Terms of Service

1. The service

Ninecade lets creators publish browser games, many of them made with AI coding tools, and lets anyone play them in the browser, alone or together in rooms, without installing anything. Creators can also use our SDK and Sign in with Ninecade in games they run on their own websites.

Games are made by independent creators. Ninecade doesn’t make them and doesn’t run creators’ server code. Each creator is responsible for their game.

2. A service in beta

The service is in beta. We offer it so we can test and improve it, and it may change, be limited, be interrupted or stop, in whole or in part, at any time. Limits such as the number of games, file sizes, rooms, players and play time may change.

Beta data may be lost. Keep your own copies of your games and export game saves you care about. We’ll try to announce major changes on the site in advance, but during the beta we can’t always do so.

3. Who can use Ninecade

You need to be at least 13 years old, or older where the law of your country sets a higher age for using online services without a parent’s consent (for example 16 in some EU countries). If you are younger, you may use Ninecade only with the consent and supervision of a parent or legal guardian, who accepts these terms for you and is responsible for your use.

You may not use the service if the law forbids it or if we have previously closed your account for breaking these terms. If you use Ninecade for an organization, you confirm that you may accept these terms for it.

4. Accounts and guest play

You can play as a guest without an account. Your guest pass lives in your browser; if you clear your browser data, it can’t be recovered. When you sign in, you can merge your guest favorites and recently played games into your account.

If you create an account, use an email address you control and keep your password secret. You are responsible for activity under your account, including through publishing tokens, publishing codes and AI tools you authorize to act for you. If you think your account has been misused, tell us through the Feedback form.

Your nickname and guest player name are visible to others. Don’t choose a name that impersonates someone, is offensive or infringes others’ rights. Don’t create accounts to get around a suspension or the platform’s limits.

During the beta, publishing is by invitation: anyone can create an account, but publishing games needs an invite code. Once you redeem one, your account can publish and can invite a few other creators each month. Each invite code works once; don’t sell, trade or post invite codes in bulk. If invites are abused, we may take codes back and disable the accounts involved. Beta codes issued earlier keep working; don’t share a beta code beyond the people it was given to.

5. Your games and content

• You keep ownership. You keep all the rights you have in the games, covers, text and other content you upload or post (“your content”). These terms don’t transfer ownership to Ninecade.
• Your licence to us. So that we can run the service, you grant Ninecade a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, copy, run, display and distribute your content to players; to adapt it as needed for delivery, for example by adding our compatibility runtime and save adapters, running automated startup checks, and making covers, screenshots and link previews; and to use your game’s title, description, cover and screenshots to promote your game and Ninecade, including in the lobby, link previews, social media and other marketing. Our service providers may exercise this licence on our behalf to provide the service.
• How long it lasts. The licence lasts while your content is on Ninecade. When you delete a version or your game is removed, we stop offering it within a reasonable time, but copies may remain in backups for a limited time, and promotional material already published may stay.
• Players. Players may play published games through Ninecade for personal, non-commercial use. Anyone with the link can play a published game. Listing in the lobby requires our review, and we decide which games we list and in what order.

Your promises. You confirm that you own your content or have all the rights, licences and permissions needed to publish it on Ninecade and grant the licence above, including for code, graphics, music, fonts and other assets and for content made with AI tools; that you follow the licences of any open-source or third-party material you use; and that your content doesn’t break the law or these terms.

6. Rules for published games

Your games must:

• contain no malware, cryptocurrency mining or other code meant to harm players, their devices or the service;
• not try to escape the sandbox, get around security measures, or access other games’ or players’ data;
• not ask players for passwords or payment details, and not collect personal information from players without a clear notice and a lawful basis;
• stay within the platform’s limits (such as files, sizes, rooms, players and play time) rather than trying to get around them;
• be described accurately by their title, description, cover and other details.

Automated checks may block an upload or a publication, for example if a game fails to start. Passing them doesn’t mean we have reviewed or approved a game.

7. Prohibited content and conduct

Don’t upload, post or share content that:

• is illegal or promotes illegal activity;
• sexually exploits or endangers children, or is sexually explicit;
• harasses, threatens or bullies anyone, or incites hatred or violence against people because of who they are;
• glorifies or encourages terrorism, serious violence, self-harm or suicide;
• infringes intellectual property, privacy or other rights, including sharing someone’s personal information without permission;
• is fraudulent or misleading, or impersonates a person or organization, including phishing;
• offers real-money gambling, or is spam or unauthorized advertising.

And don’t:

• disrupt, overload or harm the service, or get around its limits, rate limits or security measures;
• access accounts, data or systems without permission, or probe them for weaknesses without our permission;
• use automated means to create accounts, post reviews, inflate plays or statistics, or collect other users’ information;
• misuse reports, feedback or copyright complaints, for example by sending false or abusive ones.

If you find a security problem, please tell us through the Feedback form instead of exploiting it.

8. Reviews and comments

Signed-in players can rate and review games publicly under their nickname. Guests can send a private message that only the creator (and our administrators) can see.

Keep reviews honest and about the game. Don’t post spam, advertising, personal information, abuse or hate, don’t review your own game, and don’t post reviews you were paid or rewarded for.

Creators may reply publicly to reviews of their games and hide reviews from their game pages. We may remove reviews and replies that break these terms. You can edit or delete your own review.

You keep ownership of what you write. You grant Ninecade a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to display it on the service while it is posted and to show it to the game’s creator.

9. Moderation and enforcement

We don’t check every game or review before it appears, but we may review content at any time, including after a report and before listing a game in the lobby. Anyone can report a game or a review.

If we believe content or conduct breaks these terms or the law, or puts users or the service at risk, we may remove or hide content, take a game out of the lobby or suspend it (which closes its open rooms), revoke tokens, beta codes or website registrations, limit features, or suspend or close an account. Where reasonable, we’ll tell the creator or user affected and why, for example through a creator notification.

If you think we made a mistake, tell us through the Feedback form and we’ll take another look.

10. Copyright complaints

If you believe a game on Ninecade infringes your copyright or other rights, use the “Copyright complaint” form at the bottom of that game’s page. A complaint must include:

• your full name and a valid email address;
• whether you are the rights owner or authorized to act for them;
• the title of the original work and, if available, a link to it;
• a description of the original work;
• what in the game infringes and where it appears;
• a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorized by the rights owner, their agent or the law;
• a statement that the information in the complaint is accurate and that you are the rights owner or authorized to act for them;
• your electronic signature (your full name, typed).

We review every complaint. If we uphold it, we suspend the game, which also closes its rooms, and we may close the accounts of repeat infringers. We tell the creator that a complaint was received, the title of the work it concerns and the outcome, but not the claimant’s name or contact details. We may contact the claimant at the email address provided.

Creators: if you believe a complaint is mistaken, for example because you own the work, have a licence or the use is otherwise allowed, send a response through the Feedback form. Include the game, the complaint and your explanation, with any evidence such as a licence. We’ll review it and may restore the game.

Knowingly sending a false complaint or response may make you liable for the harm it causes. We may reject complaints that are clearly abusive.

11. Sign in with Ninecade on other websites

Creators who add Sign in with Ninecade to games on their own websites must register and verify each website, use sign-in only for the registered game, and publish a privacy notice explaining what the website does with the player information it receives. Don’t try to obtain players’ Ninecade passwords, don’t imitate Ninecade’s sign-in pages, and don’t sell or share player IDs or names except as needed to run your game. We may revoke a website’s access or replace its keys at any time.

Players: websites that use Sign in with Ninecade are run by their creators, not by Ninecade, and we aren’t responsible for their content, security or practices. You can revoke a website’s access at any time in “My account”.

12. Paid features

Basic publishing and play are free during the beta. Some creator features, such as detailed game statistics, are part of the Pro plan. During the beta, the Ninecade team enables Pro for creators; there is no online payment. We may change, limit or end Pro features, or move features between plans.

If we introduce payments, we’ll show the price and terms before you’re charged, and we won’t charge you without your agreement.

13. Ninecade’s rights

The service, including the website, SDK, publishing tools, their design and the Ninecade name and logo, belongs to Ninecade and its licensors. Where the SDK or other materials come with their own licence, that licence applies to them. Otherwise, you may use them only to use the service as intended.

If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely, without any obligation to you.

14. Availability and disclaimers

We work to keep Ninecade running well, but during the beta we provide the service “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we don’t promise that it will be uninterrupted, error-free or secure, that it will keep any data (including games, favorites and saves), or that every game will work on every device. Games and other content come from creators and users; we don’t endorse them or give any warranty about them.

Some countries don’t allow certain warranties to be excluded. Where that is the case, these exclusions apply only as far as the law allows.

15. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, Ninecade isn’t liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential losses, or for loss of profits, data, content or goodwill, arising from the service or from content made by others.

To the extent the law allows, our total liability for all claims relating to the service is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for the service in the 12 months before the claim and 100 US dollars (or the equivalent in your currency).

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that can’t be limited or excluded by law, such as liability for fraud or for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

If someone brings a claim against Ninecade because of your content or your breach of these terms, you are responsible for it and will cover our reasonable costs, to the extent the law allows.

16. Ending your use

You can stop using Ninecade at any time. To delete your account, send a request through the Feedback form; self-service deletion isn’t available yet. Creators can unpublish their games at any time.

We may suspend or end your access to all or part of the service if you break these terms, if the law requires it, to protect users or the service, or if we end the beta or the service. Where reasonable, we’ll tell you in advance. If we end the service, we’ll give reasonable notice so creators can keep copies of their games.

Parts of these terms that by their nature should continue after your use ends, such as the disclaimers, the limitation of liability and responsibility for claims, continue to apply.

17. Disputes

If you have a problem with Ninecade, please contact us first through the Feedback form. Most issues can be solved that way.

These terms don’t choose the law of any particular country. Nothing in them takes away rights you have under the mandatory laws of the country where you live, including the right to bring a claim in its courts where those laws allow it.

18. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms, for example when we add features or leave the beta. We’ll post the new version here with a new effective date and announce significant changes on the site before they take effect. If you keep using the service after that, you accept the new terms. If you don’t agree, stop using the service and, if you wish, ask us to delete your account.

19. General

If any part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don’t enforce a term straight away, we can still do so later. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent; we may transfer ours as part of a reorganization, merger or sale of the service.

These terms are published in Simplified Chinese and English, and both versions are equally authoritative. Versions in other languages, including Traditional Chinese, are translations provided for convenience.

20. Contact

Contact Ninecade through the Feedback form on the site (in the side menu and the footer). For copyright complaints, use the form at the bottom of the game’s page.