Highrise is a talented and creative community. We love to collaborate with players to design items for our world, and we’ll always attribute player-inspired items to their designer. There are two ways that we find and feature players’ creations.
1. Design Contest Winners
We frequently host official design competitions; you can learn more in the FAQ under “Highrise Competitions and Rules.” When a player wins a design competition and we make their items in the game, we’ll make an attribution note on the bottom of the item preview. This note will say “Inspired by” with a link to the designer’s username. If an item you designed is missing attribution, reach out to our Concierge team to update it. Please include the contest and event the item is from and whether it was released in a grab, shop collection, or event rewards.
2. Other player-inspired items
Sometimes we discover an outstanding player-designed item outside of a competition. It might be a random drawing, or a competition entry didn’t make it into a grab. If we decide to add one of these items to the game, we’ll reach out to notify the player directly, and they’ll receive compensation when the item is released. These items will also get a note of attribution at the bottom of the item preview.
What to do if you think Highrise used a design without crediting the player
An item will only have an attribution note if it was designed or inspired by a player; all other items are designed by artists on our staff. It’s not unusual for our art team and our players to find inspiration in similar trends and create similar designs independently by complete coincidence- this phenomenon is sometimes called parallel thinking. Most of the time, our staff isn’t aware of players’ designs when developing items, and draw inspiration from and reference sources outside of the app such as fashion retailers, photos and illustrations on Pinterest and Instagram, Google image search, and even real life. In this case, a player who designs a similar item isn’t entitled to any type of compensation or attribution.
If you find an item in the game appears to be directly inspired by a player but doesn’t have proper attribution, please contact our Concierge team! Our Concierge team and staff artists will review these reports and determine if attribution is due or if it’s an instance of parallel thinking. Our staff respects the creative community of Highrise, and will always give credit where it is due.