Terms of Service

1. Agreement to Terms

By accessing or playing WordCast (available at wordcast.pearium.com, via Discord Activity SDK, or through our Discord Bot commands), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms") and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, please discontinue using the service.

2. Description of the Game & Service

WordCast is a multiplayer magical word puzzle game played on a dynamic 5x5 grid of letter tiles. Key features and mechanics include:

• Game Modes: Solo Practice (1 player), 1v1 Duel (2 players), and Multiplayer Brawl (3 or 4 players).
• Word Creation & Validation: Words are formed by clicking or dragging across adjacent letters (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally). Words must be at least 3 letters long and exist in the official active language dictionary.
• Scoring & Multipliers: Points are calculated from individual letter values, modified by Double Letter (DL) and Triple Letter (TL) board bonuses, Double Word (DW) bonuses, and an extra +10 point bonus for words of 6 or more letters.
• Mana Gems & Spells: Players start with 3 Mana Gems and earn additional gems (up to 10) by playing words through gem tiles. Gems can be spent to cast game-altering spells:
  • Shuffle Board (1 💎): Intelligently rearranges existing letters to guarantee playable words.
  • New Board (3 💎): Regenerates all 25 tiles with fresh letters, gems, and multipliers.
  • Swap Letter (4 💎): Replaces any chosen tile with a selected or randomized new letter.
• Match Progression: Matches consist of 5 rounds per player (e.g., 10 turns for 2 players). Each turn features an optional 120-second timer. If a player disconnects, a 60-second grace period allows reconnection before a walkover is awarded.
• Multi-Language Support: Official lexicons are supported in English (EN), Polish (PL), German (DE), Spanish (ES), Czech (CS), Ukrainian (UK), Swedish (SV), Dutch (NL), and Lithuanian (LT).

3. Eligibility & Age Requirements

You must be at least 13 years of age (or the minimum age required in your country to consent to online services) to play WordCast. If you access WordCast through Discord or Google Sign-In, you also represent that you meet the eligibility criteria of those respective platforms.

4. Acceptable Use & Fair Play Rules

WordCast is built to provide an enjoyable, fair, and competitive experience for word enthusiasts. By using the service, you strictly agree NOT to:

• Use Automated Tools or Cheats: Use bots, word-solving software, dictionary-scraping extensions, OCR overlays, or automated scripts to detect words or submit moves automatically.
• Exploit Network or Server Vulnerabilities: Attempt to manipulate WebSocket payloads, falsify scores, spoof user identifiers, inject malicious code, or bypass turn timers.
• Disrupt Multiplayer Lobbies: Intentionally stall games indefinitely, spam room matchmaking, abuse rematch locks, or harass opponents in voice channels or lobbies.
• Impersonate Others or Use Offensive Names: Choose nicknames or avatars that contain hate speech, harassment, vulgarity, or that falsely claim affiliation with WordCast developers or moderators.
• Violate Discord Party Protocol: In Discord Linked Parties, respect the room host's leadership role (such as language selection and room capacity). Players who wish to play independently may use the "Unlink" feature to manage their own separate games freely.

5. Intellectual Property Rights

All original aspects of WordCast—including but not limited to the source code, game mechanics, magical spell designs (Shuffle, New Board, Swap Tile), graphic user interface, audio visual elements, logos, and branding—are the intellectual property of the creator (vipluk / WordCast).

Public open-source word lists (such as SJP and standard Scrabble lexicons) are utilized under their applicable open licenses. All rights not expressly granted to you under these Terms are reserved.

6. Platform Compliance & Third-Party Services

• Discord Platform: When accessing WordCast as a Discord Activity or through Discord Bot interactions (e.g., /wordcast, /status, /clear), you are additionally subject to the Discord Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.
• Google Authentication: When logging in via Google, you agree to comply with Google's terms and privacy standards.
• Voluntary Donations (Ko-fi): Supporting WordCast via Ko-fi is entirely voluntary. Voluntary coffee contributions do not grant in-game pay-to-win advantages, unfair gameplay privileges, or ownership shares in the project.

7. Disclaimer of Warranties ("AS IS")

WordCast is provided on an "AS IS" and "AS AVAILABLE" basis without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. We do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, completely secure, or free from server maintenance downtime, latency spikes, or dictionary inaccuracies.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, the developers and operators of WordCast shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, including loss of gameplay progress, data, or connectivity issues arising from your access to or inability to access the game.

9. Moderation, Stats Resets & Account Sanctions

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to investigate suspected violations of these Terms. If a player is found to be cheating, exploiting bugs, or engaging in abusive behavior, we reserve the right to:

• Remove or reset illegitimate records, high scores, or words from the global Hall of Fame leaderboards.
• Restrict or terminate access to multiplayer matchmaking, lobbies, or Discord Bot commands.
• Block persistent abusers by IP address or platform account identifier.

10. Modifications to Service & Terms

We reserve the right to modify, balance, update, or discontinue game features, spells, point algorithms, or these Terms of Service at any time. Significant changes will be noted via in-game changelog announcements or revisions to this page. Your continued use of WordCast following any revisions constitutes full acceptance of the updated Terms.

11. Contact Information

For inquiries, support, bug reports, or legal questions concerning these Terms of Service, please contact the developer via email at [email protected], via Discord (@vipluk), or visit the official WordCast community channels.