Custom Content Policy

Custom Content Guidelines and Policies

In order to expand the world of Not-Earth to the infinite creativity of the userbase, users may submit custom clothing and decor designs for implementation into the game. Items will need to follow a strict set of style and content guidelines to be approved and require an initial payment of 25 essence fragments ($2.50 equivalent) as a submission fee. Once approved, users can sell their approved designs at the Artisan's Market to other users.

Please see the relevant section of the Terms of Service regarding Custom Clothing and Decor. Of note, custom clothing and decor items that have been submitted and implemented into the game become the property of Cloudy Squid Games LLC and are subject to the Intellectual Property and In-Game Item Sales rules as described in the TOS.


Submission Process*

* Because this feature is not live, the submission process is a work in progress and may not be fully accurate to the final process.

Item Creation

Before you begin working on your piece, be sure you read the content rules outlined in this policy in their entirety to ensure that your concept is allowed and that you are closely following the style guide.

Template files and other requirements are outlined below.

Note: If you are hoping to take a USD commission to create a custom item, this must happen before submitting to the queue, per the Terms of Service:



Submission Queue

When you have finished your piece, you can visit the Artisan's Market custom content submission form. There, you will upload your file, give your piece a name, and pay the 25 essence fragment submission fee.

Submission Approval

Your piece will then enter a queue for approval into the game. The approver will check that your piece follows the style and content guidelines below.

• If your design is approved, one copy of the item will be added to your inventory and your design will then become available in your Artisan's Market Shop Management page.
  
  
• If your design is rejected, you will be refunded the 25 essence fragments and receive a PM from the site containing the exact guideline that your design did not follow closely enough. You can then revise and resubmit your design again.

Important Note: If your design is rejected because it contains stolen or copyrighted content, your ability to submit future designs will be revoked. Please do not submit stolen designs or designs which contain references to copyrighted material (such as fan art for another game, logos for companies, and so on.) If you feel your piece is on the line or you are uncertain if it is too close, always err on the side of not submitting it. You may not be given the opportunity to revise and resubmit if you do this (or if your piece is later discovered to be in violation of this policy).

Selling Designs in the Artisan's Market

The Artisan's Market is a special sales board for custom clothing and decor. Buyers can explore the Artisan's Market by searching/browsing the list of shops or by searching/browsing the list of individual items for sale. In either case, they will be redirected back to your personalized Artisan's Shop for the final sale.

Your Artisan's Shop has three sections: Shop Introduction, Sales Inventory, and Shop Management.

Shop Introduction: You can provide information relevant to your buyers on your Shop Introduction page, which supports all of the bbcode that a forum post would. This could include a link to a forum post with a pinglist managed by you, information about custom item commissions or alternative payments, or just some fun lore.

You'll also be able to give your shop a unique name and select up to 5 "example pieces" to be displayed next to your shop's name in the listings.

Sales Inventory: This section will list all items made by you which are currently listed on the Artisan's Market. Buyers can purchase your custom items from this page for the price you've designated for them. The inventory will also include designs that are "out of stock" unless you choose to remove them from the inventory.

Shop Management: Under Shop Management, you can view a listing of all of your approved designs. For each design, you'll be able to manage:

• Whether it displays in your sales inventory (for personal submissions or private commissions, you may choose to keep the item unlisted and private)
  
• How many of each design you want to make available for purchase (if you want to limit stock)
  
• What pose will be used as the model (for clothing items)
  
• What search terms to tag designs with
  
• What price the items will be sold for (the price must be at least 25 essence fragments as a 25 essence fragment tax will be taken out of each sale to support site infrastructure. this fee is payed by the buyer and not the seller.)

Copies of custom items can be purchased at any time by the original artist for a flat fee of 25 essence fragments. This could be for personal use or to then trade to another user if you wish to take an alternative payment type (such as the desire to trade your custom items for cats, notes, or other custom items).



Style Guide

File Type and Size

All files must be .png files with transparent backgrounds. (If the file is for clothing, don't forget to hide the layer with the placeholder cat before uploading!)

- Clothing files must be 500x400 px. The clothing pieces in the file must be positioned such that they overlay perfectly with the positions of the various cat poses.

A template is available for clothing for each species featuring a grey outline placeholder layer and a solid null placeholder layer. Be careful not to shift the layers with the placeholder cats or your final clothing piece may end up misaligned.

Please also try to keep clothing designs within the 100x100 boxes around the cats. Accidentally going over the line will lead to the clothing piece being cut off and leaking into the other pose. (Many site assets do this by mistake, so it is very, very easy to do.) Note that some poses (eg. playing) may be off-set slightly such that their 100x100 box does not seem to be in line with the other poses.



- Decor files must be 100x100 px.

No template is available for decor as it is not needed. Any 100x100 png file will work. It is preferred that you center your decor item on the canvas as much as possible, as this will make the process of placing the item in scenes more intuitive to users.


Lineart

All art must have 1px external pixel lineart in the color #222222. Internal lineart can be colored, but external lineart must be in the color above.

There are some exceptions to the above rules for very specific scenarios.



Dark Colors

No colors anywhere on the image (lineart, colors, etc.) may ever be darker than #222222.


Clothing: The Natural Appearance of a Cat

Clothing must not appear to make edits to the natural appearance (defined as the fur, coloring, and lineart) of the original cat. This means that the following are not allowed:

- Changes to the cat's anatomy, such as leg shape, tail shape, ear shape, or eyes. This includes additions to the cat's anatomy, such as additional legs, eyes, natural-appearing wings, horns or spikes, etc.

- Changes to the cat's colors or markings.

Custom clothing is intended to be "clothing," meaning it must be worn.



There are ways to add features like those listed as not allowed above by making them appear more like they are worn. For example, you might add a headband when adding horns or extra ears, a bow where an extra tail is "tied on", or create the appearance of a custom pattern by drawing it as a bodysuit or pajamas. For example:



Scars and prosthetics specifically are allowed as they do not have the appearance of changing the original design of the species or altering the coloration of the cat's fur.


Clothing: Consistency & Pose Inclusion

All poses and fur lengths for the species you are drawing clothing for must be included. Clothing will not be approved if poses or fur lengths are missing.

The item must appear to be the same object on all poses. Color shifts are okay for an iridescent or multi-colored item, but you can't have a hat in one pose and socks in another.



Content that is Not Allowed

All content submitted to the queue must follow the Community Guidelines, as well as the additional guidelines specific to custom clothing and decor as listed below:

Plagiarism and Copyrighted Content or References

IMPORTANT: Copyrighted and stolen material, submitting an item that contains copyrighted designs/content (eg. fanart of another media and so on), or stolen/traced art will lead to the immediate suspension of your ability to submit custom item designs.

Items added through the custom content feature will become an official asset owned by the site and, to prevent any infringement on the copyright of others, it is extremely important that all pieces are original works and do not copy from others.

This means you should absolutely never submit anything that is:

- A reference to another game, show, character, or any other creative work or piece of media.

- Trademarked symbols or names from companies and organizations.

- Traced art or art that is heavily referenced from another artist's work.

- Your own art that has been published by another company that owns the exclusive rights to use it.


Recolors of Existing Site Assets

Recoloring official site assets is not allowed, but you may re-draw official site pieces in your own style in order to create variants that way.


Catlike Creatures that Resemble Not-Cats

Living catlike creatures that resemble existing or non-existing/hypothetical not-cat species are not allowed in either decor or clothing. That is to say, if the creature looks like it could be a not-cat or an alternate species of not-cat, it will not be accepted. Cat-adjacent creatures that are stylistically distinct may be okay, but if there is even the smallest chance it could be confused with a not-cat species, it will not be allowed.

Catlike creatures can be included in things such as paintings or statues as they are not "living." Ghosts of catlike creatures can also be submitted as they are not "living."


Humans or Humanoid Creatures

Living humans and humanoid species (such as elves, mermaids, or anthro designs) are not allowed. They can be included in things such as paintings or statues though.


Letters or Words in Real-World Human Language

Any words or letters in real-world human languages are not allowed as they can too easily be used to spell out difficult to detect messages in scenes. "Text" must use made-up symbols. While it is nice if in-game text resembles the Not-Meow writing system, it does not need to.


Blood, Gore, and Infection

Blood, gore, infections, and other such content are not allowed. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Blood
- Open or unhealed wounds or injuries
- Sores, rashes, or other signs of disease
- Depictions of dead animals (Non-graphic bones and furs are okay)
- Gore, including disembodied limbs or organs, rotting meat, zombies, etc.
- Parasites

Adult, NSFW Imagery, and Bodily Fluids

References to adult themes and related content is not allowed per the Community Guidelines. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Sexualized poses or depictions of related activities
- Drawings of generally "private" areas (both human and animal)
- Lingerie and related items
- Drawings of bodily fluids (poop emoji, etc.)

Reference to Drugs, Smoking, or Alcohol

References to drugs, smoking, and alcohol are not allowed, even when these things are legal in your location. This also includes things such as prescription medications. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Beer cans or wine bottles that are explicitly alcoholic (if it could plausibly pass for a bottle of vinegar, a can of soda, or a mug of coffee, it is fine)
- Cigarettes, cigars, or blunts
- Pills or pill bottles
- Marijuana leaves

Political and Religious Symbols

To remain respectful of all faiths (and eliminate the potential for offensive misuse of related items in scenes), religious items and symbols are not allowed. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Religious symbols and iconography
- References to religious figures

Similarly, political symbols and reference to political entities is not allowed. The term "political" in this policy is defined very specifically as relating to the government or the public affairs of a country. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Flags of real-world countries, governments, or political parties
- References to political figures or positions


Firearms, Modern Weaponry, and Warfare References

This is a lighthearted space where users do not need to be reminded of real-world modern warfare and violence. As such, firearms, modern weaponry, and references to such are not allowed. This includes (but is not limited to):

- Guns, firearms, modern artillery, and any other modern weaponry (such as grenades, bombs, or flamethrowers)
- Tanks, fighter jets, or other military vehicles
- Military symbolism or attire (such as uniforms)

Weaponry must remain in the medieval or fantasy realm. Unrealistic sci-fi weaponry (such as a big laser) is also allowed.


Hate Speech and Offensive Imagery

Submissions that contain hate speech, symbolism or references to hate organizations, offensive stereotypes, and other such violations of the discrimination and hatred policy will not only have their submission rejected, but their account will be closed per the Community Guidelines.


Dark Subjects

Custom items must avoid reference to subjects that are not allowed under the Community Guidelines. This includes abuse, violations of consent, or real-world violence, including but not limited to mentions of torture, slavery, self-harm/suicide, sexual misconduct, or domestic violence. As applies specifically to custom clothing and decor, this means that the following will not be approved:

- Handcuffs, chains, shackles, and similar items when they give the appearance of animal abuse or imprisoning a cat. Decorative chains, cages for pets (such as a large bird cage), and so on are okay.
- Torture or execution devices
- Items highly associated with corporal punishment or animal abuse, such as whips, switches, and muzzles