Welcome! If you’re reading this, you’re likely interested in making mods for Lancer Tactics. That’s great! To quote the Lancer Third Party License: “We started Lancer borrowing from a number of giants that came before us; we want to be sure to let you do the same.”
To be clear up top: contained in the Modkit is the full, commented, source code for Lancer Tactics. You are welcome to open it in the Godot editor and run the game locally in order to build and test your mods, but not use it export standalone games.
1. The Basics & The Lancer Universe
Let’s establish who owns what:
- Our IP: We own the code, original assets, systems, and design of Lancer Tactics.
- Lancer IP: Lancer is a trademark and copyright of Massif Press. Our game is a third-party product created under the Third Party License from Massif Press. It is not an official Massif Press product.
- Your mods: You own the original code and assets you write from scratch for your Mod.
By making a Mod for this game, you agree that you are bound by both this policy and Massif Press’s own community guidelines. You cannot use your Mod to violate Massif Press’s rights or intellectual property.
2. What You Can Do
As long as you follow this policy, we grant you a personal, free, revocable license to create and distribute Mods for Lancer Tactics. Specifically, you are encouraged to:
- Read & study: Examine the game files and code to learn how the game works and how to hook your Mod into it.
- Share your work: Distribute your Mod files so other players can enjoy your custom mechs, pilots, missions, or UI tweaks.
- Accept tips: You are allowed to accept voluntary donations for your mods via platforms like Patreon, Ko-fi, or itch.io tips.
3. What You Can’t Do
To protect the game, the community, and our licensing agreement with Massif Press, the following are strictly prohibited:
- Standalone piracy: You cannot redistribute the full game, this modkit, its executable files, or core game binaries. If you have a friend who’s interested in getting started modding, please direct them towards the official store page. Your Mod must require a legitimately purchased copy of Lancer Tactics to run.
- Commercial paywalls: While accepting donations is totally fine, your Mod itself must be 100% free to play. You cannot lock gameplay content behind a mandatory paywall, sell the Mod, or put ads inside the game. We may add support for monetization of Mods at a later date if there is demand for it in the community.
- Hacks & exploits: Do not create Mods that bypass DRM, unlock paid DLC for free, or break competitive integrity (like cheating on leaderboards).
- Malicious code: Your code must be transparent. Do not encrypt or obfuscate your Mod files; players, our team, and our partners need to be able to verify that your Mod is safe and free from malware.
- Massif Press infringement: Do not use your Mod to create standalone Lancer products unrelated to Lancer Tactics, and avoid implying that Massif Press officially endorses your Mod (or Lancer Tactics).
- No cross-IP contamination: Do not bring characters, mechs, logos, or assets from other commercial franchises into your Mods. We love pop culture, but we cannot host or allow content that violates the copyrights or trademarks of other companies.
- No content generated by large language models: We have a blanket studio policy of “no LLM-generated content.” By creating a Mod, you agree to respect our stance on this issue and (i) ensure that your Mod is built using only human-written code, and (ii) refrain from feeding any part of Lancer Tactics or its source code into an LLM.
4. Coincidental Development (“Great Minds Think Alike”)
It’s possible that we might officially develop an idea, mechanic, UI/UX element, or story beat that looks very similar – or even identical – to a Mod you’re working on or have already made. By publishing a Mod, you agree that our independent development of similar features doesn’t mean we “stole” your work, and you waive any claims against us for coincidental similarities. We will never intentionally copy your work without your express, written permission, but we can’t put a feature off-limits just because a Modder beat us to deploying it!
Additionally, you grant us a free, permanent right to showcase, screenshot, stream, or otherwise promote your Mod in our community updates and marketing. If we show your work off, we will always make a best effort to credit you!
5. Third-Party IP & Crossovers
We want to see your original ideas, custom Lancer lore, and unique mechanical designs. We do not want to see unauthorized crossovers. To keep our community safe and legal, we break down crossovers into three strict categories:
- The hard “NO” (external IP & commercial franchises)
- You are prohibited from importing intellectual property owned by third parties outside the Lancer ecosystem. This means no mechs, assets, or characters from Gundam, Warhammer 40k, or Battletech.
- The official Lancer exception
- You are permitted to create Mods based on official Lancer properties published by Massif Press, provided that your Mod complies with the exact same terms of Massif Press’s Third-Party License that we operate under. You are independently responsible for ensuring your Mod does not violate Massif Press’s copyrights, trademarks, or fan content policies.
- The Lancer community exception (third-party supplements)
- We love the Lancer homebrew and third-party creator community! You are permitted to mod in content created by independent third-party Lancer authors (e.g., a mech or mission from a popular third-party supplement), subject to the following strict conditions:
- You must have express, documented permission from the original creator to use their work.
- That permission must explicitly grant you the right to sub-license the content to us, ensuring that we have the legal right to host, display, stream, and distribute the Mod through our game, Steam Workshop, itch.io, or the Epic Games Store.
- We’ve provided a standard license to use for this purpose that can be found at lancertactics.com/homebrew-mod-license. All that you need to do to use it is save some kind of record (e.g. screenshot of a message) where the creator gives permission to adapt their work referencing that URL.
- We love the Lancer homebrew and third-party creator community! You are permitted to mod in content created by independent third-party Lancer authors (e.g., a mech or mission from a popular third-party supplement), subject to the following strict conditions:
If we discover a Mod that uses unauthorized copyrighted material or trademarks, we will remove it immediately from our community spaces to protect both our studio and the platform hosting it.
7. Indemnification
By creating and distributing a Mod under this Policy, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Wickworks, LLC, its creators, partners, and affiliates from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or connected to:
- Your violation of any term within this Policy;
- Your violation of Massif Press’s intellectual property rights or licensing terms; or
- Any claim that your Mod infringes upon the copyright, trademark, privacy, or proprietary rights of any third party (including, but not limited to, claims from unauthorized external franchises or unauthorized third-party Lancer creators).
In plain English: If you use someone else’s intellectual property in your Mod without the proper rights or permissions and we get sued or hit with a costly legal claim because of your Mod, you are legally and financially responsible for defending us and covering those costs.
8. The Fine Print
- Play at your own risk: Mods are third-party software, i.e. contain arbitrary code that could do anything and is written by a stranger. We don’t officially support them beyond providing the mod loader and the modding hooks/API, and we aren’t responsible if a Mod crashes your computer, wipes your data, or breaks your game.
- Right of removal: We have the final say on what counts as an acceptable Mod. If a Mod is offensive, illegal, breaks these rules, or significantly at odds with the values and worldview of the Lancer universe, we reserve the right to take it down or restrict it from our official community spaces. Similarly, we reserve the right to remove Mods that we know or have reason to believe contain LLM-generated code.
- Disputes: If we ever have a legal disagreement, we agree to try to talk it out like reasonable human beings first. If that fails, the laws of Oregon will apply, and disputes will be handled in the courts of Portland.