Terms of Service (plain version)

Last updated October 17, 2026

These are the rules for using Hestia Games. This is the plain version. The legal version has the same numbered sections and protects the same things in formal language. If the two ever seem to say different things, the reading that is better for you applies, and we will fix the wording.

1. Who we are

Hestia Games is run by Hestia's Creations, an Oregon limited liability company (HESTIAS CREATIONS LLC). When these terms say "we" or "us", they mean Hestia's Creations. "You" means the person using Hestia Games.

2. These terms

By playing on games.hestiascreations.com or making an account, you agree to these terms, our Privacy Policy and our Cancellation and Refund Policy.

If we change these terms in a way that matters, we will email account holders at least 30 days before the change takes effect and update the date at the top. If you don't agree with a change, you can cancel before it starts. Small fixes, such as typos or clearer wording, can happen at any time.

3. Who can use Hestia Games

• Anyone can play the free games. No account is needed, and the free games don't send us anything about you.
• You must be 13 or older to make an account. If you are under 13, please don't make one. We ask for your birth month and year to check this, use them once, and don't keep them.
• If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you and should be the one who pays.
• Memberships are sold to people in the United States.

4. Your account

• You sign in with a code we email you. There is no password, so anyone who can read your email can sign in as you. Keep your email account secure.
• One account is for one person. Don't share your sign-in or sell your account. To share a membership, use a household (section 8).
• You are responsible for what happens on your account.
• Your username is public. It can't be offensive, pretend to be someone else, or contain personal details such as a phone number. We can reset a username that breaks these rules.

5. Membership and billing

• A membership costs $4.99 a month or $34.99 a year, plus any sales tax that applies. The price is shown at checkout before you pay.
• Your membership renews automatically at the same price, every month or every year, until you cancel. Before you pay, you tick a box agreeing to this.
• Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number.
• We email you at least once a year before you renew. Yearly members also hear from us 15 to 45 days before each yearly renewal.
• If a renewal payment fails, Stripe tries again. You keep your membership for up to 14 days while it does. If payment still doesn't go through, the membership ends, and you keep your version (section 7).

6. Cancelling

You can cancel anytime online with one click: on your account page, choose Cancel membership. There is nothing more to confirm and no question to answer. You can also email us and we will cancel it for you. Your membership keeps going until the end of the period you already paid for, and you won't be charged again. The Cancellation and Refund Policy has the details.

7. Keeping your version

This is our promise to members: what you paid for stays yours.

• Each month's games come out as a numbered release, such as 2026.10. We keep every release on our server for as long as Hestia Games runs.
• When your membership ends, for any reason other than section 15, you keep the newest release that came out while you were a member. You can play it on any device you sign in on.
• Games already on your device keep working offline. We never delete them remotely.
• After your membership ends, you won't get new releases. Features that need our server and a membership, such as online chess, leaderboards and member votes, stop until you rejoin.

8. Households

• A member can share their membership with up to 5 other people, so a household holds 6 people. Larger households can ask us.
• Households are for family and friends you know, not for selling places.
• The member who shares (the owner) pays. The owner can remove people, and anyone can leave.
• People who leave or are removed keep the version they had, the same as in section 7.

9. Free memberships

We sometimes give free memberships, for example to founding members or as a gift. A free membership works like a paid one, may end on a date we tell you, and follows section 7 when it ends. A free membership never turns into a paid one without you signing up and agreeing to pay.

10. Price changes

If we change the price, we will email you at least 30 days before it affects you. The new price starts at your next renewal after that notice. If you don't want to pay it, cancel before then.

11. Refunds

Refunds are covered by our Cancellation and Refund Policy, which is part of these terms.

12. Playing fair

Don't:

• use a chess engine, another person or any outside help during online chess games, or lose games on purpose to change ratings;
• make extra accounts to get around a ban or a limit;
• harass, threaten or abuse other players or our team;
• use bots, scrapers or scripts on our site, or try to break into it, overload it or get around the members' area;
• copy, resell or give away the members' games or access to them;
• use Hestia Games to break the law.

13. What you share with us

• Things you add, such as your username, chess games, suggestions and votes, stay yours. You let us store and show them so Hestia Games works. For example, other players can see your chess games.
• Ideas and suggestions are welcome. If you send one, we may use it to make games, without owing you payment or credit. We read every suggestion, but we can't promise to build any.
• Don't share anything you don't have the right to share.

14. Our games

The games, art, music and code belong to Hestia's Creations, except for a few pieces made by others, which are used under their own licenses and credited in the games. You may play them for your own personal enjoyment. You may not copy, sell, change or republish them without our written permission.

15. When we can suspend or close an account

• If you break these terms, we may warn you, stop you using some features (for example, ban you from online chess), or close your account. For serious or repeated breaking of these terms, we may close the account without warning.
• If we close an account for breaking these terms, any time already paid for is not refunded, and the account can no longer download releases from our server. Games already on your devices are not removed.
• If we close your account for any other reason, we refund the unused part of what you paid.
• You can delete your account yourself at any time from your account page. Deleting it also cancels any membership.

16. Changes to Hestia Games, and if we ever close

• We improve the games and add new ones. Sometimes we change or remove a feature.
• We won't make progress you have earned worth less unless paying members vote for the change. The exception is a change we must make for legal, safety or cost reasons, and our release notes will say when that happens and why.
• If we ever shut Hestia Games down, we will tell members at least 90 days before. We will stop charging and refund any time paid for beyond the shutdown date. Games on your devices will keep working offline.

17. What we promise, and its limits

We build these games with care, but they are provided as they are, and no software is free of bugs. We can't promise the site will always be online or error-free.

If something goes wrong and we are responsible, the most we will owe you is the larger of what you paid us in the 12 months before, or $50. We are not responsible for indirect losses, such as lost profits or lost data. These limits don't apply where the law doesn't allow them. Some states don't allow some of these limits, so they may not all apply to you.

If you break these terms or the law and someone makes a claim against us because of it, you are responsible for the costs that causes us.

18. If something goes wrong between us

Please email us first. Most problems can be fixed quickly. If we can't sort it out within 30 days, either of us can take it to court. Oregon law applies, and cases go to the state or federal courts in Oregon. You can always use small claims court where you live instead. None of this takes away rights the law in your state gives you.

19. Buying through an app store

If you join through Google Play or the App Store, that store takes the payment, and its billing, cancellation and refund rules apply to that purchase. Everything else in these terms still applies.

20. The rest

• These terms, the Privacy Policy and the Cancellation and Refund Policy are the whole agreement between us about Hestia Games.
• If a court strikes out part of these terms, the rest still applies.
• If we don't enforce something straight away, we can still enforce it later.
• We can transfer these terms if Hestia Games is sold or moved to another company, and the new owner must keep the promises in sections 7 and 16. You can't transfer your account.
• We send notices to the email on your account.
• To report something on our site that infringes your copyright, email us with the details the Digital Millennium Copyright Act asks for.

21. Contact

Email games@hestiascreations.com. Hestia's Creations, Oregon, United States.

Parts of these terms are adapted from 37signals' policies (github.com/basecamp/policies), used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license, and changed for Hestia Games.