Terms of use
tetramental.com is run by h4rdw1r3d. By using the site you agree to these terms. Questions: use the contact form.
Early access
The web novel, its audiobook, the soundtrack and the Codex are free to people whose early-access request has been approved (or who have supported development, see Supporting development). Approval is at our discretion and can be withdrawn. Early access is unfinished: features may be missing, change or break, and the novel may be revised. Early access does not include the full Tetramental game.
Your account
You sign in with your own Google account or email and password, and are responsible for activity under your account. Please don’t share access or try to get around the site’s access controls.
The content
The Tetramental novel, music, artwork and other content on the site are © h4rdw1r3d, all rights reserved. You may read and listen for your own personal, non-commercial enjoyment, and keep the soundtrack you download for personal listening. You may share the novel’s EPUB download as it is (unmodified), with credit to h4rdw1r3d and a link to tetramental.com. Otherwise, please don’t republish, redistribute, sell, or use the content to train AI models without written permission.
The web game
The web puzzle game at /play has its own terms, which you agree to before you play:
- Single player is free for everyone.
- Multiplayer (live matches, games against computer students, and sending challenges) is only for accounts that have it: those who have supported development (see Supporting development) and those we’ve given it to. Anyone signed in can take a challenge someone sends them. You may not access, or try to access, multiplayer or any other restricted or paid feature without that access, including by changing the game’s code, its scripts or stored data, its messages to our servers, or by using someone else’s account.
- Fair play. No cheating, bots, automated play, macros or exploits in multiplayer or on the high-score board, and no interfering with other players’ games or with our servers. We may remove results and scores, and suspend access, when we see it.
- The game is ours. Its code, rules and design, artwork, music and sounds are © h4rdw1r3d, all rights reserved. The game runs in your browser, so its code reaches your device; that doesn’t give you the right to copy, scrape, decompile or reverse-engineer it, to extract its assets, or to make modified, derivative or competing versions, except as far as the law doesn’t allow these restrictions.
- Player names are public: they appear on the high scores, on challenges and in multiplayer. Never use your real name. Names mustn’t impersonate anyone, be offensive, or be links or handles; each must be unique. We may reset a name that breaks these rules (you’ll choose a new one, and the old one can’t be used again), and anyone can report one.
- Challenges. Members with multiplayer can send a round they played as a challenge link. Sending one makes your player name, score and recorded round visible to anyone with the link, and (if you choose) on the public Recorded challenges page. Taking one puts your player name and score on that challenge’s leaderboard; your recorded round is visible to you and the challenger, and to others only if you let them watch. Challenges and their recordings are deleted after 30 days. The same fair-play rules apply.
- Live games pass your moves through our server to your opponent, and games, challenges and high scores are recorded (see the privacy policy).
Supporting development
- What you’re paying for. The payment is a contribution to support the development of Tetramental. As a thank-you, multiplayer in the web game at /play (live matches, computer students and sending challenges) is turned on for your account, and your early-access request is approved straight away (see Early access; unless it was declined before). By paying, you acknowledge that your payment exists to support development, and that multiplayer and early access are bonuses that come with it. It’s a one-time payment, not a subscription. It doesn’t include the full Tetramental game.
- Pay what you like, from $5 (US dollars). Prices are shown before tax; any sales tax or VAT is added at checkout. Paying more than the minimum supports development more, and turns on nothing extra.
- Who you’re paying. Checkout is run by Stripe through Link, which sells to you as the merchant of record: it takes the payment, charges and pays the tax, sends your receipt, and handles refunds and disputes, under Link’s terms. We never see your card or bank details.
- Sold as is. The game and multiplayer are provided as is, and are still in development: modes, rules and features may change, and multiplayer may be unavailable, change or end. Multiplayer is turned on for the account you paid with, and can’t be moved to another account or shared. If you delete your account, it goes with it.
- Refunds. Ask within 14 days of paying, through the contact form, and you’ll be refunded in full. We don’t give refunds after that; Link, as the seller, may still refund a payment in some cases under its own policies, and nothing here limits any right to a refund you have under the law where you live. When a payment is refunded in full or reversed by your bank, multiplayer is turned off again (early access stays).
No warranty
The site is provided as is, without warranties of any kind. To the extent the law allows, h4rdw1r3d isn’t liable for any loss arising from your use of the site.
Changes
We may update these terms; the date at the top will change when we do.