This Master Academic Project Service Agreement ("Agreement") is a legally binding contract entered into by and between The Obsidian Studios ("Agency", "We", "Us", or "Our") and the academic project applicant ("Client", "You", or "Your") collectively referred to as the "Parties". By checking the agreement box and submitting the Gradu-8 project brief, You explicitly acknowledge, understand, and agree to be bound by all stipulations, covenants, provisions, and obligations detailed exhaustively herein.
1.1. Scope of Service. The Obsidian Studios agrees to engineer, design, and deliver the software application strictly within the technical, architectural, and functional parameters defined in the mutually executed initial project brief.
1.2. Revision Limit. Following the delivery of the initial Alpha build to the Client, the Client is legally entitled to exactly two (2) contiguous revision rounds. These revision rounds must pertain directly to the initial scope outlined in the brief.
1.3. Scope Creep Enforcement. Any requests for structural modifications, feature expansions, database restructuring, or architectural shifts beyond these two (2) revision rounds constitute "Scope Creep." Scope Creep is strictly prohibited under the standard project fee. Such requests shall be unconditionally billed under a separate, newly generated invoice at our premium prevailing hourly engineering rate.
2.1. Timeline Estimates. While The Obsidian Studios strives for rapid, high-performance deployment and often executes baseline academic projects within 72 hours, the Client explicitly acknowledges that project delivery timelines are estimates and not legally binding guarantees.
2.2. Architectural Delays. Depending on the architectural complexity, backend integration density, and algorithmic requirements of the specific project brief, development execution may significantly exceed 72 hours.
2.3. Rush Priority Surcharge. Should the Client require a legally guaranteed expedited delivery under a strict institutional deadline, a non-refundable "Rush Priority Surcharge"—evaluated and dictated exclusively by the Agency—must be paid in full upfront before engineering commences.
3.1. Commercial Agency Designation. The Obsidian Studios operates exclusively as a commercial freelance software engineering and infrastructure design agency. The Agency provides custom software development services strictly on a commercial work-for-hire basis.
3.2. Student Liability. The Client bears absolute, sole, and unmitigated legal and academic responsibility for how the delivered proprietary software is presented, submitted, defended, or utilized in any academic, university, scholarly, or institutional jurisdiction.
3.3. Disclaimer of Liability. The Obsidian Studios explicitly, comprehensively, and irrevocably disclaims any and all liability for academic penalties, plagiarism accusations, intellectual property contestations, grade determinations, institutional disciplinary actions, or university expulsion resulting from the submission, defense, or utilization of this software.
3.4. Indemnification. The Client agrees to fully defend, indemnify, and hold harmless The Obsidian Studios, its engineers, and affiliates from any institutional inquiries, academic investigations, or legal actions instituted by any academic body.
4.1. Project Initialization. Project architecture and development shall remain in a suspended, dormant state until the initial agreed-upon non-refundable deposit is fully cleared via our designated payment processors.
4.2. Delivery Escrow. The final source code, database schemas, hosting environments, and administrative credentials will be held in secure escrow by the Agency. Under no circumstances will these assets be deployed, handed over, or released to the Client until the final, outstanding project balance is paid in full.
4.3. Late Penalties. Any delayed payments exceeding seven (7) calendar days from the issued invoice date shall accrue a compounding late penalty of five percent (5%) per week until fully settled.
5.1. Transfer of Ownership. Upon full financial settlement of all invoices, including any accrued late fees or hourly scope creep surcharges, The Obsidian Studios will digitally transfer all relevant source code and project repositories to the Client.
5.2. Cessation of Support. Once the handover transaction is complete, the Client assumes full ownership and technical responsibility of the project files. The Obsidian Studios provides absolutely no ongoing maintenance, hosting, debugging, bug-fixing, or post-handover support for Gradu-8 projects unless the Client executes a separate, highly-compensated Maintenance Service Agreement.
6.1. Abandonment Clause. If the Client fails to respond to official communication, architecture review requests, or payment invoices for a period exceeding thirty (30) calendar days, the project shall be considered legally and formally abandoned.
6.2. Forfeiture. In the event of legal abandonment, no refunds will be issued for deposits or prior milestone payments under any circumstances.
6.3. Reactivation. To reactivate an abandoned project, the Client must pay a strict reactivation penalty fee, the value of which shall be evaluated and dictated solely by The Obsidian Studios at the time of the reactivation request.
DOCUMENT ID: G8-MSA-2026-REV1 | END OF TERMS