Animist NPC License

1. Definitions

1. "Animist", "we", "us" means 890687 Alberta Ltd., doing business as Animist NPC, the licensor.
2. "You" means the person or legal entity accepting these terms, and its employees and contractors working on its behalf.
3. "Runtime" means the Animist NPC native library in object form, its headers (animist.h), bindings, examples and documentation, as distributed at animistnpc.com or through our GitHub releases.
4. "Product" means a game, interactive experience or application You make that includes or links the Runtime. Each separately sold title is its own Product. Updates, patches, DLC, expansions and platform ports of a title are part of the same Product. A sequel is a new Product.
5. "Release" means the first time a Product is made available to the public, whether free or paid. This includes Early Access, paid alphas and public betas. It does not include closed playtests, festival or press builds, or game-jam submissions.
6. "Gross Revenue" means all money a Product earns from end users: sales, in-app purchases, subscriptions, DLC, advertising and sponsorships within the Product. It is counted after refunds, sales taxes and VAT, and after platform or store fees (for example a Steam or console store's share). It excludes crowdfunding, grants, publisher advances and investment used to fund development. For a published Product, it is the revenue the publisher receives, not just Your share.
7. "Threshold" means US$250,000 of lifetime Gross Revenue for a single Product.

2. License grant

We grant You a worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the Runtime as set out below. These terms are free to accept, and no payment is due until Section 3.3 applies. You accept them by requesting a license token or by using the Runtime.

2.1 Development. You may install, use, copy and link the Runtime as much as You want, on any number of machines and by any number of team members, to develop, test and demo Products. There is no time limit and no usage cap.

2.2 Distribution. You may distribute the Runtime in object form, linked into or shipped alongside a Product, to end users. You may let publishers, porting partners and contractors use it to work on Your Products.

2.3 Free and non-commercial Products. A Product that earns no Gross Revenue may be released and distributed with no fee, ever. This includes free games, mods, jam entries, and student and educational projects.

2.4 License keys. The Runtime may require a developer license token. We issue tokens free of charge to anyone who accepts these terms. A token gates access to Runtime builds; it is not a measure of what You owe.

3. Shipping a Product

3.1 Release notice. Within 30 days of a Product's Release, email licensing@animistnpc.com with the Product's name, Your studio name, and a store or website link. The notice is for our records only. We do not approve or review Products, and we will not publicize a Product without Your permission.

3.2 Under the Threshold. While a Product's lifetime Gross Revenue is at or below the Threshold, You owe nothing for that Product.

3.3 Over the Threshold. When a Product's lifetime Gross Revenue first passes the Threshold:

1. Tell us within 60 days of the end of the calendar quarter in which it passed.
2. Pay a one-time Commercial fee of US$5,000 for that Product, within 30 days of our invoice.
3. That fee licenses the Product for its whole life, including updates, DLC and ports. No royalty or further fee is due for it.

If a one-time fee does not suit You (for example a large studio, a multi-title deal, or a need for support or source access), contact us for a custom license.

3.4 Self-reporting. Gross Revenue is self-reported. We may ask, at most once a year, for a short written statement of a Product's lifetime Gross Revenue. We will keep it confidential.

3.5 Attribution. Include "Uses Animist NPC" (or similar) in the Product's credits. A logo on splash screens or store pages is welcome but not required.

4. Shipped builds are perpetual

4.1 No expiry for players. Any build of a Product that You Released in compliance with these terms may stay on sale and in players' hands forever. A license token's expiry date limits which Runtime versions You may adopt in new builds. It never permits us to disable a build already shipped.

4.2 Changes to these terms. We may publish new versions of these terms. A new version applies only to Runtime versions released after it is published. You may keep using any Runtime version You already have under the terms it was released with.

4.3 If Animist stops. If we stop issuing license tokens or cease operating, we will release a final Runtime build that needs no license token, under terms no less permissive than these.

5. Restrictions and responsibilities

5.1 You may not:

• Distribute the Runtime on its own, or as part of an SDK, engine plugin, middleware or tool whose main purpose is to let others build NPC dialogue, except an engine integration for Your own Products.
• Offer the Runtime as a hosted service to third parties.
• Remove, bypass or tamper with license verification, or share Your license token for others' Products.
• Use the Runtime to build a competing NPC dialogue library.

5.2 LLM providers. You choose and configure any language model provider, using Your own API keys and accounts. You pay their fees and must follow their terms. Conversations go from Your Product to Your chosen provider; the Runtime does not send them to us.

5.3 Generated content and player data. NPC dialogue is generated by the model You configure. You are responsible for what Your Product shows players, including content filtering, age ratings and platform content rules, and for how Your Product handles players' personal data, including what it sends to Your LLM provider.

5.4 Feedback. If You send us suggestions or bug reports, we may use them freely to improve Animist, with no obligation to You.

6. Termination, warranty and liability

6.1 Termination. If You breach these terms and do not fix the breach within 30 days of our written notice, Your license ends. An unpaid Commercial fee ends the license only for the Product it concerns. Builds of other Products You Released in compliance stay licensed. Sections 4.1, 5.4 and 6 survive termination.

6.2 No warranty. The Runtime is pre-1.0 software provided "as is", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

6.3 Limitation of liability. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect, incidental or consequential damages, or for lost profits or data. Our total liability is limited to the fees You paid us in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100 if You paid none.

6.4 Governing law. These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Alberta and the federal laws of Canada that apply there, and disputes go to the courts of Alberta.

6.5 Entire agreement. These terms, plus any custom license You sign with us, are the whole agreement about the Runtime.

Questions

Email licensing@animistnpc.com about these terms, release notices or a custom license. To get a token, see Developer license.