Decentraland Creator Fund: Rewards for Indie Game Creators
By Decentraland, , in Announcements
Decentraland Creator Fund: Rewards for Indie Games Players Love
The Decentraland Creator Fund is a new rewards program for indie creators and small teams who make games in Decentraland. Starting November 15, a $30,000 Beta Season pool is shared among creators based on how players engage with their games, and you can opt in through Creator Hub today.
For indie developers, finishing a game is often where the hard part starts. A solo creator or a two-person team can build a game people enjoy and still earn nothing from it. On most platforms, the money only shows up once a game breaks through, and breaking through means competing with a constant flood of new releases and the algorithms that sort them.
Decentraland is a free social gaming world where you play games and hang out with other adults online, on your computer or phone. Decentraland is built for these solo creators and small teams. Once your game is live, the Creator Fund will reward you for the players you bring in and keep.
How Does the Decentraland Creator Fund Work?
The Creator Fund shares a fixed pool among creators based on how players engage with their games. The Beta Season runs November 15 to December 31, 2026, and its $30,000 Season Pool is split into three cycles of $10,000 each. The Decentraland Foundation and DCL Regenesis Labs fund the pool together.
At the end of every cycle, your share is based on three things:
New players: players who join Decentraland through your game
Active playtime: time players actively spend in your game
Returning players: players who come back to your game
The Beta Season runs in three two-week cycles:
Cycle 1: November 15 to 30 · $10,000 USDC
Cycle 2: December 1 to 15 · $10,000 USDC
Cycle 3: December 16 to 31 · $10,000 USDC
Rewards are distributed in USDC within two weeks after each cycle ends. After every cycle, the top games and their rewards appear on a public leaderboard, and your own detailed results show up in Creator Hub.
Who Can Join the Creator Fund, and How?
You can join if you're 18 or older and own the Decentraland LAND, NAME or World where your game or experience is deployed. Your game needs to be in Genesis City or a public World. Worlds that need a password, an invitation or an NFT to enter don't count.
Download Creator Hub and open the Earn tab.
Opt in to the Creator Fund by signing the Program Terms with the wallet that owns your LAND, NAME or World. One opt-in covers every eligible place that wallet owns.
Set your Payout Wallet in Creator Hub. If no Payout Wallet is set within 7 days after a cycle ends, that cycle's reward is lost, so do this right away.
Keep building. Your game counts from the start of each cycle while it stays live and public.
Only real players 18 and older on Decentraland's official desktop and mobile apps count toward rewards. Every game is reviewed for bots and fake activity, and your own visits, or your collaborators', don't count. The full details are in the Program Rules.
Why Build Your Game in Decentraland?
Creator Hub is free, and you can publish to Decentraland on desktop and mobile with no engine license or servers to pay for. Avatars and social features are already built into the platform, and AI skills help with the code, so you can put your time into game mechanics and story development.
Decentraland has no corporate parent company. It's built by the Decentraland Foundation, a nonprofit, and DCL Regenesis Labs, a nonprofit funded by the Decentraland DAO. Neither organization takes a cut of what creators make. The small 2.5% fee on Shop sales goes directly to the Decentraland DAO's community fund.
Shop: keep 97.5% of every Wearable and Emote you sell.
Resales: earn 2.5% every time one of your items resells on the Marketplace.
Tips: keep 100% of every tip from the community.
For a solo creator or small team, the real difference is that these stack. A single game can earn Creator Fund rewards and tips from players, while the Wearables and Emotes you design keep earning in the Shop and on every resale. With earnings coming from several places at once, you don't have to bet everything on one breakout hit.
In 2025, Decentraland programs distributed more than $660,000 to creators in support, rewards and funding. It included payouts to those who built for paid open calls and contests around events like Art Week and the Music Festival. These rewards were in addition to what creators earned from their own Shop sales. That support has continued in 2026, with more than $349,000 paid out to creators so far. Now the Creator Fund adds something creators keep asking for: a reward that keeps coming as long as players keep enjoying the game.
Can You Build a Decentraland Game With AI?
Yes. One challenge for new creators in the past has been learning Decentraland's codebase to start building. Now every Decentraland creator gets direct access to the official Decentraland SDK Skills, 28 ready-made instruction sets that teach AI coding tools how to build for Decentraland. You describe what you want in plain language, and an AI coding tool such as Claude Code or Cursor does the heavy lifting.
The skills cover the full path from setting up your first scene to adding multiplayer and publishing to a World, and you no longer need to understand TypeScript to start. One command sets them up, and new skills arrive as Decentraland releases them. Other AI tools help you plan a game before you build it and test it inside Decentraland, so even a solo creator always has a test partner on hand.
What Are the Other Ways to Earn in Decentraland?
The Creator Fund joins a set of ways to earn that you can use at the same time:
Wearables and Emotes: design avatar fashion and animations, sell them in the Shop and keep 97.5% of each sale.
Buildathons, game jams and seasonal contests: short, themed challenges with quick prizes, no full game build required.
Grants: the DCL Regenesis Labs Grants Program funds bigger projects as they get built.
Creator Success: an application-only program launched in Q3 2026 that gives staged funding to games ready to grow, starting with up to $4,100 for a first playable version.
Commissioned work: independent studios and freelancers build experiences for brands and communities.
In-game creator purchases: arriving in Q1 2027, giving you more control over what you earn from your own games.
GAME OVER: 2026 Game Jam Starts in Late November
A game jam is an easy way in for first-time creators, and many of Decentraland's top creators got their start in one.
The next game jam, GAME OVER: 2026, kicks off in late November. With the theme Final Boss, creators are challenged to build a final level featuring an epic boss fight, competing for a share of an $8,000 prize pool. Follow Decentraland on social media so you don't miss when registration opens.
It follows the FriendZone Buildathon, where builders submitted 65 social game projects for the Decentraland Mobile App and competed for an $8,000 prize pool, paid in MANA and split across five winning projects. Standout projects can also be considered for grants or Creator Success funding in the future. First place went to Battle Zone, a multiplayer plane-combat game, and the full list of winners is on DoraHacks.
Why the Creator Fund Matters to the People Behind Decentraland
For creators, the difference is rewards that keep coming. "Getting paid repeatedly makes you feel like you're actually building something professionally," said stom, a Decentraland creator since 2021.
"Decentraland's ultimate goal is to ensure that the future of software is not owned by any one corporation, and that's embedded in all we do," said Esteban Ordano, Executive Director and co-founder of Decentraland. "We set up the infrastructure for this virtual world so that it empowers the creators who build here. A key aspect to achieve this is to make sure they can get funded and rewarded for what they create. The Creator Fund is another step in that direction: a solo developer with a game people love should be able to earn from it here, without the backing of a large studio or a partnership with a big brand IP."
"We pool our resources with the Foundation so creators have one clear path, from a first game jam entry all the way to a funded game," said Gino Cingolani, Executive Director of DCL Regenesis Labs. "Regenesis Labs is funded by the DAO, so our job is to put those resources where they make Decentraland better for players and builders. Backing the people who make great experiences is the most direct way to do that."
The Creator Fund Beta is meant to grow. The long-term goal is a full creator economy in Decentraland, where the games and experiences players love keep rewarding the indie creators behind them. Plans for future seasons in 2027 will be shared after the Beta Season wraps.
How to Get Started
Opt-in opens today, and the first cycle starts November 15, so your game can count from day one.
Download Creator Hub. It's free.
Opt in to the Creator Fund from the Earn tab and set your Payout Wallet.
Read the full details at decentraland.org/creator-fund.
Questions? Email creatorfund@decentraland.org or ask the team on Discord. For game jam news and new seasons, subscribe to the Decentraland newsletter.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Decentraland Creator Fund? It's a rewards program that shares a fixed pool among creators based on how players engage with their games in Decentraland. The Beta Season runs November 15 to December 31, 2026, with a $30,000 Season Pool.
Who can join the Creator Fund? Creators 18 and older who own the LAND, NAME or World where their game or experience is deployed, in Genesis City or a public World. You opt in through Creator Hub by signing the Program Terms.
How are Creator Fund rewards decided? Each cycle's $10,000 pool is shared based on new players who start in Decentraland through your game, active playtime and players who come back. Only real players 18 and older on Decentraland's official apps count.
When are rewards distributed? In USDC, within two weeks after each cycle ends, to the Payout Wallet you set in Creator Hub.
Is the Creator Fund a grant? No. Grants support projects as they get built. The Creator Fund rewards games that are already live in Decentraland.
Do I need to know how to code? No, the team bas built tools to help you along the way. With the official Decentraland SDK Skills, you can describe what you want in plain language and let an AI coding tool such as Claude Code or Cursor help build it.