Terms of Service

These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of Checkpoint Zero, including our website, apps, feeds, game and studio pages, Learn articles, news, blogs, playtest tools, messaging, subscriptions, credits, tips, analytics, and related services. By using Checkpoint Zero, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the platform.

1. Who we are

Checkpoint Zero is a community and publishing platform for players, game developers, studios, reviewers, and creators. In these terms, "Checkpoint Zero", "we", "us", and "our" refer to the operator of the platform. "You" means the person or organization using the platform.

2. Eligibility and accounts

You must be at least 13 years old to use Checkpoint Zero. If the law where you live requires a higher age to use online services, you must meet that higher age. You are responsible for the accuracy of your account information, for keeping your login methods secure, and for activity that happens through your account.

You may sign in using email/password or supported OAuth providers such as Discord. You must not impersonate another person, create misleading accounts, sell or transfer your account without permission, or use another person's account without authorization.

3. What Checkpoint Zero provides

Checkpoint Zero lets users create profiles, follow games and studios, publish posts, comments, reviews, ratings, dev logs, Learn articles, blogs, news, game pages, studio pages, media, playtest rounds, direct messages, and related activity. Some features are public, some are private or limited to invited users, and some may require a paid plan or credits.

The platform is evolving. We may add, change, limit, suspend, rename, or discontinue features at any time. We may also apply limits to storage, upload size, video duration, messages, posts, API usage, credits, analytics, or other functionality.

4. Your content and license to us

You keep ownership of content you submit, upload, or create on Checkpoint Zero, including profile information, posts, comments, reviews, ratings, messages, game pages, studio pages, dev logs, Learn articles, blog/news content, images, GIFs, videos, playtest materials, feedback, links, tags, and other uploads.

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, display, perform, publish, distribute, transmit, resize, crop, transcode, translate, analyze, moderate, and otherwise use your content as needed to operate, secure, promote, and improve Checkpoint Zero. This includes showing public content in feeds, search, discovery pages, previews, notifications, analytics, emails, embeds, and social sharing cards.

You represent that you have all rights needed to submit your content and grant this license. You are responsible for making sure your content does not violate law, intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, contracts, confidentiality obligations, platform rules, or these terms.

5. Public, private, and limited-audience content

Public content, including profiles, posts, comments, reviews, ratings, game pages, studio pages, dev logs, blog/news pages, Learn articles, tags, media, and links, may be visible to anyone and may be indexed by search engines or reshared by other users.

Private or limited-audience areas, such as direct messages, team invites, playtest applications, playtest responses, internal studio actions, and some settings, are intended for a smaller audience. Even so, do not share highly confidential information unless you understand the risk and have the right to share it.

6. Games, studios, teams, and authority

If you create, claim, manage, or publish a game or studio page, you must have the authority to do so. You are responsible for the accuracy of project details, team information, store links, media, release information, playtest notices, and any claims you make about a game, studio, role, or affiliation.

Studio owners and managers are responsible for inviting the right people, assigning appropriate roles, removing access when needed, and making sure their team activity complies with these terms.

7. Playtests and feedback

Playtest features help developers recruit testers, manage rounds, accept requests, invite users, and collect feedback. If you run a playtest, you are responsible for describing the round accurately and respecting tester privacy. If you join a playtest, you must use private builds, instructions, keys, links, and feedback materials only for the playtest purpose and any rules set by the creator.

Checkpoint Zero does not guarantee that playtests will produce feedback, that testers will participate, or that creators will accept every request.

8. Reviews, ratings, rankings, and analytics

Reviews and ratings should reflect your genuine experience. You must not manipulate ratings, rankings, likes, reposts, follows, comments, analytics, wishlists, playtest signals, or discovery systems through fake accounts, coordinated abuse, paid manipulation, bots, or misleading activity.

Analytics are estimates based on available platform activity and may not be complete, real-time, or error-free.

9. Credits, tips, subscriptions, and paid features

Checkpoint Zero may offer credits, tips, paid subscriptions, Pro features, analytics, badges, boosts, playtest tools, or other paid functionality. Credits are a platform feature only. They are not money, stored value, legal tender, cryptocurrency, or a bank account. Credits cannot be withdrawn, exchanged for cash, sold outside Checkpoint Zero, or transferred except where we expressly allow it.

Payments may be processed by third-party providers such as Dodo Payments. Prices, taxes, fees, billing intervals, renewal dates, payment methods, refund eligibility, and checkout requirements may depend on the provider and your location. Unless required by law or clearly stated otherwise, purchases are final once delivered, activated, or credited to your account.

Subscriptions renew until cancelled unless the checkout flow states otherwise. Cancelling a subscription stops future renewals but does not automatically refund the current billing period. We may grant free, trial, promotional, or admin-issued access, and we may revoke it if abused.

10. Direct messages and communications

Direct messaging is for legitimate user-to-user communication. You must not use messages for spam, scams, harassment, phishing, malware, illegal offers, unwanted sexual content, or mass unsolicited outreach. We may limit, monitor, preserve, or review messages when needed for safety, abuse prevention, legal compliance, or support.

11. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law or encourage others to break the law
• Harass, threaten, dox, exploit, bully, or abuse others
• Post hateful, discriminatory, defamatory, deceptive, or harmful content
• Post sexual content involving minors or content that exploits or endangers children in any way
• Upload malware, phishing content, spam, deceptive links, or harmful code
• Infringe copyrights, trademarks, privacy, publicity, or other rights
• Share someone else's private information without permission
• Scrape, crawl, overload, probe, reverse engineer, or bypass security or rate limits without permission
• Manipulate credits, tips, payments, subscriptions, reviews, analytics, playtests, rankings, or discovery systems
• Use bots, fake accounts, automation, or coordinated behavior to distort platform activity
• Interfere with the availability, integrity, or security of Checkpoint Zero or third-party services

12. External links and third-party services

The platform may contain links to external websites, stores, social profiles, repositories, communities, videos, payment pages, or other third-party services. We may show warning pages or previews for external links, but we do not control those services and are not responsible for their content, policies, security, availability, or transactions.

We use third-party providers for authentication, hosting, databases, storage, video processing, email, analytics, payments, error monitoring, and other infrastructure. Their services may be subject to their own terms and policies.

13. Moderation and enforcement

We may review, remove, restrict, label, de-index, or preserve content. We may limit features, suspend accounts, terminate accounts, revoke credits or promotional access, block payments, reject uploads, or take other action when we believe it is necessary to enforce these terms, protect users, prevent abuse, comply with law, respond to reports, or protect platform integrity.

We may make mistakes. If you believe action was taken in error, contact us with relevant details.

14. Intellectual property complaints

If you believe content on Checkpoint Zero infringes your rights, contact us with enough information to identify the work, the allegedly infringing content, your contact details, and a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is unauthorized. We may remove or restrict content and may terminate repeat infringers where appropriate.

15. Our intellectual property

Checkpoint Zero's software, design, interface, branding, logos, names, icons, documentation, and platform materials are owned by us or our licensors. These terms do not grant you ownership of our platform, trademarks, brand assets, or proprietary technology.

16. Security

You must not attempt to access accounts, data, systems, or infrastructure without permission. If you discover a security issue, please report it responsibly and do not exploit it, disclose private data, or disrupt the platform.

17. Availability, beta features, and data loss

Checkpoint Zero is provided on an evolving basis. Features may be experimental, incomplete, or unavailable. We do not guarantee uninterrupted access, permanent storage, error-free operation, or that every upload, message, post, analytics event, notification, or payment event will always be preserved or delivered.

18. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Checkpoint Zero is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied, or statutory. We disclaim warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, availability, security, accuracy, and reliability.

19. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost revenue, lost data, lost goodwill, business interruption, or service unavailability, even if we have been advised that such damages are possible.

20. Indemnity

If your use of Checkpoint Zero, your content, your project page, your studio activity, your playtest, or your violation of these terms causes a claim, dispute, loss, liability, damage, cost, or expense, you agree to defend and indemnify us to the extent permitted by law.

21. Account deletion and termination

You may stop using Checkpoint Zero at any time and may request account deletion where available. Deleting an account may not immediately remove all content from backups, logs, payment records, legal records, moderated records, or content that others have interacted with. We may suspend or terminate your access if you violate these terms or create risk for users, creators, payments, infrastructure, or third parties.

22. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the platform changes. If changes are material, we will provide notice through the platform, by email, or by another reasonable method. Continued use after changes take effect means you accept the updated terms.

23. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact us at contact@checkpointzero.net or through our contact page.