Terms of Service
Last updated · applies to the Cohort game on iOS, Android and the web · בעברית
These are the terms you play Cohort under. The game is free, sells nothing and shows no advertising, so the terms are short and in plain English. The game asks you to accept them with a box you tick yourself; please read them before you do.
Who provides it
Cohort is made and run by one independent developer, based in Israel. Wherever this page says "we", it means that person. The way to reach us is support@cohort-game.com; the support page says what to include.
Accepting these terms
You accept these terms by ticking the box the game shows you — on the register form, or before your first match as a guest. The box is never ticked for you, and the game does not go on until you tick it. The date at the top of this page is the version you accept, and the game keeps a record of which version you accepted and when.
When the terms change, the date changes, and the game shows you the new date and asks you to tick the box again before you play on. If you do not agree, do not tick it: stop playing, and delete the account if you have one — the same screen offers it (below).
A version of the game released before the box existed does not show it. Playing one of those versions means accepting these terms.
Age
Cohort is for players aged 13 and over, whether they register or play as a guest; the box you tick says that you are. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, you may play only with the agreement of a parent or guardian, who accepts these terms on your behalf and is responsible for how you use the game.
If a parent learns that a child under 13 is playing, write to us and we will delete the account; the privacy policy says how.
What Cohort is
A free auto battler. Every match is online and ranked: the game seats you with up to seven other people at a similar rank, and when too few are waiting, the empty seats are filled by boards other players recorded in earlier matches and by the game's own bots. The game needs an internet connection to play.
Nothing in the game is sold. There are no in-app purchases, no advertising and no paid currency. The section on purchases below says how it would work if that ever changes.
Accounts
An account is optional. You can play everything as a guest. If you register, you choose a username to log in with and a nickname other players see, and give an email address and a password; the privacy policy lists exactly what is kept and where.
- One account per person. Do not share it, sell it or give it away.
- The password is yours to keep. Whatever is done from a logged-in account counts as done by you, so choose a password you do not use elsewhere, and write to us if you think someone else has it.
- Your nickname is public — it is the name other players see, and you can change it in Settings. Your username is how you log in, and the game shows it to no one. A guest's display name is public in the same way as a nickname.
- You may delete the account at any time: Settings → Delete account → confirm, or by email. Deletion removes the record, the username and the nickname, the rank and the recorded boards, and it cannot be undone.
How to play with other people
Cohort has no tolerance for objectionable content or for abusive players. The rules below apply to everything you do in the game: to what other players see of you — your nickname or a guest's display name, your portrait and your boards — and to the line you can type on the result screen, which only we read.
Do not:
- choose a name that is offensive, hateful, sexual, threatening, that advertises something, or that pretends to be another person, a studio or us;
- harass, threaten or abuse anyone, or target anyone for who they are;
- cheat — modify the game, tamper with your record, your rating or a match, play through automation, arrange results with other players, or use a bug to reach a rank you did not earn;
- attack the service — probe, flood or interfere with the database, the feedback endpoint or this site, or use any of them for anything but playing.
To report a player, write to support@cohort-game.com with the name they played under and what happened; a screenshot helps. We read every report and aim to act on it within 24 hours.
What we do. At our reasonable judgement, we may rename or remove a name, remove recorded boards, and suspend or remove an account that breaks these rules. Where it is fair to, we write to the account's email address first; for serious abuse or cheating we may act at once and tell you afterwards.
If you think we got it wrong, write to us within 30 days from the address the account is registered under, say which account and why, and a person will look at the decision again and answer you. An appeal does not take away any right the law gives you.
Other players are not us. We act on what is reported to us, but we are not responsible for what another player does. Nothing here stops you from reporting a bug or a security problem to us — please do.
Ownership
The game — its code, its art, its text and the name Cohort — belongs to the developer. You get a personal licence to play it, and nothing more: not to copy it, sell it, redistribute it, or build something on top of it without asking.
Cohort is not affiliated with or endorsed by any other game, studio or publisher.
Your name and your boards. Other players see what the game shows them of you: your name, portrait and cosmetics, your rank, and the boards you build — in the match, on the leaderboard, and, if you registered, as a recorded opponent in their later matches. By playing, you let us store and show these for that purpose until the account is deleted.
A reaction, a line of feedback or a bug report you send us is yours, and by sending it you let us use it to improve the game. A reaction is kept for 180 days, as the privacy policy says.
Purchases
Nothing is sold today. If Cohort ever sells something — a cosmetic, for example — this page will say what is sold, for how much, and how a refund works, and the game will ask you to accept that version of the terms, before the version that sells it is released. What follows is how a sale will work.
- A purchase is made through the App Store or Google Play, and paid to Apple or Google. Their payment terms and their refund policies apply to it, and a refund is asked for from them.
- What you buy is a licence to use an item in the game. It is not property, it has no cash value, and it cannot be exchanged for money, sold or transferred to another account.
- The licence ends when the account is deleted, when it is removed under the rules above, or when the service stops.
- A change to these terms never applies backwards to something you have already bought.
- Rights that consumer law gives you and that cannot be waived — including any right to cancel a purchase — are kept.
Health
The game shows flashing lights, bright effects and fast motion. A small number of people can have a seizure when they see flashing lights or patterns, even with no history of epilepsy. If you or anyone in your family has had a seizure or epilepsy, ask a doctor before playing. Stop playing at once and see a doctor if you feel dizzy or unwell, or notice twitching, blurred vision or any involuntary movement. Take a break every hour.
Mail we send
Only the mail the account needs: the verification mail when you register, and a password reset when you ask for one. We will never send you marketing or advertising mail unless you have first ticked a separate box asking for it. That box is never ticked for you, is not part of accepting these terms, and can be withdrawn at any time. No such box exists today, because no such mail is sent.
Availability
Cohort is in open development by one person, and it is offered on a best-effort basis. Builds change often; a feature may change or go away; ratings, ranks and the ladder may be reset between test builds, at the release of 1.0, and when a season ends. We will try to give notice on this site before anything that costs you progress, but we cannot promise that the game, the account service or this site will always be up.
No warranty, and what we are liable for
The game is provided as it is. We do not promise that it is free of bugs, that it will always be available, or that your progress can never be lost — a beta made by one person cannot honestly promise those things. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for lost progress, lost ratings, lost time, or any indirect loss that comes from playing or from not being able to play. Because nothing is sold, there is nothing to refund.
Nothing on this page takes away rights that consumer law gives you and that cannot be waived, and nothing here limits liability for things the law does not let anyone limit.
Ending
You may stop playing at any time, and delete the account at any time, as above. We may suspend or remove an account under the rules on how to play with other people. If the service is ever going to stop, we will announce it on this site at least 30 days before it does.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Israel, where the developer is, and a dispute goes to the courts there. If you live somewhere whose law gives you protections as a consumer that this choice cannot take away, you keep them. If a court finds part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies.
Language
These terms are also published in Hebrew, with the same date. The English text is the binding one: where the two differ, the English text prevails.