Terms of use

1. Who we are

Hillmade Games is run by Jonathan Hill, trading as Hillmade, in the UK ("I", "me"). You can reach me at jonathan.hill@hillmade.uk. How I handle your data is in the privacy notice.

2. Early access

Hillmade Games and everything on it are in early access. That means:

• games are unfinished, can have bugs, and can change or lose features between visits;
• levels, balance and artwork may change, and some parts are paused or still to come;
• your game saves live in your own browser, not on my servers. If you clear your browser data or change device, they are gone and I cannot restore them.

3. Who can use it

• The four demos (CINDER, HEAT, HOLD THE LINE and DRIFTER) are free to play, forever, with no account. They're test demos, rough edges and all, and there's no promise they'll grow into anything more. If they do get updates, those are free too. If one ever becomes a full game, its demo stays up for as long as there's room and people are playing it. Once there's plenty else to play here, the demos may come down.
• The first world of Seething Sheep (the Meadows) can be played with no account.
• The Wildwood and anything later need a free founders' account.
• Accounts are for adults only. To make one you must be 18 or over and tick the box to say so. A parent or guardian may sign up and let a child play under their supervision; the account is theirs, and so is responsibility for it.
• One account per person. You sign in with a link sent to your email, so keep that mailbox to yourself. Do not share your account.

4. Founders' perks

Everyone who makes a free founders' account during early access gets:

• Seething Sheep and every update to it, free for life.
• Free access to everything else on Hillmade Games during early access. This lasts until the subscription starts. After that you keep Seething Sheep and the discount below.
• A discount on the subscription when it goes live. You do not have to take it. Once you can see the price, you can decide, and signing up for the subscription is entirely your choice.

"Free for life" means for as long as Seething Sheep exists and your account is open. I will not take away Seething Sheep or the discount once given. If I ever stopped running Seething Sheep, I would tell you well beforehand.

5. Money, and what we will never do

• No microtransactions. Ever. No in-game currency, loot boxes, paid power-ups or pay-to-win. Nothing in a game will nudge you to spend.
• When payments start, they will be for two things only: a subscription that opens every game, and a one-off "lifetime access to one game" purchase.
• Nobody is charged during early access. Payments are switched on only when I say so, with notice, and these terms will then be extended with the price, renewals, cancelling and refunds before you pay anything.
• Card payments are taken by Stripe. I never see or keep your card number.

6. Fair use

The games are for you to play for fun. Please do not:

• attack, overload or scrape the site, or try to get into other people's accounts or data;
• copy, resell or republish the games, their code, art, music or sounds, or take them apart to do so;
• share, sell or rent out an account, or use automated tools to make accounts;
• use the feedback form to send abuse, spam or other people's personal details.

If someone breaks these rules I may suspend or close their account, and I will tell them why.

7. The games, as they are

• I made the games, with AI tools, and I own them. You get a personal licence to play them. You do not get ownership.
• The games and site are provided "as is" during early access. I try hard to make them work, but I cannot promise they will always be available, error-free or keep working on every device.
• If you send feedback, you let me use it to improve the games, with nothing owed to you.
• Nothing in these terms limits anything the law does not allow me to limit. That includes your legal rights as a consumer, and my responsibility for death or personal injury caused by my negligence, or for fraud.

8. Ending things

You can stop at any time and delete your account from the account page or by emailing me. I may close accounts that break these terms. I may also change or stop a game or the site; where that affects what you have been promised above, I will give notice.

9. Changes to these terms

I may update these terms as the site grows, for example when payments start. I will put the new version here and email account holders about changes that matter. If you carry on after a change you accept the new version, but a change will not take away Seething Sheep or your founders' discount.

10. The law

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. If you are a consumer, you keep any rights you have to use the courts where you live.