- Copyright
No copyright infringement! A copy of a plugin, images or other media is allowed if the original author explicitly permits it to be uploaded to the Plugin Store or if the copy is a replica of the original and recreated from scratch. Plugins cannot contain "memes" or copyrighted trademarks in general (unless you have explicit permission and are able to prove that). If a plugin consists out of memes, it has to be an original creation that is somewhat related to TheoTown. Memes that have copyrighted content like Spongebob or Minecraft in them are not allowed.
For more information about copyright see this topic.
One peculiar case is usage of a red cross to denote medical facilities. Don't do it. We instead opted for a green cross for in-game hospitals:- image.png (2.71 KiB) Viewed 4183 times
- Quality
Plugins should have a creative part in them, for example graphics that aren't part of the game yet. Abstract/empty plugins typically aren't allowed. For example a null/nothingness plugin isn't ok. As a rule of thumb: A plugin shouldn't look as if you could put it together within 5 minutes. Low quality plugins can be posted, but multiple postings of low quality plugins (which looks as if you're uploading them for the sole purpose of earning diamonds) could be punished.
Some measurements for "bad quality" of a plugin:- The plugin clearly shows little to no creativity, created for quantity instead of quality. This quality clause includes the need for providing rotation awareness in terms of "the plugin should not break if the user rotates the city". However, it is not mandatory to provide rotational frames for square buildings. For non square buildings each part should be rotation aware and also be buildable using a single composition building for convenience.
- Its graphics doesn't match to TheoTown's graphics at all or it's graphics stand out.
- It has a solely abstract meaning or is basically a "copy and paste" of a picture, with no effort required other than adding it into the game. For instance, recoloured (not reworked) in-game buildings fall under this clause.
- Its main purpose is to circumvent the monetization of the game. Plugin support was added with the intention to allow plugins to co-exist with in-game contents. Plugins that threaten this co-existence may not be uploaded to the Plugin Store.
- Content compliance
Your plugin must not give an unrealistic or unfair advantage to the player compared to other buildings in the game. For example, a waste recycling center may not just produce money without any negative side effects like noise and or pollution.
Instead of disapproval or suspension we reserve the right to apply minor modifications to your plugin to make it compliant if it violates this rule. - Technical compliance
Our main goal is to avoid technical issues with plugins. This means:- If you are using new game features please specify the min version value in the upload form accordingly. Unsupported clients won't see/get updates for that plugin then. If there are issues because of that we might have to remove your plugin.
- It's up to you to ensure that your plugins won't "collide" with other plugins from the Plugin Store. You can ensure that by using unique ids for your plugin contents. If you want to share objects between multiple plugins (e.g. light animations) you have to include these into all of your plugins. To avoid id conflicts you can use then in your shared animation definitions so they will only be loaded once and won't produce an error on redefinition.
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"once":true - Dependency on other plugins isn't allowed. As described in b. include all of your needed resources into your plugin.
- Don't waste texture space. The Plugin Store doesn't help with the fact that the available texture space is limited (to either 2048x2048, 4096x4096 or 8192x4096 right now). If you need big images you might consider to split them into smaller parts. If you only use small textures (e.g. 32x16) don't worry too much about texture space.
- Due to technical issues with ZIP files (which are used to archive plugins) file names should not contain non-English characters (e.g. Straße.png).
- Don't change IDs of buildings or other content that you have already released to the plugin store in subsequent updates. You can use ID aliases or implement your own migration behaviour. Specifying the change in the description of the plugin is not sufficient as plugin updates are automatic and in the background.
- Content
Regarding the content itself you have to obey the usual rules (like it must not be illegal). In particular note that- Racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ+, or otherwise offensive content is not allowed.
- TheoTown's audience does include children and therefore plugins in the Plugin Store must preserve the content rating.
This includes that your plugins may not show war scenes or violence. - Since TheoTown is a game played by players around the world we take a neutral standpoint on most political issues. Because of that your plugins should not explicitly feature politics or political figures. Buildings that are associated to politics are allowed if they exist in the real world.
- You may not smuggle or include any code or content that may negatively impact player experience and our ability to provide TheoTown to other players. Forbidden behaviour, including but not limited to: corrupting player cities or their game state, having functions that are not expected of the plugin, denial of service and general malicious disruption of the game flow.
- Store listing
The information you provide with plugin file in the plugin store- Must not be misleading.
- Must contain in-game picture or preview of the plugin that should provide a good indication on what to expect when downloading the plugin. We recommend that your plugin preview image be in a square aspect ratio. When taking in-game screenshot, consider doing so without any shaders active.
- Must have an English title and description. It may be localised to other languages by using inline translations. However, the first language has always to be English as that will be used in case no other language matches a client's language. Additionally, we may translate your plugin title, description and textual contents into other languages and display them to users who are using such a language.
- Earning diamonds
By offering your plugin in the store you will be rewarded with diamond, regardless of whether people use a freedom or premium version of the game to obtain them.
Keep in mind that selling any in-game items or redeem codes is strictly prohibited. If any user is caught doing that, they risk their account being suspended and any sold items or content invalidated.
The Plugin Store supports a report feature that allows users to report plugins. See this topic on how to deal with these reports.
