Terms of Service

1. These terms

These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and Emptyset Media LLC (611 South DuPont Highway, Suite 102, Dover, DE 19901, USA) ("we", "us") for The Ember Depths: the game at play.emberdepths.io and wherever it is offered (such as itch.io and later Steam), this website, and our Discord bot (together "the Service"). By playing or using the Service you accept these terms and our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

2. Who can play

Anyone may play the game. Chat, friends, direct messages, trading, party invites and Discord linking are only for players aged 13 or older. If you're under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you. You may not use the Service if we have banned you, or if the law where you live forbids it.

3. Your device account and saves

• Your account is a random player ID and secret key kept in your browser; there's no password. Anyone with access to your browser, your recovery code or a device-link code can play as you, so keep them private.
• Cloud saves and backups are there to protect your progress, but we can't recover an account if you clear your browser and have no recovery code or linked device.
• Don't use or try to use someone else's account, codes or saves.

4. Free game, virtual items and trades

• The game is free to play and has no purchases. If paid editions or optional purchases are ever offered (for example on Steam), their terms will be shown at the point of sale.
• Heroes, items, gold, titles and everything else in the game are part of the game, not your property, and have no real-money value. Selling or buying them, or accounts, for real money or anything outside the game is not allowed.
• Trades between players are final once both of you confirm. Saves are kept on your device, so we can't undo or restore a trade.

5. Community Rules

These apply in chat, direct messages, party chat, names (handles, heroes, pets), trades, letters to Quillon and on our Discord:

1. Be decent. No harassment, bullying, threats, hate speech or slurs, and nothing that attacks people for who they are.
2. Keep it clean. No sexual content, and nothing sexual involving minors, ever (we report it to the authorities).
3. Keep people safe. Don't share anyone's personal information (yours included: real names, addresses, phone numbers, socials), and don't ask other players for it.
4. No scams or spam. No selling accounts, items or gold for real money, no links to outside shops, no flooding chat, no impersonating staff.
5. Play fair. No cheating tools that hurt other players (in co-op, the arena or the leaderboards), no exploiting bugs against others, no attacking our servers.
6. Names count too. Handles, hero names and pet names follow the same rules. Offensive or impersonating names are renamed.
7. Report, don't retaliate. Use Report on a player's card, Block them, and let the Wardens handle it.

Also follow the law, and Discord's own rules on Discord. If someone makes you uncomfortable, use Block on their player card (it hides their chat and stops their messages and invites) and Report.

6. Moderation and enforcement

Our moderators (the Wardens and other staff) and our automatic chat filter enforce these terms. The filter masks mild swearing and refuses messages with slurs or links. Depending on how serious and how repeated a problem is, staff may take one or more of these steps:

• Removing a chat message (it can be restored if a Warden got it wrong).
• A chat mute for a set time (you can still play, and still write to Quillon).
• A forced rename of a handle or name that breaks the rules.
• A temporary or permanent ban from chat and the social features, the leaderboards and online play.

Every action is recorded with the reason and the staff member who took it. When we restrict you, the game tells you what we did, for how long and why (the rule and, where we can, the content). If you think we got it wrong, write to Quillon (Settings → About → Tell Quillon, which still works while you're muted or banned) or email us; a different staff member will look at it and tell you the outcome. We may act without warning when someone is at risk or the law requires it, and report illegal content (especially anything that endangers a child) to the authorities.

7. Reporting illegal content

To report a player or message, use Report on the player's card in the game: the message travels with your report. To tell us about illegal content in any other way (including if you don't play), email support@emberdepths.io with: where it is (the player's handle, the channel and time), why you believe it's illegal, your name and email (unless it concerns child sexual abuse material, where you may stay anonymous), and a statement that you're reporting in good faith. We'll confirm receipt, act quickly, and tell you what we decided.

8. Your content

You keep the rights to what you write and send (chat, names, letters, screenshots, ideas). You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to store, copy, display, translate and transmit it as needed to run, moderate and improve the Service, for as long as it's in the Service (and in backups and records as described in the Privacy Policy). If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely without paying or crediting you. You're responsible for what you post and promise it doesn't break the law or someone else's rights. We don't check everything players post and aren't responsible for other players' content, but we act on reports.

9. Our game and its licences

The game, its code, original art, music, story and this website are owned by Emptyset Media LLC and protected by copyright. We give you a personal, non-commercial, revocable licence to play the game and use the website under these terms. Don't copy, sell, reverse-engineer for cheating, or attack the Service, scrape it beyond the public leaderboards API's limits, or use bots to play. Some material is used under open licences; see Licences & credits. Making videos and streams of the game, and fan art, is welcome.

10. Changes, outages and resets

The game is in active development. We may add, change, rebalance or remove features, and may need to take the Service offline, end online features, or, rarely, reset leaderboards or data. We'll try to give notice of big changes in What's New and on Discord.

11. No warranty

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or that saves will never be lost, to the fullest extent the law allows.

12. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, Emptyset Media LLC and its staff are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost data, progress or virtual items, arising from the Service, and our total liability to you is limited to US$50. Nothing in these terms limits liability that can't be limited by law, such as for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. If you're a consumer in the EU or UK, you keep all the rights your local consumer laws give you, and these terms don't take any of them away.

13. Ending these terms

You can stop playing at any time and ask us to delete your data (see the Privacy Policy). We may suspend or end your access to online features if you break these terms, as described in section 6, or end the Service as a whole with reasonable notice.

14. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules, and disputes go to the state and federal courts located in the State of Delaware, USA.

Before any formal dispute, please contact us so we can try to sort it out. If you're a consumer living in the EU, the UK or another country with mandatory consumer protections, you also keep the protection of your local laws and can bring a claim in your local courts.

15. Other platforms

If you play on itch.io or (later) Steam, or join our Discord, those platforms' own terms also apply to your use of them (for example the Steam Subscriber Agreement). Where those terms and ours conflict about the game itself, ours apply, unless the platform's terms say otherwise.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version and date at the top change, and for important changes we'll tell you in the game's What's New and on Discord before they take effect. If you keep playing after that, the new terms apply.

17. Contact

• Email: support@emberdepths.io
• In the game: Settings → About → Tell Quillon (or F8), letter type "Something else". A letter is tied to your device's player identity, so it also proves the request comes from you.
• Our Discord community (for questions; please don't post personal details in public channels).
• Post: Emptyset Media LLC, 611 South DuPont Highway, Suite 102, Dover, DE 19901, USA