Put your art in the grove
Pixel Grove Coloring turns a picture into a calm color-by-number for kids and their grown-ups. A pack is a set of your pictures, sold under your name. You set the price and keep half of every sale, and the art stays yours.
Three things I won't budge on
Your art stays yours
You keep the copyright and every right that comes with it. The license you give me is non-exclusive and covers one thing: your pictures as puzzles inside Pixel Grove. Sell the same art anywhere else you like.
Nobody trains on it
I don't use your art to train AI models and I don't hand it to anyone who does. I don't sell it, print it or put it on merchandise. The app never contains your original file, only the puzzle made from it.
Your name, your price, half the sale
The pack carries your name and logo in the app. You pick the price. You get 50% of what the App Store or Google Play pays out on every sale of your pack, paid every quarter.
Six steps, and you approve the result before it ships
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Apply
Send a link to your portfolio and one sample picture through the application form. I read every one myself and write back.
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We agree on a pack
A theme, a name, at least six pictures and a price. It can be art you've already made.
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You send the art
Square pictures, PNG, 1024 pixels or larger. You don't have to draw pixel art and you don't build anything.
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I turn each picture into puzzles
Every picture becomes four puzzles, from 32 squares across for small kids to 200 across for grown-ups. I send you proof images of each one, in the gallery and on the board.
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You approve, I review
You get a private test build of the app with your pack in it, on your own phone, before any player sees it. Nothing of yours ships until you've said yes. I review every picture too, and I have the final say on what goes into the app.
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It goes live and you get paid
We sign a one-pack agreement, the pack ships in an app update, and you get a statement and a payment every quarter. You also get a referral code for the app to share with your followers.
Art that works as a puzzle
- One clear subject, large and centered. A child has to be able to read it at 64 squares across.
- Bold shapes and strong outlines. Fine linework disappears when a picture becomes squares.
- Any style. Painted, vector, pixel, photographic. I convert it to work in the app. The packs in the app already range from shaded pixel scenes to photographs.
- Safe for a five-year-old. Nothing scary, violent or suggestive.
- No text, logos or real people in the art, and nothing that belongs to someone else. No characters from shows, games or brands.
- Your own work. You have to hold the rights to everything you send.
What players get, and what they don't
The app ships a puzzle, not your file. The largest version is 200 squares across in at most 24 colors, plus a small blocky thumbnail for the gallery. Nobody can pull a print-quality copy of your art out of Pixel Grove.
Your original files stay with me, privately, only so I can build the puzzles. Ask me to delete them and I will.
If a pack comes out of the app, it stops being sold. People who already bought it keep it, because the stores require that.
How you get paid
Half of what the store pays
Apple and Google take their commission and any sales tax, and refunds come out. You get 50% of what's left, on every sale of your pack. Your pack is always sold on its own, so there's no pool to argue about.
Every quarter
I pay within 45 days of the end of each calendar quarter, with a statement showing units sold and what the stores paid.
$50 minimum
If you're owed less than $50, it rolls into the next quarter. If your pack is removed or we part ways, I pay whatever is owed, however small.
The parts that protect the app
- I have the final say. I decide which pictures go in, and I can decline or remove a picture or a whole pack at any time, for any reason. It's a kids' app and I have to be able to act fast.
- We don't run each other down. Neither of us makes false or disparaging public statements about the other. Honest opinions and anything the law protects are fine.
- Disputes go to arbitration. We talk first. If that fails, it's individual binding arbitration, not a lawsuit or a class action.
That's the summary. The creator terms are the full version, in plain English.
Help it find its audience
You know who loves your work. When your pack ships I send you screenshots of your pictures in the app, yours to post anywhere.
- A referral code for the app itself. Your followers get a free month of the Grove Pass, the subscription that opens the rest of the app. It's there so the people who already love your work can get into the app as easily as possible.
- A discount code for your pack. It takes money off your pack, and you still get half of every sale made with it.
Your name and logo are on the pack in the app, and your name and a link to your site go on this website. The app is in the Kids Category, so links out of the app itself stay behind a grown-up gate.
You're never required to promote anything. A pack that's talked about sells more, and half of that is yours.
The first packs are being lined up now
Pixel Grove Coloring is in beta testing and launches on the App Store first, with Google Play to follow. Artist packs go in after launch, and I'm talking to the first few artists now.
Send a portfolio link and one sample picture. Questions first? Write to [email protected].
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