Credits, licenses, and permissions
Credit everyone whose work is in your mod, pick a license on purpose, ask before you reuse other mods or art, and keep your mod free.
Every Deadlock mod mixes Valve's game files with your own work, and sometimes with other creators' work. This page covers who owns what, who to credit, which license to pick, and why mods stay free. The upload steps are in the Divine publishing guide, linked in Next steps.
What you need
List every file, image, sound, and model in your mod that you did not make. Note where each one came from, and who made it.
Who owns what
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Valve's files | Deadlock's models, textures, sounds, and art belong to Valve. The Steam Subscriber Agreement lets you use them for personal, non-commercial purposes. Content made with Valve's tools may only be shared non-commercially. CSDK 12 is built from Valve's CS2 Workshop Tools, so treat your mods the same way. |
| Your work | Art, meshes, audio, and animation you made yourself are yours. You choose the license. |
| Other people's work | Other mods, fan art, music, and characters from other games belong to their creators. You need their permission, or a license that allows what you do. |
Credit everyone
- List every source from your notes in your mod's credits.
- Credit the original creator when you recolor or fix their mod.
- Credit the game or studio for anything from outside Deadlock.
- Credit voice actors and composers when you use their work.
- Link to each creator's page, so people can find their work.
- Say plainly which parts you made. For example: "New textures by me. Original model by X."
Put the same credits on your mod page and in your readme.txt.
Pick a license
A license tells other people what they may do with your mod. Pick one on purpose, and write it on your mod page.
A common choice for Deadlock mods is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0, or CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. The letters mean:
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| BY | Give credit. |
| NC | No commercial use. |
| ND | No changed versions. |
What CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 allows:
| Can other people... | Answer |
|---|---|
| Download and install your mod | Yes |
| Share unchanged copies, with credit, free | Yes |
| Share a changed version | No |
| Use it to make money | No |
Want stricter terms, like "ask me before you share it"? Write your own terms on your mod page. A few popular mods use other licenses, such as CC BY 4.0, GPL-3.0, or Apache-2.0.
Many licenses forbid fixes without permission. If you are fine with others updating your mod after a game update, say so on your mod page.
Use someone else's mod or art
- Read the license on the original mod page.
- Ask the creator before you fix, update, edit, re-upload, or reuse any part.
- Save their answer, in case anyone asks.
- Credit them on your mod page.
- Say clearly in your description that the original is theirs.
Fan art needs permission too, even when it is free to view online.
Animations, sounds, and music you download from other sites come with their own terms. Read them before you share a mod built on them.
Characters from other games, films, or anime
A mod that brings a character from another game, film, or anime into Deadlock is a port. The studio owns that character. It can have any port taken down with a copyright (DMCA) notice.
Our advice: make original art instead. This wiki teaches with original art only. It does not feature or link ports. If you make a port anyway, credit the original studio, plus any voice actors and composers.
AI-made content
Our advice: leave AI-generated content out of your mod and its page. That covers renders, textures, models, voices, and music.
If AI helped you write code for your mod, say so plainly at the top of your mod page.
Keep it free
Valve's Steam Subscriber Agreement allows only non-commercial sharing of content made with its tools. Every mod on Divine is free.
- Never lock a mod behind a paywall or early access.
- Never charge for a fix for a new game version.
The one paid Deadlock skin, in April 2026, drew a strong backlash from players. The community expects mods to be free.
Takedowns
Next steps
Put your credits and license on your mod page.
The mods this wiki never covers.
Keep your mod working.
Credits
This page is based on the work of these creators. Check out their original pages.
- Legal: Steam Subscriber Agreement by Valve.
- Policy: Paywalled Content Policy, Porting Whitelist and Guidelines, and Porting update - Valve by GameBanana.
- Rules: Deadlock section rules by the GameBanana Deadlock section managers, and the GameBanana site rules.
- Guide: Submitting a Takedown to a Website by GoldSwordKiller.
- Policy: DeadlockSkins.gg sources page by DeadlockSkins.gg.