obliged, in cooperation with Gamefound, to take all necessary measures to remedy the situation including the provision of relevant information and documents or undertakes to cover all the refunds and potential costs related to such an event (including but not limited to chargebacks).

2.5 Cancellation of the crowdfunding Project

The Creator has a right to cancel the crowdfunding Project at any time, before the date of ending of the crowdfunding Project on the Website. In such an event Gamefound immediately cancels the Backer’s credit card reservation. The Creator acknowledges and agrees that the change of the end data of the crowdfunding Project may take place only in exceptional cases and may require to provide the additional information or documents to Gamefound.

2.6 Late Pledge

If the crowdfunding Project was successful and the Creator allows Backers to do so then, without time limits, stretch goals and other crowdfunding Project elements, the Backers may back the Project and make a Pledge. In this case, the Backer's payment status will be the same as it was during the crowdfunding Project and as soon as the Project moves to the next phase - pledge management of the Project the Backer have to be asked to complete the necessary shipping and tax information.

3. THE PLEDGE

3.1 General provisions

The Creator can choose the option of a pledge manager Service: (a) pledge manager as a part of crowdfunding Project, (b) pledge manager for external platforms. If the Service of the pledge manager for external platforms option is selected by the Creator, some of the functionalities may not be available or may be limited.

In case of Pledge manager as a part of crowdfunding Project and paid Pledge manager Creator uses the Gamefound and its payment partner tools to collect the funds from the Backers. In case of free Pledge manager Gamefound enables the Creator to use its payment partners, i.e. PayPal and Stripe.

Responsibility for all matters related to shipping or delivery, as well as the final delivery of the Reward stays between the Creator and Backer.

3.2 Free Pledge Manager

In the event that the Creator wishes to use the Services, it is necessary to go through the onboarding procedure in accordance with point 2.1. of TOSC, subject to the Creator not going through the onboarding process and the accreditation of the Gamefound payment partner.

After the onboarding procedure, the Creator may submit the Project. The provisions of point 2.2.Submitting the Project shall apply accordingly, with the provision that the Creator does not have to specify the crowdfunding Project financial goal and the end date of crowdfunding Project on the Website.

If the Service of the pledge manager for external platforms option is selected by the Creator, the Service covering managing Pledges (changing rewards, collecting shipping address, late pledges, etc.) is free for the Creator.

Payment processing fee depends only on the Creator individual agreement with its payment partner. Gamefund does not engage and does not bear any responsibility in the processing of such payments or their settlement.

The condition for the Creator to use free Pledge manager option is:

to include on the external crowdfunding project page a text with a link to the Website with the description: "Pledge manager for this project will be handled on Gamefound.com, the home of board game crowdfunding";
to publish on Creator's social media that the pledge manager will use Gamefound’s Service;
to send one copy of the game to Gamefound's address.

3.3 Paid Pledge Manager

In the event that the Creator wishes to use the Services, it is necessary to go through the onboarding procedure in accordance with point 2.1.Obarding of the TOSC.

If the Service of the paid pledge manager is selected by the Creator, Gamefound and its payment partner makes available to the Creator the tools to collect the funds from the Backers during the Pledge management Project. The payment procedure is based on the rules specified individually by the Gamefound payment partner made available here.

Gamefound does not guarantee that the amount pledged by the Backer on the Project will be collected. Some Pledges cannot be collected (whole or in part) for objective reasons, for example when the Backer’s credit card expires before funding ends, and it does not provide updated information and/or due to our partners fee.

4. FEES

The Creator pays the fees for using some of the Services on the Website related to the management of the Project. The Creator will be informed about such fees at the beginning of the Project preparation. Up-to-date information can be found here. Gamefound charges the Creators with a fee of the final value of collected funds, during the crowdfunding Projects on the Website, on successfully funded Projects.

The Creator acknowledges that, except Gamefound’s commission on raised funds, it will be also charged payment processing fee.

Gamefound and its payment partners will deduct all the fees before transmitting the funds collected to the Creator. Gamefound fees and payment processing costs are non-refundable. The Creator is responsible for paying any additional fees or taxes associated with its use of the Website. Creator agrees to receive invoices electronically.

In the event of the circumstances excluding the possibility of transmitting the funds collected to the Creator (e.g. in the event of the Creator's bankruptcy or death), Gamefound shall not make any transfers until the decisions or judgments of competent authorities presented to Gamefound are verified, which will result in the possibility of transmitting funds to the Creator or a third party.

If the Creator doesn’t achieve the financial goal during the crowdfunding Project there are no fees on the Creator’s side.

The Creator is fully and only responsible for paying any additional fees or taxes associated with its use of Gamefound.

5. DELETING THE ACCOUNT OR THE PROJECT

The Creator is entitled to delete its account or Project at any time through the account settings. In this case all of the Gamefound’s rights regarding any content submitted to the Website by the Creator survive such termination as well as all the Agreement provisions remaining in force due to Terms of Service, TOSC and / or generally applicable Polish law provisions. In case of deleting the account or the Project, before the crowdfunding Project end date, Gamefound immediately cancels the reservation of the charge on the Backer’s card.

If the Creator decides to delete its account or Project before the crowdfunding Project end date or after its end but during the use of the Pledge manager, Gamefound reserves the right to store the data of the Creator and the Project on the Website or to communicate this data to the Backers in order to enable them to receive the Reward from the Creator. In this case, Gamefound may archive the Project page and leave the track record of the Project publicly visible.

6. LIABILITY

Creator is fully liable for all the content that it posts on the Website related to the Project. Gamefound is legally not liable for such content, however, Gamefound will promptly react to any attempts of posting illegal content, fraud, misleading or posting any other content that may harm third-party interests that it becomes aware of. In such cases Gamefound will take actions aimed at preventing the Backers’ interests and Gamefound’s reputation to be damaged. In such a case Gamefound reserves the right to suspend or cancel the Project, if its implementation would violate the provisions of Terms of Service, TOSC or any other legal provisions.

Terms and conditions regarding the liability and warranty for any defects in the Reward are set out by all the Creators independently. In the event the Project is successfully funded by the Backers, the Creator must implement the Project and fulfill each Reward by its estimated delivery date. The Creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the obligations made in its Project. If the Creator is unable to satisfy the terms and conditions of the agreement with the Backer, the Creator may be subject to legal action by the Backers. Each Creator publishes and is bound by its own refund and cancellation policy.

Gamefound is not responsible for the proper settlement and discharge of tax liabilities by the Creator. The Services provided by Gamefound are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended as a substitute for legal or tax advice for the Creator. Creators using Gamefound's Service do so entirely at its own risk. The Creator is obliged to calculate and pay all public and legal receivables required by law.

Gamefound may require the Creator to provide security for potential refund or chargeback liabilities. The security can be provided in a form of enabling Gamefound to charge credit card of the Creator, cash or other form requested by Gamefound.

7. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

By using Services provided by Gamefound, the Creator grants Gamefound the worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensable, transferable right to unfettered and unlimited use, exercise, commercialize, and exploit the copyright, publicity, trademark, and database rights in the widest possible scope allowing to properly and effectively perform our Services, in particular in the followings fields of exploitation:

reproducing the Project and the Reward to the extent that it is necessary for display, use and ordinary use of the Website on all devices, including personal computers, mobile phones, tablets etc.;
disseminating the Project, the Reward and its elements by using the Website;
disseminating Project’s and Reward’s derivative works and/or derivative works of each of its elements by using the Website;
use, reproduction and dissemination of the information about the Project published by the Creator to the public, especially on its social media, web pages and other means of mass communication, on the Website and other media, in particular Gamefound social media to inform about the Project.

Moreover, Gamefound is entitled to use information about the Project, the Reward and about the Creator for the commercial purposes, without any limitations, in the full scope of its business activities and even after the termination of providing the Services, for the next 5 years. Gamefound is entitled to publish above mentioned information on the Website for advertising purposes.

8. FINAL PROVISIONS

The TOSC is an integral part of the Terms of Service and apply to Services related to Creator. All capitalized words & definitions have the meaning given to them in the Gamefound Terms of Service, unless expressly stated otherwise in the TOSC. The Gamefound Terms of Service shall apply in these TOSC accordingly. In case of discrepancies between the Gamefound Terms of Service and the TOSC, the TOSC shall prevail.

The current version of the Terms of Service is always available to the Creator at the Website (https://gamefound.com/terms/creators).