IP Guidelines

Purpose of this document

We really love the DDLC fan community and are invested in helping it continue to thrive. The purpose of this document is to be transparent about our own values. That way, when creators publish DDLC fan work, they can be sure they're not stepping on our toes in any way, and have confidence that we feel supportive of their contributions.

There are some cases where we need to protect ourselves and our brand. For example, it can hurt us when others profit from stealing our content, or when something unofficial is misattributed to us.

These guidelines aim to help you understand our boundaries, so that you can feel more secure in your creative freedom.

Disclaimer

This is not a legal document or a permission document; it does not grant you a license to re-use or distribute any Intellectual Property owned by Team Salvato. Team Salvato reserves the right to take action against any copyright or trademark infringement as we find necessary.

In this document, we are trying to share our feelings and concerns in a broad scope. However, there are individual cases where we may choose to take action in a way that is not implied by these guidelines.

The contents of this document may change at any time without notice.

Fan work (general)

• Fan content of any kind must be obvious that it's fan content and not endorsed by Team Salvato. It must also be obvious that you are not affiliated with and do not represent Team Salvato.
• Content creators: If you prominently use DDLC as part of your creator branding (like in logos, banners, avatars, VTuber models, etc.), it should indicate that you identify primarily as a DDLC community content creator, and that followers can expect DDLC-related content from you. If your content is not DDLC-focused, it would be unfair to use DDLC imagery to strengthen your unrelated personal brand.

Selling merchandise

Also see Making money from your work.

• Independent artists are welcome to sell their fan work in-person at their own convention booths.
• Independent artists may also sell physical merchandise online, as long as they run their own store (e.g. Etsy, Shopify) and coordinate the logistics for manufacturing and shipping.
• Artists may not sell merchandise by handing over the artwork to some other company who sells it on their behalf. For example, dropship websites such as Redbubble are not permitted.
• Artists may not sell merchandise containing edited versions of official assets—the work must be fully original.

Educational use

• You are welcome to use DDLC assets as reference materials in academic papers, essays, studies, or other works where the main purpose is for use in education or academia.

Including official DDLC assets in your fan work

"Official DDLC assets" includes DDLC game assets, as well as all DDLC artwork, physical/digital goods, and other materials made or licensed by Team Salvato.

For music covers and remixes, see Publishing music.

• Any fan work that includes official DDLC or DDLC Plus assets may not be sold under any circumstances, online or offline.
• For free online media content (e.g. YouTube videos), you can enable the monetization options on the platform you're hosting on, as long as your content is part of a greater transformative work. For example, livestreams and videos of commentated DDLC playthroughs can have monetization enabled, as well as video essays. In general, if you're monetizing, your content should be unique and include DDLC assets in a fair-use capacity.

Fangames and mods

The point of DDLC fangames is to give DDLC players some great fan-made content to enjoy after they've already experienced the original game.

"Fangames" refers to DDLC mods (works that patch the original game) as well as standalone DDLC fangames.

• You cannot bundle your fangame with official DDLC assets, like artwork and music. To use official DDLC content in your fangame, it must be sourced from the player's own local installation of DDLC. Your fangame cannot download DDLC on behalf of the player—they should already have it downloaded/installed.
• If your fangame requires assets from DDLC Plus, make it clear to the player that they must also own DDLC Plus in order to play your fangame. The above restrictions also apply to DDLC Plus content; it must be sourced from the player's local installation.
• Some background artwork from the DDLC Plus Side Stories may be included in your fangame, without the need for the player to own a copy of DDLC Plus. These include: The morning clubroom, the music room, and the stairwell. You can source these by extracting the assets from your own copy of DDLC Plus.
• Fangames must state upon first run that it is a fangame unaffiliated with the official Doki Doki Literature Club. They must advise that the original game should be completed before playing, as well as provide a link to the official website where it can be downloaded (https://ddlc.moe).
• Fangames must always be made available for free. They cannot be sold (or monetized) in any capacity.
• Creators are welcome to accept donations and other paid support for their freely-released fan work. However, fangames may not include any donation link in the game itself, or encourage the player to donate, make purchases, or subscribe to a paid platform from within the game. Only include donation information on the pages that host the game, not in the game itself.
• Do not encourage players to play your fangame before DDLC, or instead of DDLC. It goes against the spirit of fangame communities, which is to give more to those who have already enjoyed the original work.
• Do not allow your fangame to confuse any player into thinking that it might be official or affiliated with official content. It should not be mistaken as any kind of official DDLC guide, add-on, spin-off, or ARG. Fangames should also not be mistaken for DDLC itself.

Publishing your fangame/mod to itch.io or other app stores

These guidelines apply specifically if you intend to publish your fangame to a centralized game download platform (e.g. itch.io).

These guidelines help achieve two important things. We'd like for DDLC fangames to be easily discoverable on such platforms while remaining distinct from the original game. But also, we want to make sure that on these platforms, all fangames are equally discoverable regardless of their title and other metadata.

For existing self-hosted fangames: These guidelines are applicable only to the game's page as it appears on centralized platforms, if you wish to publish to them. We aren't requiring changes to self-hosted pages.

• You may publish your DDLC fangame on centralized platforms that are strictly PC-only (e.g. itch.io, GameJolt, Steam)—no mobile platforms.
• You must include the phrase "DDLC Fangame" at the beginning or end of the game title (as it appears on the platform). For example: "Game Title (DDLC Fangame)" or "[DDLC Fangame] Game Title".
• The logo used to represent your game on the platform must be original, and not an edit or recreation of the DDLC logo.
• The title used to represent your game on the platform must not include the phrase "Doki Doki". The reason is that it leads to unfairness in discoverability. Including "Doki Doki" in the title would disproportionately leverage the algorithm to capture searches for the original game (Doki Doki Literature Club), and that's unfair to everyone else. Meanwhile, including "DDLC Fangame" in the title guarantees discoverability of your game for anyone who wants to find DDLC fangames.
• Except for the screenshots section, your fangame's page and assets (banners, hero art, thumbnails, logo, etc.) must not include any official DDLC artwork, including edited versions. They should only contain original content.
• The fangame can be distributed as "pay what you want", as long as the base price is free (which makes it functionally the same as other donationware models).

Ports and translations

Ports and translations of DDLC are considered mods, but there are some special considerations.

• On the download page, you must make it clear that the game is an unofficial port/translation.
• You may not publish ports or translations of DDLC as a standalone game (or fangame) on any centralized game download platform.
• Porting DDLC should be done only to non-mainstream platforms, primarily as a fun/educational exercise, and to contribute something neat to a meaningful community (e.g. homebrew on game consoles that are no longer being sold).

Crossovers

Some communities enjoy making noncommercial fangames that feature a mashup crossover of many different game IPs all in one—for example, the IWBTG fangame community.

Despite them not being specifically DDLC fangames, there are some features of these crossover fangames that help us feel okay about the inclusion of DDLC:

• The fangame is being made more for a specific niche community than a general audience
• The IPs are used just for fun/parody and not with the intent of making the fangame more popular

If your game doesn't identify as a DDLC fangame or a crossover fangame (for example, it's your original IP and does not take place in the DDLC universe), then DDLC should not be included in any capacity.

If you want to cameo DDLC in your original game, consider incorporating a vague or indirect reference to the game, but avoid any direct usage/reference of DDLC's characters.

Publishing music

These guidelines pertain to musicians looking to publish DDLC fan music to music streaming platforms and music stores (e.g. Spotify, Apple Music, etc.). Typically, this does not pertain to social media; it primarily concerns those who publish their music through a music publication or distribution service. The purpose is to ensure your track listings are not confused for official content, and also to avoid issues in the licensing and copyright processes.

• If you use lyrics, melodies, or samples from the DDLC OST in your track, then your track is considered a cover or a remix. Go through your music distributor's cover/remix publishing process to publish your song as a cover/remix of the original. You can't publish covers/remixes to music streaming services without this licensing process being taken care of.
• If your cover or remix includes samples from the official OST, do not publish it to YouTube through a music distributor, unless you are absolutely sure YouTube Content ID is disabled.
• The album art must not include any official DDLC artwork, such as logos, character art, or anything else. It cannot contain edited versions or recreations of these assets, either—it must be fully original content.
• Never add a Team Salvato composer as a co-artist of your track, whether your track is a cover/remix or simply inspired by DDLC.
• For covers and remixes, you cannot name your song the same as the original song. At most, the title of the song can be in the form "Your Reality ([Your Name] Cover/Remix)", or "[Original Title] (Your Reality Remix)".

Use of AI

• Do not use generative AI to depict the DDLC characters (via text, visuals, or audio) in DDLC fangames or fangame-related materials (e.g. promotional art).
• Do not monetize any DDLC fan work that was primarily created using generative AI.
• Never upload any official Team Salvato assets to any generative AI model, software, or service (e.g. providing game dialogue to a chatbot). In doing so, you're helping these services steal our content for profit, and we stand firmly against that rampant practice.

Making money from your work

When fans pay for your work, they deserve to feel as though they're supporting a creator, not just making some arbitrary purchase. We want you to find success through the community's desire to support your work. That way, we can all maintain a great positive relationship between fans and creators.

Streaming/Video revenue

• For free online media content (e.g. YouTube videos), you can enable the monetization options on the platform you're hosting on, as long as your content is part of a greater transformative work. For example, livestreams and videos of commentated DDLC playthroughs can have monetization enabled, as well as video essays. In general, if you're monetizing, your content should be unique and include DDLC assets in a fair-use capacity.

Physical goods

See Selling merchandise.

Commissions

• You are welcome to accept commissions to produce DDLC fan work, whether it's a personal commission or for part of a larger fan project (e.g. a fangame).

Paywalled digital content (Patreon, etc.)

• Don't force people to spend money to enjoy your primary content. Exclusive content is for rewarding supporters, not for locking your primary content behind a paywall.
• Some types of exclusive content are okay for creators to share appreciation for their supporters. Sketches, development blogs, and community polls are examples of exclusive rewards that are creator- and community-focused.
• Use your best judgment for timed exclusive content, i.e. content that remains exclusive to supporters for a limited time before it is publicly released. Again, focus on rewarding supporters. If a lot of fans are looking forward to your next release, enticing them to pay for early access is an exploitative practice—it makes people feel left out from the excitement unless they pay you money.

Crowdfunding

• Crowdfunding and group buys are a community effort. Only consider crowdfunding for producing a limited run of physical goods. The purpose of crowdfunding is to cover manufacturing and shipping expenses for an item that needs a minimum order quantity.
• Do not use crowdfunding to pay for digital services, such as hiring people to work on a fan project.
• Do not use crowdfunding to pay yourself. Collaborating with the community to bring fan work into existence is not an appropriate time to profit from them. Other avenues like donations, Patreon, and traditional merchandise sales are ways in which the community can support you for your work.