Terms of Service

demoown is a marketplace for unfinished games. A creator (the "Seller") lists a short playable demo. A buyer (the "Buyer") who wants to finish that game buys the project outright and becomes its owner.

demoown is operated by an individual in the United States. Where these terms say "we" or "us", they mean the operator of demoown.

We are the merchant of record for every sale. You pay us, and we pay the Seller. We are a party to the transaction, not merely an introduction service.

You must verify your email address before your account becomes usable. You are responsible for everything done through your account and for keeping your password secure.

Usernames may not impersonate staff or the platform, and may not contain slurs or hate speech. We may reclaim any username.

You must be old enough to enter a binding contract where you live. If you are under 18, do not use demoown.

Every listing is reviewed by a person before it goes live. We may reject or remove any listing at our discretion.

A listing must be a playable demo of a real game you made. Demos are typically five to ten minutes of gameplay. Projects assembled mainly from purchased or downloaded asset packs — commonly called asset flips — are not permitted and will be rejected.

You set your own price. The minimum listing price is $20.

By listing a demo, you represent and warrant that:

• You created the game, and you own everything in it or otherwise have the right to sell it and transfer it to a Buyer.
• Anything included that you did not create yourself may lawfully be transferred to the Buyer, and you have disclosed on the listing anything that cannot be.
• The demo does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark or other rights, and contains no malware.
• You have not already sold, assigned or exclusively licensed the game to anyone else.

Many third-party assets cannot legally be resold. Asset store packs, most fonts, and licensed music are commonly tied to your account alone. Check before you list.

If you sell something that was not yours to sell. If a rights holder contacts us about your listing, or we otherwise find that you breached the promises above, then:

• We remove the listing and may suspend or terminate your account.
• If it already sold, you repay the full sale price so the Buyer can be refunded, including the part we already paid you.
• You pay an administrative fee of $250 to cover the cost of investigating and handling the claim. You agree this is a reasonable estimate of that cost, which would otherwise be difficult to calculate.
• You remain responsible under section 14 for any further loss, including legal costs and anything we or the Buyer must pay the rights holder.

We may withhold any money owed to you and set it against these amounts.

Each demo is sold once. When a demo sells, the listing closes and it cannot be sold again.

Assignment. On completion of a sale, the Seller irrevocably assigns and transfers to the Buyer all right, title and interest worldwide in and to the demo and everything delivered with it, including all copyright and all rights to reproduce, modify, publish, distribute and sell it, and to register copyright in the Buyer's own name. This assignment takes effect the moment the sale completes.

Further assurances. The Seller agrees to sign any further document the Buyer reasonably requests in order to record or perfect this assignment, and will do so promptly and without additional payment.

The Seller stops using it. After a sale the Seller must stop using, distributing or displaying the game, and must remove any existing listings or releases of it elsewhere within a reasonable period. The Buyer, as the new owner, may enforce the copyright against anyone, including the Seller.

The Seller may continue to use general skills, knowledge and techniques learned while making the game, and any separate tools or code libraries they wrote that were not specific to it, provided those were disclosed on the listing.

We charge a commission of 10% of the sale price. It is deducted before payout, so a Seller receives the sale price less 10%.

Funds are held for 24 hours after a sale. After that period, and provided no refund has been issued, we pay the Seller.

Prices are in US dollars. You are responsible for your own income taxes on money you receive.

A Buyer may request a refund within 24 hours of purchase, but only if they have not accessed the project files.

Once you access the project files, the sale is final and no refund is available. At that point you already have everything you paid for, and it cannot be returned. Play the demo carefully before buying — that is what it is there for.

If it turns out a Seller did not have the right to sell what they sold, contact us. We may refund the Buyer and recover the amount from the Seller, at our discretion.

Buyers in the EU and UK. Where you have a statutory right to cancel a purchase of digital content, you expressly request immediate delivery and acknowledge that you lose that right once delivery begins. You confirm this at checkout.

Listings may carry a size rating of simple, moderate or complex. These are assigned by us, not by Sellers, and are an opinion given in good faith to help Buyers judge how much work a project represents. They are not a guarantee, a valuation, or a promise about quality or completeness.

• Sell anything you do not have the right to sell
• List asset flips or projects you did not substantially make
• Sell the same project to more than one Buyer
• Keep using a game after you have sold it
• Upload malware, or files that are not what you say they are
• Take payment outside demoown to avoid our commission, having used the platform to find the other party
• Create accounts to manipulate listings or evade a ban

We may remove listings, refuse sales, suspend payouts, or terminate accounts that break these terms. Where a breach appears to be an honest mistake we will normally ask you to fix it first. Deliberate breaches, and repeat breaches, result in termination.

You may close your account at any time. Sales already completed cannot be undone, and the transfer of ownership survives your account closing.

If you believe something on demoown infringes your copyright, contact us at support@demoown.com with a description of the work, where it appears on demoown, your contact details, and a statement that you believe in good faith the use is unauthorised. We remove infringing material and terminate repeat infringers.

Where we have verified a claim, we may at our sole discretion offer a payment in settlement in addition to removing the material. Where we make such an offer it will be at least $100. Whether to make an offer at all is decided case by case, an offer is made without admission of liability, and it does not create an entitlement for any other claim. Amounts paid this way are recovered from the Seller under section 4.

demoown is provided as is. We do not guarantee that any demo is fit for any purpose, that a project can be finished, that it is free of defects, or that it will sell.

Reviewing listings does not make us a guarantor of them. We check what is reasonable to check; we cannot verify every asset in every project.

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim relating to demoown is limited to the amount you paid or received through demoown in the twelve months before the claim.

We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including lost profits or lost opportunity, or for disputes between a Buyer and a Seller beyond our role as merchant of record.

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

If you list a demo, you agree to defend and indemnify us and the Buyer against any claim arising from your listing, including claims that you did not own what you sold. This survives the closing of your account.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without regard to conflict of law rules. Disputes will be brought in the state or federal courts located in Florida, and you consent to that jurisdiction.

We may update these terms. Where a change is significant we will give notice on the site. Continuing to use demoown after a change means you accept it. Sales already completed are governed by the terms in force at the time of the sale.

Questions about these terms: support@demoown.com