Last updated October 22, 2026

Terms for players

These terms are an agreement between you and CommandVA LLC, a Minnesota company that runs Indie Jury ("we"). You agree to them when you sign up. The privacy policy explains what we do with your data.

Who can join

• You must be 18 or older and live in the United States.
• Every session is recorded. At sign-up you give the recording consent shown there, which says what is recorded, who sees it and how long it's kept. You can withdraw it by deleting your account; we then stop sending invitations.
• One account per person. You sign in with your own Steam account, and it can't be swapped for another or shared.
• Signing up doesn't guarantee an invitation. We pick players to match each demo.

What a session involves

• About an hour: at least 30 minutes of play while recording, a 10-minute survey, and a one-time recorder setup of 10 to 15 minutes.
• You play the demo you were invited to for at least the minutes shown on the invitation, while you record your screen and your voice, saying what you think as you go. You need a microphone. No webcam.
• Before your first invitation, you check a short test recording on your account page, so we know your recorder works.
• You upload the recording before the survey. We can only accept sessions with a recording.
• Record only yourself. Turn off voice chat and Discord, and make sure no one else in the room can be heard. Close anything personal on your screen, and don't say your name.
• Answer the survey honestly and in your own words. Answers that are copied, generated by AI, or too short to help aren't paid.
• Passing on an invitation never counts against you. Invitations you don't open within 48 hours go to someone else.

Confidentiality

Before you see a Playtest key or demo link, you accept a short confidentiality agreement for that test. Each one is part of these terms. In short:

• Don't share, sell or give away your Playtest key or the build, and don't let anyone else play it on your account.
• Don't stream it, and don't post screenshots, clips, recordings or details about it anywhere: social media, Discord, forums, reviews or chats.
• The only exception is the recording and answers you send to us for this test.
• Delete any local copy of your recording once your upload is finished.
• This lasts until the developer makes the game, or the part you played, public. If they never do, it lasts for good.
• If you break it, the session isn't paid, your account can be closed, and you may be responsible to us and to the developer for the harm it causes. The developer can enforce this agreement too.

Your recording, transcript and answers

• We make a written transcript of your recording, and a summary across everyone in the test for the developer's report.
• The developer who ran the test watches your recording in their browser and reads the transcript and your answers. They hear your voice, but they don't get your name, email, Steam ID or profile, and they can't download the video.
• You give CommandVA LLC and that developer permission to use your recording, transcript and answers to run the test and to improve the game, inside their studio. That includes quoting your answers and making short clips for internal use. Developers agree not to post your recording or try to identify you.
• The video and the transcript are deleted 90 days after you upload them. Survey answers stay with the developer's report, without your name.

Accepted sessions and pay

• We accept a session when the recording shows the demo being played, Steam playtime or the answers to the gameplay questions back it up, and your survey passes our quality checks.
• Your pay never depends on what you say about a game. Honest criticism is paid the same as praise.
• We pay you for testing work you do for us. Studios pay us; they don't pay you.
• The pay for an accepted session is shown on the invitation. If you played at least 10 minutes, then stopped early and said why, you get partial pay.
• Pay moves into your balance 48 hours after the studio gets its report, which is a few days after the test closes. During those 48 hours the studio can ask us to recheck a session.
• Cash out your balance from $5 as a gift card, sent by email through Tremendous. A cash-out waits 2 days before it's sent. One of $100 or more waits 7 days, and so does a first cash-out made before any of your recorded sessions has been accepted. The hold gives us time to catch fraud.
• A balance can't be transferred to anyone else.

Reviews, strikes and appeals

• Some sessions are checked by a person before they're paid, including a few picked at random. We email you either way, with the reason if a session isn't accepted.
• A strike is added only when a person on our team rejects a session after checking it, or when a recording file was already used for another session. A session the rules turn down on their own pays nothing but adds no strike. Two strikes within a year and we stop sending invitations. A strike older than a year no longer counts.
• To appeal, reply to the email that told you. A person reviews every appeal.

You work for yourself, and taxes

• You take part as an independent contractor, not as an employee of CommandVA LLC or of any studio. You choose which invitations to accept, and you get no employee benefits.
• You're responsible for your own taxes. Gift cards count as income, and they count toward the yearly totals we report to the IRS on Form 1099.
• We may ask for a W-9 (your legal name, address and taxpayer ID) before larger payouts, and hold pay until we get it. We send you a 1099 when the law requires it.

Things we never do

• Pay or reward you for wishlisting, following or reviewing any game. We'll never ask you to.
• Ask for your Steam password, or ask you to buy anything.

Closing accounts

• You can delete your account any time from your account page.
• We may close an account that breaks these terms. We don't pay for sessions earned through fraud, a second account, or a broken confidentiality agreement. Pay you earned honestly is still yours.

Limits

• Demos are pre-release software made by their developers, not by us. Play them at your own risk; we can't promise they work or are free of bugs.
• The site is provided as it is. As far as the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect losses, and our total liability to you is limited to the pay you earned from us in the 12 months before the claim.

Disputes and changes

• If something goes wrong, write to us first at hello@indiejury.com. We try to sort it out within 30 days.
• These terms are governed by the laws of Minnesota. Disputes go to the state or federal courts in Hennepin County, Minnesota, unless the law where you live gives you another choice.
• If we change these terms in a way that matters, we email you at least 14 days before the change takes effect. Taking a test after that means you accept the new terms.

Questions: hello@indiejury.com.

Gift cards are sent by email through Tremendous, our payout partner. You pick from the brands on the redemption page, and the list can change. The brands offered aren't sponsors of Indie Jury and don't endorse it. Each card follows its issuer's terms.