How to share your own tunes and liveries in Forza Horizon

Everything starts with a creation. A tune is a full setup for one specific car — gearing, suspension, alignment, tyre pressures and the rest — usually built and tested until the car does one thing well, whether that is holding a drift, cornering flat or hitting a top speed. A livery is a custom paint job assembled from layers of shapes, vinyls and logos in the design editor.

Whatever you build, tune and test it before you think about sharing. A tune that has never turned a lap, or a livery with half-finished panels, will collect downloads once and then a string of poor ratings. The creations that spread are the ones that clearly do what they promise, so spend the time on the work itself first.

A share code only exists once your creation is uploaded to the game's servers. After you save a tune or a livery, look for the share or upload option in the menu for that creation — the exact wording changes between titles, but the idea is always the same: you are choosing to publish it rather than keep it private on your own profile.

When you confirm the upload, the game stores the creation and generates a short share code that points at it. That code is what you hand to other players. It is not the file itself — it is a pointer to your upload — so as long as you leave the creation published, anyone who enters the code downloads exactly what you made.

Before you upload, fill in the details the game asks for. This is where the title, description and tags live, and they matter far more than most players realise, because they are the only thing that decides whether your creation ever gets found.

In-game search is driven by the text you attach to an upload. A vague title like "my tune" is invisible; a clear one tells a searcher exactly what they are getting. Put the useful information up front — what the creation is for, and the style or purpose behind it. "Grip build, road racing" or "Retro racing stripes" beats anything generic.

Use the description to say what a searcher cannot see at a glance: how a tune drives, what class or event it suits, or what a livery is a tribute to. Keep it short and honest — overselling only earns bad ratings when the creation does not match the pitch.

Tags are where discovery really happens, so use every relevant one the game offers. Think about the words another player would actually search for — the car, the discipline, the theme — and tag accordingly. The closer your tags match real searches, the higher your creation surfaces when someone is looking for exactly what you made.

A few things reliably separate creations that spread from ones that sink. The first is naming that matches intent: a searcher scanning a list picks the result whose title answers their need, so be specific and accurate rather than clever.

The second is presentation. For liveries especially, a clean thumbnail or screenshot does most of the selling — take the shot in good lighting, frame the car so the design reads clearly, and avoid busy backgrounds that hide the work.

The third is picking your target. A brilliant tune for an obscure car will always find fewer players than a solid one for a popular, widely owned model. If you want downloads, building for cars people actually drive — common event picks, well-loved favourites — puts your work in front of a far bigger audience.

Once the game has generated your code, its reach is no longer limited to in-game search. You can post the code anywhere the community gathers — forums, subreddits, discord servers and code-sharing sites like this one — so players discover it beyond the handful who happen to search the right tag. A code posted alongside a good screenshot and a clear description travels a long way.

Finally, keep it honest. Share your own work rather than re-uploading someone else's creation under your name, and when a design or setup was inspired by another creator or a real-world car, say so. The whole system runs on trust: creators keep building because the community credits them, rates fairly and shares good work forward. Add to that and your codes — and your reputation — will do far better for it.