Creator Program Terms

Effective date: September 28, 2026

The short version

• The Summer Creator Program is how eligible Creators receive Program Payments for Earned Sparks, the balance you build when other Users spend Sparks in your Games. Program Payments are computed at the Creator Rate published in the Fee and Rates Schedule, USD 0.0080 per Eligible Earned Spark. Program Payments are spend-based at launch; an Engagement Pool is reserved and does not exist until the Fee and Rates Schedule lists it as active.
• If your Game has Mods, or is a Mod, the Creator who enabled modding sets the Network Share: any whole number from 0 to 100 percent of the Creator leg of each spend in the Mod goes to the Modder and the remainder to the Original Creator. Summer's 30 percent at spend comes first; there is no Summer default and no band, and a change applies only to spends after the new rate is published on the Game page. Example: 100 Sparks spent in a Mod at 50 percent: Summer 30, Modder 35, Original Creator 35. Summer allocates every leg at spend; Sparks never move between Creators.
• To be paid you must be 18 or older, verified by our Identity Verification Provider (at drafting, Persona; the vendor choice is still open) before your first payment, tax-documented, in a Supported Country, and in good standing. Creators aged 13 to 17 can build up Earned Sparks but cannot be paid until they enroll at 18, and cannot purchase Sparks (Section 14.1).
• A Program Payment is a payment made by Summer, from Summer's own funds, as Summer's own obligation under the Creator Program, in consideration of the license you grant Summer to host, run, distribute and commercialize your Game and related content. It is not a share of what any Player paid, not wages, and not a conversion of Sparks. Purchased Sparks never turn into money, for anyone. For US federal tax purposes Summer treats Program Payments as royalties for the license you grant Summer to your Game. US Creators give us a Form W-9 and Non-US Creators a Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E before the first payment; US withholding applies only to the part of your earnings that came from Players in the United States, at the statutory rate or the lower treaty rate your form supports; the Creator Tax Addendum explains it.
• Payments run in monthly Batches through our Payout Provider (Stripe), to a bank account in your own name, or at your election as platform credit at the same Creator Rate. The minimum is USD 100 (12,500 Eligible Earned Sparks at the Creator Rate). Earned Sparks become eligible 30 days after the spend that created them; your first payment waits 90 days from your first Earned Sparks. Your first payment is capped at USD 2,000 (First-Payment Cap); anything above that stays on your ledger and is paid in the next Batch, unless you complete a full manual review (identity, bank account ownership, spend pattern), in which case the full amount is released in your first Batch. There is no maximum Program Payment amount after your first payment. Any payment above USD 10,000 and any payment flagged by our anomaly detection is reviewed by Summer before release (Payment Review) and may be held while the review runs; a hold is not a forfeiture.
• If a spend in your Game is refunded or charged back, we reverse the Earned Sparks it created. If we already paid you for them, we recover only by netting against your future Earned Sparks and Program Payments. We never pull money back from your bank account (unless you committed fraud or self-dealing under Section 9.1), and we never touch your Purchased Sparks or your Virtual Content.
• You are an independent Creator publishing on a self-publishing platform. Nothing here makes you an employee, agent or contractor of Summer.
• Player terms, privacy and refund policies live at summer.games.

1. These Terms and how they fit together

1.1 The parties. These Creator Program Terms (these "Terms") are a legally binding agreement between Summer Labs, Inc., a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business at 2810 N Church St, STE 89812, Wilmington, DE 19802, United States ("Summer", "we", "us", "our"), and the individual or entity that enrolls in the Summer Creator Program ("you", "your"). Summer Labs, Inc. is the sole Summer contracting party and the sole payer under these Terms. No Summer affiliate, including Summer Engine ApS, is a party to these Terms or owes you any obligation under them.

1.2 What these Terms govern. These Terms govern the Summer Creator Program (the "Creator Program"): the program through which an enrolled, eligible Creator receives payments from Summer ("Program Payments") computed by reference to the Creator's Eligible Earned Sparks at the Creator Rate. These Terms cover eligibility, what counts as Earned Sparks, maturation, the Creator Rate, how Program Payments are computed and delivered, the platform-credit election, offsets and reserves, reversals, taxes, dormancy, minors, and the end of your participation.

1.3 Relationship to other Summer documents. These Terms are Additional Terms under, and incorporate by reference, the Summer Games Terms of Service. Your participation is also subject to the Summer Games Community Standards, the Fee and Rates Schedule, the Network Share Schedule, the Creator Tax Addendum, the Refund and Billing Policy, the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy, the Multiplayer Hosting Terms, the Beta Program Terms where you are a Beta participant, the Parent Account Terms where they apply to your Account, and every other Summer policy that applies to your Account. If these Terms conflict with the Summer Games Terms of Service on a subject specific to the Creator Program, these Terms control for that subject only; Supplemental Provisions for your jurisdiction control over both where mandatory local law requires, and nothing in these Terms overrides mandatory law, as Section 2.1 of the Summer Games Terms of Service states. Every number in these Terms is restated from the Fee and Rates Schedule as of the date above; if a number here and there differ, the Schedule controls. If Summer activates the optional delivery method in the Stablecoin Payout Addendum, that Addendum also applies to Program Payments you elect to receive that way.

1.4 Defined terms. Capitalized terms used but not defined in these Terms (including Account, Creator, Player, User, Game, Mod, Original Creator, Modder, Virtual Content, Sparks, Purchased Sparks, Earned Sparks, Eligible Earned Sparks, Game Points, Summer Creator Program, Program Payment, Creator Rate, Network Share, Summer Passport, Payout Provider, Payout Account, Supported Countries, Identity Verification Provider, Enrolled Payee, Summer Games lane, Paid Games lane, Engagement Pool (reserved), Qualifying Playtime (reserved), Linked Build (reserved), Additional Terms and Dispute) have the meanings given in the Summer Dictionary. In these Terms: "Batch" means a monthly run of Program Payments under Section 7.2; "Batch Cut-Off" means the last day of a calendar month; "Payment Election" means your standing choice under Section 5.1 between automatic inclusion in every Batch and inclusion on request; "Payment Request" means a request you make under the on-request election; "Program Award" means Earned Sparks credited under a reserved program in Sections 4.7 to 4.9; "First-Payment Gate", "First-Payment Cap" and "Payment Review" have the meanings in Section 7.3; "Effective Date" means the date stated above.

1.5 Acceptance. You accept these Terms by affirmatively confirming acceptance during enrollment in the Creator Program. Receiving a Program Payment is not acceptance and never substitutes for enrollment. If you enroll on behalf of a company or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity, and "you" means that entity. Enrollment is a new acceptance for the purposes of Section 23.16 of the Summer Games Terms of Service (a fresh thirty-day arbitration opt-out window; see Section 18.2).

1.6 Changes to these Terms. We may change these Terms prospectively. For material changes that are adverse to you, we will give you at least 30 days' advance notice through the Platform and to your registered email address before the change takes effect. Changes never apply to Program Payments already made, to Batches already approved, or, for a reduction of the Creator Rate, to Eligible Earned Sparks in the manner protected by Section 5.2. If you do not agree to a change, your remedy is to end your participation before the change takes effect; Section 15.5 then applies and we pay your Eligible Earned Sparks at the pre-change terms. Continued participation after the effective date of a change is acceptance of that change.

2. The Summer Creator Program

2.1 What the Creator Program is. The Creator Program is Summer's program under which an enrolled, eligible Creator receives Program Payments computed by reference to the Creator's Eligible Earned Sparks at the Creator Rate, delivered in US dollars through Summer's Payout Provider to the Creator's Payout Account or, at the Creator's election under Section 5.4, as platform credit. The Creator Program is the only mechanism by which Earned Sparks can ever result in a payment to anyone. Purchased Sparks can never result in a payment to anyone. Anyone may build and publish Games on the Platform; only Creators who meet the eligibility requirements in Section 3 receive Program Payments. Earnings are never guaranteed: they depend on other Users choosing to spend Sparks in your Games.

2.2 What the Creator Program is not. The Creator Program is not a bank account, deposit account, payment account, stored-value account, e-money product, money transmission service, escrow, trust, security or investment. Sparks are the official currency of Summer Games and can be used only to acquire Virtual Content and access within Summer Games; your right to use Sparks is a limited, revocable, non-transferable license as described in the Summer Games Terms of Service. Sparks are not a substitute for real currency, do not earn interest, have no equivalent value in real currency and cannot be exchanged for real currency, and they are not money, property or a claim against Summer. Earned Sparks are a separate instrument governed by these Terms. They are not Sparks and are not a license: they are a ledger record, denominated in Sparks units, of your contingent entitlement to a Program Payment if and when you satisfy the conditions of these Terms. Before a Program Payment becomes payable under Section 7, no sum is due to you, nothing is set aside for you by Summer, the Payout Provider or any bank, and your Earned Sparks are not a deposit, stored value or property. When every condition of these Terms is met, Summer owes you the Program Payment as its own obligation under Section 2.5, settled from its own funds; at no point do you hold a claim to any particular funds or account. Nothing in these Terms gives any Player, or any Creator outside a Program Payment under these Terms, a right to receive money for Sparks.

2.3 Program design; wind-down. Summer offers the Creator Program at its discretion as to its design, features and continuation, and may modify it prospectively under Section 1.6 or discontinue it in whole or in part. If Summer discontinues the Creator Program or materially reduces its scope, Summer will (a) give affected Creators at least 90 days' advance notice, (b) keep crediting Earned Sparks for spends during the notice period, and (c) make a final Program Payment to each affected Creator for the Creator's Eligible Earned Sparks (including Earned Sparks that mature within 30 days after the end of the notice period) at the Creator Rate in effect on the date of the notice, waiving the minimum in Section 7.1, subject to Sections 7, 8, 9 and 11. Discontinuation is not a forfeiture event for properly accrued Earned Sparks.

2.4 Sole seller; payments from Summer's own funds. Summer is the sole seller of Sparks and of every license acquired with Sparks. Players transact only with Summer and never with you; the Platform, not your Game, renders every purchase confirmation, and every receipt and card descriptor names Summer. Program Payments are made by Summer from Summer's own funds and settle Summer's own obligation under these Terms. Summer does not receive, hold or pass on any amount on your behalf or on any Player's behalf, and no part of any Sparks purchase is received for you.

2.5 Payment of eligible balances. Summer will make Program Payments that meet every condition of these Terms in the ordinary course under Section 7. Summer may hold or decline a Program Payment only on a ground stated in these Terms: an eligibility failure under Section 3; incomplete, invalid or expired identity, tax or Payout Account documentation; a legal, sanctions or Payout Provider block; a review of suspected fraud, self-dealing or abuse under Sections 4.3, 7.4 or 8.4; an offset, reserve or hold under Section 8; or a reversal ground under Section 9. Summer will state the general ground, except where the law prohibits it or disclosure would compromise an ongoing fraud investigation. Summer does not decide in its unbounded discretion whether or how much to pay. The only amounts Summer may deduct from or set off against a Program Payment are: (i) Earned Sparks reversed because the spend that generated them was refunded, credited, undone or charged back, netted under Sections 8.1(a), 8.1(b), 8.5 and 9.5; (ii) amounts you owe Summer under these Terms, the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Multiplayer Hosting Terms or other Additional Terms you have accepted, set off under Sections 8.1(c), 8.1(d) and 8.6; and (iii) amounts Summer is required by law to withhold or remit under Sections 8.1(e) and 11. A sanctions screening result, legal process or a Payout Provider requirement is a ground to hold a Program Payment under Section 8.4, never a ground to forfeit it; Summer may cancel Earned Sparks or a Program Payment only on a ground listed in Section 9.1.

2.6 Summer Games lane only. The Creator Program operates only in the Summer Games lane. Nothing sold in the Paid Games lane is, or creates, Earned Sparks or a Program Payment; a Seller Account under the Paid Games Terms (not yet published; see the Paid Games Lane: Reservation Notice (phase 2)) never receives Program Payments, a Payout Account never receives Paid Game proceeds, and the two relationships never net against each other. A Game shows exactly one of a Sparks price, a fiat price, or Free.

2.7 Beta Program. If you participate in the Beta Program, the Beta Program Terms govern any economy reset and the treatment of Earned Sparks accrued during the Beta Program; any payment made under them is a Program Payment with the character described in Section 5.3.

3. Eligibility

3.1 Requirements. To enroll and remain enrolled in the Creator Program you must satisfy items (a), (b), (f), (h) and (i) below at enrollment and on a continuing basis. To receive any Program Payment you must, in addition, satisfy items (c), (d), (e) and (g) at the Batch Cut-Off and on a continuing basis; until you do, Program Payments pause under Section 3.2 and your Earned Sparks keep accruing: (a) you are a natural person at least 18 years old and of the age of majority where you live, or an entity whose authorized representative is at least 18 years old; (b) you hold an Account in good standing and are in compliance with the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Summer Games Community Standards and every other Summer policy applicable to your Account, including the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy; (c) you have completed identity verification through Summer's Identity Verification Provider (currently Persona), including any re-verification we reasonably require, no later than your first Program Payment; (d) you have a valid, current IRS Form W-9 (US Persons) or the applicable Form W-8 series form (non-US persons) on file with Summer under Section 11 and the Creator Tax Addendum; (e) you reside in, and your Payout Account is located in, a Supported Country under Section 3.7, unless you have elected platform credit under Section 5.4 and Section 3.7 permits that election for your country; (f) you have a verified email address and two-factor authentication enabled on your Account, and your Account is at least 90 days old (the anti-abuse gate; the Fee and Rates Schedule restates every figure in these Terms under Section 1.3); (g) you have provided a Payout Account in your own legal name under Section 6.2 that the Payout Provider has verified, or you have made a platform-credit election under Section 5.4; (h) you have passed sanctions and restricted-party screening under Section 6.9, you are not located in or organized under the laws of a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive US sanctions, and you have not previously been removed from the Creator Program for fraud or self-dealing, and have not attempted to sell, trade or otherwise transfer Sparks, Earned Sparks, Virtual Content or Game Points for money or anything of value outside the Platform; (i) you are not acting for or on behalf of any person who fails these requirements, and the Games for which you are paid are published under an Account of which you are the Enrolled Payee under Section 3.5.

3.2 Continuing conditions. Eligibility is a continuing condition of participation and of each Program Payment. If you cease to satisfy any requirement in Section 3.1, Summer may pause Program Payments until the failure is cured. A pause is not a forfeiture: your Earned Sparks keep accruing and remain on your ledger, subject to Sections 8 and 9.

3.3 Verification and re-verification. You must provide accurate, current and complete information and keep it current. Identity verification is performed by the Identity Verification Provider, which may collect a government identity document, a selfie or liveness check, and address information; its processing is described in the Summer Games Privacy Policy and the Age Check and Biometric Data Notice. Where that processing involves biometric data (for example, a selfie or liveness check), Summer obtains and records your separate affirmative consent before the processing begins, as the Age Check and Biometric Data Notice describes; verification never proceeds on consent by use. Summer may require re-verification of your identity, age, residence, tax status, sanctions status or Payout Account at any time, including before releasing a specific Program Payment and after any period of dormancy under Section 13. Failure to complete a reasonable verification request within 30 days may result in suspension under Section 15.2. Summer may change its Identity Verification Provider on notice.

3.4 One participant per Account; no assignment. Enrollment is personal to you and to the Account under which you enrolled. You may not sell, lend, share or assign your participation, your Earned Sparks or your right to Program Payments, and you may not enroll on behalf of another person or receive Program Payments for the benefit of a person who is not eligible. Any purported assignment is void. A change of the Enrolled Payee for an Account (a "Studio transfer", for example on the sale of a studio) is possible only by re-enrollment of the new Enrolled Payee with fresh verification and tax documentation under Sections 3.3, 6.4 and 11; only the rights to the Account's Games and their future Earned Sparks pass to the new Enrolled Payee, and the Account itself and its existing ledger balances are never handed over, as Section 4.3 of the Summer Games Terms of Service and the Summer Dictionary state.

3.5 Teams and studios: the Enrolled Payee. Where several people build or operate a Game, Summer credits Earned Sparks to, and pays, only the Enrolled Payee of the Account that publishes the Game: one verified individual or one verified entity. By contributing to a Game you agree that the Enrolled Payee has sole authority to receive Program Payments for that Game, that you look solely to the Enrolled Payee for any share, and that you waive any claim against Summer for amounts Summer paid to the Enrolled Payee. Internal splits are your own contract and Summer is not bound by them.

3.6 Our determination. Summer determines eligibility in its reasonable discretion, applying the criteria in this Section 3. If we determine you are ineligible, we will tell you the general ground, except where the law prohibits it, and Section 18 governs any Dispute.

3.7 Supported Countries. Summer publishes the list of Supported Countries at summerengine.com/legal/supported-countries and updates it as the Payout Provider's coverage and the law change. The Supported Countries are the countries and regions to which the Payout Provider can deliver Program Payments for Summer, excluding jurisdictions blocked by sanctions or other law and excluding the People's Republic of China, where the Summer Games lane is not offered. Creators anywhere may build, publish and accrue Earned Sparks; a Program Payment to a Payout Account requires a Supported Country. If you are verified under Section 3.3 and live in a country that is not yet a Supported Country, you may take the platform-credit election under Section 5.4 as your Program Payment until your country is added. Removal of a country from the list pauses, and never forfeits, Program Payments to Creators there. Publishing a Game, including a Game that sells Virtual Content for Sparks, does not require an Account in an approved country; the only country conditions are the Supported Country condition for a Program Payment to a Payout Account, the exclusion of the People's Republic of China stated above, and the sanctions and export-control rules in Sections 3.1(h) and 19.7.

3.8 Ongoing service obligations. As a condition of continued participation you must: (a) keep each published Game that generates Earned Sparks operable for its Players and compatible with the current technical, security and safety requirements Summer publishes for the Platform; (b) cooperate promptly and professionally with Summer's handling of Player complaints about your Games under the Refund and Billing Policy and Section 18.4; and (c) assist Summer with legal requirements relating to your Games, including responding to notices under the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy and removing or updating Virtual Content Summer is required by law to remove.

3.9 Vulnerability reports about your Games. You acknowledge that Summer may receive reports of security vulnerabilities in your Games or Mods under the Vulnerability Disclosure Policy, that Summer coordinates remediation with you as that Policy describes, and that the Policy authorizes researchers to observe and report such vulnerabilities to Summer, never to exploit them. You agree not to bring a claim against a researcher for observation-level Good-Faith Research (as that Policy defines it) in your Game or Mod that complied with that Policy. Summer cannot waive your claims for you; this Section is your own undertaking. Nothing in this Section authorizes anyone to test your Game or Mod beyond what that Policy permits, and nothing in it limits your rights against a person whose conduct fell outside Good-Faith Research.

4. Earned Sparks

4.1 Definition and sources. "Earned Sparks" means the units credited to the earned ledger of your Account, as recorded by Summer's ledger, from the following sources and no others: (a) other Users' spending of Purchased Sparks on Virtual Content and access in your Games, in the proportion of each spend stated in the Fee and Rates Schedule (at drafting: 70 percent of the Sparks spent); (b) Network Shares credited to you under the Network Share Schedule, including, if and when the Schedule publishes a Passport Share Rate, shares on Passport Derived Content; and (c) Program Awards under Sections 4.7 to 4.9, if Summer offers them, including Engagement Pool allocations under Section 4.7 if the Fee and Rates Schedule lists the Engagement Pool as active. The Summer Dictionary definition governs; this Section describes how it applies in the Creator Program.

4.2 Exclusions. The following are not Earned Sparks and can never be the basis of a Program Payment, regardless of how they appear or are labelled in any interface: (a) Purchased Sparks, including Purchased Sparks you bought yourself; (b) zero-price grants: promotional grants, bonuses and credits issued at no charge, giveaways, subscription grants and any other Sparks issued by Summer without a purchase by another User in your Games, and platform credit delivered under Section 5.4; spending of any Spark included in a Sparks Pack a User paid for, including the additional Sparks a Pack bought on the web or in the desktop app carries as standing pricing under the Fee and Rates Schedule, is spending of Purchased Sparks under Section 4.1(a) and is not excluded by this item; (c) anything moved, or attempted to be moved, between Accounts, since Sparks and Earned Sparks never move between Accounts; (d) amounts attributable to your own spending in your own Games, or to spending you directed, funded, reimbursed, recycled or coordinated for the purpose of generating Earned Sparks, including through alternate, related or coordinated Accounts; (e) amounts attributable to spends that have been refunded, reversed, charged back or credited under the Refund and Billing Policy; (f) amounts from Games with no genuine Players (for example, template Games with no legitimate visits, or spend generated by automated accounts or bots); (g) amounts attributable to Virtual Content removed for violating the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Summer Games Community Standards or the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy; (h) Game Points, which never enter the earned ledger, never convert to anything and never count toward earnings; and (i) any amounts that Summer determines, acting reasonably and on evidence, are attributable to fraud, stolen payment instruments, chargeback abuse, collusion, exploitation of bugs or pricing errors, or misrepresentation of age, location or other eligibility criteria ("fraud-tainted amounts").

4.3 Fraud-tainted determinations. If Summer determines that amounts on your ledger are fraud-tainted, Summer may remove or freeze those amounts pending review. Summer will notify you of the determination and its general basis, except where the law prohibits it or notice would compromise an ongoing fraud investigation, and you may dispute the determination under Section 18. A fraud-tainted determination applies only to the tainted amounts and does not, by itself, affect the remainder of your ledger, your Purchased Sparks or your Virtual Content.

4.4 The ledger and the three instruments. Summer maintains separate ledgers for Purchased Sparks and Earned Sparks; Game Points are not ledgered by Summer at all. Summer's ledger records are the definitive record of your balances, absent manifest error, subject to Section 7.6. Earned Sparks accrue no interest, are not property, cannot be spent, transferred, gifted or pledged, are not a license to any feature of the Services, and represent only a contingent entitlement to a Program Payment under these Terms. The only movement between instruments is the one-way credit at spend described in Section 4.1(a); nothing ever moves from the earned ledger to the Purchased Sparks ledger except platform credit under Section 5.4, which is a Program Payment in kind and never again Earned Sparks.

4.5 Network Shares and Summer Passport. Where a Game is a Mod, or has Mods, the Network Share is computed at the Network Share Rate the Original Creator set for the parent Game (any whole number from 0 to 100 percent of the Creator leg, going to the Modder with the remainder to the Original Creator) and allocated at the Earned Sparks ledger level, before anything is eligible for payment, under the Network Share Schedule; only the amounts allocated to you become your Earned Sparks (Section 10). Summer Passport by itself never creates Earned Sparks or a Network Share; a Passport generation writes no ledger entry and never charges the Player.

4.6 Maturation; Eligible Earned Sparks. Each Earned Spark becomes an "Eligible Earned Spark" 30 days after the spend that created it, provided the spend has not been refunded, reversed, credited or charged back and is not under review under Section 4.3, 7.4 or 8.4 and not subject to a hold under Section 8.7. Program Awards mature after 60 days under Section 4.10. Only Eligible Earned Sparks count toward the minimum in Section 7.1 and may be included in a Batch. Earned Sparks reversed before they mature are removed from your ledger without further action.

4.7 Reserved: Engagement Pool. Summer may, by amendment to the Fee and Rates Schedule on at least 30 days' notice, operate an Engagement Pool. If Summer operates it: (a) the pool is funded solely from Summer's share of Sparks spent on Summer Games and never from Player funds; (b) allocations are made in Earned Sparks and convert at the same Creator Rate as spend-based Earned Sparks; (c) allocations are pro rata to Qualifying Playtime, measured only from Players who purchased Sparks within the preceding 90 days, subject to the anti-abuse rules in the Fee and Rates Schedule; (d) the Fee and Rates Schedule states the pool percentage, the measurement period and any minimum Qualifying Playtime; (e) Summer may suspend or end the Engagement Pool prospectively on notice. Until the Fee and Rates Schedule lists the Engagement Pool as active, no Engagement Pool exists. Engagement Pool allocations, if made, are Program Awards under Section 4.10.

4.8 Reserved: Audience Growth Rewards. Summer may, but is not obliged to, offer a program that credits Earned Sparks to a Creator whose Game brings a new or reactivated Player to the Platform through a Summer-issued share link, a direct link to the Game as the Player's first session, or a search for the Game by name, where the Player plays for at least a stated time that day and the Game meets a published health threshold, computed as a stated percentage of that Player's Sparks Pack purchases anywhere on the Platform during a stated period after joining, once per Player for life, net of purchases already credited after any earlier reactivation, and excluding Players brought by Summer's own marketing. If offered, Audience Growth Rewards are Program Awards under Section 4.10 and require completed identity verification and a good-standing Account. This Section has no effect until the Fee and Rates Schedule publishes the numbers.

4.9 Reserved: Founding Creator Bonuses. Summer may offer time-boxed, conditional bonus programs to named cohorts of Creators (for example, a boosted share on the first stated amount of Earned Sparks from a Game, or a fixed award on reaching published milestones). Any such bonus is a Program Award under Section 4.10, is stated in a written program notice and in the Fee and Rates Schedule, is funded solely from Summer's own revenue, expires by its own terms, and never changes the split in Section 4.1(a) or the Creator Rate for anyone.

4.10 Program Awards: funding, maturation, integrity and notice. Every Program Award: (a) is credited as Earned Sparks outside the split in Section 4.1(a), funded solely from Summer's own revenue, never from any Creator's share and never described as a percentage of any Player's payment; (b) matures under Section 4.6 after 60 days; (c) counts toward the minimum in Section 7.1 and is paid at the Creator Rate like any other Eligible Earned Sparks; (d) is not Share Base for any Network Share; (e) is contingent on genuine engagement from Players who participate economically, and Summer monitors for and discounts inauthentic activity; (f) is forfeited, and may lead to removal from the program or Account action, where obtained through artificial or automated activity (bots, automated tools, browser extensions, plugins, scene or teleport manipulation to inflate visits, referrals or play time), encouraging alternate accounts, impersonating Summer or misrepresenting an affiliation, a disproportionately high chargeback ratio, or any violation of Summer's policies; and (g) is offered on terms Summer may reduce or discontinue prospectively with at least 30 days' notice, with awards already credited honored.

5. Program Payments

5.1 Payment Election and Payment Requests. At enrollment you choose a Payment Election: (a) automatic, under which your full Eligible Earned Sparks balance is included in every Batch in which it meets the minimum in Section 7.1; or (b) on request, under which Eligible Earned Sparks are included in a Batch only after you submit a Payment Request through the Creator dashboard before the Batch Cut-Off. You may change your Payment Election at any time with effect for Batches after the next Batch Cut-Off. Inclusion in a Batch becomes a completed Program Payment only when the Batch has passed the reviews in Section 7.4 and the amount is not subject to an offset, reserve, hold or reversal under Sections 8 and 9.

5.2 Creator Rate. The rate Summer uses to compute the US dollar amount of a Program Payment from your Eligible Earned Sparks (the "Creator Rate") is stated in the Fee and Rates Schedule (USD 0.0080 per Eligible Earned Spark as of the Effective Date; the Schedule's figure controls). The Creator Rate is set by Summer. It is not derived from, and is not a fixed fraction of, the price Players pay Summer for Sparks, and a Program Payment is not a pass-through of any Player's payment. The Creator Rate applied to a Batch is the rate in effect on the Batch Cut-Off. Summer may change the Creator Rate prospectively by updating the Fee and Rates Schedule: a reduction takes effect no earlier than 30 days after notice; Eligible Earned Sparks on your ledger on the date of the notice are paid at the pre-change rate if included in a Batch or requested before the reduction takes effect; Earned Sparks still in maturation on the effective date take the new rate; an increase applies to every Program Payment made after its effective date. Rate changes never apply to Batches already approved or Program Payments already made. At launch one Creator Rate applies to all Eligible Earned Sparks; Summer reserves the right to publish, prospectively and with the same notice, different Creator Rates for defined categories of Earned Sparks, each subject to Section 9.1(d).

5.3 Nature of Program Payments. A Program Payment is a payment made by Summer, from Summer's own funds, as Summer's own obligation under the Summer Creator Program, in consideration of the license you grant Summer in Section 11.2 of the Summer Games Terms of Service to host, run, distribute and commercialize your Game and related content. It is computed by reference to your Eligible Earned Sparks at the Creator Rate. A Program Payment is not: a payment by or on behalf of any Player; a share of, or commission on, any amount paid by a Player to Summer; wages, salary or compensation for services performed for or at the direction of Summer; or a conversion, refund or return of Sparks, Earned Sparks, or any deposit or stored value. Platform credit delivered under Section 5.4 is a Program Payment made in kind at its US dollar value. For US federal tax purposes Summer treats Program Payments as royalties for the license you grant in Section 11.2 of the Summer Games Terms of Service; the Creator Tax Addendum explains the Tax Forms, the withholding on the US-Source Share and the information reporting. You agree not to characterize Program Payments inconsistently with this Section in any filing or claim, except as required by law. As of the Effective Date, the Withholding Determination recorded in the Creator Tax Addendum is that Program Payments are royalties for US federal tax purposes; for a Non-US Creator, US withholding applies at 30 percent to the US-Source Share (the portion of the Creator's Eligible Earned Sparks that arose from spends by Players whose Player Country at the time of spend was the United States), reduced to the applicable treaty rate where the Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E the Creator provides makes a valid treaty claim; earnings from Players outside the United States are not subject to US withholding; for a US Creator no US withholding applies other than backup withholding under Section 11.4.

5.4 Platform-credit election. Instead of delivery to your Payout Account, you may elect, as a standing choice changeable before any Batch Cut-Off, to receive a Program Payment as platform credit at the same Creator Rate: either Purchased Sparks credited to your Account, or service credit on your Summer Engine account usable for AI usage, hosting and other Summer services, as you choose from the options Summer offers. Platform credit: (a) is a Program Payment made in kind at its US dollar value, with the character described in Section 5.3; (b) is Purchased Sparks or service credit and never Earned Sparks; (c) can never again be the basis of a Program Payment or move back to the earned ledger; (d) is non-refundable and non-transferable and, as Purchased Sparks, is spendable only inside the Services under the Summer Games Terms of Service; (e) requires the same eligibility, verification, tax documentation and screening as a payment to a Payout Account, and counts toward the minimum in Section 7.1 in the same way; and (f) is reported for tax purposes, and any US withholding on its US-Source Share is applied to its US dollar value before the credit is computed, as the Creator Tax Addendum describes.

5.5 Currency and delivery. Program Payments are computed and denominated in US dollars. Delivery is to your Payout Account through the Payout Provider under Section 6, as platform credit under Section 5.4, or, if Summer activates it and you elect it, under the Stablecoin Payout Addendum. Where your Payout Account is denominated in another currency, the Payout Provider converts the US dollar amount at the rate it applies at the time of payment, and the US dollar amount computed under this Section 5 is the amount of the Program Payment for all purposes, including statements, tax reporting, discharge and any Dispute.

5.6 Effect on your ledger. When Eligible Earned Sparks are included in a Batch, they are debited from your ledger and held in a pending state. If the Batch item is declined, cancelled or returned other than for a ground under Section 9.1, the debited Earned Sparks are restored to your ledger with their original maturation date. On completion of a Program Payment the pending Earned Sparks are retired from your ledger.

5.7 No interest; no time value. No interest or earnings accrue on Earned Sparks, on pending amounts, or on Program Payments awaiting delivery, and Summer has no obligation to compensate you for the time value of amounts pending under review, reserve or hold, except where required by law.

6. How Program Payments are made

6.1 Payout Provider. Summer makes Program Payments through a third-party payout provider (at drafting Stripe, Inc. and its affiliates, using Stripe Global Payouts) (the "Payout Provider"). Payments are powered by Stripe. The Payout Provider acts for Summer, executing Summer's payment instructions from Summer's own funds in Summer's own account with the Payout Provider. You do not open an account with the Payout Provider, you are not a party to Summer's agreement with it, and the Payout Provider owes you no obligation under these Terms. Summer may change Payout Providers on notice, and a change of Payout Provider never reduces any Program Payment.

6.2 Payout Account. To receive Program Payments other than as platform credit, you must provide, through the Creator dashboard or a Payout Provider-hosted form linked from it, a bank account or other payout destination the Payout Provider supports in your Supported Country, held in your own legal name (your "Payout Account"). The Payout Provider may verify the account (including through bank-account verification and one-time passcodes) before the first payment and at any time. You authorize Summer to share your name, address, tax residency, Payout Account details and payment information with the Payout Provider, the Identity Verification Provider and Summer's tax and screening service providers for the purpose of making, applying legally required withholding to, and reporting Program Payments and complying with law; your Payout Account details are collected and stored by the Payout Provider as Summer's service provider, as the Summer Games Privacy Policy describes.

6.3 Legal-name matching. The name on your Payout Account must match your verified legal name (or your registered entity name) as verified under Section 3.3 and stated on your Tax Form under Section 11. A mismatch pauses Program Payments pending re-verification. Summer never pays to a Payout Account held by another person or entity, including a family member, a manager or a payment intermediary.

6.4 Changes to your information. If your legal name, entity, beneficial ownership, tax residency, taxpayer identification number, country of residence or Payout Account changes, you must promptly update your information through the Creator dashboard, complete any re-verification under Section 3.3 and submit updated tax documentation under Section 11. Program Payments pause until the update is verified. A pause under this Section is not a forfeiture and accrual continues.

6.5 Exclusive channel. Program Payments are made only through the Payout Provider to your Payout Account, as platform credit under Section 5.4, or under the Stablecoin Payout Addendum if activated and elected. Summer will not pay by check, cash or any informal method, will not pay any person other than the enrolled Creator, and will not split or redirect Program Payments at your instruction, other than Network Shares that Summer itself computes and credits under Section 10.

6.6 Fees, currency and FX. Program Payments are computed in US dollars. As stated in the Fee and Rates Schedule at drafting, Summer bears the Payout Provider's payout fee, cross-border fee and currency-conversion fee for every Program Payment, so the US dollar amount computed under Section 5 is the amount sent, converted where applicable at the Payout Provider's rate at the time of payment; Summer adds no fee of its own. Summer may, prospectively and with at least 30 days' notice, publish in the Fee and Rates Schedule a pass-through of cross-border or conversion fees at the Payout Provider's published rates; Summer will never deduct a fee that is not disclosed there. Fees your own bank charges to receive a payment are yours.

6.7 Discharge. Summer's obligation for a Program Payment is discharged when the Payout Provider confirms that the payment has been sent to the Payout Account as you provided it, or when platform credit is posted to your Account. A payment returned because your Payout Account details were wrong, closed or unsupported is handled under Section 7.5 and is not a discharge.

6.8 Loss of payout capability; unsupported countries. If the Payout Provider cannot pay to your country, currency or Payout Account, if your country is removed from the Supported Countries, or if your Payout Account fails verification or screening, Summer may pause Program Payments until you provide a supported and verified Payout Account or make the platform-credit election where Section 3.7 permits it. Your Earned Sparks keep accruing and remain on your ledger during the pause, subject to Sections 8, 9 and 13.

6.9 Sanctions and restricted-party screening. You consent to screening of your identity, your Account and your Payout Account against sanctions and restricted-party lists administered by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control and other applicable authorities, at enrollment, before each Batch and periodically, by Summer, its screening providers and the Payout Provider. Summer will not make a Program Payment where the law prohibits it, may be required to block or report it, and may be prohibited from telling you why; a legally required block is not a breach by Summer.

6.10 Data sharing for identity, fraud and payments. Summer may share information about you, your Account, your Games and their traffic with the Identity Verification Provider, the Payout Provider, its tax and screening service providers and fraud-prevention providers, for the purposes of verifying identity and eligibility, detecting fraud and self-dealing, making and reporting Program Payments, determining the US-Source Share of your Program Payments for tax withholding and reporting (which uses each spending Player's Player Country at the time of spend), and complying with law, as described in the Summer Games Privacy Policy and, where applicable, the US State Privacy Addendum. Summer files tax returns about Program Payments with, and remits withheld amounts to, the IRS and any state tax authority that requires them. Summer retains identity-verification, sanctions-screening and Payout Account records for 5 years, and Tax Forms, withholding records and Withholding Determinations for 7 years, after your last Program Payment, as the Data Retention and Deletion Policy states.

6.11 No account with the Payout Provider; nothing held for you. Nothing in this Section 6 creates an account, balance or relationship between you and the Payout Provider. All amounts in Summer's accounts with the Payout Provider are Summer's own. No amount is held for you at any time, in trust or otherwise, before the Payout Provider sends a Program Payment.

6.12 Changes to your Payout Account; compromised Accounts. (a) Every change to your Payout Account, to your Account email or to your two-factor authentication method must be confirmed through your two-factor authentication method, and Summer sends notice of the change to the email address previously on file. (b) A Program Payment that would otherwise be sent within [14] days after a change to your Payout Account (the "Payout Account change hold") moves to the next Batch while the Payout Provider verifies the new Payout Account under Section 6.2 and Summer confirms the change with you; the hold is a hold under Section 8.7(f) and never a forfeiture. (c) If you report, or Summer detects, that your Account has been compromised (see the Summer Games Terms of Service), Summer holds Program Payments and blocks changes to your Payout Account and Account information until you complete re-verification under Section 3.3; a Batch item that has not yet been sent to a Payout Account added during the compromise is restored to your ledger under Section 5.6 with its original maturation date. (d) A Program Payment sent after the Payout Account change hold to a Payout Account that was added through your own credentials and your two-factor authentication method discharges Summer's obligation under Section 6.7; Summer will ask the Payout Provider to recall the payment and will pass on any amount recovered, but recovery is not guaranteed. (e) Where a Program Payment was diverted because Summer's own systems were compromised or because Summer did not apply (a) or (b), Summer re-issues the Program Payment in full.

6.13 Removal of a Supported Country. If your country is to be removed from the Supported Countries, Summer will notify you through the Creator dashboard and by email. Unless the removal is compelled by sanctions or other law, it takes effect no earlier than 30 days after that notice, and every balance of Eligible Earned Sparks that meets the minimum in Section 7.1 on the last Batch Cut-Off before the effective date is included in that Batch. Where the removal is compelled by law, Sections 6.9 and 6.14 govern. After the removal, Program Payments to your Payout Account are paused under Sections 3.7 and 6.8, your Earned Sparks keep accruing, and the pause ends when: (a) your country is restored to the Supported Countries; (b) you have moved and provide a Payout Account in your own name in another Supported Country under Section 6.4, with any re-verification and tax documentation that Section requires; or (c) you make the platform-credit election under Sections 3.7 and 5.4. A balance that stays unpaid is handled under Section 13 and is never forfeited.

6.14 A sanctions match after review. Summer re-screens you, your Account and your Payout Account under Section 6.9 immediately before the Payout Provider sends a Program Payment, after Payment Review under Section 7.3 has closed. A match at any time before sending stops the Program Payment. The Eligible Earned Sparks of a stopped Program Payment are restored to your ledger under Section 5.6 with their original maturation dates and are held under Section 8.4; a stop is a hold and not a forfeiture. If the match is a false positive, or if you are removed from the list, the held Eligible Earned Sparks are included in the first Batch after clearance. Where the law requires Summer to block or report the payment, Summer complies (including any initial blocked-property report to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control within 10 business days under 31 CFR 501.603) and may be prohibited from telling you why; a legally required block is not a breach by Summer.

7. Payment mechanics

7.1 Minimum payment. The minimum Program Payment is USD 100.00, measured at the Creator Rate and before any legally required withholding (12,500 Eligible Earned Sparks at the Creator Rate; the Fee and Rates Schedule states the current figure). Eligible Earned Sparks below the minimum remain on your ledger without expiry, fee or forfeiture (Sections 9.2 and 13.1) and roll forward, for as long as it takes, until a Batch in which they meet the minimum or until a final Program Payment under Section 15.5, which you may bring about at any time by ending your participation under Section 15.3. Summer does not make a separate periodic payment of balances below the minimum. The minimum does not apply to a final Program Payment under Section 2.3 (wind-down) or Section 15.5 (end of participation), or to a Program Payment under the Beta Program Terms.

7.2 Monthly Batches. Program Payments are made in one Batch per calendar month. Eligible Earned Sparks that meet Sections 3 to 7 on the Batch Cut-Off (and, under the on-request election, are the subject of a Payment Request received before the Batch Cut-Off) are included in that month's Batch, which Summer initiates within 7 business days after the Batch Cut-Off, subject to Sections 7.3, 7.4, 8 and 9 and to the Payout Provider's delivery times thereafter. Eligible Earned Sparks that miss a Batch Cut-Off are included in the following Batch. There are no off-cycle payments.

7.3 First-Payment Gate, First-Payment Cap and Payment Review. No Program Payment is made to you until 90 days after the first Earned Sparks were credited to your ledger (the "First-Payment Gate"); the first Batch you can join is the first Batch Cut-Off after that date. Your first Program Payment is capped at USD 2,000, measured at the Creator Rate and before any legally required withholding (the "First-Payment Cap"); Eligible Earned Sparks above the First-Payment Cap stay on your ledger as Eligible Earned Sparks and are paid in the next Batch. Summer releases the full amount in your first Batch instead if you complete a full manual review (identity, Payout Account ownership and spend-pattern review). There is no maximum Program Payment amount after your first Program Payment. Any Program Payment above USD 10,000 and any Program Payment flagged by Summer's anomaly detection is reviewed by Summer before release ("Payment Review"). Summer may hold a Program Payment pending Payment Review. A hold under this Section is a hold and not a forfeiture: the Eligible Earned Sparks stay on your ledger and are paid when the review closes unless a ground listed in Section 9.1 applies. Signals that may flag a Program Payment include, without limitation, spend in a Game concentrated in one or a few Accounts, spend with little or no playtime, a spending Player and the Creator sharing a device, IP address or payment card, new Accounts spending heavily, and a first Game that suddenly earns a lot. The First-Payment Gate, the First-Payment Cap and Payment Review exist to detect payment fraud, chargeback patterns and self-dealing before money leaves Summer; they are gates on the Creator Program; no amount is held for you (Section 2.2). After your first Program Payment the ordinary schedule in Section 7.2 applies, subject to Payment Review.

7.4 Compliance review. Each Batch item is subject to compliance review, which may include fraud analysis, buyer-to-creator linkage checks, sanctions screening, tax documentation checks and verification under Section 3.3. Payment Review under Section 7.3 is carried out as part of this review. Summer's target for completing review is 10 business days from the Batch Cut-Off for returning Creators and 15 business days for a Creator's first Program Payment. If review will exceed the target, Summer will notify you of the delay and, except where the law prohibits it or disclosure would compromise a fraud investigation, the general reason and what you can do to resolve it. The review clock pauses while a documented request to you is outstanding. A prior Program Payment does not establish entitlement to a later one; each Batch is reviewed on its own facts.

7.5 Failed and returned payments. If a Program Payment fails or is returned because your Payout Account information is inaccurate, closed or unsupported, Summer will notify you and re-credit the amount to a pending state. You must correct your information before the payment is re-initiated, and the re-initiated payment is included in the next Batch. Amounts that remain uncorrected are handled under Section 13.

7.6 Statements and error reporting. Summer will make available a statement for each Batch showing the Eligible Earned Sparks paid, the Creator Rate applied, Network Share lines under Section 10, reversals and offsets under Sections 8 and 9, the gross amount at the Creator Rate, any withholding under Section 11 (including the US-Source Share to which it was applied and the rate applied), any disclosed fees, the delivery method and the net amount delivered or credited. Figures shown in the Creator dashboard before a Batch is final are estimates and may change by reversals, offsets and review. You must review each statement and notify Summer of any claimed error within 60 days after the statement is made available. Absent notice within that period, the statement is deemed accepted, except in the case of fraud or manifest error by Summer. Section 18.3 makes this review the first step for any Dispute about an amount.

7.7 Payment to you only. Summer pays only you, to your own Payout Account or as platform credit on your own Account. Summer does not split, redirect or assign Program Payments to third parties at your instruction, other than Network Shares that Summer itself computes and credits under Section 10.

7.8 Pause limit and accrued-balance ceiling (reserved). Under the on-request election you may leave Eligible Earned Sparks unpaid, but not for more than 12 months after they became eligible and not above USD 250,000 at the Creator Rate. When either limit is reached Summer will include the balance in the next Batch, or, if you have not provided a Payout Account, invite you to make the platform-credit election or provide one; Section 13 applies if you do neither.

7.9 Timelines. Summer publishes in the Creator dashboard the expected time from Batch Cut-Off to delivery, by delivery method and country, as reported by the Payout Provider, and states that a first Program Payment takes longer than a returning one because of Section 7.3 and Section 7.4. Published timelines are estimates, not commitments.

8. Offsets, reserves and holds

8.1 Amounts we may offset. Summer may deduct and offset against your Earned Sparks, pending Batch items and Program Payments: (a) Earned Sparks generated by spends that are refunded, credited, undone or charged back, including automatic credits issued under the Refund and Billing Policy when moderation removes purchased Virtual Content for your violation; (b) Earned Sparks generated by payment reversals and disputed transactions attributable to spending in your Games, in the amount of the Earned Sparks those transactions generated, and never any chargeback fee, which the Fee and Rates Schedule never assesses against a Creator for another User's chargeback; (c) fines, penalties and assessments imposed on Summer by card networks, payment providers or regulators that are directly attributable to your Games, your conduct or your content; (d) amounts you owe Summer under these Terms, the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Multiplayer Hosting Terms or any other agreement between you and Summer, as Section 8.6 limits; and (e) amounts Summer is required to withhold or deduct by law, including under Section 11.

8.2 Itemized notice. Every offset appears as an itemized line on your statement under Section 7.6, identifying the Game and the date of the underlying reversal without stating any Player's payment amount. Summer will not apply undisclosed or unexplained deductions.

8.3 Reserves. If your Games show an elevated rate of chargebacks, refunds or payment disputes relative to Platform norms, or if Summer has reasonable evidence of fraud risk associated with your Account, Summer may establish a reserve by deferring a stated portion of your Program Payments for a stated period. A reserve must be proportionate to the documented risk and specific to your Account; Summer does not apply a rolling reserve to Creators generally. Summer will notify you when a reserve is established, its amount or percentage, the reason in general terms and the schedule for its release, and will review it at least every 90 days. Reserved Eligible Earned Sparks remain on your ledger, subject to Sections 8 and 9, and are paid when released; a reserve is a deferral, not an amount held for you.

8.4 Payment suspension. Summer may suspend Program Payments, in whole or in part, while it investigates suspected fraud, self-dealing, sanctions exposure or a material policy violation, or where required by law, legal process or the Payout Provider. Summer will apply the notice and timeline standards of Section 7.4 to suspensions to the extent legally permitted. Accrual continues during a suspension. A suspension under this Section, including one for sanctions exposure, legal process or a Payout Provider requirement, is a hold and not a forfeiture: the suspended Eligible Earned Sparks stay on your ledger and are paid when the suspension lifts unless a ground listed in Section 9.1 applies.

8.5 Negative balances: netting only. If offsets exceed your Earned Sparks and pending Batch items, your earned ledger will carry a negative balance and no Batch item is eligible while it is negative. Summer recovers a negative balance solely by netting it against your future Earned Sparks and future Program Payments. Summer will not debit your Payout Account, will not invoice you and will not pursue collection for a negative balance, except that where the negative balance is attributable to your own fraud or self-dealing under Section 9.1(a) or (b), Summer may recover it by any lawful means. Summer will not lock, suspend or restrict your Account, your Purchased Sparks or your Virtual Content because your earned ledger is negative, and you may keep publishing and accruing.

8.6 Fees you owe Summer. Where you owe Summer fees for a fee-bearing service (for example, hosting overages under the Multiplayer Hosting Terms or AI usage overages), Summer may set the unpaid amount off against Program Payments and debit Eligible Earned Sparks valued at the Creator Rate in effect at the time of the debit, as those documents state. Summer never uses Purchased Sparks to recover a fee, and a set-off under this Section is an accounting set-off of a fee you owe against a Program Payment Summer would otherwise make; it gives Earned Sparks no cash value and creates no right to receive money.

8.7 One timeline of holds. The following are the only reasons a credited Earned Spark is not paid in the next Batch, read together: (a) maturation, 30 days from the spend (Section 4.6), or 60 days for a Program Award (Section 4.10); (b) the First-Payment Gate, the First-Payment Cap (Eligible Earned Sparks above USD 2,000 in your first Program Payment wait for the next Batch unless a full manual review releases them) and a hold pending Payment Review (Section 7.3); (c) a review or suspension under Sections 4.3, 7.4 or 8.4; (d) a reserve under Section 8.3; (e) a hold under Section 4.4 of the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy on Earned Sparks generated by a Game after Summer receives a compliant copyright notice about it, which lifts with the original maturation dates if the material is restored and is never a forfeiture by itself; (f) an eligibility, documentation, Payout Account or screening gap under Sections 3, 6 and 11, including the Payout Account change hold under Section 6.12 and a sanctions stop under Section 6.14; and (g) a negative earned balance under Section 8.5.

9. Reversals and no forfeiture

9.1 Limited reversal grounds. Summer may reverse, adjust, reclassify or cancel Earned Sparks, pending Batch items or Program Payments only on the following grounds: (a) fraud, including use of stolen payment instruments, payment fraud, identity fraud and manipulation of the ledger or of Platform systems; (b) self-dealing, meaning activity designed to generate Earned Sparks without genuine third-party spending, including purchasing your own Virtual Content directly or through intermediaries, circular or recycled spending, collusion with other Users, funding or reimbursing Users to spend in your Games, and routing spend through alternate, related or coordinated Accounts; (c) material violations of the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Summer Games Community Standards, the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy or these Terms, to the extent the amounts are attributable to the violating content or conduct (including, under the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy, the reversal of Earned Sparks attributable to removed infringing Virtual Content under its Section 4.4 and the reversal of a Network Share or other credit obtained through a false assertion of infringement or ownership under its Sections 7.2 and 9.8); (d) Earned Sparks obtained by misrepresenting, or by encouraging Players to misrepresent, age, location or other eligibility criteria, including any category or program eligibility under Sections 4.7 to 4.10 and 5.2; (e) reversal of the underlying spend under the Refund and Billing Policy (Section 9.5); and (f) correction of a ledger error.

9.2 No forfeiture of ordinary balances. Except under Section 9.1, Summer will not cancel, confiscate or forfeit Earned Sparks or accrued Program Payments. Termination of your participation or of your Account, by you or by Summer, is not itself a reversal ground: on termination without Section 9.1(a) to (d) grounds, your Eligible Earned Sparks are paid under Section 15.5 without regard to the minimum. Purchased Sparks and Virtual Content you acquired are never forfeited or revoked as a consequence of anything in this Section 9.

9.3 Process. Before or promptly after applying a reversal under Section 9.1(a) to (d), Summer will give you written notice stating the amounts affected and the general grounds, except where the law prohibits it or notice would compromise an ongoing fraud investigation. You may dispute a reversal under Section 18. If a reversal is reversed on review, Summer restores the amounts with their original maturation dates and includes any resulting Eligible Earned Sparks in the next Batch.

9.4 Recovery of paid amounts. Amounts already paid to you that are subject to reversal under Section 9.1 are recovered as a negative balance under Section 8.5: by netting only, except in the case of your own fraud or self-dealing under Section 9.1(a) or (b).

9.5 Reversals following Player refunds, credits and disputes. Players transact only with Summer, and Summer handles Player complaints, refunds, credits and chargebacks under the Refund and Billing Policy. When a spend in your Game is refunded, credited, undone or charged back, the Earned Sparks it generated (including any Network Share lines) are reversed in the same proportions in which they were credited; if they had not matured they are simply removed, and if they were already paid Section 8.5 applies. Where Virtual Content is removed and Players are credited because of your violation, the reversal is under this Section; where the removal or reversal is not attributable to any Creator's violation (for example, a Platform error or a policy change by Summer), Summer bears the cost of the Player credit and does not reverse your Earned Sparks. If a chargeback is later decided in Summer's favor, the reversed Earned Sparks are restored with their original maturation dates.

9.6 Unpublished, deleted and removed Games. Your unpublishing or deleting a Game is not a reversal ground: Earned Sparks already credited from spends in that Game keep maturing and are paid under these Terms, and Players who acquired Virtual Content in it keep that Virtual Content as the Summer Games Terms of Service provides. Where Summer removes a Game or Virtual Content for a violation under Section 9.1(c), the reversal reaches only the Earned Sparks attributable to the violating content or conduct, in each of three ledger states: (a) Earned Sparks that have not matured are removed under Section 4.6; (b) Eligible Earned Sparks not yet paid are offset under Section 8.1(a) against the automatic credits issued to Players under the Refund and Billing Policy; and (c) amounts already paid are recovered by netting only under Section 8.5. Your other Games, and compliant content in the same Game, are unaffected. An appeal under the Summer Games Terms of Service does not delay a Player credit; if your appeal, or a dispute under Section 18, succeeds, Summer restores the reversed Earned Sparks under Section 9.3 with their original maturation dates. Where the removal is not attributable to any Creator's violation, Section 9.5 applies and nothing is reversed.

9.7 App Store refunds; one charge, several Creators. Where a Player bought Sparks through Apple's App Store, Apple bills the Player and decides refunds under its own rules, and Summer mirrors Apple's decision on the Player's Lot under Section 12A.3 of the Refund and Billing Policy. Summer applies the resulting reversal under Section 9.5 whatever reason Apple states or does not state; the Lot rules of the Refund and Billing Policy, not Apple's reason code and not any Creator, decide which spends are unwound. Summer bears the cost under Section 10.4 of the Refund and Billing Policy only where Summer's own records show a Platform-caused defect. If Apple reverses a refund it granted, Summer restores the reversed Earned Sparks with their original maturation dates under Section 9.3. Where one refunded or charged-back purchase funded spends in several Creators' Games, each Creator's reversal is limited to the Earned Sparks generated by that Creator's own spends, Network Share lines are reversed in the proportions in which they were credited, nothing is pooled or apportioned across unrelated Creators, no Creator bears any share of a dispute fee (Section 8.1(b)), and nothing is recovered twice.

10. Network Shares

10.1 Ledger-level allocation. Where a Game is a Mod, or has Mods with Modding Enabled, Users' spending is allocated between the Modder and the Original Creator at the Earned Sparks ledger level, automatically and before anything is eligible for payment, at the Network Share Rate and in the manner defined in the Network Share Schedule. The Network Share Rate is set by the Original Creator when enabling Modding, at any whole number from 0 to 100 percent, with no platform default and no band, and is shown to a Modder before they build; a change applies only to spends after the new rate is published on the Game page. Summer's 30 percent share at spend is taken first and is unchanged; the Network Share Rate splits the remaining 70 percent, the Modder receiving the Network Share Rate and the Original Creator the remainder, never touching Summer's share, computed in Sparks units. Every leg of a modded spend is allocated in one ledger event at spend; a reversal under Section 9.5 reverses all legs of that event. Worked example: 100 Sparks spent on Mod content at a Network Share Rate of 50 percent: Summer 30, Modder 35, Original Creator 35; at 100 percent: Summer 30, Modder 70, Original Creator 0; at 0 percent: Summer 30, Original Creator 70. Only the amounts allocated to you become your Earned Sparks.

10.2 Direct crediting. Summer computes each Network Share and credits each participating Creator's Earned Sparks directly under these Terms. Sparks are never transferred between Creators. No Creator pays, collects for or owes any amount to any other Creator through the Creator Program, no Creator has any claim against another Creator's Program Payments, and Summer's crediting of the split fully discharges any Network Share obligation between Creators. Network Share amounts are Earned Sparks in the recipient's hands with the character described in Section 5.3 when paid; a Program Payment for Network Share amounts is a Program Payment for all purposes, including the US federal tax treatment and the withholding on the US-Source Share under Sections 5.3 and 11 and the Creator Tax Addendum.

10.3 Reporting. Your statements under Section 7.6 show Network Share lines affecting your Earned Sparks at the level of detail described in the Network Share Schedule.

10.4 Disputes about splits. The Network Share Rate (set by the Original Creator at any whole number from 0 to 100 percent, with no platform default and no band), the one-level stacking rule, activation, revocation and the Compliance Process are governed by the Summer Games Terms of Service and the Network Share Schedule, not by these Terms. Disputes about the computation of a Network Share line are raised in the 14-day window in the Network Share Schedule and then under Section 7.6 and Section 18.5.

10.5 Summer Passport (dormant). Summer Passport creates no Earned Sparks and no Network Share by itself. If the Fee and Rates Schedule publishes a Passport Share Rate, spends on Passport Derived Content in a Host Game create a Network Share for the Origin Creator under Section 6.3 of the Network Share Schedule, credited and paid under these Terms like any other Network Share. Until then this Section has no effect.

11. Taxes

11.1 Your responsibility. You are solely responsible for all taxes on Program Payments in your country of residence and anywhere else you are taxable, including income tax, self-employment tax where applicable, and any other tax, levy or governmental charge, other than taxes on Summer's net income. The Creator Tax Addendum contains additional tax terms and is incorporated into these Terms.

11.2 Tax forms before any payment. Before your first Program Payment (including platform credit under Section 5.4), and as a continuing condition of payment, you must provide: (a) if you are a US Person, a valid IRS Form W-9; or (b) if you are not a US Person, a valid IRS Form W-8BEN (individuals) or Form W-8BEN-E (entities), or another applicable Form W-8 series form, which documents your non-US status and any income tax treaty claim you make (with the US or foreign taxpayer identification number the treaty claim requires) that reduces the rate of US withholding on the US-Source Share under Section 11.3. You must submit an updated form promptly whenever your circumstances change and whenever your form expires under IRS rules. No form, no Program Payment: Summer holds rather than pays; if a Program Payment is nonetheless made to a US Person without a valid Form W-9 on file (for example, where a form on file is later found invalid), backup withholding under Section 11.4 applies to it.

11.3 Withholding. Summer will deduct from Program Payments only the US tax withholding that applicable law requires, based on the documentation you provide and the Withholding Determination recorded in the Creator Tax Addendum. If you are not a US Person, US withholding applies at 30 percent to the US-Source Share of each Program Payment, reduced to the applicable treaty rate where the Form W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E you provide makes a valid income tax treaty claim, including any required taxpayer identification number. The "US-Source Share" is the portion of your Eligible Earned Sparks that arose from spends by Players whose Player Country at the time of spend was the United States; Player Country is determined from the Player's billing country at purchase, with location derived from IP address as the fallback, as the Creator Tax Addendum and the Summer Dictionary describe. Earnings from Players outside the United States are not subject to US withholding. Summer applies the rate your valid documentation supports, remits withheld amounts to the IRS and files Form 1042-S annually under Section 11.5. If you are a US Person, no US withholding applies other than backup withholding under Section 11.4. If the law or a change in Summer's Withholding Determination changes the withholding that applies to you, Summer will notify you at least 30 days in advance except where a shorter period is required by law, and the Creator Tax Addendum governs.

11.4 Backup withholding. If you are a US Person and fail to provide a valid Form W-9, your taxpayer identification number is missing or does not match IRS records, or the IRS notifies Summer that backup withholding applies to you, Summer will withhold 24 percent (or the then-current statutory rate) from Program Payments as required by law.

11.5 Information reporting. Summer will file the information returns required for Program Payments (for US Persons, Form 1099-MISC (royalties, Box 2) annually where the IRS threshold for royalties, USD 10 or more paid in the calendar year, is met; for non-US persons, Form 1042-S annually, reporting the US-Source Share and any withholding) and any required state filings, and will furnish you the corresponding statements, in each case where the applicable statutory threshold is met or any withholding was applied. Summer Labs, Inc. is the payer of record and the withholding agent for any amounts withheld. Summer may use the Payout Provider or a tax service provider as its agent to prepare, file or deliver returns. Program Payments are not payment card or third-party network transactions and are not expected to be reported on Form 1099-K.

11.6 Electronic delivery. By enrolling, you consent to electronic delivery of Tax Forms and statements through the Platform or to your registered email address, to the extent permitted by IRS rules. You may revoke this consent as described in the Creator Tax Addendum, in which case Summer will deliver paper forms to your address on file.

11.7 Withheld amounts. Amounts properly withheld and remitted to a tax authority under this Section are treated as paid to you for all purposes under these Terms. Summer has no obligation to gross up any Program Payment for withholding. Withheld amounts are not a fee charged by Summer; the Creator Rate is a gross rate before any legally required withholding, and every statement under Section 7.6 shows the gross amount, the withholding and the net amount.

11.8 No tax advice. Summer does not provide tax advice. Consult your own tax adviser about the treatment of Program Payments where you live.

11.9 Local documentation. Where the law of your country requires an invoice or self-billing document for a Program Payment, you authorize Summer to issue a self-billing statement on your behalf in the form Summer specifies, as the Creator Tax Addendum describes.

12. Independent relationship

12.1 Self-publishing platform. The Platform is a self-publishing platform. You decide whether, what and when to create and publish; you set the Sparks prices of your Virtual Content within the caps in the Fee and Rates Schedule; you may publish on other platforms and export your Games; you have no minimum output; and Summer does not direct, supervise or control your work, your hours, your tools (beyond published technical compatibility and safety requirements) or your creative decisions. Summer's role is to operate the Platform, sell Sparks as sole seller, and pay Program Payments under these Terms.

12.2 No employment or agency. You are an independent Creator. Nothing in these Terms, the Summer Games Terms of Service or your participation in the Creator Program creates an employment, worker, agency, partnership, joint venture, franchise or independent-contractor relationship between you and Summer. You are not entitled to any employee or worker benefits from Summer, including wages, overtime, vacation, sick leave, insurance, retirement, workers' compensation or unemployment benefits.

12.3 Program Payments are not wages. Program Payments are payments under the Summer Creator Program as described in Section 5.3 (a payment made by Summer, from Summer's own funds, as Summer's own obligation under the Creator Program, in consideration of the license you grant Summer), with the US federal tax treatment stated in Sections 5.3 and 11 and the Creator Tax Addendum. They are not wages, salary, commissions or compensation for services performed for Summer. Except for withholding under Section 11, Summer will not withhold employment or payroll taxes from Program Payments, and you are solely responsible for any self-employment tax and related filings that apply to you.

12.4 No authority to bind. You have no authority to act for Summer, to bind Summer or to make commitments on Summer's behalf, and you may not represent otherwise.

12.5 No exclusivity; portability. These Terms do not restrict you from creating or publishing content on other platforms. Your rights to keep copies of your projects and to export them in a Godot-compatible format are set out in the Summer Games Terms of Service and survive the end of your participation. Exported Games contain no Sparks and generate no Earned Sparks. [Reserved. If Summer publishes the Linked Build clause in Section 8.8 of the Summer Games Terms of Service as active, Sparks may be spent, never sold, inside a Linked Build; nothing in these Terms or the Exported Game Runtime License itself permits Sparks in an exported Game.]

12.6 Both lanes. If you also sell Paid Games as a Seller under the Paid Games Terms, that relationship is separate and is not part of the Creator Program (Section 2.6); Paid Games proceeds are not Program Payments, and Sections 5.3 and 11 and the Creator Tax Addendum do not apply to them.

13. Dormancy and unclaimed amounts

13.1 No dormancy forfeiture. Summer does not charge dormancy or inactivity fees on Earned Sparks or Program Payments, and does not forfeit or expire Earned Sparks because of inactivity.

13.2 Re-verification after dormancy. Before making a Program Payment to a Creator whose Account has had no authenticated session for 24 months or more, Summer will require re-verification of identity, tax documentation and Payout Account under Sections 3.3, 6.2 and 11.2. Eligible Earned Sparks remain on the ledger during re-verification.

13.3 Unclaimed Program Payments. A Program Payment that has been returned under Section 7.5 and that you have not enabled Summer to re-initiate, because we cannot reach you or you have not corrected your Payout Account, may become subject to state unclaimed-property (escheat) laws. Where required by law, Summer will report and remit such amounts to the applicable state authority, after which your claim is against that state, not against Summer. Earned Sparks that have not become a Program Payment are a contingent entitlement under Section 2.2 and are not treated as unclaimed property.

13.4 Keep your information current. You must keep your email address, physical address, Tax Forms and Payout Account current. Before treating any amount as unclaimed, Summer will make commercially reasonable attempts to contact you using the information on file.

13.5 Reclaiming amounts. At any time before amounts are remitted to a state authority, you may claim them by restoring your eligibility under Section 3 and providing a verified Payout Account or making the platform-credit election, and Summer will pay them in the next Batch.

14. Minors

14.1 Adults only. Program Payments are made only to persons who are at least 18 years old and of the age of majority where they live. Users aged 13 to 17 may create and publish on the Platform under the Summer Games Terms of Service and, where applicable, the Parent Account Terms, but may not enroll in the Creator Program, receive Program Payments or make the platform-credit election, and may not purchase Sparks (Section 8 of the Summer Games Terms of Service).

14.2 Accrual before eligibility. Earned Sparks attributable to a Creator who is under 18, including Network Shares, accrue on that Creator's ledger under the Summer Games Terms of Service as a contingent entitlement whose conditions cannot yet be met. Nothing is owed to or held for the minor, and the record is never spendable by anyone. Accrued Earned Sparks do not expire. When that Creator turns 18 and enrolls under Section 3, previously accrued Earned Sparks become Eligible Earned Sparks under Section 4.6 and are paid under these Terms, subject to Sections 4, 8 and 9.

14.3 Guardian-mediated participation (reserved). Summer is evaluating a guardian-mediated structure for Creators under 18. If offered, it will be governed by additional terms and by the Parent Account Terms; nothing in these Terms commits Summer to offer it.

14.4 Fresh opt-out at 18. A Creator who accepted the Summer Games Terms of Service through a parent or guardian and later enrolls in the Creator Program receives the fresh arbitration opt-out window described in Section 18.2.

14.5 If we learn that you were under 18 or under the age of majority. If Summer learns that you enrolled while under 18 or under the age of majority where you live (Section 3.1(a)): (a) before any Program Payment has been made, your enrollment ends without a final Program Payment under Section 15.5; Earned Sparks genuinely generated by other Users' spending stay on your ledger under Section 14.2 and become payable when you reach 18 and the age of majority and enroll under Section 3; only a Program Award or a category rate obtained through the misrepresentation is reversed under Section 9.1(d); and your Account is handled under the Summer Games Terms of Service and, where applicable, the Parent Account Terms; (b) after a Program Payment has been made, Summer recovers the amount paid by netting only, under Section 8.5, against Earned Sparks that become payable after you enroll; Summer will not pursue you, a parent or a guardian for it; (c) where an adult's identity documents, Tax Form or Payout Account were used to pass verification, the case is identity fraud under Section 9.1(a) and Summer may recover from the participating adult by any lawful means; and (d) Summer corrects any information return it filed. Genuine Earned Sparks are never forfeited for age alone.

15. Term, suspension and termination

15.1 Term. These Terms take effect when you accept them under Section 1.5 and continue until your participation ends under this Section 15 or the Creator Program ends under Section 2.3.

15.2 Suspension by Summer. Summer may suspend your participation or your Program Payments while: (a) an eligibility failure under Section 3 remains uncured; (b) an investigation under Section 4.3, 8.4 or 9 is pending; (c) a verification or documentation request under Section 3.3, 6.4 or 11.2 is outstanding; or (d) suspension is required by law, legal process or the Payout Provider. Summer will notify you of a suspension and its general basis, except where the law prohibits it, and will lift the suspension promptly when the basis is resolved. Accrual continues during a suspension.

15.3 Termination by you. You may end your participation at any time through your Account settings or by written notice to Summer at support@summerengine.com.

15.4 Termination by Summer. Summer may end your participation: (a) immediately, on Section 9.1(a) to (d) grounds; or (b) otherwise, with 30 days' notice.

15.5 Effect of ending participation. When your participation ends for any reason other than Section 9.1(a) to (d) grounds, Summer will make a final Program Payment for your Eligible Earned Sparks, and for Earned Sparks that mature within the 30 days after your participation ends, at the Creator Rate in effect on the Batch Cut-Off, in the next Batch, without regard to the minimum in Section 7.1 and subject to Sections 7 (mechanics and review), 8 (offsets, reserves and holds) and 11 (taxes), provided you complete any outstanding verification and tax documentation within 90 days; Section 13 applies if you do not. When participation ends on Section 9.1(a) to (d) grounds, only the amounts subject to reversal under Section 9 are affected; any remaining untainted Eligible Earned Sparks are paid under this Section. Ending participation in the Creator Program does not by itself terminate your Account or your rights under the Summer Games Terms of Service, including your export rights.

15.6 Account termination. If your Account is terminated under the Summer Games Terms of Service, your participation ends at the same time and Section 15.5 applies.

15.7 Survival. Sections 2.2, 2.4, 3.9, 4.3, 4.4, 5.3, 6.7, 6.11, 6.12, 7.6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15.8, 16, 17, 18 and 19 survive the end of these Terms, together with any Program Payment obligation that had accrued.

15.8 Death; dissolution. If you die, or if an entity Creator is dissolved, your participation ends on the date of death or dissolution and Section 15.5 applies with the following adjustments. Summer makes the final Program Payment, and any later Program Payment for Earned Sparks that mature afterwards, to: (a) the personal representative of your estate named in letters testamentary, letters of administration or an equivalent court appointment; (b) where the law of your residence allows collection without administration, the successor named in the statutory declaration or affidavit that law provides (for a California resident, a declaration under California Probate Code Section 13100 made 40 days or more after death, under the statutory threshold); or (c) for an entity, the entity itself while it winds up, or its liquidator, trustee or lawful successor. Before payment the payee completes identity verification under Section 3.3 and sanctions screening under Section 6.9, provides the estate's or successor's Tax Form under Section 11.2 (the estate or successor is the payee for tax reporting), and provides a Payout Account held in a fiduciary capacity or in the successor's own name, which satisfies Section 6.3. The payment is made in the next Batch, without regard to the minimum in Section 7.1, at the Creator Rate on that Batch Cut-Off; the First-Payment Gate and the First-Payment Cap apply as they would have applied to you. Your Games stay published until the representative unpublishes them; a person who becomes entitled to your Games may re-enroll as the Enrolled Payee under Section 3.4. If no one entitled comes forward within [12] months after Summer learns of the death or dissolution, Section 13 applies and nothing is forfeited. Sections 3.4 and 19.2 do not prevent a payment under this Section.

16. Your representations and warranties

16.1 You represent and warrant, at enrollment and at each Batch Cut-Off, that: (a) all information you have provided to Summer, the Identity Verification Provider and the Payout Provider is accurate, current and complete; (b) you satisfy the eligibility requirements in Section 3; (c) your Games and content comply with the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Summer Games Community Standards, the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy and the AI Features and Generated Content Terms, and you have all rights needed to grant the licenses on which Program Payments are based; (d) the Earned Sparks for which you are paid were generated by genuine spending by other Users and not by self-dealing, fraud or misrepresentation of eligibility; (e) you are not using the Creator Program to launder money, evade sanctions or conceal the proceeds of unlawful activity; and (f) you will use Program Payments only for lawful purposes. 16.2 You will notify Summer promptly if any representation in Section 16.1 ceases to be true.

17. Disclaimers and limitation of liability

17.1 Program provided as is. The Creator Program is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Summer disclaims all implied warranties regarding the program, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. Summer does not warrant any level of earnings, any audience for your Games, or that the Creator Rate will not change under Section 5.2.

17.2 Limitation. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, and except for the carve-outs in Section 17.3, Summer's total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms is limited to the greater of (a) USD 1,000 and (b) the total Program Payments paid or payable to you under these Terms in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim; and neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages, or for lost profits or lost data.

17.3 Carve-outs. Nothing in Section 17.2 limits: (a) Summer's obligation to make Program Payments properly accrued and payable to you under these Terms; (b) either party's liability for fraud, gross negligence or willful misconduct; (c) your repayment obligation for a negative balance attributable to your fraud or self-dealing under Section 9.1(a) or (b), as Section 8.5 states; or (d) any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.

17.4 Consumer and mandatory rights. These Terms do not limit rights you have under applicable law that cannot be waived or limited by contract, including, if you are outside the United States, the mandatory law of the country where you live.

18. Dispute Resolution

18.1 The Terms of Service dispute section applies. Any Dispute between you and Summer arising out of or relating to these Creator Program Terms, the Summer Creator Program (the "Creator Program"), Earned Sparks, Program Payments, the Creator Rate, Network Shares, or your Payout Account is governed by Section 23 (Dispute resolution and arbitration agreement) and Section 24 (Governing law and venue) of the Summer Games Terms of Service, which are incorporated into these Terms as if set out in full and are not restated here. Capitalized terms in this Section 18 have the meanings given there. If you validly opted out of arbitration under the Summer Games Terms of Service, that opt-out applies to Disputes under these Terms.

18.2 A fresh opt-out window when you enroll. Your enrollment in the Creator Program is a new acceptance for the purposes of Section 23.16 of the Summer Games Terms of Service. You may send an Arbitration Opt-Out Notice within thirty (30) days after you enroll, by any method described there, whether or not you opted out earlier. An opt-out sent in that window applies to all Disputes under these Terms and to every other Dispute between you and Summer that arises after Summer receives it.

18.3 Program Payment amounts: statement review first. For a Dispute about the amount of a Program Payment, the computation of Earned Sparks, or a Network Share allocation shown on a statement, you must first use the statement review process in Section 7.6 (the sixty (60) day error window) before sending a Notice of Dispute; the Informal Resolution Period then applies. The time to send a Notice of Dispute and the period in Section 23.15 of the Summer Games Terms of Service are tolled while a statement review you requested in good faith is pending.

18.4 Player complaints about your Games are handled by Summer. Players transact only with Summer. Summer handles Player complaints, refunds, credits, and chargebacks relating to spending in your Games under the Refund and Billing Policy. Summer does not refer Players to you for those matters, and you may not require or ask a Player to resolve a purchase, refund, or content complaint with you before contacting Summer. Where Summer refunds, credits, or reverses a Player transaction attributable to spending in your Games, Summer may net the corresponding Earned Sparks against your balance as Section 8 provides, and recovery is by netting only except in the case of your own fraud or self-dealing under Section 9.1(a) or (b), as Section 8.5 states. Summer's determination of a Player complaint is final as between you and Summer for the purpose of that netting, without prejudice to your right to dispute the netting under Section 7.6 and Section 18.1. You agree to cooperate promptly and professionally with Summer's handling of Player complaints, including by providing information Summer reasonably requests within ten (10) business days.

18.5 Disputes with other Creators. Summer is not a party to disputes between Creators and does not adjudicate them. Claims that another Creator's content infringes your intellectual property are made under the DMCA and Intellectual Property Policy. Disputes about Network Share attribution or computation are raised in the dispute window in the Network Share Schedule. Summer may, but is not obliged to, act on either kind of report, and Summer's decision on the Platform consequences (removal, restoration, attribution correction, recomputation, or none) is final as between each Creator and Summer, subject to Section 18.1. Nothing in these Terms requires you to mediate or arbitrate with another Creator.

18.6 Governing law and venue. Section 24 of the Summer Games Terms of Service applies: these Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, the Arbitration Agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, and Disputes not subject to arbitration are brought exclusively in the state courts located in San Francisco County, California, or the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, subject to the mandatory law of the country where you live if you are outside the United States.

19. General terms

19.1 Notices. Summer may give you notice through the Platform, the Creator dashboard or your registered email address. You may give Summer notice at support@summerengine.com or by mail to Summer Labs, Inc., 2810 N Church St, STE 89812, Wilmington, DE 19802, United States. Notice is effective on delivery.

19.2 Assignment. You may not assign these Terms, your Earned Sparks or any right to a Program Payment without Summer's prior written consent, and any attempt is void; a transfer of a publishing Account together with its right to future Earned Sparks is not permitted at launch; a Studio transfer is possible only in the manner Section 3.4 describes (re-enrollment of the new Enrolled Payee with fresh verification and tax documentation; existing ledger balances never pass). Summer may assign these Terms to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, provided the assignee assumes Summer's obligations, including accrued Program Payment obligations.

19.3 Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the documents they incorporate by reference (including the Summer Games Terms of Service, the Fee and Rates Schedule, the Network Share Schedule, the Creator Tax Addendum and, where activated and elected, the Stablecoin Payout Addendum), are the entire agreement between you and Summer about the Creator Program and supersede prior discussions on that subject.

19.4 Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remainder will remain in effect, except as Section 23 of the Summer Games Terms of Service provides for the Arbitration Agreement and the class action waiver.

19.5 No waiver. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later. Waivers must be in writing.

19.6 Interpretation. Headings are for convenience only. "Including" means "including without limitation". References to laws include their amendments and successors. Bracketed numbers restate the Fee and Rates Schedule as of the Effective Date.

19.7 Sanctions and export compliance. You represent that you are not located in, organized in or a resident of any country or region subject to comprehensive US sanctions, and that you are not on any US government restricted-party list (including the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list) or owned or controlled by anyone who is. Screening under Section 6.9 applies to every Program Payment. Summer will not make Program Payments where prohibited by sanctions or export-control law, and a legally required block under this Section is not a breach by Summer.

19.8 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including a Payout Provider outage, except for Program Payment obligations already accrued and not legally blocked, which are paid in the next available Batch.

19.9 Electronic contracting. You consent to contract electronically and agree that electronic records and signatures satisfy any writing requirement.

19.10 Language. These Terms are drafted in English, and the English version controls over any translation.