Terms of Service

About these terms

Puzzle Platform ("the platform", "we") lets people play, create, publish, embed and analyze puzzles and other games. It is operated by [Operator legal name, address and contact email, to be completed before publication].

By creating an account, creating an organization or using the platform, you agree to these terms. If you use the platform for an organization, you confirm that you are allowed to accept them on its behalf.

The Privacy Policy, the Cookie Policy, the Data Processing Agreement and the Embedding Responsibilities are part of these terms wherever they apply to you.

Who can use the platform

Anyone can play public and unlisted puzzles without an account. The progress of players without an account is kept only on their own device.

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. We ask for your birth date when you register and we don't create accounts for younger people. Children under 13 may play as guests, or as students of a school that uses the platform under the Data Processing Agreement.

You are responsible for keeping your password and sessions secure, and for what happens under your account.

Plans, payments and downgrades

The Free plan lets you play, sync your progress, comment, rate puzzles and appear in rankings. Paid plans (Creator and Organization Owner) add creating and publishing puzzles, embeds, analytics, API access and support tickets; Organization Owner also lets you own organizations. Prices and limits are shown before you subscribe.

Payments are handled by our payment provider, Stripe. Subscriptions renew automatically until you cancel them. You can change or cancel a subscription at any time in your billing settings; a cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for.

If a payment fails, you keep your plan for a grace period of 7 days. After that, your account moves to a lower plan.

Moving to a lower plan never deletes your content. Published puzzles above the new plan's limits stay playable, but you can't publish or edit until you are within the limits again.

Your content

You keep ownership of the puzzles, clues, images and other content you create ("your content"). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, adapt for display (for example, to different screen sizes) and show your content, only as far as needed to run the platform and the features you choose, such as publishing and embedding.

This licence ends when your content is deleted from the platform, except for backup copies that expire in their normal cycle and for published puzzles that stay playable as described under "Organizations".

You confirm that you have the rights to the content you upload, and that it doesn't break the law or anyone else's rights.

Saved versions of a puzzle are permanent snapshots. When you save a new version of a published puzzle, players in progress are moved to it automatically: their entries for unchanged answers are kept and their entries for changed answers are cleared.

Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• publish unlawful content, or content that harasses, threatens or sexualizes others, or promotes hatred or violence;
• upload content that infringes copyright, trademarks or other rights;
• access other people's accounts or data, or try to get around security, quotas or limits;
• disrupt the platform, or collect data from it automatically other than through the API;
• cheat in competitive play, for example with automated solving;
• impersonate others, or send spam through comments or other features.

Moderation and enforcement

Anyone can report comments, puzzles, profiles and organizations. Our moderators may hide comments, take down puzzles or publications, and restrict or ban accounts, temporarily or permanently. A ban can cover comments only, one organization, or the whole platform. We tell you the reason and, for temporary bans, when the ban ends.

You can appeal a ban from your account. Moderation actions are recorded and kept for the periods in the Privacy Policy.

Organizations

An organization is a shared workspace. Its owner must hold the Organization Owner plan. Members don't need a paid plan; what they can do depends on their role in the organization.

Organization names are unique, without regard to upper or lower case. We may rename an organization, or give its name to someone else, if the name infringes a trademark or is misleading. Where possible, we tell the owner first and let them choose another name.

Frozen organizations. If the owner loses the Organization Owner plan (after the payment grace period) or deletes their account without transferring ownership, the organization is frozen for 14 days. While it is frozen, nobody can create, edit, publish or delete content or change members, but published puzzles stay playable. All members are emailed when the freeze starts, after 7 days and after 13 days. Any member who holds the Organization Owner plan can claim ownership during those 14 days.

Deleted organizations. If nobody claims a frozen organization within 14 days, it is deleted: members lose access and it can no longer be managed. We keep it marked as deleted rather than erasing it at once (a "soft deletion"). Puzzles that were published at that moment stay published and playable, unless they had been deleted. Unpublished content of a deleted organization is permanently erased after 90 days.

Platform staff may also disable an organization that breaks these terms. Its publications can then be taken down.

Playing, completions and rankings

In casual play, answers can be checked on your device. In competitive play, our servers check your answers and measure your time. Only verified competitive results count in competitive rankings, and we may remove results that look automated or implausible.

You can hide yourself from public rankings in your privacy settings.

Embedding and the API

Creators and publishers can embed puzzles on their own websites and use the API within their plan's limits. API use above the included amount is billed as metered usage. Websites that embed puzzles must follow the Embedding Responsibilities.

Keep your API keys secret. You are responsible for the calls made with them.

How long content and data are kept

We keep data only as long as needed, following the retention periods in the Privacy Policy. In short: a deleted account's personal data is erased 30 days after deletion, and its completions are then kept only in anonymized form; unpublished content of a deleted organization is erased after 90 days; published puzzles are kept while they are published.

You can export your data and delete your account at any time in your settings. Organization owners can do the same for their organization.

No advertising or tracking

The platform shows no advertising, uses no third-party tracking, and we don't sell personal data.

Availability and changes to the service

We work to keep the platform available, but it may be interrupted for maintenance or for reasons outside our control. Puzzles you have opened before keep working offline.

We may change or remove features. If a change significantly reduces a paid feature you rely on, we tell you in advance.

Warranties and liability

The platform is provided "as is". As far as the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability is limited to what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim. Nothing in these terms limits rights you have under consumer law that can't be waived.

Ending your use

You can stop using the platform and delete your account at any time. We may suspend or close accounts that seriously or repeatedly break these terms. If we close a paid account when you haven't broken these terms, we refund the unused part of the period.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. Every version has an identifier, shown at the top of this page. We tell you about important changes in advance, by email or in the app, and ask you to accept the new version where required.

Governing law and contact

[Governing law and competent courts, to be completed after legal review.]

Questions about these terms: [Operator legal name, address and contact email, to be completed before publication].