POLYBALL TERMS OF SERVICE
THE SHORT VERSION
PolyBall is a small arcade game made by one person. You can play it for free, with no account. These terms are the deal between you and me when you do. Play fair, pick a name you would show your grandmother, and treat the coins and gems as what they are: part of a game, not money. Everything below says the same thing in more detail. If anything here is unclear, write to me at the address above and I will answer.
WHO YOU ARE DEALING WITH
PolyBall is made and run by Abdallah El Belkasy, one developer working alone in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. There is no company behind the game. "I", "me" and "we" in these terms all mean that person. "You" means anyone who plays PolyBall, on any platform.
WHERE THESE TERMS APPLY
They cover every version of PolyBall: the Android app from Google Play (or the test build downloaded from abdaishere.com), the version that runs in your browser at abdaishere.com, and the downloads for Windows, macOS and Linux. Some sections only matter on Android, because ads and purchases exist only there; those sections say so. Purchases work only when the app was installed from Google Play.
Google Play has its own terms for the apps it sells, and those apply alongside these when you install from Play. Where the two disagree about something Google handles, like payments and refunds, Google's terms win on that point.
PLAYING THE GAME
You can play PolyBall for personal fun, on your own devices, for as long as the game is available. That is a licence to play, not a sale of the game. The game, its code, art, music, sounds and name stay mine or my licensors'.
What you cannot do with it: copy or resell it, take it apart to copy it, strip out or block its ads or purchase checks, or run a changed version against my servers. Play it, share it, show it to people, stream it, make videos of it. All of that is fine and welcome.
If you are young enough that the law where you live needs a parent or guardian to agree to terms like these, ask them first. Purchases on Android also follow Google Play's age and family rules.
NO ACCOUNTS
PolyBall has no sign-in. Your progress lives in a save file on your device. The online features run on a random identifier the game makes on your device, which is not linked to you. Uninstalling or clearing the game's data removes the save, and with it your local progress. Purchases made through Google Play can be restored, because Google keeps that record; see PURCHASES below. The privacy policy explains the identifier and everything else the game stores.
PLAYING FAIR
PolyBall has a public leaderboard and a monthly cup, so fair play is the whole point. Do not use modified clients, scripts, bots, automation, altered timers or anything else that makes a score the game could not have produced by hand. Do not send the server scores the game did not play.
The server checks every score it receives. A score that could not have happened is refused and never appears. A score that passes but trips one of the softer checks is shown, and the server keeps a note of it for up to 90 days so I can look. I can remove any score, or every score from an install, when I believe it was not played fairly, and I can shut an install out of the online features altogether. I decide in good faith on what the server recorded; this is a game, and the board only works if the scores on it are real. If your score goes, you can email me and I will tell you why.
Runs that used a Combo Shield or an ad revive are marked assisted and are never sent to the board. That is by design, so nothing you can buy or watch changes your rank.
YOUR NAME ON THE BOARD
You can pick a name of 2 to 12 characters to show beside your scores. That name appears publicly, in the game and on abdaishere.com, to anyone who looks at the board. Pick one you are happy for strangers to see.
Keep it clean. No slurs, no sexual content, no harassment, no impersonating other people, no advertising, nothing hateful. The server checks names against a blocklist before they show, and any player can hide your name on their own device or report it to me. When enough different players report the same name (three, or five for a player in the top three or in a past cup result; brand-new installs do not count), the board shows a generated name in its place until I have looked at it. If I find a name over the line I replace it with a generated one and keep that decision against your install, so it stays off. Your score stays; only the name goes.
By choosing a name you give me permission to show it on the board, in the game and on the website, for as long as your scores are there.
THE MONTHLY CUP
Each month the board runs as a cup. When the month closes, the standings are frozen into an archive so past results can still be shown, and the top three receive in-game cosmetics: a champion plate and title, a silver plate and a bronze plate. There are no cash prizes and nothing of monetary value. If a winning score fails a later check, I can remove it and move the places below it up. I can change how the cup works, pause it or stop running it. Already-frozen results stay as they were, except where a score is removed under the sentence above.
COINS, GEMS, KEYS AND COSMETICS
Coins, gems, keys, shields, plates, titles and title fonts are all part of the game. They have no value outside it. You cannot cash them out, trade them, sell them or move them to another person. They are a limited licence to use that feature inside PolyBall, nothing more, and they end when the game does or when you lose the save that holds them. I may rebalance prices, drop rates and rewards as the game changes; I will try not to make anything you earned worse, but I cannot promise a number will stay fixed forever.
Boxes. The Key Box opens with a key and gives a random plate, title or font you do not already own, at the odds printed on the box sheet. Keys are earned by playing, never bought: a daily free key, your first Daily run of the day, streaks, awards, coins banked from runs and the odd gift from me. Bought coins never count toward a key. The Crate (Android only) opens by watching a rewarded ad, which you choose to do. The Shelf sells a specific item for coins or gems, with no roll. There are no paid random items in PolyBall. If that ever changes it will be a new version of these terms, and the game's age rating will be refiled first.
PURCHASES (ANDROID ONLY)
The Android app offers a small set of optional purchases through Google Play: gem packs, coin packs, a starter pack and Remove Ads. Every price is fixed and shown before you buy. Google takes the payment; I never see your card or your name, only that a purchase happened. Gems and coins are delivered to your save straight away and are used up as you spend them. Remove Ads and the starter pack are tied to your Google account and come back on reinstall through Settings > DATA > RESTORE PURCHASES.
Refunds go through Google Play's refund policy, not through me, because Google holds the money. Settings > DATA > REFUNDS AND ORDER HISTORY opens your Play order history. If Google refunds a purchase, what it bought is taken back. The browser version and the desktop builds have no purchases at all.
ADS (ANDROID ONLY)
The Android app shows ads through Google AdMob. There are optional rewarded videos you choose to watch for in-game bonuses, and after your first eight runs and ten minutes of play, a limited number of full-screen ads between runs, a banner on the results screen and an occasional ad when you come back to the app. Never during a run. The Remove Ads purchase removes everything except the optional rewarded videos, permanently, and any other purchase pauses those ads for 30 days. You control how ads may use your data through the consent form on first launch and later in Settings > DATA > MANAGE AD CONSENT. Ads exist only in the Android app. The browser version and the desktop builds do not include them.
I do not choose the individual ads Google shows and I am not responsible for what an advertiser offers. If an ad is broken or offensive, tell me and I will report it.
CHANGES AND AVAILABILITY
PolyBall is a hobby project with one person behind it. I update it often, and updates can add, change or remove features, modes, items and online services. The leaderboard, the cup and the other online features depend on servers that can go down, be paused for maintenance or be switched off. I do not promise they will always be up or always exist. I will give fair notice in the game's store listing before shutting down the online features for good, where I can.
These terms can change too. When they do, the date at the top changes and the new version is posted here. For a change that matters to you (purchases, ads, your name or your data) I will also say so in the game's store listing or in the game before it applies. If you keep playing after a change, that is your agreement to the new terms. If you do not agree, stop playing and uninstall the game; that is always your right.
ENDING THINGS
You can stop any time by uninstalling the game or closing the browser tab. I can stop serving the online features to an install that breaks these terms, in particular for cheating or for abusive names, without notice. Everything you have already paid for through Google Play stays yours on your device for as long as the game runs there; only the online features are withheld.
FEEDBACK
If you send me ideas, bug reports or suggestions, thank you. I can use them in the game without owing you anything, and I will not claim you did not help.
WHAT I AM NOT LIABLE FOR
PolyBall is provided as it is, free of charge in its basic form, by one person, without any guarantee that it will be bug-free, uninterrupted or right for you. To the fullest extent the law allows, I am not liable for indirect or consequential losses, lost data, lost progress or lost virtual items, and my total liability to you for anything connected to PolyBall is capped at the amount you paid me through Google Play in the twelve months before the claim. None of this limits my liability for death or personal injury caused by my negligence, for fraud, or for anything that the law does not allow me to limit. Nothing in these terms takes away rights that the consumer law of your country gives you and does not let you waive, including rights you may have as a consumer in the EU or UK.
GOVERNING LAW
These terms are governed by the laws of the United Arab Emirates as applied in the Emirate of Dubai, and any dispute goes to the courts of Dubai, unless the consumer law of the country you live in gives you the right to use your own courts and law, in which case that right stands. Before any of that, please just email me. Almost everything can be sorted out in a message or two.
PRIVACY
What the game stores, what leaves your device and how to delete it are all in the privacy policy at https://abdaishere.com/privacy.html, and the deletion steps are at https://abdaishere.com/delete.html. These terms and that policy go together.